OVERVIEW OF JAMBALAYAH

"jam" = a song

"to jam" = to perform music; to listen to music, to have a good time in a social setting

"jambalaya"= a Creole dish from New Orleans, Lousiana that is made from a combination of ingredients

"Jambalayah.com" = a website that presents an eclectic mix of YouTube music & dance video gems, mostly from African American culture and other Black cultures throughout the world

Jambalayah.com Helps Identify Quality YouTube Music/Dance Videos
http://www.youtube.com/ is an amazing video archive that includes a great many creative performances from musicians, vocalists, and dancers from all around the world. However, because there are such a huge number of videos uploaded to YouTube, it's often quite difficult to find high quality, creative, classic, and culturally significant videos on that site. The difficulty of identifying music/dance video gems on YouTube is further increased by factoring in a criteria that those videos be appropriate for viewing by children in schools and other public settings.

Jambalayah.com is a website which helps the general public identify a portion of YouTube music/dance videos that are high quality, creative, classic, and/or culturally significant. I call these examples "video gems". The majority of the video gems showcased on Jambalayah.com are from African American cultures and from other Black cultures throughout the world.

By no means do I believe that the videos featured on Jambalayah are the only music/dance gems on YouTube. And I'm fully aware that some people may not agree with my assessment that certain videos showcased on Jambalayah are "gems".I'm also fully aware that any other online collection of YouTube music/dance video gems-including any collections by other African Americans-would likely be somewhat different or even very different than this collection. And I'm interested in finding out about other online video sites such as jambalayah.coms.

How Jambalayah Featured Videos Are Selected
Both Cocojams.com and Jambalayah.com are volunteer efforts on my part with periodic volunteer technical assistance from two friends.

Most of the videos featured on Jambalayah.com meet my aesthetic tastes. For example, I greatly prefer vocal music to instrumental music. And I usually prefer older examples within a music/dance genre than more contemporary examples.

Every video featured on Jambalayah.com (and its sister website http://www.cocojams.com) is appropriate (according to my judgement) for viewing by children & teens, as determined by mainstream American standards.

Your suggestions about possible videos to showcase on Jambalayah.com and your input about this website are very much welcomed. Please contact me at jambalayah17@yahoo.com .

Please note that links to YouTube videos or to other online resources may not remain viable.

Please be aware that links to featured videos lead to that video's viewer comment thread. All of the comments posted on YouTube viewer comments threads may not be suitable for children or otherwise may not meet the standards of Cocojams.com.

Information About The Order Of Jambalayah Featured Videos
I select YouTube videos for embedding on Jambalayah by searching YouTube.com for the titles of songs or dances that I like by seaching YouTube,com for the names of performing artists/groups that I like; searching YouTube by music genre, listing of music by nation, and by artists names. Featured jambalayah videos are also identified by the viewing YouTube videos that others recommend; and by viewing YouTube videos that are mentioned or are embedded on other websites.

I''m most concerned about the production quality of the videos selected for showcasing on Jambalayah.com for videos from the 1990s and the 2000s. When I have a choice, I usually prefer videos from older decades and from contemporary decades that are well produced and well preserved. However, if (as others or as I have determined) the vocal/instrumental performance or the dance performance is of historical
nature, then that video (including sound clip with only one photo) may be selected for inclusion in the Jambalayah collection of video gems regardless of the visual quality of its video.

Videos showcased on Jambalayah are listed in no particular order of preference or chronological ranking. Videos are posted on Jambalayah when I though of a particular song or dance performance, then searched for it and found a video of it on YouTube, or when I happened to come across a video of a particular song or dance performance I liked while "cruising" through YouTube. If a video is not included in this archive, that does not mean that it is not an exemplary, and/or culturally significant video gem.

Finding A Particular Video On Jambalayah
Jambalayah's Search Engine, the Jambalayah Video Categories, and/or the Jambalayah Video Listings can be used to find out if a video you are seeking is included in Jambalayah's archive. All of these features are located on the right hand side of the home page. To use this Search engine, enter the artists/group's name and/or the title of the song or dance performance. A numerical list of Jambalayah videos and a "most recently posted" list of Jambalayah videos can also be read to determine if the video you are seeking is included in this online collection. Please be aware that videos embedded on Jambalayah may have subsequently been removed from YouTube.

