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When I was 8 years old, Dave Brubeck's Take Five became an unexpected popular hit and received air time. As I suspect a fairly typical 8 year old, I largely ignored music beyond what was played as background on cartoons I enjoyed, and the like, or the music sung at Sunday school. And I had not found any of that particularly compelling. But Dave Brubeck's music, particularly Paul Desmond's alto saxophone, spoke to me differently, and opened windows on a whole different way of looking at the world and myself in it.
But nobody else in my milieu seemed to have any interest in such music, so I decided I shouldn't either. And as I progressed through childhood and into young adulthood the small amount of music to which I listened was what was most popular, which is to say, various forms of rock. And make no mistake, that large and varied genre has some marvelous music and artists. But it was always something peripheral to my life, something I occasionally stopped by to visit.
And while I was on that journey, I would occasionally revisit my interest in jazz, but always became sidetracked, usually not listening to much music of any sort. Then a bit more than 30 years ago the circumstances of my life changed, and I reached out to find new things, and increasing the amount of music to which I listened was one of those. And as I listened to more of various types of music I came to understand that while I could enjoy visiting many genres, jazz is where I live!
There has probably been as much or more written about jazz, as there has been of it played. So I apologize for adding to that glut, but along with only a few other things in my life, it is a passion. Though I need to get this out of the way; I am not a musician, jazz historian, critic or jazz expert of any sort. I'm just a guy who likes to listen to it, but who is very passionate about what I enjoy.
And, finally, this brings me to the point of this thread: while commercially, jazz is a tiny, tiny market compared to other varieties of popular music, it also may be the most varied, with endless interpretations, instrumentation and improvisation. There's a game that some people like to play, some of whom are both learned and bright, that goes like this, "Jazz is such and such, and any deviation from this is not jazz, and if you believe it is, you obviously are lacking in . . . ." And you can choose the term(s) taste, knowledge, sophistication, etc. And that's a d*mn shame because jazz is a whole world of music and musicians with unique things to say and how they want to say it.
When the great Louis Armstrong (For whom a strong argument can be made of having virtually invented jazz.) was asked what kind of music he played, he responded, "There is two kinds of music, the good and the bad, I play the good kind!" And Duke Ellington agreed, "If it sounds good, it is good!"
So rather than any technical or commercial exclusionary definitions of what is and isn't jazz I offer some examples of the virtually endless breadth of interpretation, instrumentation and improvisation of jazz, but which is still only a small glimpse into that whole universe. And the only two questions I ask are; does this person have something to say? And does it sound good?
But nobody else in my milieu seemed to have any interest in such music, so I decided I shouldn't either. And as I progressed through childhood and into young adulthood the small amount of music to which I listened was what was most popular, which is to say, various forms of rock. And make no mistake, that large and varied genre has some marvelous music and artists. But it was always something peripheral to my life, something I occasionally stopped by to visit.
And while I was on that journey, I would occasionally revisit my interest in jazz, but always became sidetracked, usually not listening to much music of any sort. Then a bit more than 30 years ago the circumstances of my life changed, and I reached out to find new things, and increasing the amount of music to which I listened was one of those. And as I listened to more of various types of music I came to understand that while I could enjoy visiting many genres, jazz is where I live!
There has probably been as much or more written about jazz, as there has been of it played. So I apologize for adding to that glut, but along with only a few other things in my life, it is a passion. Though I need to get this out of the way; I am not a musician, jazz historian, critic or jazz expert of any sort. I'm just a guy who likes to listen to it, but who is very passionate about what I enjoy.
And, finally, this brings me to the point of this thread: while commercially, jazz is a tiny, tiny market compared to other varieties of popular music, it also may be the most varied, with endless interpretations, instrumentation and improvisation. There's a game that some people like to play, some of whom are both learned and bright, that goes like this, "Jazz is such and such, and any deviation from this is not jazz, and if you believe it is, you obviously are lacking in . . . ." And you can choose the term(s) taste, knowledge, sophistication, etc. And that's a d*mn shame because jazz is a whole world of music and musicians with unique things to say and how they want to say it.
When the great Louis Armstrong (For whom a strong argument can be made of having virtually invented jazz.) was asked what kind of music he played, he responded, "There is two kinds of music, the good and the bad, I play the good kind!" And Duke Ellington agreed, "If it sounds good, it is good!"
So rather than any technical or commercial exclusionary definitions of what is and isn't jazz I offer some examples of the virtually endless breadth of interpretation, instrumentation and improvisation of jazz, but which is still only a small glimpse into that whole universe. And the only two questions I ask are; does this person have something to say? And does it sound good?
