Was in the record store today getting some material for the Teo set, and heard something very infectious over the air waves.
Nik Bartsch's Ronin
Um,,, why haven't we heard of them before? These guys are smokin'

After a geeky Friday night of brushing up on our Perl, we fixed the problem in our feedback script. Commenting is back on!

This past weekend the SysOps for the server we host this site on upgraded to the latest version of Perl, which unfortunately caused something in our decade old Perl feedback script to break. :(

Hopefully it won't be too long for us to find some time to look into this and fix it. Oh yes, the trials of a homebrew webmaster

Its now early April and BC is only just now posting the March set. Arg! Such is the realities of a spare-time podcaster with a full-time job and a number of other interests (including an adorable baby boy). We are gonna do our best to keep on a monthly publish schedule, but don't be too surprised if we run a little behind here and there.

Arg! The past month has been nothing but difficulties for BendingCorners. They have been mostly technical, but some were ineptitude, while others were just the plain old realities of Life with an infant.

We tried to move to a new computer (and new operating system) last month and had all kinds of technical difficulties! First there were the interface problems of trying to learn a new app. Then all the damn software crashes! We never could get a solid recording from the new box and new apps. So, we moved back to the old computer, and then there were more problems, mostly stemming from input levels and over-distortion. Ack! Computers suck!

BendingCorners is very proud to announce a brand new (and we're talking as new as they get) addition to the BC family: Myles Stanton.

In celebration of his birth, we have started a new "BabyCorners" series of sets designed specifically for infants, toddlers, childern, and their musically discerning parentings. The first of these sets is our July mix, "Hush".

Oh, and as of this month, BendingCorners officially endorses Stanton cartidges, mixers, and accessories. :)

Damn! Was it really February that we last posted a blog entry?? See, told ya we ain't "bloggers". We're "livers". We LIVE Life; we don't blog Life.

Anyways... Yes, its been awhile. And yes, May has come and gone and there is still no May BendingCorners set up. Does anyone really care anyways? No. But thats not the point. We're not here because others care, we're here because WE CARE!

Don't know how people with regular jobs, and lives, have time to create consumable content on any kind of regular cycle. It takes time and energy. And, time and energy are very precious resources.

The thing that keeps us going though, is our personal love for the subject matter, and the COMMENTS from anyone who does endup listening. So please, if your are moved (positively or negatively) by any of the BC sets you listen to, please post a comment.

Two jazz greats pass away last month: Alice Coltrane and Michael Brecker. Find a compilation of Alice's more mellow and modal numbers here on BendingCorners. For Micheal Brecker, check out In The Groove's great comp here. May both rest in peace.

With the first cast of the new year, come a few changes.

Due to increased bandwidth capacity (thank you Dean!) we thought we'd try to bump up the bitrate one notch. Going forward, BendingCorners will be casting at 80kbps. We will continue to provide the higher-bit version at 128K.

Less notable but still worth while is the UI/layout change to the "playlist" pages. The description for each set is now included on the playlist page. (about time!)

BendingCorners had a December set all ready to go, and then James Brown passed and we had to quickly adjust and pay our respects. It was an absolute pleasure to rummage through our JB collection and reminisce while researching the set. As per usual though, our transitions between songs is anything but dynamite. Our appologies for that (BC ain't no "DJ"), but hopefully the song selections shine on thru.

The intention was to write this over Thanksgiving weekend, but it took longer to compile the November mix than planned (as usual) and enough free time hasn't been available until this weekend.

Though I may be the curator, BendingCorners is definitely a team effort, and its WAY past due to thank and recognize the team for their efforts and contributions.

First up; my wife, for her unwavering support and continual encouragement. If a set hasn't been put together by the last week of the month, she gently reminds me that the end of the month is shortly coming and that BC listeners are waiting for a new set, including her! Then there are the times she is alseep alone in bed cause her husband is in the back room late at night compiling, or mixing, or producing a BC set. Ah, the life of a music-enthusiast widow. :)

Second; BendingCorner's network/system administrator. As BC is curated and put together for "the love of it", so too is the network coop that BC is apart of. But eventhough our network is administered for "the love of it", no for-profit network even comes close to the level of support, performance, and pure billiance that we receive from our "man behind the scene." Thank you Dean!

Next; BC's active listeners. Its the "benders" who keep the jazz-n-groove community alive. They listen each month, and post their comments and feedback, and spread the gospel of the groove to others. BC would be stale without you.

