Age You Got The Jazz Bug?

[Dan Gould]

I've been curious about this because I think to appreciate jazz you need a certain level of musical/listening maturity, unless of course you were smart enough to pick up on it as a young 'un, but I would bet that for many, jazz came after the more typical adolescent musical fascinations.

[Harold_Z]

Hmmmm...I checked the before 20 box, but it looks like it registers as the "in my 20s" box or I goofed. In any event, I actually was bitten by the jazz bug when I was 10 or 11, maybe a little earlier - sometime in the mid to late 1950s. I can remember the variety shows of the era (Sullivan, Allen, etc) and always being fascinated by appearances by Louis Armstrong, Basie, Ella, etc.

My uncle had a small jazz collection consisting of 2 or 3 boxes of 78s (any remember those brown 78 cases covered with phony leather paper?) and about 30 or 40 lps, mostly 10" at the time, but a few 12". Lots of Louis and Condon. Lots of COMMODORE! He put some on during a New Year's Eve get together and I was hooked. Within a year or two I was digging Miles and Bird along with Pops, Condon, Duke, and Wild Bill Davison. I was reading DOWN BEAT and wondering what the hell were the boppers and moldy figs arguing about.

[Eric]

Two events - took a "jazz appreciation" class in college for the "easy A" - the professor (Dick Wright) was such a nice guy and so eanest, it was hard not to at least listen. I also had a high school football buddy who was exposed to jazz at his college and sent me a bunch of cassettes (Miles, Wes, Tyner, Vitous). The combination of these two events hooked me. So, walking into my room in college, you were either going to hear London Calling or Kind of Blue

Eric

[Gary]

I dabbled a bit in my early 20s , bought about 10 Cds (KOB , Giant Streps etc)

that i'd listen to every now & again - then about 6 years ago (in my late 20s) i remember thinking one afternoon 'I havent played any jazz for ages' & havent listened to hardly anything else since .

(not the same 10 cds mind ).

[Rooster_Ties]

Two events - took a "jazz appreciation" class in college for the "easy A" - the professor (Scott Garlock) was a nice enough guy (for the most part), and reguardless, it was hard not to at least listen. I also had a part-time Disk Jockey gig at a top-40 radio station while I was in college -- and after 20 to 30 hours (per week) of forced exposure to "top-40" music from 1990-92, I got sick of 'pop' music in general, and also the "classic rock" that had previously been the focus of my musical interests. The combination of these two events hooked me. So, walking into my room in college, you were either going to hear Disintegration (by The Cure) - or - Kind of Blue and Nefertiti

Rooster T.

[jmjk]

I was exposed to jazz in my teens (borrowed Monk's Dream lp from the local library and I was mezmorized), and I had a dozen or so jazz titles by the time I hit Berklee at 18.

When I was at Berklee, I was OVER-exposed to jazz, so much so that after leaving, I couldn't stomach hearing another flatted 5 or 7 until my early 20s...and THAT'S when it really hit me, just in time for all those early 1990s BN cd issues!

[Shrdlu]

'Ere, wotch yer spelling, Guv! Should of taken that in college, ha, ha! The streps one would fit nicely in that Japanese thread - I enjoyed that, by the way, and I felt that it was not intended to be insulting - and nor are my comments.

Jazz got to me at about the age of 3, as my Dad had a clockwork phonograph and a pile of 78s by the likes of Fats Waller, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, etc. I was allowed to sit on the living-room rug and play these. Great days! This led me to write in to a kids' request program on the radio and ask them to play "Mopping And Bopping", a 12" 78 by Fats. It caused a stir on the show, as it was mixed in with such fare as "The Teddy Bears' Picnic", by Bing. I was out when they played it, and missed the whole thing.

[A Lark Ascending]

Bought my first jazz records at 19/20 but really started going after it in a big way at 21.

I'm not sure you need a particular level of musical/listening maturity to appreciate jazz - there's plenty that's attractive there that can be picked up on without too much knowledge or experience. Obviously the more you listen the more aware you become of the riches; and there will be levels of sophistication and technical understanding that can only be absorbed after a great deal of listening, reading, probably playing (I know there are whole areas I still miss out on being a non-player)!

What you need more is the will to listen past what is current and part of the general culture of the day. I know my early forays into jazz from the rock and jazz rock world were initially disappointing because much of it sounded quite old-fashioned. Once I could hear past that a world opened up.

I've found that experience repeated again and again as I've moved into areas of jazz (and other music) that had previously seemed too locked in their specific time frame to make any connection.

