Keep (it) Swinging: 1001: .... and more.

Morgen de Nederlandse versie: 1002 .. en wat nu.
This is the first blog in a new range of Keep Swinging blogs. Things will be changed ........... Learn all about it in this blog titled:
1001: .... and more.
Hans Koert

Yesterday I was surprised by a delicious cake with the Jazz Door Een Zeeuwse Bril logo to celebrate the 1000th blog. This logo was used during the last 150 blogs. Thanks for that - a geat surprise served up by some beloved relatives.

The lay-out of the blog has changed, as you see since the 1000th blog yesterday and next week more changes will be made. I hope you like it.
When I created the Keep Swinging web log I wanted a place to express my fasination for jazz and jazz related music. In fact I was irritated by the fact that it seemed as if jazz music was complete disappearing from daily life: record shops reduced its number of jazz records from their selves ( or hid the jazz records between the "popular"(!) music ), radio programs were cancelled and TV-producers only showed some small fragments from their archives, feared that mankind would zap to another channel if you let the saxophone player finish his solo ....... I learned that the knowledge about jazz music by Joe The Plumber was limited to almost nothing - just some names like Louis Armstrong or the Dutch Swing College Band and I wondered how (young) people, who loved to hear some jazz music, could find information. Jazz is more then some bits & bytes downloaded from the internet - it is music, emotion that is created on the very moment.

But few people know, that often good music is made just around the corner - not only in this part of the world, but also in your place or at surprising locations, if you keep your eyes and ears open ..... I wanted to point the readers to these great events I loved to visit, even if they were on the other side of the world and joining it an i

mpracticability. I wanted to point others to my projects, but also to great finds, records that surprised me or recollection of meetings and concerts. So I received numerous commends on my blogs about the Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra, I had heard this band twice around the year 1980 in Breda, in the south of The Netherlands, at the Oude Stijl Jazz Festival ( = Traditional Jazz Festival). Its version of Five Foot Two Eyes Of Blue brings me cold shivers ran down my spine. A lot of people who searched on the internet for music of that band found the blog and asked me where to find CDs of that band, still active at the Charles Bridge in Prague (Czech Republic). It is a pity that this band hasn't got any website or sales point where one can obtain a copy of their albums.

About 30 percent of the visitors of the Keep Swinging blog are from the Netherlands, 25 % from the United States and 20 % are hits from European countries, like Belgium, Germany, France and England. A half year after the founding of the blog, some Dutch and Flemish readers wondered why the blogs were in English only; since that day I posted most contribution in both Dutch ( and Flemish of course) and English.
Some people might think I'm a retired or unemployed man... well that's wrong. I do have a regular job which keeps me busy for four days a week. Making a daily blog means early to bed, and, lucky for the blog, I'm an early bird ..... I learned that two dozen regular visitors open the blog each day ( Thanks folks) - others two or three times a week, or after receiving the weekly news letter to be sent each Monday. Other were visitors by chance or surfers on the web. I decided to bring the daily frequency of the Keep Swinging blogs down to a weekly scedule; I hope the regular readers will accept this.

The last 150 blogs were labeled as Jazz Door Een Zeeuwse Bril, which means something like Jazz As Seen By a Zeeland inhabitant. Zeeland is the region of the southwest part of The Netherlands. This motto suggests that I have a sober-minded view on jazz - no hypes for me - not The Twenty Bests ... - I wanted to promote the jazz in our region using this motto, announcing concerts and making reviews of concerts, but few reactions, personal or by mail, made me conclude that the blogs actually didn't reach the right persons, the jazz fans and the clubs! The musicians, on the other hand, liked these reviews, so I decided to make now and then reviews of concerts. The list of concerts in the menu will be continued until the end of the year.
Tomorrow - you'll find the Dutch translation of this blog and after that ...... no new daily blog: for the first time in 2 years and 10 month no blog to make. It gives me some more time to make contributions for other blogs like the Choro-music blog, in which Joergen made a contribution titled Celebration , refering to the 1000th blog - the Hit of the Week blog - the Flexible Records Project and the Oscar Aleman weblog. Thanks Joergen for your support during my holidays, by posting your always interesting contributions and I hope I can count on that in future too. The first weekly blog will be later this week on Thurday evening the 27th of November 2008 and its translation on the next day ( Friday the 28th of November 2008). Several guest contributors offered some great articles to post, so I hope you will stay a regular visitor of the Keep Swinging blog.

Hans Koert

Some additional info about the band mentioned:

Selected Discography:
Originální Prazsky Synkopicky Orchest (EP) (ca 1976)
Originální Prazsky Synkopicky Orchest Vedouci Pavel Klikar (1978)
Originální Prazsky Synkopicky Orchest - Live in het Turfschip in Breda (1978)
Originální Prazsky Synkopicky Orchest - Stara natoc gramofon ( 1982)
Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra - Jazz & Hot Dance Music 1923-31 (1983)
Originální Prazsky Synkopicky Orchest - Sam s devceten v desti (1989)
Originální Prazsky Synkopicky Orchest - Hello Baby ( 1994)
Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra - Walking & Swinging (1997)
Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra - Goin' Crazy with the Blues (2002)
Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra - Sweet Like This (2005)