What Attracted You To Jazz?

[Reid]

What got you interested in jazz? What do you like about jazz?

[Chris A]

What got you interested in jazz?

Bessie Smith


What do you like about jazz?

Bessie Smith Count Basie Louis Armstrong Lester Young Max Roach Benny Carter Lonnie Johnson King Oliver Wayne Shorter Oscar Pettiford Big Sid Catlett Buck Clayton Sidney Bechet Joe McPhee Dizzy Gillespie Pee Wee Russell John Lewis Jabbo Smith Duke Ellington Miles Davis Gil Evans Johnny Hodges Slam Stewart Jo Jones Woody Herman Eddie South Teddy Wilson Don Redman Coleman Hawkins Joe Williams Milt Hinton Jim Hall Charles Mingus Toshiko Akiyoshi Chu Berry Teddy Bunn Ray Brown Sarah Vaughan Big Bill Broonzy Gerry Mulligan Roy Eldridge Randy Weston Milt Jackson Sam Wooding Stan Getz Wes Montgomery James P. Johnson John Coltrane Meade Lux Lewis Bix Beiderbecke Wardell Gray Lucky Thompson Billie Holiday Sam Rivers Charlie Shavers Don Pullen Joe Venuti Red Norvo Jack Teagarden Fletcher Henderson Gene Ammons Mary Lou Williams Thelonious Monk Bubber Miley Paul Motian Clifford Brown Artie Shaw Jelly Roll Morton Bud Powell Chick Webb Lennie Tristano Lionel Hampton Earl Hines Clark Terry Philly Joe Jones Charlie Christian Ornette Coleman J.J. Johnson Albert Ammons Bud Freeman Rex Stewart Bill Evans Charlie Parker George Wallington Art Tatum Ben Webster Johnny Dodds Jimmy Rushing Benny Goodman Erroll Garner Edmond Hall Dave Douglas George Russell Eddie Lang Anthony Braxton Cootie Williams...

...and another ballroom full.

[Lady Di]

my grade 7 teacher...put me on tenor, really fun!

[achilles]

at some point as an undergrad I realized that U2 sucked,
that Michael Stipe was a pretentious twit, and that Keith Richards had been dead for eleven years though no one would talk about it--though Keith, in fact, kept trying to talk about it.

I had to go somewhere else--first to indie rock, which I still love, and finally to Jazz because the musicians seemed cool and once I listened to the music more closely, I began to think, why would anyone want to play anything but jazz?

[Uli]

About what Chris A. sed with a similar cast of musicians.

[stonemonkts]

Hearing Kind of Blue from beginning to end while stuck on Interstate 95 in gridlock. I was completely blown away by the music...THANKFUL for the gridlock after the first 10 minutes.

After Miles came Monk. Felt like finding a long lost friend.

Also what Chris A. said.

It was a real epiphany discovering this music.

Same sort of experience over and over is what keeps me interested..the transcendent "in the moment" feeling listening to gifted musicians improvise and interact...blah blah blah I could go on and on but you get the drift.

[Reid]

If there was a specific album that got me interested in jazz, it was Branford Marsalis's *Renaissance*, particularly his version of "Lament" and "Peacocks." My college roommate had a bunch of cd's he'd leave out for us roomates to listen to, and I decided to put something instrumental on while I studied. Anyway, I kept playing the disc over and over again. And I started to investigate the musicians he listed as influences in the liner notes.

But besides liking that album, there were other things that attracted me to jazz:

1. The notion that jazz is a sophisticated music. I have to admit that my perception of jazz--something that was both intellectually sophisticated, and hip--attracted me to the music. I wanted to be associated with that.

2. The notion that jazz musicians make up music on the spot. Later on I discovered, a lot of jazz is not made up on the spot. Musicians create solos within structures and rules. But the idea of improvisation appealed to me.

3. The notion that the sounds (versus lyrics) could represent emotions. Sounds representing emotions and ideas (I had a hard time understanding when jazz musicians would say, "The ideas of this particular musician was superior to others." How could ideas come in the form of sounds?) was something mysterious and cool to me. The fact that jazz was an emotional music was also very appealing.

Later on I read a book by Mark Gridley (which I recommend to anyone getting into jazz) called, *Jazz Styles*, and I learned a lot about how the rhythm section functioned, how jazz developed from one style to another, and other tips on what was going on during a jazz performance.

I learned that the rhythm section functions as a kind of independent unit. They basically created a kind of rhythmic-harmonic back-drop for another musician to solo over. I liked how the rhythm section, particularly the drummer, would "kick and prod" the soloist. The interaction and the how each instrument had it's own niche and role was really cool to me.