When you've been listening to jazz a long time and can enjoy Armstrong or Parker or Ellington or Coltrane as if it is today's music you can easily lose sight of how strange and colourless it sounds to those whose ears are not attuned.

Going back to the original question maybe a certain level of maturity is needed to want to get past the general culture of the day* and appreciate what other eras or other areas of experience have to offer.

* I don't mean rejecting it; just wanting to hear something else beyond.

Edited October 30, 2003 by Bev Stapleton

[Peter Johnson]

Thanks Dad!

My dad was a big Brubeck fan in college, buying all the "Time" records as they were released. One day he put on "Unsquare Dance" (from Time Further Out)--that's the song that starts with a bass riff and finger snaps (it's in 5/4 time) before it gets really crazy with drumming on the rim and a sparse piano solo and ends with either Eugene Wright or Morello laughing at the fact that they actually made it through the song.

Anyway, I was about ten (and taking piano lessons with STRAIGHT UP stuff, Bach minuet in G, etc.) when my dad put that on, and said, "try to tap your feet to this!" I was hooked.

Hooked again in college with Jazz appreciation (common theme), and walking into MY room you'd either hear Miles/Evans Porgy and Bess or Duran Duran (did I just admit that?). Hooked again in grad school when I found a first-press copy of Blue Train in the bins...and never looked back.

[Gary]

'Ere, wotch yer spelling, Guv! Should of taken that in college, ha, ha! The streps one would fit nicely in that Japanese thread - I enjoyed that, by the way, and I felt that it was not intended to be insulting - and nor are my comments.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPSSSSSSS.

there is a reason for that - I'm supposed to be working so I post my messages as fast as i can before my boss pokes his head into the office. I get home some evenings & reread my earlier posts & cringe at times.

I'll take more care in future!

[brownie]

I caught the jazz bug when I was barely 13. My elder brother was a fan and - out of curiosity - I started to listen to some of the records that he bought (early Amstrong, Ellington, Basie). Jazz was very popular at the time (the early '50s) in France. Sidney Bechet was a star. Armstrong and Ellington were familiar names. Quite a number of friends my age also became jazz fans.

Started buying records (some 78s, some 10inchers, then 12inchers) at about that time. My brother also took me along when he started going to concerts.

By the time I was 15, I was on my own and enjoying the music of Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Bud Powell, Lionel Hampton and others.

On the way back from school there was a small record shop where a large part of my pocket money disappeared. The shop had copies of Down Beat on display, probably one of a couple of outlets for the magazine in Paris. Then I started listening (late in the evening) to the VOA jazz programs by Willis Conover on shortwave radio.

I was hooked!

[jazzbo]

Thanks to Mom and Dad and one Grandma and another Grandpa, I heard jazz growing up and dug it, especially the swinging variety. Lots of Miller and Goodman, lots of Gershwin both jazz interpretations and classical, lots of WWI and twenties pop tunes on sheet music courtesy of a pianoplaying and organ dabbling Grandma, a little Ellington, some Brubeck that my Mom dug mainly for Desmond I think, a little dixieland from aforementioned former-banjoist turned parlor-organist Grandpa.

Then when I came back from Africa at 17 I got bit by the electric Miles bug and though I sometimes think that ISN'T jazz it did lead me to really explore the modern stuff, to wallow in fusion for a while, and then to work back to the swing and early jazz.

So before twenty for me.

Edited October 30, 2003 by jazzbo

[jazzbo]

I really don't think it takes any maturity to appreciate jazz. . . exposure usually works its magic.

[Joe G]

The first jazz I heard was on an Andy Stateman record when I was about 13. The album was called Flatbush Waltz, and was very eclectic. There was some straightahead NY jazz guitar solos on there that I thought were absolutely perfect. I was listening to mostly bluegrass at the time, BTW. Stateman was playing only mandolin on that album, but later took up clarinet and delved deeply into klezmer jazz.

Then in my high school years I got into rock. I shifted back to jazz in my early 20's, and the first albums I bought were by Weather Report and John Mclaughlin. I still like both of them. Not so big on Al Dimeola though...

Edited October 30, 2003 by Joe G

[JSngry]

13

[Dan Gould]

I'd be interested to hear the story of the lone person who chose "thirties".

C'mon, what took you so long? B)

[Rooster_Ties]

I'd be interested to hear the story of the lone person who chose "thirties".

Me too!!!

[Morganized]

Guess it also depends on what you want to consider jazz. I got into what was then called contemporary jazz. It was Bob James, David Sanborn, Grover Washington, Joe Sample and Crusaders, etc. That was in my mid-twenties. Followed that for a long time. When the music turned to "smooth jazz" I started looking for a place to go. Went backwards and discovered Miles, Coltrane, Morgan,etc. I was like a sponge and couldn't get enough. I was probably into my forties before the transformation was complete. So what do you want to call jazz? All I can say is that I listened to much of the pop/rock/new country genre since my early twenties.

