Have you got jazz loving neighbours?

[Niko]

i have a march music loving neighbor, he hears that in between his WWII documentaries (and he doesn't hear very well anymore so i believe he is actually a bigger problem for the others neighbors than me...)

[Stefan Wood]

Yes! I've slowly gotten the next door neighbor hooked with a little help from Evans, Wynton Kelly, Art Pepper... On Friday nights the neighbors ask me to put the speakers out the front window while we sit out in the cul de sac and have a few pops. Last Fri I was spinning Kelly Blue, Henderson 'In & Out', disc 8 from the West Mongtgomery Riverside Box , Levy 'Jazz in 4 Colours, and the Blakey Birdland Vol. 3 TOCJ. Two other neighbors asked if I could 'ahem' sort of help 'em out a bit with their 'next to nothing' collections.

Weizen, I have seen your neighbors, and I think you are doing a public service!

[AndrewHill]

I'm sandwiched between Lynard Skynard to my right and Pink Floyd to the left.

[sidewinder]

I'm sandwiched between Lynard Skynard to my right and Pink Floyd to the left.

Yikes !

[Tom 1960]

I have a neighbor a couple of houses away who once had a passing interest in jazz. He let me borrow some of his albums(lp's) one time. There's another guy a few blocks away who definitely enjoys jazz music. An older gentlemen who has difficulty getting around. Sometimes when I'm passing his house when I'm on my mail route, I'll hear some good stuff coming from inside the house. I tell his daughter now and then to get his dad to play some more jazz! Would love to talk to this guy one day.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I used to - back in 1960! My mother and I (I was 16) lived in a long block of flats on the first (US 2nd) floor. I was leaning out of my bedroom window one day, playing MJQ real loud, as one does, when this USAF guy, from farther along the block, walked past and noticed. I'd see him around but never spoken to him. He stopped and we got chatting and he invited me round to his flat to listen to some jazz. His brother was a jazz musician. He introduced me to a good bit of West Coast Jazz and Chris Connor (and let me read his Playboys, which was nice). I introduced him to the Ray Charles band. He was Dave Mandel.

MG

[mikeweil]

In the meantime I had an opportunity to ask my new neighbours - they say it wasn't them but the guy below. Will have to inquire, I thought he was a hard rock fan. I get to talk to him every now and then.

Edited July 10, 2007 by mikeweil

[Chuck Nessa]

First time I found a neighbor liking modern jazz was in a dorm, my freshman year. I heard Miles' Steamin' coming from a room 3 doors down. I made a good friend. Last time I found a neighbor liking any jazz was a next door neighbor named Warren Holmes. He was a "stone" dixie/swing dude.

Here is a piece I wrote for myself a few years back:

I run my business out of the basement of our house, on a quiet street at the edge of our town. My wife works outside the home and is at work in the daylight hours.

About 7 years ago a retired couple (Warren and Darlene) moved into the house next door.

He had a small boat and went fishing when weather permitted. She had a couple of miniature collies she trained and practiced yoga. Warren liked to have “cocktails” in the evening and frequently invited us and the couple across the street for drinks. He even stocked a supply of Scotch just for me. After a couple of years his lungs started deteriorating – caused by asbestos. He had helped a friend remove a ceiling and ductwork thirty years earlier.

Soon he stopped fishing and we would see Warren walking with an oxygen tank. The invitations for drinks slowed and eventually stopped. Three years ago I got a phone call from Warren at three o’clock in the afternoon. He asked me to please come over for “drinks”. I went over to find him alone in his bathrobe, connected to his oxygen tank. He had a bottle of Scotch, glass and ice on the kitchen counter. He insisted I pour a drink and explained Darlene was gone for the afternoon, his damaged lungs developed cancer and it had spread throughout his body. He said the tv/listening room was being converted into a bedroom for him and a hospital bed was being delivered the next week. He pointed to a stack of about 200 lps in the back porch and said if it wasn’t too expensive, he wanted to ship them to an old friend in Florida. I said I didn’t have a clue about the cost, but I could weigh them and give him the price. He said great.

