Jazz database project was born the day I went on the web searching for an information site about jazz history. I found little that both satisfied me and was easy to use.

One displayed knowledge on a badly referenced personal site difficult to find. Another one proposed a list of concerts with little about bands or performers. Yet another was only built for business and offered recent CD's with too many commercial links.

I decided to develop an open site offering substantial information. Of course containing all the roots of jazz - jazz history, performers, concerts and festivals, but also showing that jazz is live music promising a great future if we can help it to leave the media ghetto.

This site offers two different databases:

• In the first database you will find biographical and other information on more than 600 musicians. You will find also those recordings which essentially made jazz history and information about the development of the various genres or styles. Information about instruments is also available, but the strength of a relational database like this is that all of this information is cross- linked.
  
  Thus, for example, by searching for information on a musician you will be able to find to which genre his music belongs, which are his principal recordings and which instrument he played. You will be able to also find more information directly in the biography of the various musicians. You will have access to complete information in only a few clicks!



• The second database gathers together more than 322,000 pieces of music recorded on 26,000 discs. It indexes a significant discography which will allow you, for example, to distinguish the various versions of the same piece, who interpreted them and on which albums they are reproduced.

Of course, the information of this site will be evolving all the time - we will soon be putting online the largest number of RSS links in the jazz world. We will also be including podcasting, which will enable you to listen, to record and see concerts or other things of interest.

You could also contribute to this project, and register yourself - free - as a member. You will be able to help to build the database and will be able to update any information contained in the Jazz Project site concerning concerts, history or any information you think interesting. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any problem or questions.

The webmaster responsible for this project
Patrick BAUZERAND