Of course, some of these characteristics can be found in other music. But these elements, along with others, is what attracted me to jazz.

[Tanager]

As I said in a similar thread on the old board, I grew up hearing big bands and boogie woogie, courtesy of Dad (thanks, Dad).

but what finally motivated me to investigate jazz on my own was hearing Jeff Beck's cover of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" off of Wired. That led to Mingus Ah Um, which led to...well, you know how it goes.

[jenny]

Well, I tap danced for years and years as a kid -- so, jazz (well, a probably more Broadway-way type of jazz) was always the soundtrack to recitals and practices.

Anyway, I've always been drawn to rhythm sections as a result of tap dancing, and that's probably why I got into jazz -- to listen for that conversation the drummer is having with the rest of the band.

Now, if only I had been introduced to Sidney Bechet as a kid -- then, I probably would have not regarded my clarinet lessons as dorky.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

I grew up listening to R&B on Philly AM stations in the '60s. We didn't have a functioning record player in the house until I was in junior highy school. Jazz (seemed) to be a horn based music so that was one appeal. In high school I hung out with a couple of musician classmates who were into fusion so they turned me on to Return to Forever, Mahavishnu, etc.

The major appeal is that it was something different. It appealed to my intellectual side. Trying to figure out what was going one, you know solving a puzzle.

There was some ego involved too. People who fopund out I was into jazz thought I was way cooler than I actually was, they thought I was smarter than I was. A real prod to the old self-esteem when you're in your late teens early twenties.

Finally, it just sounded good, it began to make sense. And it made other music, specifically pop boring. There was a lot of surprise in the music. It sounds like a cliche, but with repeate listening it seemed like I'd always discovered something new in what I was hearing.

[mjb]

Summer of 67. I was living in Earl's Court, London. A mate arrived with an advance copy of Sgt Pepper. We got ourselves up to the flat roof with our "hi-fi" gear and cranked the volume up for all to share.

It was a bit like the rooftop scene in "Let it Be" without the "Let it Be" songs and the Beatles. We invited people up to enjoy the revelations of the wondrous LP. I didn't think I could be any happier musically.

I was wrong.

Some, now long forgotten, geezer (he was probably about 30) snuck Kind of Blue on to the record player. I rose to his defence when others complained. I was now consumed with a new passion and I love it just as much today.

[Monte Smith]

Growing up with my dad's stack of vinyl:

Sinatra at the Sands
Come Fly with Me
Ahmad Jamal at the Blackhawk
Dave Brubeck 4tet, Red, Hot, and Jazz
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Gershwin Songbook
Bob Brookmeyer, The Blues Hot and Cold
Nat King Cole Sings, George Shearing Plays
Antonio Carlos Jobim, The Composer Plays
Oscar Peterson, A Jazz Portrait of Frank Sinatra

Probably as a precocious teenage ass, I grooved on the idea that jazz was esoteric. That definitely spurred me on to buying a hell of a lot of Coltrane records my freshman year of college. If it was orange and had an exclamation point on it, I bought it. I spent many nights riding around Williamsburg on my bike with ALS on the headphones.

Then when I got out on my own, jazz always seemed like the natural soundtrack to the urban environments I found myself in in Washington DC and NYC.

Chiefly what interests me now is American song. A lot of that is jazz, of course, but I view jazz as the sibling of country music, blues, broadway, and even American classical. I want the American idiom, that's what I like in sound.

[moneyp]

I heard it makes you better in the sack.

(Actually, college roommates and the fact that I was managing a record store at the time).

[Dennis Gonzalez]

U2 sucks?

[achilles]

U2 sucks big time---
pretentious rock anthems
warbled by a self-righteous publicity crazed
moron who has actually been lobbying for the Nobel Peace Prize! I say, if he quits making music, than maybe he should get the prize.

[kc bob]

Lester Young

[Ron Thorne]

Wow, that was quite the edit, kcbob! :-)

I've cited my beginnings a few times, so don't feel that anyone's interested in reading it ... again.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Pheremones

[Al in NYC]

It was music that adults listened to.

[Reid]

"Wow, that was quite the edit, kcbob! :-)"

LOL!

Ron,

There are some new people who may not know your story. Or some of the old timers that may have forgot. Not me, of course. :) Your call man. 49 and 50 baby!

[moneyp]

Ah c'mon, Bob, tell us more about the two you-know-who's and the you-know-what!

