I had never heard of Smalls Jazz Club until I read this item on JazzCorner.com. Now it’s my favorite jazz place in New York City. I’ve been to a few concerts and had a great time.

No, I don’t live in New York City. I don’t have to; Smalls Jazz Club has a live video stream on its Web site every night. Yup, every night you can go to http://www.smallsjazzclub.com/ and listen in on great sounding live jazz from three or four artists from 7:30pm to 3:30am EST. The picture is quite good; as you’ll see in the screenshot there’s also some live picture-taking going on.

This isn’t why I’m writing up Smalls in ResearchBuzz, though. I’m writing it up because not only does it have live Jazz, it keeps an audio archive of past performances on its Web site. Hundreds and hundreds are available here. The interface is interesting; pick an instrument, and you’ll get a list of the artists performing on that instrument. Pick an artist and you’ll get a biography and a list of performance dates. Choose a date and in a few seconds you’re listening to the performance. (There are even ten performances here featuring the accordion, an instrument I have not hitherto associated with Jazz.)

Did I mention all this is free? The site accepts donations, but all of it is free.

I like music, I enjoy jazz, I’m stunned that Smalls keeps a live video feed available and and such a huge selection of archives available at no cost. Rock on, Smalls. Wait, I guess it would be jazz on, wouldn’t it…