Who/what got you hooked on jazz?

[neveronfriday]

Hi everyone,

posting something elsewhere on this board I referred to my dad who got me hooked on jazz. It was really a combination of factors - my dad's record collection, my mom's piano playing, the constant availability and presence of music in our house, my later move to Copenhagen, Denmark, where jazz concerts were available 24/7, etc. - that got me hooked, but I think it was largely my dad's "fault" that I invest so much time and money into jazz these days (after a rather long absence).

Did your parents have an influence on you when it comes to your musical preferences or the mere fact that you do in fact spend a lot of time with music/jazz today?

On a similar note, if my parents hadn't spent an incredible amount of time reading to me (us), often taking the time when time was not available, I wouldn't have been such an avid reader either.

As a teacher I notice that today, in Germany, many parents do not invest that time anymore (because they don't want to or don't have much time to spare) or simply don't have any affinity for books or records, and as a result, many children I teach have huge difficulties reading or appreciating texts or understanding that music has a history.

I'm often surprised how little teenagers today know about the latest hit which is based on some other tune from way back when. It was always made clear to me where things came from, so I never thought about this until I was faced with kids who thought that P. Diddy was actually doing something new. I remember pulling out a Led Zep CD once, taking it to school and playing it to a 10th grade with the result that many people actually borrowed it simply because they liked the original better (or because it was free burn ).

There is a generation hitting the streets which has a lot of abilities but little knowledge of the history and background of things.

Cheers!

[jazzbo]

In my case it was electric Miles and Louis Armstrong.

[neveronfriday]

In my case it was electric Miles and Louis Armstrong.

I have always had a tought time with Armstrong. I know how good he was, but much of his stuff never grabbed me. I do have some songs I love (Walking Stick [mostly acapella if I recall correctly] comes to mind, which is not exactly typical and a straight pop tune if he ever did one).

Electric Miles I dig, but mostly because I often saw him perform that stuff live. I don't think I would have gravitated towards it if that hadn't been the case.

Cheers!

[king ubu]

My father does own a couple of records, but what got me started was very late Miles. My mother got "Amandla" shortly after its release (I was like 10 or 11 then), and I liked that one, later in the library got "Workin'", then "Kind of Blue", then started on Coltrane, wished and got the Heavyweight set - a heavyweight start into jazz, which still continues (4000CDs or so after). I'm a reader, too (studying humanities you gotta be - hell, no there are so many people even among academics that don't really read or like reading!!), and I'm always learning more and more, about music, about literature, about arts.

I guess the most important is to be wide open, and then to be able to focus on some things you really like without really forgetting there are other things, and checking out these other things now and then, as your interest might change (with me, for instance, I not yet really started exploring european classical music, yet I know someday I will feel a need to do so, just not at the moment).

About my father's records: as usual in adolescence, I did have sort of split feelings, and only laid hands on my father's LPs when I did take notice of his original mono pressing of "Love Supreme", but at that time I had been on my jazz trip for two years or so.

ubu

[king ubu]

In my case it was electric Miles and Louis Armstrong.

I have always had a tought time with Armstrong. I know how good he was, but much of his stuff never grabbed me. I do have some songs I love (Walking Stick [mostly acapella if I recall correctly] comes to mind, which is not exactly typical and a straight pop tune if he ever did one).

Electric Miles I dig, but mostly because I often saw him perform that stuff live. I don't think I would have gravitated towards it if that hadn't been the case.

Cheers!

deus, get the W.C. Handy disc! I bought that one a month or so after it was AotW, after reading all the comments there. It's a very enjoyable album!

Also the two CD set with Duke Ellington might help enjoying him (listen to "Azalea" - an astonishing piece of music!)

ubu

[PHILLYQ]

What got me hooked on jazz was an article in the Village Voice in 1972. I was 16 and thought I was pretty hip and cool when it came to music, and the VV had their annual pazz & jop poll. usually I knew almost everything in the top listings on the poll, except that year. For 1972 the critics voted 'The Inner Mounting Flame' as the album of the year. I was aghast- I never heard of these dudes and they had the album of the year?! Mortified at my lack of knowledge, I made sure to get a copy of it and played it every day for a month- it still didn't click for me. Frustrated at my lack of understanding, I got incredibly lucky- they were playing in NYC in a few weeks. I went, it clicked when I saw it live, and that started me on a lifelong love affair with this music. McLaughlin led to Miles, to everyone else...

