Sweet Blues in New Orleans

Sax on the Web is proud in cooperating with The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund in providing a benefit program to help out Musicians who suffered from Hurricane Katrina.

Sax On The Web (SOTW) has curated this amazing selection of 17 tracks from early rock and roll saxophone masterpieces to acoustic folk songs about the effects of Hurricane Katrina. All proceeds from these donated tracks will help musicians displaced by the storm.

Says Neil Sharpe, the SOTW chief editor:

"An international tribute to The City That Changed The World. Jazz, blues, funk, early rock n’ roll, Cajun, Creole, Zydeco, and Swamp Pop, all found their inspiration here. These 17 great MP3s celebrate the rich, vibrant, musical heritage of The City Lights - New Orleans.

SaxontheWeb.net (SOTW), founded by Harri Rautiainen, is the ultimate saxophone resource, featuring the world’s largest, interactive Discussion Forum and marketplace, utilizing state of the art software and technology. Lessons, tips on technique, articles, and interviews on every aspect of playing, equipment and repair (e.g. jazz, classical, blues, rhythm and blues, sacred, and rock n’ roll) are provided, free of charge, by leading professionals and technical/trade specialists.

Saxontheweb.net is proud to support the wonderful activities of The New Orleans Musicians’ Relief Fund."

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Lionel Prevost playing "Closer walk with thee"

New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund: Jazzfest in New Orleans: Showing Up for the Party

Ex-DEC Finland trip to Tallinn, Estonia

Almost 60 ex-DEC employees took a day cruise to Tallinn on January 31, 2009. The vessel was Eckerö Lines' ms Nordlandia which was quite comfortable for the purpose. We enjoyed a breakfast on the way to Tallinn and buffet dinner on the way back to Helsinki.
In the picture above: Sven-Erik Nyberg, Martti Vainio and Harri Rautiainen.

More pictures:

Ex-DEC Tallinna

Thanks to organizers, Tiina and Sune.

The Development of telecommunications and Finnish Pioneers

I went yesterday night to the monthly meeting Internation.org's Helsinki chapter. There were not that many participants this time, but quality and quantity do not necessarily go hand in hand. I was introduced to Mr. Rana Sinha who is running a cross-cultural training business in Helsinki. He is a cosmopolitan and well-traveled person as are Hannes and Lidia who were there, too.

A lively and interesting discussion varied a lot; from making business presentations to musical performances, from global warming to multi-cultural issues, from chemical industry to high-tech industry.

While on the latter topic a question of the inventor of SMS (text messages) was raised. The inventor was a Finnish Telecom engineer, Mr. Matti Makkonen. The idea was developed by Makkonen and two other Telecom Finland employees while on a lunch break in a GSM standard conference in Copenhagen. Did Matti become a billionaire because of his invention? Unfortunately not.

The history of Internet was discussed from Arpanet to current spam mail problems. I recalled the time in 1986 when sending email on Internet was not that easy. In my office in Cambridge, Mass. I had a large chart on the wall where all known computers connected a net were drawn. In order to send an email message I had to write the physical route in the header in order for my message to find its way. At the same time Dr. Juha Heinänen from Telecom Finland was co-operating with Cisco in developing the IP Router which revolutionized the TCP/IP traffic. Did Juha become a billionaire because of his invention? Unfortunately not.

VW Karmann Ghia - Alive and kicking

My summer car, Karmann Ghia '58 (above), is now carefully parked in the winter storage for the next season. Year 1958 was the second full production year of KG.

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Becky, my loyal West Hollywood correspondent, sent me a link to a nice 1973 blue Karmann Ghia. The production of Ghias ceased that year.

This story was published in NY Times, and titled Of Maxwell, Uma and Omar the Car.



From that one can learn that VW Karmann Ghia has been playing a major part in the movies, associated with Maxwell Smart character and actress Uma Thurman.

Thanks, Becky, and be good.


View the video of the 1973 Ghia.

