Sometime in the fall of 2016 I typed the following as the intro to my newly created “The Liner Notes for this Jazz Album” list at rateyourmusic:
I was listening to a Paul Desmond/Gerry Mulligan album while reading the liner notes and was thrilled to find the story of how Blight of the Fumble Bee got its name. The stories and analysis contained on the back of jazz albums are slowly being lost to time. To combat this I’m transcribing liner notes and reviews while tagging them to their respective RYM pages. My goal is for digital listeners to have the same access to knowledge as analog listeners once did.
Several years later, my goal is still the same. Creating my own website in January 2023 to house this work was the next logical step on this journey. By bringing this data together under one roof with an intuitive interface I hope to pay tribute to both the musicians and the talented critics that have taught me so much.
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I don’t accept donations, so traffic is how I determine the success of this site. Andrew Hickey of A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs puts it best when he ends his podcasts with “Word of mouth is the best way to get information out about any creative work. So please, if you like this, tell someone.”
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I do not own any of the words on this website. Nearly everything you’ll read here is a reproduction of either an album’s liner notes, an out-of-print periodical, or a link to a blog or other account that has given me permission to point you to their work. I do not make money from this website. In fact if you count subscriptions, reference library purchases, and webhosting fees, plus the thousands of hours in opportunity costs over the past years, I’m losing money. With that being said, if you are verified a rights holder to any information contained here and wish to not have your work reproduced please contact me and I’ll remove it immediately.