I went home, got some boxes and lugged them to my basement, weighed them, looked up the cost in the UPS book and returned to tell Warren the news. He said forget it, he didn’t want to spend the money. He thin asked if I could sell them for any decent price. I told him there was a glut, but next time I went to Chicago (about 60 days hence) I’d take them to the Jazz Record Mart for a quote. He said if I got decent money, give it to Darlene. If I couldn’t get “real money” to keep them or throw them away. He said if he gave it to his kid, he’d put them in the garage and eventually throw them away.

About two weeks later we had an incredible wind storm. The wind howled all day. Eventually we discovered thousands of trees in the county were uprooted. Around 4 PM I heard a knocking at our kitchen/garage door. I went upstairs and opened the door to find Darlene on her knees crying. She’d just returned from some errands Warren demanded. “Come help me. Warren went outside for some reason and has fallen. He’s hurt and you have to help me.” I helped her up, led her through the garage, towards her garage. Warren was on his back, between our garages, staring into the sky. Beside him were a two foot board (with a nail driven in the end), the end of his oxygen hose (leading into the house) and a shotgun on the ground. Darlene kept asking me to help him and saying “I don’t know why he went outside”. I sent her inside and ran for the phone to call the cops. Warren had laboriously gone through the garage, fixed the board, propped the gun against a tree and ended it.

It turns out Warren had called the cops and reported gunshots in the neighborhood so they would come and find him before Darlene got home, but most of the local force was at a fireman’s funeral, others were dealing with downed trees and the call was given minimal priority. Once the cops got there, they treated it like a crime scene and the body was not removed until after eleven. Darlene kept telling me “Warren’s still out there in the cold. Tell them to get him inside”.

ANYWAY, most of the records were too beat up to be worth anything and the boxes sat untouched in my basement until about six months ago.

One member might recognize this.

Edited July 10, 2007 by Chuck Nessa

[paul secor]

Whew! That's all I can say.

[porcy62]

Touching story Chuck. Thanks for sharing it.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Touching story Chuck. Thanks for sharing it.

Yes.

MG

[MoGrubb]

So sad.

[Tom 1960]

I have a neighbor a couple of houses away who once had a passing interest in jazz. He let me borrow some of his albums(lp's) one time. There's another guy a few blocks away who definitely enjoys jazz music. An older gentlemen who has difficulty getting around. Sometimes when I'm passing his house when I'm on my mail route, I'll hear some good stuff coming from inside the house. I tell his daughter now and then to get his dad to play some more jazz! Would love to talk to this guy one day.

Well, I finally got the opportunity today to sit down with the gentleman who lives on my mail route. I have to tell you it was a blast discussing jazz music with him. He must be in his early 80's, has abit difficulty getting around, but really knows his jazz and has a great collection. I was there just over 2 hours. Time just flew! I let him borrow my Horace Parlan and Carmell Jones Mosaics. He's a big fan of Mosaic Records and receives the catalogue regularly so I figured these recording might be to his liking. I noticed he has a Bunny Berigan Mosiac and a few others lying around. In exchange he let me borrow some cds. Very nice guy and I hope we have many opportunities in the future to converse. Overall, it was a great experience guys.

Edited August 28, 2007 by Tom 1960

[BruceH]

As far as I can tell...no.

[paul secor]

I have a neighbor a couple of houses away who once had a passing interest in jazz. He let me borrow some of his albums(lp's) one time. There's another guy a few blocks away who definitely enjoys jazz music. An older gentlemen who has difficulty getting around. Sometimes when I'm passing his house when I'm on my mail route, I'll hear some good stuff coming from inside the house. I tell his daughter now and then to get his dad to play some more jazz! Would love to talk to this guy one day.

