LJC Community Conversations are designed to explore major ideas in the Latin Jazz world together as a community and inspire conversation through comments. My main motivator here is my belief that LJC readers hold a great deal of knowledge and passion around Latin Jazz, and I think that we can learn something from everyone. Whether you’re a seasoned Latin Jazz performer or a newcomer to the music, leave a comment and let your voice be heard!

I’m constantly looking at new ways to make LJC a better place for Latin Jazz fans, musicians, and newcomers. Six months ago I looked at a few ideas and made some commitments to exploring some new directions. Time to keep me honest . . .

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As we rang in 2008, I reflected upon LJC’s progress throughout it’s first 6 months and made a few resolutions about things that I’d like to improve. I’d felt good about LJC’s first six months - it seemed like I had created some good articles and reached a decent amount of Latin Jazz lovers. I knew that I still had a lot of work to be done and lots of room for improvement. I decided to tackle LJC’s improvement in manageable chunks, so I found three areas that I felt were lacking in the site. My primary goal is always to create a site that serves Latin Jazz fans well, so I brought the question to LJC readers. Since then, I’ve been working to maintain my focus upon those three areas of improvement.

Resolutions are easy to declare, but they’re even easier to break - so now, six months later, it seems like a logical time to reflect upon LJC’s progress in 2008. I feel good about the site’s progress thus far; I feel like I’ve taken strong steps to improve upon my three areas. I also believe that LJC has become a better place overall with a stronger community. At the same time, I’m glad that we have six months left in the year. There’s still more work to be done, so its important to find remaining holes in my initial resolutions. As we look back, I’d also like to look ahead with a few new ideas I’d like to implement during the second half of 2008.

Here’s the original resolutions with some comments about progress made and yet to be made . . .

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Bring More Readers Into The Coversation
Writing online content can be a lonely task, and during LJC’s early days, I often wondered if anyone read the site at all. Fortunately a few people started giving me some much-appreciated feedback, and I felt a little community starting to grow. During 2008, we’ve had some growth in community action around the site, with some very active voices becoming apparent. I’ve been very grateful for some of our more vocal community members - Luis, Chazro, and Reginald to name a few - your comments and feedback have been thought provoking and inspiring. We’ve had some moments of interaction from established Latin Jazz artists as well, bringing a different perspective into the conversation. In addition, I’ve gotten a wealth of e-mails that have constantly motivated me to continue creating new material.

I think that a good deal of the growth has been a result of increased site traffic, but I have done some things to get people more involved. I started create Community Conversation posts in January with the specific goal of getting readers to comment on a given topic. In some instances, we’ve gotten some good conversations happening with several interesting ideas from readers. At other points, we’ve had absolutely zero comments on a given topic. I think that the topic that I threw into the group made the difference for readers - either it provoked people or simply didn’t interest them. Chazro pointed out another good point on the Community Conversation posts - the site’s blog layout scroll the post down below new topics, hiding it from a viewer’s first glance. In an effort to get past this, I created a tab for Community Conversations on the main page that jumps readers to a list of topics. Since then we’ve had more page views for the Community Conversations, but most of them are still disappearing after the initial post.

While I’m thrilled about the amount of reader participation thus far, I’d love to create more opportunities for readers to participate in LJC. I’m going to continue the Community Conversation posts, and hopefully draw more people into the fold. I’d love to get some suggestions from readers for Community Conversation topics; I don’t want to always dictate the conversation’s direction. I’ve also been considering creating a page dedicated to weekly mini-conversations around a variety of topics. I think the regularity of a dedicated page that people could bookmark might help stimulate involvement. At the same time, I’d love to explore quicker ways for readers to get their voices heard - maybe a weekly poll - something that would require a quick click rather than typing a response. We’ve had some great ideas left around general posts as well, and I’d love to see more of this. I’m going to throw out questions around post topics that will hopefully inspire a response. I think that as lovers of Latin Jazz, everyone has so much to offer, I’d love to get everyone actively involved - if you’ve got ideas, I’d love to hear them hear - this resolution is far from met.

