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2. Editor Brett Delmage says goodbye and thanks

This will be my final issue as volunteer editor of Ottawa Jazz Happenings and
JazzWorks Connections.

It has been a pleasure to support JazzWorks, and live jazz and improvised music
in Ottawa, and to meet and serve musicians, listeners, jazz campers, and
venues, during the past 82 issues. I'd like to thank all of you who took time
to say hello in person, or to write me with corrections and comments. Thank you
to everyone who respected the Sunday night deadlines, and who helped me keep
the listings accurate and complete. I'm proud of our collective accomplishments
and progress this past year.

In part, I chose this time to wrap up my volunteer efforts because all the
announcements for 2009 Jazz Camp registration have been made (don't forget to
register by Wednesday!), and there are also fewer event listings now that
summer is underway.

I am excited to continue as part of the Ottawa-Gatineau jazz and improvised
music scene, as editor and publisher of my new project, www.OttawaJazzScene.ca.
It was launched during the Ottawa Jazz Festival in order to connect with
Festival attendees. I wanted to get festival-goers to think beyond the Jazz
Festival, to become aware of and enjoy listening to live jazz for more than 11
days a year. This has been a growing interest of mine for years, and I am
pleased to finally do something concrete about it! We started by reaching out
to thousands of Festival-goers this year to inform them about the new site.

The growing length of announcements I jammed into the email newsletter in
recent times was burying listings. Yet I felt the announcements were important
to jazz fans. Even more could have been said.

www.OttawaJazzScene.ca supports these extended communications better, as a
website foremost. OttawaJazzScene.ca has feature stories, reviews, news,
event listings, and more that simply couldn't fit into the existing email
format and were beyond its mandate. We will also be presenting
performance and jazz-event listings in new formats, and in web listings,
and with tools that will help you easily get the event into your calendar
so you won't miss it.

Please also send your event listings to events@OttawaJazzScene.ca so they can
be included in the listings. I'd especially like to hear from you when you have
or know of an interesting story, or project in the works, or even a content
idea.

My initial involvement with JazzWorks was photographing Jazz Camp in 2007. You
can view my photographs of Jazz Camp at
http://www.jazzworkscanada.com/html/Brett2007/index.html . Doesn't it look like
a fantastic experience? It was for me.

Consider registering for 2009 Jazz Camp if you are a musician, at
www.JazzWorksCanada.com (by Wednesday!) Or attend, help organize, or donate to
next year's JazzWorks fundraiser. This year's premiere event was the most
enjoyable fundraiser I've ever experienced.

I'd like to thank the JazzWorks gang:
   * Anna Frlan
   * John Geggie
   * Judy Humenick
   * Gavin McLintock

for all their incredible past efforts for JazzWorks and Jazz Camp and inviting
me to be part of it. While being editor is a more visible volunteer activity
that often gets kudos, Gavin, Judy, John, and Anna do an incredible amount of
work behind the scenes to make the JazzWorks Jazz Camp workshop happen every
year. I know they are looking for your continued participation in, and in
support of Jazz Camp. Don't forget to register, and to thank them too. It's
summer now. Buy them beers. :-)

Enjoy the music, and I hope to see you at www.OttawaJazzScene.ca and in the
clubs and concerts in the future.

Please do not reply to this email as I will not see your response. Contact me
at the email address below. Thank you.

Brett Delmage

Brett@OttawaJazzScene.ca
www.OttawaJazzScene.ca
member, Jazz Journalists Association