What was the first jazz you heard that really fascinated you?

[mjazzg]

2 hours ago, kh1958 said:

They are not suspect recordings (though they are CDRs, so downloading might be preferred), they are authorized releases openly sold at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival; in fact, there usually is a sign at the performance announcing when they are recording. They do not record all the performances; I would expect it depends on whether the artist wants the recording made or not.

I posted this one because it's a performance by Christian Scott that I attended there this year, and I've listened to this recording quite a bit--it is rather good.

Another interested party here. I can't seem to find a personnel listing, who's in the band?

[kh1958]

There's no  listing but the band is verbally introduced on the CD (most were introduced as band members for varying periods)--all unfamiliar names to me--but I'll listen later and get back to you.

[kh1958]

Christian Scott's band was: Lawrence Fields on piano/keyboards, Chris Farnin on acoustic bass, Steven Gladney on tenor sax, Dominic Minicks on guitar, Joe Dyson on drums, Corey Fandel on drums, Braxton Cook on tenor sax.

Edited November 9, 2016 by kh1958

[Jazzmoose]

On 11/6/2016 at 6:51 AM, Scott Dolan said:

You know what's really odd, Moosely? As huge a Coltrane fan as I am (my son's middle name nonetheless), I still just don't "get" this one. 

Like Bitches Brew, I still return to it every now and then hoping for that breakthrough moment, but it simply never comes. 

Is there anything in particular that made it finally pop for you that you can put into words? It might help me...

I was thinking about that after posting.  Looking back, to what really attracted me to the music, I probably should have gone nuts buying McCoy Tyner CDs, not John Coltrane.  You have to remember, I was coming to this from rock, not other jazz.  The main attraction was just that there didn't seem to be any wasted notes.  I can't really say it was minimalist, but there was a certain almost crystalline feel to the music that attracted me.  As for why it clicked with me and not for you, it's probably that.  I couldn't compare it to other Coltrane LPs, or even other jazz LPs so it became my 'jazz baseline'.

[Rooster_Ties]

My uncle was a lifelong jazz fan (whose complete Downbeat collection (with issues from 1965-1990) I inherited a few short years ago).  And although as a kid I only went to visit him where he lived every couple years or so (most of the time he came to my family's town, not the other way around -- about 300 miles away) -- he nearly ALWAYS took me down to his basement to listen to some records from his collection of about 1,000 LP's.

I don't have specific memories of specific albums, but it all started there.  He had a wide variety of tastes, including Sun Ra -- and after my uncle's passing (circa ~2013?), I even discovered he had a copy of Heiner Stadler's Brains on Fire (with none other than my beloved Tyrone Washington), which I never even knew he had all these years.  He also had some of the earliest LP issues of Schoenberg's works (on Dial), and a voracious appetite for all kinds of jazz sounds (even though he loved very traditional big-band most of all).

So my uncle's influence was huge, though only the Sun Ra really stuck with me the most at the time (more for Ra's crazy biography and persona, than the actual music -- which I did later come to appreciate much more).

So flash-forward to my sophomore year in college, circa 1989 (spring term, when I always tried to take a couple 'fun' classes), and that year it was Jazz History 201.  So I heard a LOT there, and did my final paper on Sun Ra.  But even then, I'm not sure many specific recordings really took hold of me, so much as the whole spectrum of sounds (which certainly did).

But what finally *DID* stick, were the first four (4) jazz albums I heard with great frequency and repetition (I had cassette copies of these four, and played both on auto-reverse endlessly for a couple months).  Those four albums were...

1. Kind of Blue
2. Nefertiti - with "Prince of Darkness" tacked on (from Sorcerer)
3. Mode For Joe (Henderson) - with "Gary's Notebook" tacked on (from Sidewinder)
4. Power To The People (Henderson)

And THOSE were really my very first deep jazz loves.

Edited November 9, 2016 by Rooster_Ties