[connoisseur series500]

I didn't buy a jazz album until I was around 18 or 19, but the seeds were planted early.

My father had a mixed assortment of records and listened to a variety of stuff from Louis Armstrong to Louis Prima to Stan Getz to mainstream pop. He was never passionate about any kind of music, but I loved Getz' Latin bossa nova rhythms.

My jazz purchases started for good in my 30s but that was due to circumstances. I was living in a foreign country and music didn't play a large role in my life at the time.

When I listen to Stan Getz, it feels as if this music has been a part of my life ever since I reached the age of consciousness. I voted for "before 20" though my mass purchases started in my 30s.

[John Tapscott]

Bought my first jazz record at 17 - Buddy Rich Live at Ronnie Scott's and have listened to little else but jazz since then (nothing else seriously, at least). Listened to mainly modern big bands at first, since I played trombone in the high school jazz and stage band. There were good radio jazz shows in the Toronto area at that time, and I well remember my jaw hitting the floor when I first heard JJ Johnson and McCoy Tyner on the radio. Read Ross Russell's Bird Lives at age 18 and bought my first Parker/Gillespie record. Within a year or two I was really starting to explore small groups - Miles, Trane, 'Tyner, Brubeck, Rollins, the Blue Note label, etc. etc., helped along by a friend in college who was really into Miles and 'Trane. By age 20 I was exploring all kinds of jazz styles, though my preference then and still is today what I would call the modern mainstream, jazz that swings, is coherent, is not too far from the blues. Still love modern big bands, too.

[Noj]

At about 16 I had a friend whose dad gave him a huge collection of records--jazz, funk, r&b, soul, blues...just tons of great stuff. I heard Coltrane's Africa Brass and Giant Steps and I was hooked.

[JohnS]

Around 15. Like most teens I caught the music bug through rock and roll but nothing satisfied me until I discovered jazz. That was a awful long time ago.

[jpmosu]

Two influences:

1) At age 18. Taking the Jazz Appreciation Course at the University of Pittsburgh (taught by Nathan Davis)--the second most popular course on campus at the time (the most popular was called "Presidential Rhetoric"--I took that, too, by the way).

2) At age 21. Having a friend who made mix tapes, played jazz in the car, etc. until I gave in and loved the music, too.

[Uncle Skid]

Well, I'm not the first person in the “thirties” category, but it looks like I'm the second or third.

Like many of you, my parents had varied interests in music; my father had some Brubeck stuff, Cannonball Adderley, Ramsey Lewis, Stan Getz, Cal Tjader, etc. Also was big into Sergio Mendez and Herb Alpert. Other records I heard a lot growing up included The Carpenters (!), Earth Wind and Fire, Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick.

I was heavily in to rock and alternative in college (early REM, Cure, etc), and although I enjoyed KOB and others like it, I guess I just never “got it”. I also went through a blues period – B.B, Albert King, SRV, etc., -- but only listened to jazz very occasionally.

What finally pushed me into more serious investigation of jazz was my guitar teacher's suggestion that I should work on some jazz tunes. I had been playing on and off for around ten years, and I had gotten very bored with playing the usual rock/blues stuff. He loaned me a copy of a Horace Silver CD, and that started it all. Not only has it completely reengerized my outlook and motivation for playing guitar, it also has started an obsession with jazz in general.

My discovery of the RVG series came this summer at the Jamey Aebersold camp. I wanted to add to my collection, so I purchased eight of those, not really knowing the details of the series, or much at all about Blue Note in general.

I guess I really can't describe it accurately, but hearing those old Blue Notes for the first time was nothing short of magical. It got me more excited about music that I had been for a very long time, and it hasn't worn off yet.

Better late than never, I guess. After reading some of the other stories, I'm really regretting not taking Jazz Appreciation in college.

[minew]

Growing up in New Orleans, there was jazz around all the time as a kid - at restaurant brunches, parties, Mardi Gras, etc. But at around age 15 a bunch of guys in the high school band turned me on to a lot of fusion. They basically admired anyone who was techincally proficient. So there was lots of Stanley Clarke, Al Dimeola, Billy Cobham, Steve Morse, Jaco, etc. At the same time (1982), I got interested in Wynton because he was a local prodigy getting a lot of national attention. From there, I just started exploring genres. Now I take in every thing from ODJB to the Brotzmann Tentet.