Early Music That Lead You to Jazz

[John P. Cooper]

I had 2 or 3 'events' that brought me into the Jazz realm.

My Mom belonged to the Columbia Record Club and she was always buying the "Sing Aloing with Mitch" (Miller) LPs that were super popular back then. They had zero Jazz on them, but they had straight on versions of my classic pop tunes of the 1920s - 1940s. Good foundation.

I found a really early (circa 1950) Andre Kostelanetz LP in the attic. It had semi-symphonic version of classic tunes by Ellington, Arlen, Gershwin and others. Very good listening.

I owned a few of the 1920s music recreation LPs by Enoch Light and the Charleston City All Stars that were done in the 1950s and 1960s. Scads of noted jazzmen gone 'studio' and playing hot and pop tunes of the 1920s. Not especially 'authentic', but good and with Jazz in them.

Shortly after, my older cousin gave me a Benny Goodman air check LP and my Grandmother gave me a Count Basie LP of Verve material.....

.....and I was hooked.

[RedJazz]

My earliest memories include listening to jazz novelty tunes on the radio such as Your Fathers M

[Gary Sisco]

Jazz lead me to jazz. Growing up just outside New York, jazz was common on the radio in those days. There was also a jukebox at a pizza joint my family went to every Sunday that had jazz on it along with the rock and roll and pop music of the day. But it was live jazz that hooked me for good, in my early teens, and it's been my primary musical interest since age 15. 37 years, now.

Anyway, nothing had to lead me to jazz. Jazz itself took care of that.

And I still prefer live jazz to recordings.

[Pete C]

Sentimental parlor ballads of the 19th century.

[steve(thelil)]

The first national anthem led me to jazz. It was back way before the pre-nation days where peoloe lived in caves and some caves had their own anthems. The one that swung for me was:

"You can all go to hell, except Cave 7"

[Elliot]

Thelil,
That's from Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks, no?
20013?

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by steve(thedouche)

where peoloe lived in caves

Is that some kind of ethnic slur?

[Monte Smith]

Early Music, huh? Oh, I like anything from the 5th to the 16th century.

[Bill Barton]

Chet Atkins

[RedJazz]

Shep Fields, Kay Kyser, Spike Jones, Pee Wee Hunt, Glen Gray, Jackie Gleason. Progress Hornsby, Cool Cees

[Noj]

I'm just about done with my 30th trip around the Sun, so I had a different path to jazz than many here...

Jimi Hendrix "Third Stone From The Sun" "South Saturn Delta" "Pali Gap"
Led Zeppelin "Black Mountainside" "Bron-Yr-Aur"
Jefferson Airplane "Embryonic Journey"
These are songs that made me realize how much I like instrumental music. I started listening to a lot of what is known to me as "Classic Rock" in the late 80s and early 90s, when I was in grade school.

Red Hot Chili Peppers "Pretty Little Ditty" Mother's Milk
Flea overdubs some nice trumpet on this 2 minute gem, which brought forth the realization that I really like the sound of trumpets.

Digable Planets, along with many other rap acts that sampled jazz. I've bought tons of jazz tracks that were sampled.

Horace Silver "Song For My Father" sealed the deal with me and jazz. Blew my mind. I actually had the tune stuck in my head for a number of months before I was able to find out who it was.

Shortly thereafter I heard Oliver Nelson "Stolen Moments," and I started collecting. Since I liked trumpets, I started with Miles, Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, etc. Then I discovered this insane place full of jazz freak inhabitants affectionately referred to as the BNBB, and the rest is history.

[cookie]

Steely Dan

That Grover Washington Jr. and Bill Withers hit "Just the Two of Us."

[makpjazz57]

My Dad was a huge jazz fan and every weekend I'd hear tons of stuff, including Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert and many of the Jazz at the Philharmonic recordings. Then, he took me to my first jazz concert (Buddy Rich Big Band) in 1971 and I'm guessing that's when I became hooked.

Marla

[sonic1]

I have many times told my story about Anthony Braxton being my introduction/entry into jazz. But I must have developed a taste somewhere for those notes/rhythms. I was very much into punk rock growing up-and much of the post-punk music could have very unusual chords and time signitures. It might have been where I developed an ear for more challenging music.

[Steve Reynolds]

Through the Captain, of course

Once I heard him mention a guy named Cecil and a guy named Ornette, I guess it was a done deal that I checked out this music they called jazz

Started with Kind of Blue, Mingus at Antibes and Monk’s Music


A few years later (despite what recordings were in the record stores) I discovered that GIANTS still walked this earth and they weren’t the guys on the covers of the records (in my case CD’s) in the stores







Standing on a Whale Fishing for Minnows, indeed

[HenryMc]

I see MOnte already has mentioned early music. I vote for Hildegarde von Bingen

[Lenny D.Guitarist]

Wes Montgomery, Chet Atkins, Miles, Trane, all heaven-sent. As pure as it will ever get.

[Frisco]

Many things led me there but a few were key:

Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention were pivotal for me.
When I was ten years old my brother was fourteen and involved in the subculture of the mid to late sixties. He brought home the album "Freak Out" which had (on the inside cover) a list of all the people who influenced him including Cecil Taylor and Charles MIngus, of whom I knew nothing about.

Then when I turned eleven (1968) the free-form radio station WABX was in full swing. Predominantly a contemporary rock station they very often delved into jazz, western classical, Indian classical, blues, and anything that fit the moment.