Explore Latin Influences In Jazz Outside Cuban Music More Extensively
This goal has been one of the most exciting and rewarding topics to explore over the past six months. When I initially started LJC, the core of my knowledge rested in the Afro-Cuban Jazz tradition. I had a good deal of experience with Brazilian Jazz and small exposures to other traditions, but not in-depth information. I could see that the Latin Jazz world had much more to contribute than the standard Cuban focus, and I wanted LJC to recognize that. Writing about these topics required me to do some research, but it was work that I was more than happy to do. I’ve found that the Latin Jazz world outside the Afro-Cuban legacy contains some exciting music that has reinvigorated my love for Latin Jazz.

I dedicated myself to a series of posts that investigated Latin Jazz that focused upon Caribbean or South American traditions outside the Cuban basis. The initial task seemed a bit overwhelming at first, so the “Exploring” series began with a focus upon Argentinean and Peruvian Jazz. Many more influences exist, but I saw these traditions arising regularly, and I needed a starting point. As a result, I’ve been able to present short introductions to modern Latin Jazz artists using these traditions, discuss traditional instruments, look at early influential figures, provide some videos, and more. I still feel like a bit of an outsider to these traditions, and I often mull over my words when writing about them. At the same time, I feel like I’ve learned so much about Argentinean and Peruvian Jazz in the past six months, and I’ve developed a true love for the music. It’s been a truly fun adventure, and I hope that LJC readers are enjoying the ride as much as I am.

I’d like to open the Exploring series into a wider variety of Latin American traditions over the course of the next six months. I feel that LJC needs to present a complete picture of Latin Jazz, so we need to spend more time with Puerto Rican, Venezuelan, and Brazilian influenced jazz, to name a few. These traditions form major piece of contemporary Latin Jazz, and they need attention. I won’t loose any momentum around Peruvian or Argentinean Jazz though; I’ve come to adore those traditions far too much. In fact, I’ll most likely concentrate upon them more. While I branch into a variety of traditions, I’m concerned about loosing consistency - I’d like to create an organizational method to send readers to articles about specific traditions. I’d like to see this grow into a major piece of the site, so I need some ideas about structure. Let me know what traditions you think I’m missing and how you’d like to see them presented - I want my explorations to be useful to you!

Cover More People And Organizations That Support Latin Jazz Musicians
The first six months of LJC’s existence was completely musician-centered, which only presented part of the picture. I felt that much of the content supported the great music being currently created and looked upon important historical figures. The “Revisiting” feature presented classic album and highlighted a musician’s contribution to Latin Jazz history. The “Spotlight” feature presented new names and musical approaches to a wider audience. The “Album of the Week” article recognized an outstanding current album and provided an in-depth analysis of the work. All of these articles supported musicians in good ways, but other people help Latin Jazz survive as well.

In order to look at the bigger picture, I’ve created a series of “industry focus” articles. I initially intended to write about a variety of people supporting Latin Jazz, but I’ve written primarily about record labels and the innovative ways that they are supporting artists. I feel good about this focus - record labels package, distribute, and promote Latin Jazz; they deserve some attention and recognition. From the beautiful packaging and finely crafted music coming from Cacao Musica to Pasache Music’s strong dedication to the Afro-Peruvian Jazz scene, there are some outstanding labels helping musicians. Many musicians are utilized today’s vast array of tools to see their own music as well - an admirable task which deserves LJC’s avid support. These articles have expanded LJC’s perspective upon the Latin Jazz world.

