Something about music and Jazz

I originally intended to write about this article by Gary Kamiya entitled “Rock vs. Jazz” yesterday, but my computer was acting up and so I was unabel to give my two cents. 

The article appeared yesterday (February 19th, 2008) on Salon.com one of my favorite websites to get news about politics, art, and entertainment.  I particularly enjoyed this piece because of my everlasting love of Rock music and my evolving appreciation and interest in Jazz.  Seeing Herbie Hancock win the Grammy for Album of the year was quite a shock to a lot of people, but personally I am of the opinion that it is high time that we see a Jazz musician get the respect they deserve for their complex and difficult art.

Personally, as far as music tastes go, I have spent most of my life as a fan of Classic Rock.  I credit my father with being responsible for my developing this particular musical preference.  Since I was very young my dad was constantly playing cassette tapes of great bands like The Beatles, The Who, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, The Band, and many many more.   These musicians got ingrained in my mind.  In 7th grade while a lot of my friends were listening to The Wu-Tang Clan, DMX, and other rappers, I was blasting Floyd’s “Animals” and The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (I really didn’t develop an appreciation for Rap until my college years, though now, I admit, I am partial to a number of artists in the genre).  Classic Rock maintained its position as my first choice in music all the way through high school (though by graduation I was moving into a bit of the broader Rock genre with Progressive Rock, Alt. Rock, Indie, etc).  It was college that really kicked off my quest to find enjoyment in music of every genre, and in particular it was my first roommate who got me to pursue this. 

Jeff was an amazing guitar player.  At 18 years of age he owned something like twelve guitars (four of which, if I remember correctly, we custom made by his father).  Though he denied it, I still think that Jeff must have had pretty near perfect pitch because of his amazing ability to be able to play almost any music he heard on his guitar just by listening for a few minutes.  He was a cool dude and I learned a lot about music from him.  Besides his talent at guitar playing he also played piano, drums, and I think saxophone and owned a huge collection of music.  Like me he was a big fan of the Classic Rock genre but he also liked everything else.  One of Jeff’s favorite genre’s was Jazz and he owned albums by artists like Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and many others.  Though I am sure that I had heard Jazz music before, it wasn’t until I was living with Jeff, listening to it play off of his computer or out of the CD Player, that I really started to get into it.  Jeff only attended one year at the same school as me but in that year I had been confronted by a whole new range of musical enjoyment. 

I continued my new interest in Jazz by frequenting the AV section of my schools library (where I just happened to work).  The AV section was quite impressive and had a large number of CDs as well as a ton of older vinyl records.  Most of the music selection was made up of Classical composers but there was also a very nice amount of Jazz and Blues available.  In three years time I am pretty certain that I listened to just about every Jazz or Blues CD the library had.

My personal favorite to this day has to be Miles Davis, I can’t get enough of his stuff.  “Kind of Blue” is without a question one of my all time favorite albums in any genre. Throughout college I would frequently put it on while writing a paper, or just as I was going to bed.  I have also gotten really big into Pat Matheny, John Coltrane, Sun Ra (whose Arkestra I got to see live a few years ago), Dave Brubeck, Wynton Marsalis, and several others.  Jazz is great, I love the stuff.  Just the other night I was out at a bar that had some live Jazz playing, it was quite wonderful (and took my mind off the fact that the drinks I ordered were really expensive).

I think part of what I really like about Jazz is the way it challenges me.  While I am a big lover of music, I am not in any way musically talented myself.  I know what I like to listen to but I cannot really claim to have a strong musical ear.  My mother and father have both on occasions said how they think that all Jazz sounds the same, which I will admit, I can see as being easy to say if one doesn’t listen to it regularly enough.  But that is part of what I love about Jazz.  The first time I hear a piece of music in the genre I might just think, “oh, here is some Jazz music.”  It is not until I really take the time to listen to an artist or a piece that I am really able to notice the uniqueness and subtlety of it.  I suppose all music is like this to a degree but to me it seems like Jazz has such levels and degrees that one can encounter with some serious listening.  Gillespie is different than Armstrong is different than Davis is different than whoever else you want to stick into the equation.  Sure maybe they all have effected and inspired one another in different ways, sure they all play in the genre called Jazz, but it is all unique and wonderful and awesome.  The fun, for me is finding these differences and seeing how they create a newness to the music.  Essentially, someday, I would like to be able to listen to Jazz recordings historically to really hear the influences and changes over the years, of course finding the time to do such a venture isn’t really all that easy.

I think pretty much all genres of music are great in their own ways.  Further I think it is important to experience the differing types of music that exist because music is such an important part of all human culture.  If you have not listened to much Jazz yourself I’d strongly urge checking some out.  Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue” is one I’d suggest putting in the old stereo or the CD player in your car, it is absolutely fantastic.  

~Nathaniel

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Tags: classic rock, jazz, listening to music, Miles Davis, music, music genres

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