For those of you unfamiliar with them, mojam was a concert finder – you could search for a band and find out where they were currently on tour. Or you could search for a particular city and find out who was playing on a given date. musi-cal was a sister site to mojam, a back-end system into which promoters and club owners could upload their schedules.

As a site dedicated to live concert recordings we felt mojam was a good companion that could be useful to our visitors, but the small number of visits it drew told us that you were using other tools for finding upcoming shows. There are a few; one of our favorites is songkick.com, a superb site with an excellent new iOS app; if you were using mojam before we highly recommend songkick.

Managing our vast concert recording archive is our most important task, and we’ve chosen to dedicate our resources to doing that. We hope you’ll understand. Cheers!

[Closing mojam.com and musi-cal.com is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

Clarence Clemons died on Saturday at the age of 69. An amazing performer, both with the E Street Band and in his own right, we know of no better way to celebrate his legacy than to share some music from the Vault with you. We’ve put together a Big Man Playlist featuring Clarence and his Red Bank Rockers performing with Bruce Springsteen as part of a Legendary Ladies of Rock concert from 1987, and with the Grateful Dead on New Year’s Eve of 1988. And catch him at his prime in an early show and a late show from 1983, also with the Red Bank Rockers.

From Bruce Springsteen’s site: Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage. His loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for nearly forty years. He was my great friend, my partner, and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band.

[Remembering The Big Man is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

Don Kirshner passed away this week as a result of heart failure at the age of 76. With involvement in a number of endeavors in pop music, television, and where they met in the middle, he played a big role in the industry’s development for over two decades.

For live music fans his enduring legacy was Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, a television concert program that featured the best music of the ’70s, premiering with a performance by the Rolling Stones. Kirshner hosted the show for almost its entire run into the ’80s, becoming well known for his deadpan delivery, imitated here (according to a comment regarding this Tom Scott concert, this is drummer Ron Aston’s impersonation of Paul Shaffer’s impersonation of Kirshner):

To a man whose musical tastes and work helped us enjoy more than a few concerts from the comfort of our own living rooms  – we thank and salute you, Don Kirshner. R.I.P.

[Remembering Don Kirshner is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

When we are live, you will find a new and improved Download Manager as well as some minor updates to a number of pages.

Thanks very much for your patience, and our apologies for the inconvenience.

Among the changes are a new “sample track” player on every artist’s performer page that will play one of their songs in a 192k stream.  We hope you enjoy this; it’s a great way to hear the difference these high resolution streams make over our standard 96k streams.

[Updates to the Vault is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

The cream of the crop of modern jazz players in the U.K. gravitated to Dankworth’s orchestra, which on this particular Friday evening at Freebody Park in Rhode Island revealed its allegiances to Duke Ellington and Count Basie through an invigorating set. This was polished, swinging and powerful music, with some very inventive twists on familiar themes, courtesy of Dankworth’s clever arrangements and a string of potent soloists in trumpeters Dickie Hawdon and Kenny Wheeler (later to become a star in his own right with the ECM label), tenor saxophonist Danny Moss, and trombonists Laurie Monk and Tony Russell.

Dankworth would go on to much acclaim with his orchestra through the ’60s, often performing with his vocalist wife, Cleo Laine. His 1964 album The Zodiac Variations, featuring special guests Clarky Terry, Bob Brookmeyer, Zoot Sims, Phil Woods and Lucky Thompson, drew much acclaim both stateside and abroad. Dankworth became Laine’s music director in 1971 and trimmed the band down to 10 pieces; in the early ’80s he formed a touring quintet. From 1984 to 1986, Dankworth was professor of music giving free public lectures at Gresham College in London, while also running the Allmusic summer schools at the Stables in Wavendon, a theatre created by him and his wife in their back garden. He set up his own record label, Qnotes, in 2003, and in more recent years had been involved in writing large and extended works, including jazz violin concerto for soloist Christian and the Nottingham Youth Orchestra, which had its world premiere on March 1, 2008.

He leaves an impressive and broad musical legacy, but back on July 3, 1959, Dankworth was clearly channeling the spirit of Duke Ellington and Count Basie at his triumphant Newport appearance.

[Remembering Johnny Dankworth is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

We believe we can serve you better by focusing our resources on better ways to connect you with the music and with your fellow listeners. Thanks to those of you who made substantial contributions to the Forums over the years. Cheers!

[Closing the Concert Vault Forums is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

We love Little Feat at the Vault, in no small part due to their incredible rhythm section anchored by drummer extraordinaire Richie Hayward. Unfortunately, and to the dismay of every Feat fan, Richie has recently been diagnosed with liver cancer, and due to a significant mountain of health costs, is receiving chemo treatment in Vancouver Canada, with the ultimate goal of obtaining a transplant sometime next year.

His friends and band mates have come together to record a classic rock/funk Christmas song as an exclusive download, with the proceeds to go directly to Richie’s health care costs. “Santa Gotta Get Some,” written by Steve Chrismar, Paul Barrere, and Rich DeCarlo is a funky example of the power of song to help and heal.

With Paul Barrere of Little Feat working the lead vocal and slide, and band mate Ken Gradney on bass, the band is a who’s who of world class players:

• Tony Braunagel — drums (Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt)
• Debra Dobkin — percussion & vocal (Bonnie Raitt)
• Leo Nocentelli — Rhythm guitar (the Meters)
• Mike Finnigan — B3 & vocal (Crosby Stills & Nash; Taj Mahal)
• Texacali Horns: Joe Sublett & Darrell Leonard — sax & trumpet (Taj Mahal; Stevie Ray Vaughn)
• Teresa James — backing vocals (Delbert McClinton)

Check out this tasty sample from “Santa Gotta Get Some”:

Click here to buy the track for $0.99 at iTunes — all proceeds to go directly to Richie’s health care costs — or go to www.littlefeat.net for more info.

Buy the track, buy it again, say a prayer, pass the word, and help get Richie Hayward back in the drum chair where he belongs.

[SANTA GOTTA GET SOME – A funky labor of love for Richie Hayward is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]