Still, I feel like I’ve presented a limited view of the greater Latin Jazz community, and I’d like to branch into other realms. Radio has been a big source of promotion to Latin Jazz artists over the years, and I’d love to highlight some DJs and their shows. This transcends into the digital age as well - I’m in the process of looking at internet radio stations and podcasts that are supporting Latin Jazz artists. I need to discuss more instructional material, such as books or DVDs that help spread the tradition to young musicians. There are also a number of publications and websites supporting Latin Jazz, and I’d love to get LJC readers in touch with those resources. A circle of Latin Jazz supporters work tirelessly to keep the music alive - I’d like to place attention on all of them. If you see other areas of the Latin Jazz world being neglected, bring them to my attention, please!

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Here’s some new ideas that I’d like to visit during the next six months:

Find a Better Way For People To Access Information In LJC’s Archives
At this point; I’ve created hundreds of articles about Latin Jazz with a wealth of great information for listeners, musicians, industry people, and more. I get the impression that these articles have been beneficial to the people that read them, but they disappeared too quickly. New readers are only finding the most current articles and missing the archived material. At the same time, I feel a little frustrated knowing that I’m writing material that will only have impact for a few days. The current site design doesn’t really move visitors through the archives; a new reader would have to work pretty hard to find older material, especially if they’re looking for information on a certain topic. This problem will only multiply over the course of the years, so something needs to address this issue soon.

I’d like to make LJC’s older material more accessible to new readers, but I’m not quite sure how I am going to do that. I do have an archive page with links to older material, but I’m not sure how beneficial readers actually find that. I’m exploring the possibility of creating a landing page that would guide readers to other parts of the site, including older material. I’ve seen this type of layout work well at other sites, and I’d like to explore the possibility here. I could also add links into posts citing related articles. I did this for a while, but it felt a bit spammy - I’ve been very conscious of creating an environment that was not plastered with advertising, and I felt a bit self-conscious about this. Another possibility would be monthly round-up articles or short posts recommending older articles. Let me know what you think the best method would be - first and foremost I’d like the content to benefit readers, so let me know how to do that!

Include More Latin Jazz Educational Articles
I’ve come to the conclusion that I need more educational articles for a variety of reasons. Looking at the search results that bring visitors to LJC, I see queries like “how to play Latin bass” or “Latin jazz chords” daily. People are looking for this information, so it seems like I should provide it. At the same time, I see misunderstandings about the music all the time - I’d love to help correct them. I’ve written a lot about the need to keep the music alive - in order to support that assertion, I should do a little more about that by helping educate people. Some articles about the basis of the style would help teach people about Latin Jazz and deepen their investment in the music. People can’t be expected to approach the music with passion and respect when they don’t understand it - LJC could serve as a portal to this type of understanding.

I’d love some information about the types of educational articles that LJC readers think would be beneficial. These could be listening lists, historical information, or musician profiles. I could go into detail about the performance of Afro-Cuban Jazz, and break down some of the instrumental roles. Perhaps I could get some guest articles from musicians, giving a variety of perspectives. I’ve posted some transcriptions from a variety of musicians - although I haven’t done this regularly, these posts continue to be popular. I teach high school music during the day, and I’ve got a collection of educational material for my Latin Jazz group; these could easily be shared. I think that it could be a group of “Latin Jazz 101″
articles, could be an interesting series, but again, I’d only like to pursue angles that would truly help readers. Let me know what you think!

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Reflecting on the past six months while looking ahead, here’s some things to think about:
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* What pieces of LJC have worked well for you?

* Do you think that more could be done in any of the resolutions?

* What am I missing that you’d like to see in LJC?

JOIN THE CONVERSATION!
LEAVE A COMMENT below with your thoughts. I’d love to hear from every LJC reader! Once you’ve left your thoughts here, don’t forget to visit our past community conversations.

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Do you have an idea for a future Community Conversation? As much as I enjoy exploring my own interests with this regular post, I’d prefer to have this forum address the overall interests of the entire community. Do you have an issue that effects Latin Jazz? Do you have an idea for a fun topic? Let me know so that we can throw it out to the whole community - Leave a Comment or e-mail me.

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