If you’re new to Beyondjazz; I’m Jurriaan aka oemebamo and I’m currently half of the duo bringing you the Beyondjazz podcasts. Lennart and me have been doing these weekly two hour shows together for over 6 years now. Damn!

But … Later this month I’m leaving on a sabbatical to the other side of the world. Me and my girlfriend are taking 9 months off from work and plan to visit Australia, New Zealand and parts of Southeast Asia, discovering a whole new part of this planet. For those of you who want to keep in touch or want to know more, we’ve set up a travel blog ‘No Worries‘ (dutch mostly).

Our world trip has the side effect that I won’t be able to help out with the podcasts any more. So, I’m taking this opportunity to sending out a huge huge thank you to my friend Lennart. I’ve loved every minute of doing these shows together. The ones where we had guests in our studio (Carlos Nino, Lefto, San Soda, Onda Sonora, Dyno, …), the sample spotting specials, the guestmixes we had from all over, but most of all the freestyle sessions where we just brought tunes and saw what happened … just doing it live. It’s like a hundred hours a year we’ve spent in the Urgent.fm studios. Wow!
Working on this show has made me discover so much new music, that I’m now carrying with me. Props to all the others helping out with Beyondjazz over the years too; Christopher, Matthew, Yiannis, Spectrum, Hans, the crew at Urgent.fm, Jimmy and then some … And of course a thanks to you listeners – over a thousand people each week checking our shows and dropping feedback.

This year’s Beyondjazz season runs ’till next week. After that we’re taking a summer break. During the months I’m off, Lennart will keep running the Beyondjazz podcast, albeit in a somewhat different schedule perhaps. More news on that soon.

Now, let me know all your Aussie & Zealand tips. Record shops? Festivals? Parties? I will be desperately in need for music down there, I know. I’ll miss that. But, on the other hand, I’ll have 9 months of enjoying life, sun and nature with my dearest.

Out on 26 October 2009, with more info on 4hero.bandcamp.com.

Take a look at the video of Ayanna Witter-Johnson’s cover of Give In.

You can already listen to some of the new songs BlackMagic, Lay it Down, Beauty or Save Your Love for Me (a cover of Nancy Wilson & Cannonball Adderly version) on his myspace page or alternatively on Beyondjazz radioshow here. The Black Magic got the remix treatments from Simbad and an up & coming UK talent Joy Orbinson. The latter is heavily played by mr Gilles Peterson.

Saxophonist Timo Lassy out of Finland has also teamed up with Jose for his forthcoming single The More I Look At You, check the lovely preview at  www.myspace.com/rickytickrecords His seven-inch will be out in July.

The Friends We Love project shares a special live video here with JJ showcasing his previous and forthcoming stuff:

José James is currently on tour and will be performing live at Gent Jazz Festival tomorrow.

As promised, you’re looking at the brand new third incarnation of Beyondjazz. It’s been quite a ride, but we feel that once again Beyondjazz is taking the pulse of the larger future jazz community, just like it did in 2003. Over the past six years we gathered almost 5000 people to discuss their shared musical interests, but as time went by the internet evolved, and Beyondjazz … well, didn’t.

So, we scaled back a little, and are returning focus on quality content, and the podcast of course. We’ll keep a close eye on new and emerging movements in the musical landscape.

We invite you all to become part of Beyondjazz. Be it comments, tweets, illustrations, guest articles, … you name it. If you have got something to share, let us know!

There will definitely be some more bugs and oddities left to be ironed out, but rest assured that we’ll be going over them in the coming hours and days. Enjoy the new Beyondjazz!