Telling Tales Out of School
Hi there! My name is Michael Melinger, and I started the Austin Jazz Workshop project in 1994. I have been a working musician for over thirty years, and quite frankly–the AJW project started out as a way to get a few extra gigs during the seldom-used daytime hours. (Seldom-used by musicians, at least. If you ever wondered who all those people were filling up the coffeehouses on South Congress Avenue at 2:00 in the afternoon, there’s your answer.) If you had told me in 1994 that I would still be doing this 23 years later, and visiting over 120 schools each year, I would have called you loony. No offense. But as it turns out, you were right. I’m still doing it. I should have listened to you. When the AJW website was revamped in June 2011, I decided to add a blog to it. But after my horrified friends read some of my posts, they strongly suggested I peel them off to a separate site, so as to not contaminate whatever young minds should happen across the AJW page. Personally, I think they overreacted. Only five people have visited the site in twelve months. But they insisted, and as a result, this new, improved, more off-the-beaten-path site was born. Thanks for stopping by, Number Six!
Glad to be here. I thought the old one was pretty good so I’ll have to keep an eye on this one. Tell you what — you visit me and I’ll visit you and — we’ll both remain obscure. But not your work. There are already thousands of kids who’ll never forget it.
Yrs,
Six
You are not a number. You are a free man!
💕