And finally, the artists! BendingCorners would never be, if it weren't for the musicians creating the beautiful and moving music showcased here every month. Please, if you enjoy any of the music featured here, please support the artists and BUY their music. Give CDs, records, or downloads as gifts to your friends, family, and loved ones, and tell them you heard it on BendingCorners. :)

Peace and love to you all.
Keep on groovin'

Despite one harsh transition, August's So Full set turned out alright for a vocal full set. BC isn't a big fan of vocals, but it been a long time since we've done a vocal heavy set, and it seemed appropriate to follow up last month's instrumental soul set with a vocal based one. Should also mention that the set featured not one but TWO listener submitted tunes: Soma Sonic and Wise In Time. Thanks again!

Well, the day job is still keeping us very busy (fortunately we love the job so the time spent is well worth it) and thus the blogging here has fallen by the way side.

Anyhow, wanted to give props to some of our partners in crime. If you enjoy any of the BC podcasts, you might well enjoy the following "brat pack" of jazz-groove 'casing: In The Groove, textured DJs, Quincy Essential, Paris DJs, Royal Groove, jazzDJ.

And finally, many thanks to those that have sent in their promo materials. We try to fit them in to the 'casts where appropriate. Keep 'em coming!
Special mentions need to go out to Cordovan and Ian Simmonds who sent in their excellent CDs. Seek these out!

A couple of "firsts" for the April podcast. The Jazzatronic 2005 cast is BC's first set utilizing three different musical medias: CD, vinyl, and mp3. It is also BC's first cast to showcase a "user contributed" tune! (Broken Sound Collective sent BC their tune a number of months ago and it was perfectily suited for inclusion in a "jazzatronic" set)

As for the music, it should be noted that 2005 wasn't the most prolific year (in BC's opinion) for the nu-jazz/electro-jazz/phusion scene, as it seems neo-soul and soul-groove are on the rise and probably where the larger sales numbers are?

Over the last few months BC has received a number of emails from musicians and publicists requesting their music be played in a BendingCorners podcast. (how very flattering) A few have sent mp3s via email, but a majority have requested a snailmail address to send physical media (vinyl or CD).

To facilitate these requests, BendingCorners now has a physical (real world) address. Send any and all physical promotional material to:
BendingCorners
PO Box 1955
San Mateo, CA.
94401

BC took a new day job in February and its been keeping us very busy. The quantity (and quality) of blog posts the next few months will be low. Any free time BC has will be focused on the music more so than the words. As it should be!!

3 new changes for 2006. First, BC has a new intro "theme". Starting with this month's Classic Architecture set, all future BC sets will start with the new BendingCorners "theme". Hear the theme and you know you're listening to a BendingCorners set. Second, we've tweaked the settings for the "lo-fi" feed version to be smaller in size (for a shorter download) and sound less watery. Third, we're using more accurate time stamps to indicate track start times.

We hope you enjoy the changes and look forward to a groovy 2006!

BC has received a number of emails and a few posts to the board about the lack of a hi-fi 128K feed.

There is no BC hi-fi feed for 2 main reasons:
1) bandwidth concerns
2) return incentives

BC's bandwidth bills don't pay themselves, and as BC's traffic continues to increase so does our bandwidth usage and thus the bills. With over 4000 subscribers to the BC feed the moment a new episode is produced bandwidth usage sees a huge spike for the frist few days. Because of this, BC needs to keep the file size of the 'cast as small as possible without sacrificing too much sound quality.

Secondly, BC would like listeners to return to the site to view the playlist, find out more information about the artist included in the 'cast (and hopefully buy their music), and post comments. One way to encourage return visits is to offer the 128K version for download. The thinking is that if you like the 'cast you'll return to the site to download the hi-fi version, read the playlist and artist info, and post your comments.

So, for the foreseeable future, or in the unlikely event that BC gets sponsored (wouldn't that be nice :), the BC feed will be "lo-fi".

December's Scandiland set turned out quite nice, if i do say so myself. :) The new compressor worked great and eliminated the distorion issues of previous (direct to harddrive) sets, and i even had time to make an extended version with 3 additional songs. Who know how much great scandinavian jazz was out there?!?!