Information About Jambalayah's Edited Viewer Comment Threads
One of Jambalayah.com's goals is to raise awareness of and increase information about selected music/dance videos among children & youth. Jambalayah also seeks to increase access in public settings such as schools, church organizations, and community centers to selected videos that are found on YouTube.

One of the reasons why access to youtube.com may be blocked in public settings is that many YouTube videos viewer comment threads contain contentious, profanity filled, racist, and/or homophobic posts. For that reason, most Jamalayah.com showcased videos include a family friendly, edited version of the video's YouTube viewer comment threads which are free of those questionable types of comments.

Jambalayah edited versions of YouTube viewer comment threads do not include every comment in specific threads that is free of profanity, pejorative statements, racist, homophobic content. Most comments that do contain such content are not included in jambalayah edited viewer comment threads. However, as a result of my judgment as editor of the overall value of a particular comment, in a small number of examples of comments which include profanity, the phrase [Expletive deleted] is inserted in place of the profane word.

Comments posted on Jambalayah edited viewer comment threads are the views of those posters and not necessarily the same as the views of anyone associated with Jambalayah.com. For acknowledgement and citation of source material, a link is always provided to the original YouTube comment thread. Caution should be used in reading the original YouTube viewer comment threads.

Ways To Comment Online About Jambalayah Featured Videos
In its present format, Jambalayah.com visitors cannot post comments on this website about videos showcased on this website. We encourage Jambalayah.com visitors who want to post comments about any Jambalayah featured video to do so on its YouTube viewer comment page/s. In addition, facebook members can post comments about Jambalayah.com showcased videos on my cocojams jambalayah facebook page http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000590546331, as that page mostly features examples of videos that are showcased on Jambalayah.

Disclaimer
All videos embedded on Jambalayah.com are from http://www.youtube.com/ . Videos are posted on this site for educational, entertainment, aesthetic, historical, and folkloric purposes. All videos embedded on Jambalayah.com are from http://www.youtube.com/ . All music related performances remain the sole property of their respective copyright holders. No video clips are for sale, nor do they imply challenge to ownerships. They are intended strictly for entertainment, educational, and historical purposes, and fall under the "Fair Use" guideline.

All rights to these videos remain with their respectful owners.

I sincerely thank all the video uploaders whose videos I have reposted on Jambalayah. I also sincerely thank YouTube.com for helping to make these videos available to the general public.

If an uploader of a video sends a request to jambalayah17@yahoo.com for me to remove his or her video from this website I will do so.

Please note that links to YouTube videos or to other online resources may not remain viable. Please also be aware that comments posted on YouTube viewer comments threads may not be suitable for children or otherwise may not meet the standards of Jambalayah.com.

Acknowledgements
Jambalayah.com was launched on December 20, 2009 as a volunteer effort. My heartfelt thanks to Greg Simkins and Lucas Musewe for providing volunteer technical support to Jambalayah.com and to my other website, Cocojams.com. Without their ongoing support, these websites would not exist.

My thanks also to http://www.youtube.com/ for creating such a rich video archive and for making the video embedding process so easy to do. My thanks also to those who have taken the time to upload videos on YouTube.

Keep On Jammin!

Contact me at cocojams17@yahoo.com if you have any questions or comments about this site. Or if you are on facebook, you can contact me there. My facebook name is cocojams jambalayah..

Please remember to visit jambalayah's sister website http://www.cocojams.com/

Also, click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/ to visit my blog.

Pancocojams is a blog that focuses on the music, dances, and customs of African Americans and other people of Black descent throughout the world.

The name "pancocojams" reflects this site's wide range of topics. The name "pancocojams" also reflects this blog's connection to my http://www.cocojams.com website.
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Please visit and comment on this blog!

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Cocojams Jambalayah