Links

Local interest

Oragnizations, Yahoo groups, etc.

The Golden Gate Blues Society
The Bay Area Blues Club
Jack's Bay Area Blues Clues, an offshoot of the BABC which offers a comprehensive listing of blues-related events in the San Francisco Bay Area

Jam sessions

I spend time regularly or occasionally at some of these local jams...

The historic Pioneer Saloon in Woodside, west of Redwood City, has recently started up a crackerjack jam run by Brett Brown and the terrific guitarist Terry Hiatt every Sunday night from about 4-8pm.
The Club Fox (formerly the Little Fox) in downtown Redwood City is again the home to a great blues jam run by Vince Caminiti, every Wednesday night from 7-11pm. These jams start off with an hour set by a host band, always one of the cream of the local crop of blues bands.
Note: the Fox Theater (affectionately known as the Big Fox) and Little Fox went dark in the late autumn of 2009. The property is now under new ownership and management, and we all hope it will thrive. The Wednesday jam was reinstituted on November 17, 2010, and has been going strong since...
For nearly ten years, the Old Princeton Landing in Princeton-By-The-Sea, just north of Half Moon Bay, featured a terrific blues jam run by Stan Erhart every Sunday night from about 8-11:30pm or so. Alas, the new owners (the OPL was sold in the summer of 2010) have decided that the jam didn't float their boats and so it has been cancelled as of January 16, 2011.
Marty Honda leads a jazz jam with a fantastic house rhythm section at the Oak City Bar And Grill in Menlo Park Thursdays from 8-11pm (relocated starting April 7th, 2011 from its previous location, day, and time at the Milan Pizza Restaurant in Mountain View).
Murphy's Law in Sunnyvale has a blues jam every Monday night, starting around 8:30pm
Neto's Market & Grill in Santa Clara has a blues jam every Tuesday night, 6-9pm
The Grand Dell Saloon in Campbell has a weekly blues jam every Thursday, 8-11pm

Local artists

This list is by no means exhaustive, it's just some of the folks I've been meeting and/or hearing recently at some of the jams listed above... check them out!

The Bluestate band featuring Vince Caminiti on guitar (Vinnie is also the Golden Gate Blues Society jam master) and Greg Heumann on vocals, sax, and harmonica
Jazz vocalist Candice
The Chris Cobb Band featuring Chris Cobb (well, duh) on guitar and vocals
Daniel Castro, guitar/vocals
Jerome Engelberts, singer/guitarist/sharp dresser (actually a former local musician, he moved back to the Netherlands a while ago)
Jackie Enx, drums with the Chris Cobb Band, Dave Abbott, and others
The Stan Erhart Band, featuring Stan Erhart (obviously) on guitar, vocals, sax and flute...
Steve Freund, guitar/vocals
Terry Hiatt, guitar/vocals
Greg Heumann, sax/harp/vocals for Bluestate
Joe Lococo, guitar/vocals for Jules Broussard, Rhythm City, Lucky Strike, Throwing Roses, Kimrea & Dreamdogs
Amy Lou's Blues
Sid Morris, keyboards
Kenny "Blue" Ray, guitar/vocals
Rodeo Clowns featuring John Lawton on guitar and vocals and Marla Goody on vocals
SNUG, with SiBon Geli-lead vocals, Ross Perkins-keyboards/guitar/vocals, Jim Spelman-drums/vocals, Mark Cvitkovich-bass/vocals, and yours truly on guitar
South City Blues Band featuring John Lull on sax and John Boutell on guitar/vocals
Volker Strifler, guitar/vocals
Perry Thoorsell, bassist
Garth Webber, guitar
Dave Workman, guitar
My bro-in-law Tedwin Wright, Marin County singer/songwriter (and fine guitar player too)

Music education

The JazzSchool in Berkeley, CA
The Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View, CA
Stanford Jazz Workshop
Jazz CampWEST
The JazzMobile in NYC—free Saturday Jazz Workshops since 1969
Jamey Aebersold's Summer Jazz Workshops

Recording, production, and making music

The Gear Page— a very active group of discussion forums, many centered around guitars and amps and... well, gear...
MusicPlayer.com—A great resource for musicians and recordists, with a great set of discussion forums.

Music sites—reviews, interviews, information

Innerviews - music without borders—a terrific collection of interviews, reviews, etc. by Anil Prasad.
Abstract Logix—webstore and informational blast about jazz/fusion/world music...
All About Jazz, "produced by jazz fans for jazz fans... to provide information and opinion about jazz from the past, present, and future."
AllMusic Guide

Music magazine sites

Some musical artists I particularly admire

The official Beatles website
A Jeff Beck Webpage—to my ears, Jeff Beck is The Master of taste and style in electric guitar music. (Note: this site seems to be down more often than not these days. Not sure what's up with that... my apologies if the link takes you nowhere fun.)
Adrian Belew.net—the official Adrian Belew site -- a guitarist sui generis. For a couple of years or so now he's been keeping a delightful blog too.
Björk
Jack Bruce— great bassist and singer of Cream, also a terrific songwriter, iconoclastic and unique.
Kate Bush
John Coltrane
Traneumentary—an interesting series of audio interviews with jazz musicians about Coltrane, his legacy, and his influence on their development as players...
Cream—Clapton - Bruce - Baker. Say no more.
Miles Ahead—a Miles Davis website—one of the most influential and innovative musicians and bandleaders ever.
Robben Ford—gifted all-around guitar player, singer, songwriter... one of my all-time favorites.
The official Allan Holdsworth website—"... his playing seethes."–Matt Resnicoff
Elephant Talk—devoted to King Crimson and its pilot, Robert Fripp.
Wayne Krantz—to my ear one of the most unique and different guitar players around - Wayne doesn't sound remotely like anyone else, has incredible time and feel, and is always stretching the boundaries of what he does with courage and conviction.
Papabear Records—Tony Levin, bassist with King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, and many others.
Pat Martino—the wonderfully great jazz guitarist.
John McLaughlin
Jaco Pastorius
Jane Siberry—another supremely talented, impossible-to-pigeonhole artist.
Chalkhills—a website and mailing list for the late, lamented, insanely great pop band XTC.
The Real Frank Zappa Home Page—lots of info about Zappa and family.
The late great Joe Zawinul... may he rest in peace.