Artsist like John Mayall, Santana, Jesse Colin Young, Soft Machine, the fusion artists. WABX was hitting on those and also Coltrane, Miles, Oliver Nelson, Pharoah. And when I finally heard Cecil Taylor on Public Radio around 1973 it all made perfect sense.

[dex68]

Jeff Beck - Wired (Loved it as a teen, now it sounds... dated!)
'80s Miles Davis records
Kind of Blue
Giant Steps

Remember when people used to make compilation-tapes for each other? I got one from my brother-in-law with a bunch of dub-reggae, The Clash and all kinds of cool stuff, and mixed in was a Coltrane track, Mr. Day, which I found very beautiful and hypnotic. This was when I was maybe 14, early '80s. I then went though lots of other stuff before I came to jazz more seriously.

[Gary Sisco]

Who stopped making compilations?

[Gary Sisco]

A couple of days ago I remembered back to 4th grade, many long moons ago, which was when they introduced kids to "band" in my school. Showed us the various instruments and what have you. Anyway, I remember asking my father if you could play jazz on a clarinet. He said, Sure, many have. So it became,briefly, my first instrument, before moving to drums, but it also shows how early the music had entered my poor, tortured brain.

[Root Doctor]

My parents' Count Basie records.

[John L]

Originally Posted by Pete C

Sentimental parlor ballads of the 19th century.

I came to jazz mostly from soul/R&B. So it was Earth, Wind, and Fire to Donald Byrd and the Blackbirds to the Crusaders to Grover Washington Jr. to Stanley Turrentine (on CTI). That string eventually got me to Coltrane and I was hooked. My love of the blues then took me quickly into Bird, Pres, and Pops.

[bostontricky]

Originally Posted by Frisco

Then when I turned eleven (1968) the free-form radio station WABX was in full swing. Predominantly a contemporary rock station they very often delved into jazz, western classical, Indian classical, blues, and anything that fit the moment.

I came to jazz mostly from soul/R&B

Numerous albums kicking around my parent's house, most notably Count Basie from abt 1946, also Herb Alpert, Pete Fountain and Ramsey Lewis' Wade in the Water. Which kind of led me into the soul/R&B side of the spectrum. I was a little too late for the glory days at ABX but got an AM transistor radio for my eighth birthday and spent most of the following summer waiting to hear this on the Big 8:



Then, heard it again as the theme to "Soul Train", which immediately followed the funky stuff which Bill Cosby filled the background with on "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids".

And in the late 70s, played it in junior high school band. Oh mama.

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by HenryMc

I vote for Hildegarde von Bingen

She was hot.

[dex68]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

Who stopped making compilations?

Do folks still do that? I'm so glad. It always seemed like a nice way to express something about yourself to a friend. I talked my 11 year old daughter into making one (a cd of course. It is 2005) for a friend's b-day - saved some money and hoped to inspire at the same time. Apparently the friend was not impressed. Just too weird, and it wasn't all music she had heard of. My daughter likes Beatles and other oldies as well as the usual pop (It's amazing how ignorant kids are of older pop music). Anyway, I started to think maybe it was passé. But then look where I'm living!

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by HenryMc

I see MOnte already has mentioned early music.

Yup, I'm often first out the gate in regards to the sounds of a millennium ago. Kind of avant garde in that respect....

[Frisco]

Originally Posted by bostontricky

.

My man. The late Dave Dixon. WABX Air Ace. Later kicked out of WDET for being too eccentric, or some lame excuse.

[Gary Sisco]

Jeez, Dex. There aren't many kids 11 years old today that know the pop music of The Beatles' time. Some might know the Beatles through their folks, sure, but not even then, necessarily, depending on their parents' ages. I'm 52 and I encountered the Beatles at roughly your kid's age, but I didn't know much about the pop music from the 20s when I did (the equivalent in time when I was 11). I did learn about it later in my late teens and 20s but I was also an oddball for it among friends of a like age. When I was 11-- hell, even in my teens -- "oldies" referred to 50s r'n'r and doo wop (I was aware of those from the radio,jukeboxes and older kids' records, and dug them; still do). Anyway, I'm not surprised that your kid's friends aren't aware of the pop music of their parents' or grandparents' days. (Nuff people who encountered the Beatles when they hit are grandparents now.)

But, yeah, all kinds of people still make compilations. Everyone I've ever known who did, still does. I was an inveterate tapemaker back to reel-to-reel days and nothing has changed with the technology. In fact, I still make tapes sometimes for listening to at the barn, where I work, as there's only a boombox there to listen on. My truck is also cassette-only. One good thing about tapes being that they can be used again when the compilation's outlived itself. Root Doctor's another compiler, I know, among the regulars here on JC. Chris DuPre, also. There are likely many others, I'd guess.

[stonemonkts]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

But, yeah, all kinds of people still make compilations. Everyone I've ever known who did, still does. I was an inveterate tapemaker and nothing changed with the technology. In fact, I still make tapes sometimes for listening to at the barn, where I work, as there's only a boombox there to listen on. My truck is also cassette-only. Root Doctor's another compiler, I know, among the regulars here on JC. Chris DuPre, also. There are likely many others, I'd guess.

I've been making tape compilations for my entire adult life. My truck also is cassette only. I used to 'collect' these tapes, but now I merely tape over older ones which I'm not interested in anymore. I'll never buy another blank cassette again, I hope.