Question Of The Month--Dec.

MikeK

What was your introduction to jazz, that one event or artist that started your love & appreciation of it?

I'll get it started:

When I was a kid, I was enchanted by my dad's vast record collection (all vinyl, it was the 70's). I knew these treasures were extremely important to him, so I wanted to understand this magical world that brought him so much joy. In particular, I remember him listening to albums by Wes Montgomery, as well as Charlie Byrd. Coming from my young teenage rock-n-roll fantasy world of Van Halen, AC/DC, etc, these sounds were strange & foreign to me. But I heard something in it that was mysterious & compelling. I have good memories around this and I'm glad I had those experiences which helped put me on this path.

Willie

Always loved to listen to the music of Jimmy Smith, Joe Pass, Häns'che Weiss, Wes Montgomery, Stan Getz, later Ralph Towner, Chick Corea, Jan Garbarek, bands like Weather Report or Oregon and many others. But the initial ignition to start singing jazz, and to learn chords and their function on guitar, was my first singing teacher Ala Heiler.

Joonas

Chet Baker. Curiously I've still not gotten into Miles although I've tried.

Russell Letson

I remember two items specifically: hearing the Take Five LP and getting a 45 EP of the Goodman Orchestra's "Sing, Sing, Sing"--probably not the Carnegie Hall recording (which took place on my birthday, but seven years earlier), but the 1937 session**. Both happened sometime around or before 1960, by which time I was also familiar with Tommy Dorsey and my mother's other swing favorites.

** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtB6dijjWl8

Phil

Hey Mike! Always enjoy your question of the month. Also fun taking a trip down memory lane. My introduction to jazz:

▪︎Dad taking us to see local jazz musicians in the mid 1970s at Astoria ballroom, Leeds, UK. I remember 3 saxophonists trying to play Donna Lee in unison and finally getting it right at the 3rd attempt after a couple of false starts!

▪︎BBC television program, in the 70s, Oscar Peterson invites or presents. Which featured the creme de la creme of top jazz musicians, from Joe Pass to Ella Fitzgerald, et.al

▪︎BBC radio 3, Peter Clayton presented a wonderful jazz program every Sunday, which exposed me to numerous classic tunes from old & new jazz artists.

▪︎Seeing a treasure trove of top jazz musicians in late 70s at small intimate jazz clubs in Leeds, artists included: John Scofield, John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, Jan Garbarek, Eberhardt Weber et.al.

▪︎This led to being introduced to and enchanted by the eclectic ECM music catalog, leading to the wonderous discovery of Ralph Towner, Collin Walcott and Oregon.

voutoreenie

For me, it was jamming on So What? with my guitar teacher at some point when I was in 5th or 6th grade - by then I knew the basic position pentatonic scale pretty well so making the one-note shift to D dorian wasn't a problem (even if I had no clue what that even meant at the time, other than knowing it was a "mysterious" mode lol). After that, because I hated playing through method books, my frustrated teacher basically had me start learning easy chord progressions for him to blow over...modal jazz like So What? and All Blues before we started veering into easier Monk tunes like Bemsha, Blue Monk, etc. Somewhat similar to Mike, what really helped as well is that my parents were both into jazz, had a decent vinyl collection and my Dad was playing stuff like Miles, Lee Morgan, Coltrane, Monk, Dolphy, etc. so I think that really helped open my ears up to jazz before I started playing it.

Buco

Single event was the first Hot Club style band that got me hooked on the genre.

The straight ahead jazz took some effort. I took group jazz lessons at Old Town School in Chicago around 2004 so I needed to listen to the music that was a part of the class.

First albums that I started listening to in my spare time just for the sake of enjoying the music were Kind of Blue and Smokin At The Half Note. Not sure which came first but it was around the same time. After that I was listening to a lot of Jim Hall, Bill Evans and Monk the most.

Really I could enjoy jazz only after I was able to follow the form in my mind even if everyone in band was improvising on the form. So if I hadn't started playing it, I'm not sure if I'd ever listen to it on my own just to enjoy the music. Even if it always seemed like something beautiful musically as an idea.

lucky

Some Like It Hot did it for me - opening of course with Sweet Georgia Brown!

pdg

My teenage friend played sax and clarinet and was in various community and school bands. I knew my grandfather was related to Benny Goodman -- he said he used to see him sitting on the stoop as a kid, playing clarinet. And my other grandfather was a classical violinist who had an "album" of 78s of the Quintette du Hot Club de France. I was playing bluegrass guitar and banjo in college and found those 78s. When I first listened to them they sounded weird to me, but then I tried to figure out what Django was doing . . . . Eventually, I broadened my tastes in jazz.

Phil

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/123822#Comment_123822

Yeah I remember going down to the record shop, in my teens, all excited to select an album to add to my growing jazz record collection, spending an hour or so browsing the jazz records and selecting Wes Montgomery "Smokin' at the Half note". Sitting on the bus excited to "race" home to pop the record on the turntable. My, how times have changed!😃