[catesta]

Did your parents have an influence on you when it comes to your musical preferences or the mere fact that you do in fact spend a lot of time with music/jazz today?

I think so.

My father had a pretty good collection going. On the weekends he would throw on the good stuff, Duke, Basie, Louie, Dizzy, Erroll Garner, I can't say I was hooked but I developed an appreciation at an early age and even had some favorites.

As I got older I went through all the listening phases, r&b, pop, and rock, then it just hit me one day when I was in a record store, they had some Ellington playing on the store system, at that moment I would say I was hooked.

I still enjoy some other music styles, but now jazz is the thing for me.

[neveronfriday]

What got me hooked on jazz was an article in the Village Voice in 1972. I was 16 and thought I was pretty hip and cool when it came to music, and the VV had their annual pazz & jop poll. usually I knew almost everything in the top listings on the poll, except that year. For 1972 the critics voted 'The Inner Mounting Flame' as the album of the year. I was aghast- I never heard of these dudes and they had the album of the year?! Mortified at my lack of knowledge, I made sure to get a copy of it and played it every day for a month- it still didn't click for me. Frustrated at my lack of understanding, I got incredibly lucky- they were playing in NYC in a few weeks. I went, it clicked when I saw it live, and that started me on a lifelong love affair with this music. McLaughlin led to Miles, to everyone else...

Interesting.

I had drifted away from jazz and had long started listening to other styles a lot more (metal, rock, some pop, etc.) and it was a Spanish friend of mine, a damn fine drummer and percussionist at an early age, who loved playing Benson's On Broadway and that lovely little solo towards the end. Then he started me on Stanley Clarke's Schooldays, from there I drifted to the Brecker Brothers (Heavy Metal BeBop, one of my faves), and slowly but surely further and further back in time. When he started playing this stuff (both on record and on drums), I rapidly lost my interest in rock drumming again (you know, the 4-4 type) and became interested in more complex stuff, odd time metre, etc.

My listening habits have undergone such (almost) dramatic changes over the past 30 years that I am sometimes astonished it happend that way. Anything could trigger something new off. A few years ago, Cecilia Bartoldi somehow managed (quite a feat) to drag me into opera, seeing a twelve-tone performance with my dad (there was this wonderful South-American pianist who explained it all) got me into that all of a sudden, listening to Mussorgsky's Night on the Bald Mountain in its orginal orchestration got me into Russian music, Johnny Clegg got me into African stuff, etc.

When I'm really on a roll, a whole evening might be spent jumping from style to style, one thing always setting off another one. Most people think I'm nuts when that happens.

Edited March 5, 2004 by deus62

[neveronfriday]

[...] when I was in a record store, they had some Ellington playing on the store system, at that moment I would say I was hooked.

I still enjoy some other music styles, but now jazz is the thing for me.

It is not that long ago I dived head-first into jazz again. I had been on a remaster-binge, shopping for some albums I already had, going for Universal Deluxe editions of Frampton and Marley when I stumbled over Brubeck's Time Out! with this big red "remastered" sticker. Next to it was Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, I think, and within a few minutes I had gone through this huge jazz section, loading up on remastered editions of some records I had been listening to when I was much younger.

After I had listened to these, my preferences shifted and it has pretty much stayed that way ever since.

Not that I don't have the occasional relapse. Just the other day, I dug out my remastered Aerosmith stuff, the Judas Priest Unleashed in the East blaster, some Motorhead and Sabbath. I had a blast (so did my neighbours ), but, I got tired of it really fast.

Cheers!

