Your Jazz Journey

[papsrus]

Late 70s -- Ella, Basie, Oscar, lots of Oscar. Big bands and bluesy outfits, a smattering of Tom Waits, me living in various rural settings and occasionally getting into "the zone" on the spoons while reprising Santana's Woodstock performance.

80s-90s and first half of 00s -- Nothing, and me living in various urban settings. Using cutlery now.

2005 -- "One Down, One Up, Live at the Half Note," John Coltrane, is released. Mind gets blown. Bank account soon follows.

2007 (or thereabouts) -- Stumble through the doors at organissimo and plant myself at the bar for a look-see. Beats the last joint I was kicked out of.

Today -- :eye:

[AndrewHill]

I loved concert band when I was growing up and got into Guaraldi, G. Washington and Spyro Gyra. Then for whatever reason, my mom bought a Quiet Riot, Kiss Paul Stanley solo album and an Iron Maiden single ( the Tull cover, Cross Eyed Mary) and it was all heavy metal throughout my teens (Black Sabbath was one of my favs). But when I turned twenty, I got a job in a bookstore and they played a lot of jazz, and one of the first disks I heard was Guaraldi's Impressions of a Black Orpheus and then Coltrane's Sound and then I was hooked. Since then, its been about 90% jazz w/ classical and rock mixed in (huge 311 fan) and some other stuff. But man, I love jazz and I'm pretty sure its not a fad -_-

Edited August 29, 2008 by Holy Ghost

[stuartjewkes]

I went from listening to mostly leftfield rock music (Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Super Furry Animals, Holy Bible era Manics, Talking Heads) as well as a lot of 60s pop (Beatles etc) in uni to further extremes. I had listened to a lot of metal as a kid, real metal, heavy stuff. After a while I started to get bored with the usual bands that play the same set night after night and reform 20 years later to play the same set again.

I started to branch out into more extreme music and sounds. Then I discovered the best band in the world, The Fall. Rough, uncompromising, shifting and intelligent. Relevant. I picked up Napalm Death's Scum and a few Discharge albums.

From this point, a lot of what I'd heard before had started to sound trite and a little dull. I became interested in sound and texture performances which led to noise records and psych wig outs.

Simultaniously I'd been picking up on some folk music and some blues, Leadbelly being a firm favourite.

Combine the noise and Leadbelly with the maverik spirit of Mark E Smith, and you inevitably get into jazz areas.

I borrowed Kind Of Blue and thought it was ok, if a little bland in places.

Someone recommended I pick up A Love Supreme, In A Silent Way and The Black Saint And Lady Sinner. From there, I got a taste for free due to its parallels to noise and jam music and my collecting started to increase.

So to sum up:

Presidents of the USA - Presidents of the USA

Nirvana - Insesticide

Entombed - To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak The Truth

NOFX - So Long and Thanks For All The Shoes

Pulp - Different Class

Ben Folds Five - st

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Barafundle

Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible

Super Furry Animals - Guerilla

Libertines - Up The Bracket

The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour, Perverted By Language, The Peel Session Box

Napalm Death - Scum

Discharge - Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing and Why?

Leadbelly - Midnight Special

Robert Johnson - Complete

Coltrane - A Love Supreme

Mingus - Black Saint

Sun Ra - Lanquidity and many others

Anthony Braxton

and on and on and on

I now listen to a bit of everything all the time. The variety keeps it fresh.

Edit:

I missed out my current explorations of classical music. Started with some performances at the local college of music and then went on to a complete collection of Beethoven. Then I started grabbing classical vinyl as I saw it cheap in the wilds. Chopin, Bach, Berlioz, etc. Then I heard Messiaen and Carter on the proms and I've sinse picked up a selection of their items. This lead to Stravinsky in a round-a-bout way. I'm working on that now.

Doom Metal has become a fascination as well. Few can bliss you out or zone you in like Sunn0))), or if your tastes are a little more desolate and saddistic, a bit of Khanate lets you roll in all the shit you want.

Edited September 3, 2008 by stuartjewkes