[Douglas]

I thought I liked jazz. Then I met John L. That bastard's good taste infected me with something bordering on obsession.

[kc bob]

Originally posted by mone peterson
Ah c'mon, Bob, tell us more about the two you-know-who's and the you-know-what!

For very specific details, you can read the 'A Self-Inflicted Expose' thread in the Alley on the old board. The original post above sounded glorifying and it trivialized meaningful lesbian relationships at the expense of potentially unintended humor, hence the edit. The above story puts things in better perspective and context.

[Tom K]

At age 17 I felt I needed to assert myself over my elder brother, who was by then an admired classical pianist - so it took a few jazz recordings (MJQ, Brubeck, Monk), and I was lost forever.

[Frisco]

Part of it for me was free-form radio of the late 60's, early 70's. It was WABX-FM here in Detroit. Basically a rock station, they would hit on some great jazz like Pharoah Sanders, Coltrane, and Miles.

The other thing was the Frank Zappa album "Freak Out" where he listed Cecil Taylor, Eric Dolphy, and Mingus (among others) as contributing to his music, stating "please don';t hold it against them".

Then there was the fact that all the Impulse, ESP, Blue Note, BYG records were being cut put on the early 70's. I could go in to the local record shop with $20 and walk away with six or seven of these great records.

[FredC]

Basically, it was having fully functioning aural facilities, that and parents whose old recordings ranged from Enrico Caruso to Fletcher Henderson.
Staying interested took the Benny Goodman Sextet.

[gnhrtg]

I was praticing guitar quite intensely and was totally immersed in the technical/mechanical aspects and paid no attention to phrasing (about 6 years ago)

A close friend of mine, and a fellow guitar player, played Kenny Garrett's "Songbook" (more precisely, the first track) and also some Gonzalo Rubalcaba. I was very impressed with the way these guys produced so many different combinations of the 12 notes (harmonically, melodically, and rhythmically). I then saw a sale, in HMV, and picked up the Kind of Blue, Headhunters, and Jazz Samba. I liked the stuff and somewhere in time I picked up Cecil Taylor's Air Above Mountains and that kindled my interest in the avant-garde vein.

I enjoy what I find to be good music from all genres related to jazz (bop, funk, neo-klezmer, avant-garde, swing, cool, modern) and try to keep up with all branches.

I like the fact that much of it is at the moment, improvisation, and equally as interesting, it consists of players responding to each other. Moreover, it allows for more freedom of expression - defined in any way you like - than most other kinds of music.

[Al in NYC]

Re Frisco's post above -- he's quite right. I think that for curious kids who grew up in Detroit the free-form WABX, along with WDET (the old one, with Faruq Z. Bey, Kofi Natambu, etc.), were highly influential on their musical tastes. They certainly influenced the "free" side of my jazz listening. They took me far enough out of the Dizzy/Wes/MJQ bag my father and mother and their friends were in to allow me to appreciate the music as something radically creative and fun, something other than "Dad & Mom" music. Although, as I stated above, the fact that adults listened to this music, and not the "kid stuff" all my friends listened to (Motown, Soul, Rock n' Roll, music I think I appreciate much more now than I did then), made it all seem quite alluring to me too. But it is really too bad that truly eclectic radio stations like those don't really exist anymore outside of limited broadcasting range college radio. Where do kids hear the music now?

[GoodSpeak]

I was a sophomore in HS, age 15. I was first chair, first trumpet in the band, but my band director wanted me to go in a different direction with my playing.

He called us trumpeters over to his office and had us sit down and listen to A DAY IN THE LIFE by Wes Mongomery. It was the first Jazz recording I ever sat down and really listened to and I was hooked. It had a profound affect on how I phrased each note and it made me round out my tone quality on my horn. It in fact made me a better musician since now I was concentrating on the sound of the music not just the notes. Before then I was into Blues, Boogie and Rock, but that experience opened a whole new world for me and I've never looked back.

[circa; 1969]

I am forever in your debt Mr. Edward Pratt, RIP.

[Ron Thorne]

Originally posted by kc bob
For very specific details, you can read the 'A Self-Inflicted Expose' thread in the Alley on the old board. The original post above sounded glorifying and it trivialized meaningful lesbian relationships at the expense of potentially unintended humor, hence the edit. The above story puts things in better perspective and context.

Well, we can't read your comments on the "old board", at least not yet. In time, hopefully.

For the record, I certainly wasn't attempting to trivialize anything with my typically smartass retort, either, Bob. Sorry for any bruises.