[Alexander]

I was just thinking about this the other day. My parents aren't jazz fans (although my dad likes more jazz than my mom), but I do credit them with my lifelong interest in both books and music. My parents read to me a lot (as I do with my daughter), and my parents always had music on in the house. This was in the seventies, so most of my parents listening was singer/songwriter stuff (Carol King, James Taylor, Billy Joel, some Dylan, Cat Stevens, Paul Simon). They were also HUGE Beatles fans, which definitely rubbed off on me. In addition to this, nearly everybody in my family (except my mom and me, that is) plays an instrument. My father plays guitar and piano (and sings. He was in a high school rock band called the Mon-Keys), my grandfather was a professional violinist (played jazz, classical, and various folk musics), my grandmother was a singer and played piano, two of my aunts sang (one is a professional jazz vocalist who has written lyrics to Joe Henderson tunes like "Serenity" and "Black Narcissus"), one of my uncles is a tenor saxophonist, my brother plays violin (bluegrass)...you get the general idea. Music was VERY important in my household, moreso than almost anything else (when my father married outside the faith, my grandfather was very upset. When my aunt Sharon married outside the faith, it was cool so long as the guy was a musician). Jazz, classical, rock, folk, blues, even polkas and klezmer were all heard in my house (we lived upstairs from my grandparents). This is what turned me into the musical fiend I am today...

As to what got me into jazz, it was my friend Henry who turned me onto jazz by exposing me to Miles Davis and John Coltrane. My friend Adam suggested people like Bill Evans and Chick Corea (he's a pianist), and my friend Brian turned me on to more contemporary artists like Greg Osby and Joe Lovano. All of this happened during the course of a decade, and I continue to get ideas from friends, from this board, and from my own reading. It's interesting to think that we are all the products of our environment.

[Dr. Rat]

My family didn't influence my musical preferences too much that I can tell. They didn't really listen to a whole lot of music--I did, a lot of times with headphones so as not to bother anyone else, starting when I was quite young--5 or 6.

At that time mostly early 70s pop--I can remember some song about a junkyard dog--and Philly Soul.

Then I found a bunch of old Rolling Stone Records (late sixties mostly) at the Goodwill, which were my big thing for a while, progressing through the Clash and reggae and African music to Cuban and then one day, while I was in grad school, I came across a load of cheapo knockoff Italian compilations: Ellington, Armstrong, etc. I picked up a comp of the Blanton/Webster band comp and my musical world was changed forever. Ellington helped me discover what I called "texture." A new sensual door was opened up for me.

Of course, I had the usual suspect jazz albums in college: Kind of Blue and Giant Steps, and I dabbled in some more modern stuff: Zorn and Abercrombie, but none of that really mattered in the way the Ellington did.

From there I collected all sorts of Ellington and got into 30s jazz pretty heavily and expanded from there. My jazz tastes are still much-less-than-universal--but I come at jazz from a pretty weird angle.

--eric

Edited March 5, 2004 by WNMC

[JSngry]

The VERY first thing was Cat Anderson w/Duke - the Bethlehem version of "Stomp, Look, & Listen" on some supermarket compilation album that a sophomore played for me my freshman yeaar of high school. That screech trumpet did something funny to my insides...

But seeing as how I was already deep into Hendrix, BS&T, Otis Redding, James Brown, & Verve-era Zappa, once the seed was planted, it took took of rapidly in all kinds of different directions, and hasn't really stopped since. In the space of a little over the next year, I had heard late Trane, Ayler, Ornette, Shepp, Don Ellis, Maynard, Mingus, the MJQ, Bird, Mulligan, Konitz, Woody Herman, more Duke, and God knows what else, besides delving into my folks' records, some of which actually contained "Big Band" music of interest. The hits just kept coming, and I did nothing to deflect them.

A victim of coimcumstance, that's what I am!

Edited March 5, 2004 by JSngry

[PHILLYQ]

WNMC,

That 'junkyard dog' song is probably 'Bad Bad Leroy Brown' by Jim Croce

"Bad bad Leroy Brown, baddest man in the whole dang town, badder than ol' King Kong, meaner than a junkyard dog"

I actually remembered that off the top of my head- is that a head crammed full of useless information?

[patricia]

I guess, like a lot of the kids I grew up with, my dad's collection of jazz was pretty typical, Armstrong, Basie, Ellington, some Dixieland and vocalists of the forties and fifties. And like a lot of the kids I grew up with, I rejected it, as old-guys' music in favour of r&b, Elvis, Psychedlic, folk and other stuff for years. I also had a brief romance with classical music, despite my total lack of talent at both piano and violin lessons as a young child.