I wanted to feature as many artists as possible in the set but had to be mindful of file size and bandwidth issues of the cast'ed version. So, i decided to create two versions, one for the main cast and one for those of you who bother to visit the site for all the extra info: playlists, time stamps, artist's links, and COMMENTS!. (BC loves comments, hint hint)

Went back to add time stamps to the Double Z playlist today and came to realize that not one, but two songs were completely missing from the playlist. Doh!

Seems the recent addition of time stamps to the playlists not only helps listeners identify which track is playing when, but also serves as a double check for me when making the lists. Guess they are a good addition on both sides.

Quincy Essential just release their best "event" yet (with a very flattering shout out to BC). They went for a two-fer this time, and both sets are superb! (though i think i'm partial to Chapter 2). Both sets are excellent examples of kozmic jazz groove at its best! Chapter 1 features George Duke's incredible "Inner Source", one of Sun-Ra's more smooth and accessible tunes "Sleeping Beatuy", and Stanley Cowell's "El Space-O". As for Chapter 2, just about every track on Chapter 2 is a stand out! Search out and buy this music. Your life will be better for it.

Struggled quite bit with the sound quality of this month's Sonic Jazz Trek set. Keep running into patches of distortion during both the recording and post-production phases. Had to make a number of attempts to get it right; which sucked up a lot of time. Really need to pick up a dual-channel compressor, as i'm thinking that will help matters; atleast i'm hoping that it will. Everything i read about them says it should.

And speaking of sound quality, i decided to up the KBPS of the "lo-fi" version of Sonic Jazz Trek to 80K because the 64K one was sounding particularly watery.

The other day i spun some tunes for an architectural art show opening by Thomas Wold. I played for 3 hours and broke the show up into two "acts", a classic set and a modern set (recoding both to MiniDisc). Hopefully over the coming months i'll get the time to transfer the recordings to mp3 and put them up on the site.

Last week i had the pleasure to meet Goran Kajfes. He was in SF playing trumpet in his jazz band Nacka Forum. While i was talking with him at the bar, i realized that this was the first artist who's music has been featured in a BendingCorners set (Jazzatronic 2004) who i have actually talked with face to face. I felt a little awkward at first after i told him i used his music. But, he reacted so positively to the fact that his music was being featured and heard by more listeners, that my awkward feelings quickly disappeared. Infact, he reacted just the way i was hoping he would.

He comfirmed my personal thoughts about this whole thing: BendingCorners podcasts are a huge promotional tool for the artists. Its a win-win situation. I love the music, and the BendingCorners podcasts are helping to spread that love to others. In so doing, BendingCorners is exposing new listeners to the music, which in turn expands the audience of the featured artists. Again, its a win-win situation, and who can complain about that?

Noticed that the last two sets (since recording directly to hard drive) don't have quite the same "punch" as some of the previous sets. I'm thinking i need an audio compressor placed between the mixer and the computer so that the gain levels can be tweaked up a bit. Doing research into this now.

Have been mulling over the idea of having a standard "intro" theme that would play before each cast, so that when the cast is played, the listener knows they are indeed hearing a BendingCorners cast. Kinda like the intro Gilles has before every WorldWide show.

Had some time this past weekend and went ahead and made that "out" version of the Oscillations set that i mentioned a couple weeks ago. Its called Warped Oscillations and it really is twisted and warped. To the point that i didn't think it appropriate to put it in the RSS feed so that regular subscribers who are expecting "jazz" wouldn't have their feathers ruffled. So, this set is a special bonus for those of you who actually visit the web site.

Added time stamps to Desert Moments. One down, seven to go.

This past weekend i bought extra long RCA cables so that the BC no-frills mixer could connect directly to the computer, which is a few meters away. Previously BC sets were recorded to MiniDisc and then re-recorded to the computer for processing to mp3 and uploading to the site. The extra long cables now enable recording directly to hard drive, by-passing the MiniDisc step, and thus saving time. This month's set, Oscillations, was a successful run of the new setup.

Been spending quite a bit of time researching October's set, which is going to explore the world of echos, reverbs, and dubs. I know i mentioned this back in August, but the time is finally here to get on with it. And as a bonus, i'm thinking of doing two sets for October, one that is more "traditional" (if any BC set can be called traditional), and one that is a more "out" version on the same theme. We'll see if i have the time for it.

Had a great haul at ye ole record shoppe today. Some really tasty groovin' vitles (both classic and modern). Keeps the spirit alive. Long live the cosmic groove! Amen.