Who doesn't love a free festival? Electronic publisher Alexander Street Press kicks off its first ever Online Jazz Music Festival today (see fellow LJ blogger Cheryl LaGuardia's earlier post about the festival). On tap is free access to all of the company's voluminous jazz archive for the duration of the "festival," from May 12th until the 14th. The main attraction is a huge archive of online recordings, hitting many of the high points of the genre, and reference resources. It's an interesting way of pitching their wares to libraries.

What do these wares include? Glad you asked...

Continuously growing, Jazz Music Library currently includes more than 18,000 audio tracks featuring more than 3,800 artists in streaming audio. Covering virtually every important jazz composer and performer from the 1920s to today and the full range of jazz genres from big band to free jazz, the collection currently includes works licensed from a long list of record labels, including Audiophile, Concord Jazz, Contemporary Records, Fantasy, Jazzology, Milestone, Prestige, and Riverside.  Says Dutton, “Festival attendees can listen to recordings from the Charlie Byrd Trio, Stan Getz, Eric Dolphy, The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Nnenna Freelon, the Count Basie Orchestra, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and thousands of others.”

Head on over. I found some quality Chet Baker recordings, but no Archie Shepp or Sam Rivers? Good thing their collection is still growing. (Updated from the comments: Looks like both Archie Shepp and Sam Rivers are on the way!)

No jazz hands, please.