I can pinpoint my original interest in jazz to the Brubeck hit, "Take Five", which was nothing like any of the jazz I had heard around the house and it intrigued me, along with Moe Kaufmann's "Swingin' Shepherd Blues". I wasn't totally hooked though, until about seven years ago. I happened to pick up a compilation of hits from the late forties and early fifties and thought that they were interesting and pursued the music, acquring several CD's and managing, through my associations on a couple of jazz boards to meet my two most important mentors.

Since then I have been unstoppable, even getting a turntable in order to buy vinyl, along with an alarmingly exploding collection of jazz on CD as well.

I have a lot of catching up to do, but that's OK. I seldom listen to anything but jazz nowadays, except for the occasional flamenco guitar, notably the great Canadian guitarist, Jesse Cook, who actually has a jazz slant to his Flamenco guitar recordings.

So, I'm HOOKED IRREVOCABLY on the magic and the passion of JAZZ!!!!

Edited March 5, 2004 by patricia

[HWright]

I grew up listening primarily to classical and folk music, which is what my parents have always preferred. Later I got into pop and rock from listening to the radio and buying 45s. I got into jazz slowly at first, mostly by listening to jazz shows on public and college radio, but took the big plunge in my last year of college when I decided to really learn about jazz. I borrowed as many jazz tapes and CDs as I could from people in my dorm and other people I knew on campus and then started doing my own research at the college music library. The first jazz players I checked out were Miles, Trane, Monk, Bird, Mingus, Chet and Getz, I think.

[Dr. Rat]

WNMC,

That 'junkyard dog' song is probably 'Bad Bad Leroy Brown' by Jim Croce

"Bad bad Leroy Brown, baddest man in the whole dang town, badder than ol' King Kong, meaner than a junkyard dog"

I actually remembered that off the top of my head- is that a head crammed full of useless information?

Yeah, that's it. My mom had a K-Tel (or similar) 8-track comp of the big hits of that year. I should see if I can find it somewhere.

--eric

[Alexander]

I grew up listening primarily to classical and folk music, which is what my parents have always preferred. Later I got into pop and rock from listening to the radio and buying 45s. I got into jazz slowly at first, mostly by listening to jazz shows on public and college radio, but took the big plunge in my last year of college when I decided to really learn about jazz. I borrowed as many jazz tapes and CDs as I could from people in my dorm and other people I knew on campus and then started doing my own research at the college music library. The first jazz players I checked out were Miles, Trane, Monk, Bird, Mingus, Chet and Getz, I think.

This is the guy, right here. This is the guy who got me started in jazz. It's all his fault!

Take a bow, Henry...

[Claude]

My first experience with jazz was a TV concert by the Pat Metheny Group in 1983 (I was 15 years old). I was amazed by the flow of Methenys improvisations and by the sound of the group. I bought the "Travels" double LP, which was my first jazz record.

I knew nobody else who listened to jazz, so I had to get all the music and information myself. So I began listening to jazz on german radio, the shows hosted by the legendary Joachim Ernst Berendt. My first exposure was to a lot of german jazz, the stuff that was issued on the ECM and Enja labels. I also discovered many other ECM artists, like Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek or Eberhard Weber. I didn't know much about the history of jazz at that time, I knew the names but had little possibilities to get to listen to their music. In the early 80's there wasn't such a reissue mania as today, and more contemporary jazz was played on the radio. The only jazz classics I heard was a 4CD sampler by Miles Davis, which really opened my ears.

It was only when I came to university in Brussels in 1989 when I began exploring the history of jazz. I had access to the city library which had a huge CD collection, including many japanese imports. This was the time when jazz classics only started to get reissued on CD, and I had abandoned LPs long before. At the library I could get album which weren't even available in stores.

I bought some books (Berendt's "Jazz book", the Rolling Stone Jazz record guide, John Litweiler's "Freedom principle") and took 5 CDs per week from the library. Everything was copied to cassettes, because many albums I didn't like at first listen, but I knew they had to be good so I kept a tape copy and came back to them after I learned more about the music. That was really an amazing time, to discover the music that I would love my whole life. A few years later the same thing happened to me with classical music.

