I recorded the Eastside Modern Jazz Orchestra last weekend as a favor to my many friends in the band. I had just purchased the Sony HD Blogger video camera because my high-end but older video camera could only record 28 minutes at a time. This camera camera came in at under $200 and can hold over 8 hours on the SD 16 Gb chip. Sweet!

I used the free Windows Movie Maker to edit and create captions for this video. I played around with the transitions and found them easy to use and insert. I haven’t figured out how to turn off the sound of the video and use the audio from my Zoom recorder. It’s a lot better at getting you closer to the sound that you would hear if you were there.

EMJO is directed by Neil Proff, who is also the Lake Stephens High School band director. He shares soloing spotlights with Gene Oakes, a fine jazz guitarist who plays regularly with the Mach One Jazz Orchestra.

The sound quality is not where I’d like it to be and the autofocus didn’t work the way I wanted it to. So I will have to play with the settings. Trust me, this band really rocks and sounded outstanding. :O)