Ornette Coleman and Columbia University

I did not see any press on this - Yesterday the inimitable Ornette Coleman received an Honorary Doctor of Music from the esteemed Columbia University in the City of New York. In honor of that achievement we are putting Coleman's At The Golden Circle Volumes One and Two onto our playlist.

From Columbia University:

Ornette Coleman, Doctor of Music 

A revolutionary jazz artist, Coleman taught himself how to play the saxophone and read music at the age of 14. His 50-year career has been a celebration of a ground-breaking marriage of harmony, rhythm and melody, and he has paved the way for generations of artists who long to break the bonds of conformity and the status quo. From acoustic works and string quartets to full orchestras and ballets, his influence has stretched across multiple genres and schooled countless musicians in the art of “free jazz.” His unique work has been recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Jazz Hall of Fame at Lincoln Center, and he is the recipient of the Miles Davis Award, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a MacArthur Fellowship and the Pulitzer Prize.

Playlist Variety

We have made a decision on our playlist and its bitrate.  We have been encouraged to convert to 128kbps so that we could be listed on iTunes radio.  This would cause us to trim back our current playlist as our files would take up twice as much room and we would then exceed our allowed storage space.

Our jazz library still has quite of bit of music to be uploaded into the station's storage.  Currently you can listen to Bop City for almost eleven days straight 24/7 and never hear the same track, and this is only going to get better.

We have listened to many jazz internet radio stations at various bitrates and we believe our station sounds as good as any.  And, we believe that this is born out buy the fact that, since Bop City's inception over four years ago, we have an average listening time of over an hour per person, which is pretty incredible with all of the "curiosity hits" we get every day.  We figure the true average listening time is well over double that number.

At this point, we feel that it is better to provide our core audience of jazz lovers with an extensive album oriented diversified playlist at our current bitrate rather than limit the listening experience that Bop City provides in pursuit of inflated listening hours via iTunes radio.

Please tell your friends about Bop City and its incredible playlist.  We always love getting new listeners.  You can support Bop City by becoming a VIP member (the link is here on the blog) that will enable you to listen to our classic jazz uninterrupted by commercials or station breaks.  This helps defray our broadcasting fees.  Yes, we do this for the love of it out of our pockets; this is not a commercial venture.

Peace.