Sax Site improvements

Sax on the Web Forum platform software update

The SOTW Forum was successfully upgraded from vBulletin 3.6.9 to version 3.8.1.

The new version contains bug fixes, but also significant new features over the old one. There is a possibility to add Facebook-like social groups and blogging to the forum. (Perhaps moving this blog there?) I will currently study their feasibility.

There are some SOTW-specific items which do not necessarily work on the new version, yet, but they will be addressed shortly.



Old SOTW Archive revived

Some of the forum messages from 1999-2003 were lost forever because of the service provider used then. What was salvaged is now found at: www.saxontheweb.net/SOTW_Archive/index.htm

I will brush up the appearance soon and fix some crossed links.

Bob's Take Away in Pub Henrik, Helsinki

The jazz jam gig was a success. All tables were taken and there were even dancers on the floor. Here are some pictures I've received. I am sure there are more to come.

Coming jazz gigs

The next seven days will be busy.

This week-end (January 24-25) I will be attending Classic Jazz training camp in Järvenpää. This is organized by same bodies as the summer camp in Otava. There will be performances and jamming at both nights in Bar Cafe My Way at Hotel Rivoli in Järvenpää. Three players from Bob's Take Away -band, Roba, Sami and myself, will be attending the camp.

On Wednesday Jan. 28 Bob's Take Away will be a featured band in Pub Henrik's Jazz jam night in Helsinki.

I am looking forward for a lot of fun and good jamming with good friends.

Building a web site over time

An American tourist was visiting an English castle and admiring the superbly well cared for lawn.
Approaching the tour guide: "How can I get such a lawn to my mansion?"
Answers the tour guide: "First of all, you'll start four hundred years ago."

That's the answer I give to people asking an advice after Sax on the Web (SOTW) reached the first page (now #6 when using key word "saxophone") in Google search. You'll be advised to start twelve years ago. Ten years ago my good friend, guitarist and now my band-mate Robert Rasmus directed me to a book about building loyalty in WWW. The key was not providing only static web pages, one-directional information, but adding interactivity, getting visitors involved. Then Sax on the Web Forum was born to form a community for saxophonists to discuss topics of interest. The membership varies from beginners and "late bloomers" to more advanced players and even to top-notch professionals.

The SOTW Forum had several incarnations and the current platform has been in use since 2003. There are now over one million posts, 25,000 members from all over the world out of which 30% are considered active. (Some of the older posts have been archived and available separately.)

The forum gets 8000 visits per day whereas the "static" pages get more than 3000 daily visitors.

The Sax on the Web site looks like its membership which will set the tone and also provide the vast contents available for everyone on the WWW. Running the forum would not have been possible without volunteer administrators. Now I only want to single out Kim C. Pelletier who participated from the very beginning as a moderator and admin, and also designed logos and cartoons for SOTW. The above 10 year celebration logo is also from her pen.

I will be giving credit for all significant contributors later on.

The Sax on the Web site has many followers who benefit from the contents, but do not want to necessarily register as forum members. Now I added a Google friend connect application to the Front page. Now visitors can inform their friends about SOTW and possibly connect with other members.


Thanks for your support during all these years,
-Harri Rautiainen

Blues/Roots Jam at Bar Mendocino

Yesterday was Monday jam night at Bar Mendocino in Helsinki. I invited Lidia from International friends meeting with me, and she seemed to enjoy herself totally. Looks like this place is a well-kept secret, I only discovered it last fall.

The bands played sturdy blues, rock and roots type music. Even Elvis Presley showed up!!
Other singers colored the atmosphere in 60s, 70s style.

I joined few pieces with my tenor sax where I could manage with blues scale and chords. Because of guitar players some songs had 4-5 sharps for me, but who cares - in blues they are flattened, anyway. :-)

From my musician friends Anders Jansson was there playing keyboard and baritone sax, excellent solos. Hannu Rantanen came later to play bass and Pekka played his trumpet.

Good time was had by everyone, thanks for the accompaniment.

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BASICS of ROCK & ROLL for a saxophonist