[Hardbopjazz]

For me, it was top 40 radio. One day, 30 years ago I realized how bad commercial music is and I wanted a change. Plus I was playing guitar and piano at this point and I just started listening to jazz. Back in the 70’s there were full time jazz stations on the air in NYC, so it was not hard to find something to listen to.

[Eric]

A guy I played football with in high school and I had a great affinity for music. At the time (late 70s) it was punk rock. We went off to different colleges and one day a bunch of cassettes arrive in the mail - by Miles, McCoy and Wes Montgomery. Somebody had turned him on and he returned the favor. Been a rabid fan ever since.

Eric

Edited March 5, 2004 by Eric

[catesta]

Not that I don't have the occasional relapse. Just the other day, I dug out my remastered Aerosmith stuff, the Judas Priest Unleashed in the East blaster, some Motorhead and Sabbath. I had a blast (so did my neighbours ), but, I got tired of it really fast.

Cheers!

Love that Judas Priest, I sold a car to Rob Halford back in 1990.

I've gone through similar relapses, I put the stuff on for an hour or so, and I'm good for 6 months.

With jazz on the other hand, I can listen forever and keep wanting more.

[patricia]

A guy I played football with in high school and I had a great affinity for music.  At the time (late 70s) it was punk rock.  We went off to different colleges and one day a bunch of cassettes arrive in the mail - by Miles, McCoy and Wes Montgomery.  Somebody had turned him on and he returned the favor.  Been a rabid fan ever since.  

Eric

So, in a way, he was your mentor. I too actually had, and have two irreplaceable mentors, who helped ease me into jazz, recommending music to me and actually sending me examples of big band, vocalists, small-group and other stuff that piqued my interest which continues to grow.

My near-obsession with jazz history grew out of my love of the music and I credit my mentors, Dan and Don with the passion which developed.

In turn, I have passed along my knowledge of jazz, such as it is, to many younger people, including my two daughters' friends. My youngest daughter is very interested in pre-1940's jazz, as well as Edith Piaf. Since she was only seventeen when I first exposed her to alternatives to punk, I consider that a particularly fine plume in my personal beanie.

I also brought jazz CD's with me to work, when I was labouring at a libation emporium, part-time and managed to turn some of the guys who had, on to that point, been C&W listeners to the passion of jazz. It was in self-defence originally, but resulted in some of the MUZAK being Miles, Parker and Lena Horne, as well as some Jimmy Smith and Herbie Hancock. Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" and Etta James' "Mystery Lady" were favourites.

We do what we can to spread the word.

Edited March 5, 2004 by patricia

[connoisseur series500]

As a teacher I notice that today, in Germany, many parents do not invest that time anymore (because they don't want to or don't have much time to spare) or simply don't have any affinity for books or records, and as a result, many children I teach have huge difficulties reading or appreciating texts or understanding that music has a history.

I don't know, Deuse.

I read books all the time, play/study chess, listen to music, and my kid only wants to play computer games and watch TV.

None o' this is rubbing off...

My parents never listened to music nor were they big book readers, though they were pretty well educated.

[Noj]

Well, my Mom likes country and pop while my Dad prefers silence, so they weren't my biggest influences. However Mom or Dad did have a Best Of Wes Montgomery Verve record stuck in a crate with old Beatles and Rolling Stones records, which was a profound discovery for me.

When I was in high school, a good friend of mine inherited a huge collection of records from his father. Listening to those records turned me toward jazz, especially when I heard Coltrane GIANT STEPS and AFRICA BRASS. Then I heard Horace Silver SONG FOR MY FATHER and I knew jazz was my favorite kind of music.

[PHILLYQ]

I don't know, Deuse.

I read books all the time, play/study chess, listen to music, and my kid only wants to play computer games and watch TV.

None o' this is rubbing off...

Conn,

That's almost me to a tee- I don't play chess, but I'm an avid reader and music nut, and my son has very little interest in that. I tried...

Edited March 5, 2004 by PHILLYQ