Jazz on Twitter

In honor of the fifth anniversary of the first public tweet, Culture Monster, a column at the Los Angeles Times, has just published "Whom to follow on Twitter? Start with 25 of Culture Monster's favorites", a list of the best folks in the arts to follow on Twitter.

These include the plastic arts, architecture, classical music and opera, dance, theater, and jazz.

The four Twitter feeds on jazz that Culture Monster recommends are:

• Next Bop (@nextbop), which Culture Monster describes as "Dedicated to championing the brilliant next wave of jazz artists."
  
• Nicholas Payton (@paynic), one of the finest jazz trumpeters and composers around. As Culture Monster notes, "Payton has become something like the jazz equivalent of Kanye West on Twitter with a steady barrage of unfiltered (and often foul-mouthed) rants and raves."
  
• Jason Crane (@jasondcrane), the writer and host of the Jazz Session podcast. Culture Monster say that his Twitter feed "includes lively reactions to happenings in the vibrant New York City club scene and the occasional poem."
  
• NPR's "A Blog Supreme" (@blogsupreme), the Jazz Journalists Association’s recent “Blog of the Year.” As Culture Monster points out, "this feed ... includes a variety of jazz news from around the Internet, as well as interviews, features and lively conversation-starters such as when and how people first heard Miles Davis."
  

There are plenty of other folks on Twitter who discuss jazz. For starters, check out the Shorty Awards, which maintains a list for jazz. These are voted on by the people who follow the Shorty Awards site, and the top four Tweeters are:

• Juan-Carlos Hernández (@jchernandezjazz), a jazz photographer who also runs a mighty fine blog.
  
• Donna M (@elementsofjazz), the creator of the wonderful ElementsOfJazz.com Website.
  
• Curtis Davenport (@curtjazz), who also runs the excellent blog, Curt's Jazz Cafe.
  
• Jonás Vergara (@hijodelamaquina), a Spanish-language Twitter feed. Vergara also runs a Spanish-language blog, Machinae 1975.
  

You could also check Listorious and other sites that provide searchable databases of Twitter lists. For example, according to Listorious, some of the most popular jazz artists on Twitter include:

• Diana Krall (@DianaKrall)
  
• Wynton Marsalis (@wyntonmarsalis)
  
• Saxophonist Kirk Whalum (@KirkWhalum)
  
• Saxophonist Joe Lovano (@joelovano)
  

There are, of course, many more folks on Twitter who talk about jazz (including @corejazz), and I may return to the subject with a longer list in the future.
Robert