Beginnings

[Mat]

Do you remember how and when you first got interested in jazz? Perhaps a piece you heard on the radio/TV? A club you went to? Or maybe something else?

I remember that for me it actually started with movies. I loved the kind of music that was usually used in those fancy restaurants/banquet scenes. You know, a small trio with some smooth, swingy piano tunes. It took me a while to figure out that this kind of music was called jazz... It all got easier once I had it sorted out. It would've been even easier if I had the Internet back then. Anyway, that was one thing. The other was actually a 1991 Chick Corea album called Alive that I got as a gift. I loved it (still do) from the very first moment I heard it. Then, it was just a matter of time. I kept getting more and more into it and now look what I've become - a freak

So, what's your story?

 

[White Knight]

One listen to the Cannonball Adderly Quintet Live in San Francisco album was all it took for me. From the opening horn and piano riffs of the very first song, "This Here" by Bobby Timmons, I was firmly hooked. I have never lost my love of this great music some 45 years on, nor will I ever do so! Long Live Jazz.

 

[GoneBaroque]

My first experience with jazz was going with some friends around 1963 to hear Henry (Red) Allen playing at the old Metropole in New York City. Lousy drinks but great music.

Rob

 

[JHC]

A guy at work introduced me to Kenton,Gillespie and then the MJQ it was all down hill from there in, then it was trad jazz and jazz clubs.

 

[gord]

this musician, and this record got me interested in jazz, that was back in 1951. gord
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v44cbyBRJHY

 

[JHC]

this musician, and this record got me interested in jazz, that was back in 1951. gord
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v44cbyBRJHY

Takes me back to when I used to go dancing, a good slow smoootch with a girl was the height of my week, those were the days

 

[teddy]

Aged about 14 years and fiddling with our battery radio, I discovered it could be converted to run on mains. Suddenly I was listening to American Forces Network in Germany. Unintelligible news casts, baseball,,,,, and jazz. Shortly afterwards I discovered Jack Teagarden. And the rest, as they say, is history. What a lovely ride it has been.

teddy

 

[stu]

Like Teddy, I discovered AFN. They broadcast nightly request shows from Hilversum, Frankfurt and Munich. Twiddle the nobs from one to the other and we could listen to jazz for two solid hours. Also the Hot House with the Baron Of Bounce, Ken Dunnagan who played be bop for us every friday night. Thanks to AFN I became aquainted with the sounds of the day, Herman, Basie, Ellington, Bird and Diz, Hawkins and Lester Young, and also Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, and Eddie Condon a.o. Also, like Gord, in 1951, I also got hooked on Earl Bostic. Vocals as well of course, all the usual suspects, plus, AFN introduced me to the fun side, Slim Gaillard, Louis Jordan etc. Later came The Voice Of America Jazz Hour on short wave radio, presented by Willis Conover, where we heard quite a few of the
Newport Jazz Festival stuff and interviews. It's been fun all the way...

 

[OLDUDE]

Although I had listened to some jazz in my early teens, (usually Kenton who was incredibly popular at that time - 1946 -> ) it was when I started work in an analytical Chemistry Lab when 16 yrs of age in 1949 that I was introduced in a meaningful way to Trad. by someone who became a friend (and my best man) until his death a few years ago. Artists involved were most of the trad greats - Louis, Big T, Johnny Dodds, Jelly Roll, Kid Ory, Bechet, Bix, Billy H., and to swing greats such as Herman, Goodman, Miller, Duke, Count, Dorsey, James, Lester Y., Johnny Hodges etc.
I soon started to develop my own favourites particularly George Shearing and The Goodman Small Group stuff and first heard (via the album "Jazz Studio 2") West Coast jazz to which I soon became addicted. (Chet Baker, Art Pepper, Shorty Rogers, marty Paich, Mulligan, Brubeck, Lee Konitz, Jimmy Giuffre, Bob Brookmeyer and so on).
I must say that be-bop was never my thing although I had a lot of time for Dizzie and Miles.
Top singers for me were June Christie, Anita O'Day and Billie H.
Of course as I have aged I have come across whole new generations of great jazz musicians which I wont go into so that this doesnt become a book. (But special mention for Kai winding, the MJQ, Randy Sandke. and the Vaché brothers Allen and Warren.).

 

[Chi_townPhilly]

Do you remember how and when you first got interested in jazz?

Neat topic!

For me, my "entry-level' Jazz was 'Dixieland, Dixieland!' My Dad had a couple of LPs from that Disney prefabber group "The Firehouse Five Plus Two." From there, I moved onto 'The Dukes of Dixieland' (featuring Pete Fountain) and a little 'Preservation Hall Jazz Band' (before they started looking like the undead).

My brother had some of the early Al Hirt stuff, which suited me all right- and then he got into Maynard Ferguson c. the 'MF Horn' LP. I have to agree with my wife that the guy sacrificed tone for range.:smirk:

I reached even further back in Jazz history for the Ragtime era tunes, with the movie soundtrack from "The Sting" providing a significant tail-wind. From there, moved on to some Big Band era material, and really didn't alight in the second half of the 20th Century until college and my exposure to The Dave Brubeck Quartet.

 

[OLDUDE]

Anyone who loves the Dave Brubeck Quartet has got to be a true jazz man.
But listen to his early solo and trio tracks and there is something different there to enjoy.
Having said that Paul desmond is one of my all time greats

cheers John

 

[teddy]

Desmond and Brubeck THE DUETS has become one of my favourite albums, thanks to my education here

teddy

 

[JHC]

Brubeck, and the MJQ have been favorites of mine since the 50s.

 

[OLDUDE]

Hi Colin,

The LP "Django" was hardly ever off my record player in the early 50s.
I used to rock my baby niece, Helen, to sleep while playing it. (She is now in her 50s)

Great memory.

Cheers John

 

[JHC]

Grappelli and Reinhardt with the quintet du hot club de France were right at the top in the late 40s - 50s

 

[stu]

Old Dude's mention of the LP 'Django' made me smile. I also listened to it almost daily. It triggered off a fun 'army days' memory. I met a guy who was also an MJQ fan. I worked in the kitchen and one day while carrying a real hot tray of newly cooked roast beef he crept up behind me and suddenly started humming the Django theme, his Milt Jackson imitation bit, very loudly... "Dooooing, doooooing!...I dropped the tray! After recovering the valuable beef and tidying it up, we laughed then I immediately went into simulating playing a double bass and humming the Percy Heath bass line to Django while he continued to do his Milt..."doooing, doooooing" bit. The sergeant appeared to see what the noise was all about but being quite a fun type he just shook his head and muttered, "I always knew you two were nuts!"

 

[OLDUDE]

Hi again Stu - that sounds like my National Service days to me (surely not an old gadgy like me ?)

See my post of Jul 10

Cheers John

 

[stu]

Hi again John. Ha, seems like I am an old gadgy like you! National service 1955- 1957. I joined when I was eighteen and served my permanent posting in Devon with The Army Catering Corps.

 

[JHC]

Greetings stu, so your dob = 1937 as a MJQ fan should we revive an old thread http://www.magle.dk/music-forums/11753-mjq-thread.html

 

[OLDUDE]

Snap stu,
I was in dec 1957-Nov 1957 in RAOC. as a Clerk Tech.
I was based in RAOC Records, Leicester for 3 months then Longtown CAD the rest of '56. Finally in Famagusta depot for whole of '57.

Cheers John