Our Seattle-Area Jazz Community

There are about a thousand amateur jazz players in the greater Seattle are, and many venues where those players can get together as well. In 2011, steve originally organized the original Seattle Area Jazz Musicians Meetup. Although it has some 850 members, its capabilities are limited to scheduling events and hoping people show up.

Our community members need a way to find other players with specific instruments to create bands and start playing together, and venues need ways of finding bands to play in their spaces.

The NEW Seattle Area Jazz Community

So Version 2.0 of the Seattle Area Jazz Community is here! It's not Meetup, Facebook or any other social media site. It's exactly tailored to our needs. When you join the Community, you gain the ability to find players in your area who want to play, organize and learn about jam sessions, and find commercial venues who are looking for talent. You can also get notified when other community members need someone with your talents.

For Musicians

If you are looking for a drop in jam session to play in, or maybe a few musicians to complete a group so you can start making real music-- you've found it. This site is a way for anyone who sings or plays a jazz instrument in our area to find those other musicians who are just waiting to form jams, practice/performance and experimental groups, and make music together.

All levels of jazz musicianship are encouraged to join. If you're a high school or college student, or have a day job, or are retired and focusing on the music, it doesn't matter. Just get involved, bring an awesome supportive attitude to those events, listen to others, make music together, and have fun.

Our geography includes Seattle, the Eastside (Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Sammamish, Issaquah), North (Bothell, Woodinville, Lake Forest Park, Lynnwood, Edmonds, Shoreline), Bainbridge Island, Bremerton, Everett, Tacoma, Renton, and surrounding areas.

How Does It Work?

You get a profile, and you can post things about the local jazz scene that you want the rest of the community to know about. Everyone is automatically "friends" with everyone, so as new people come on line, you get to know about it right away. You can message others in the community too, and have ongoing private message threads.

Now the good part: You can find people by what they play. You can find venues that are looking for talent. You can find recording engineers, and more.

Suppose you're a piano player and want to form a trio. Use FIND to look up drummers and bass players, and have a look at their profiles. You'll see how far away from you they are, and from their profile posts, determine who is the best fit. Message them and see if they'd be interested!

Suppose you've got a band and are looking for venues to play at. Use FIND again, and search for them. Use Messaging to contact them and determine if you can get your band in front of them. Or, if they publish their email on the site, you'll know they're expecting you to reach out that way, or maybe by their telephone number.

Are you responsible for booking talent at your establishment? Use FIND to locate Band Leaders, and peruse their profiles to look for a good fit. Reach out to those who make sense for your setting.

Is My Contact Info Made Public?

No, it isn't. Directories of bass players, drummers, and pianists posted to the internet do bring-in calls, but they're also free for harvesting by hackers, who ultimately sell that data to spammers. Our community doesn't have that problem, because it's not a simple open directory. Instead it only enables its members to post their needs to the community members who want to receive those kinds of requests, and those members can indicate their interest through the system without people giving away their contact info.

You can choose to make your contact info public on the site (i.e., if you're a pro musician looking for gigging opportunities, or a manager of a performance space), but you don't need to give up your contact info.

Does It Cost Money? What's The Catch?

This community is free to join. There is no spamming, no ads, no selling information, no dues, no spooky Facebook or Google harvesting your data and interests. Steve Jones created this site as an extension of his own, because it seemed like a more focused way to support the local amateur jazz community and bring venues and other commercial establishments into the picture. Steve is a retired technologist, and enjoyed building this as a hobby. Since 2011, Steve has paid for the annual costs of hosting the SAJM meetup and now this new one. It would be great to help him out with a donation via Ko-Fi to help him with the costs.

How Can I Get Involved?

There are lots of ways to get involved. Join the Community of course. Invite members to new jams and events that need talent. Spread the word and tell your friends and venues about the site as well. If you operate a commercial venue and are looking for entertainment, Join, and then invite the community to find people to play at your establishment-- you'll build excitement at your venue and gain a following of faithful (and often thirsty musicians). Commercial recording studios can invite band leaders who need to know you're open for business. Restaurant and nightclub operators know that hosting bands that run jam sessions make it possible for patrons to enjoy listening to a lot of exciting musicians, without paying for the people who come to play in the jam.

Reach out to Steve through the Contact tab or via Messaging to let him know how the how the Community is working, or how it can be improved.

Become a Supporter

Of course, it doesn't hurt to buy Steve a Coffee (Ko-Fi) once in a while. The SAJM Meetup site costs him personally $600/yr, and the Steve Jones Jazz website including the Community support costs about $10-$20/mo plus Steve's time to keep it humming. He will surely notice and appreciate your support when you donate to the cause. If you want to send him a token of your support for the Community feature and for the SAJM meetup, just click the little floating "Make a Donation" button at the bottom of the page, and thank you!