Well, I finally got the opportunity today to sit down with the gentleman who lives on my mail route. I have to tell you it was a blast discussing jazz music with him. He must be in his early 80's, has abit difficulty getting around, but really knows his jazz and has a great collection. I was there just over 2 hours. Time just flew! I let him borrow my Horace Parlan and Carmell Jones Mosaics. He's a big fan of Mosaic Records and receives the catalogue regularly so I figured these recording might be to his liking. I noticed he has a Bunny Berigan Mosiac and a few others lying around. In exchange he let me borrow some cds. Very nice guy and I hope we have many opportunities in the future to converse. Overall, it was a great experience guys.

Great story, Tom! Good that you made the effort to make a connection with him and that something very positive came out of it. Perhaps each of you will have a new friend because of what you did, and that's a great thing.

[Chuck Nessa]

Up for new stories.

[Christiern]

I have been approached by several people in my building who are into jazz, including Oscar Pettiford, Jr. (son of bassist) and Peter Washington (bassist). Quite a few jazz players live in the immediate neighborhood.

[Free For All]

I'm currently living in a "townhome" w/shared walls on each side. Currently, both spaces beside me are empty, which means 24 hr. shedding, loud music and loud movies on my end. Yippee! Summer Of George!

I'm sure my joy will be punished with pissy new neighbors. Most likely young professionals who like to listen to horrible pop music such as......(your message here).

[Shrdlu]

Oh, if only! My neighbors are all old fogey schmucks - not in numerical age, but mentally. (Some are only in their 30s, and I'm 60.) Only music you will hear from them is radio chart stuff, if any music at all.

My immediate neighbors absolutely hate my jazz and electro/house - even though I usually use my headphones and seldom put my speakers on. Sadly, the two of my kids that still live with me hate my music too.

But, when I was a teenager, I had a very hip neighbor who used to come over with such goodies as "Miles Ahead", "Bags and Trane", "Coltrane Live At The Village Vanguard" and "The Cannonball Adderley Sextet Live In New York" (the Riverside LP). These were not on the radio where I lived, and I owe a lot to that guy.

[aparxa]

Not in the neighborhood.

But it took me 3 years to know that my boss enjoyed jazz a lot. He's a soloist singer in a local choral group and he had the opportunity to sing with Archie

Shepp during the Grenoble Jazz Festival 15 years back...

[gaston]

Not in the neighborhood.

But it took me 3 years to know that my boss enjoyed jazz a lot. He's a soloist singer in a local choral group and he had the opportunity to sing with Archie

Shepp during the Grenoble Jazz Festival 15 years back...

c'est pas moi qui aurait eu un boss qui chantait avec archie. veinard...

[Michael Weiss]

Martyjazz used to live down the hall.

Sidestep into subtopic - "musicians as neighbors"

At one time or another my neighborhood included Cecil Taylor, Lester Bowie, Bob Brookmeyer, Curtis Fuller and Billy Hart.

Ronnie Mathews is still here and Cedar Walton too as is Matt Garrison.

[Christiern]

Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln used to live down the street Max's grandson is still there, I believe), in the same building as Charles Tolliver. Harold Vick lived in the next block, Paul Motian lives up the street from me. A few years back, I could have name Sonny Greer, Coleman Hawkins, Horace Silver, Babs Gonzales and many, many more who lived in my 'hood. But that's New York.

[BruceH]

Well, I know this guy in Boston who's really into jazz. If you view the Earth from high orbit, then we're neighbors.

[Jim Alfredson]

I don't have any close neighbors that I know of, although there used to be this elder gentleman that did various yardwork around the neighborhood for people. He could be seen often walking down the alley past my house, usually dragging an old lawn mower. One time I was outside and he was walking down the alley and introduced himself. Then he asked what the band was that rehearsed in my basement. I told him about organissimo and he said he loved the music and would sometimes just stand in the alley and listen to us play!

I haven't seen him in at least a year. I hope he just moved away and is still on the planet somewhere.