WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED JAZZ?
Greetings and salutations!
I'm a Jazz fan, okay. Don't know all about Jazz. What I do know what I like, and that's about the extent of it. I also know that Jazz has payed a lot bills in in my household!
My experience with Jazz began when I was a little girl. I knew when Daddy was home from work. I'd hear him whistling tunes by who my mother said were tunes by Charlie Parker. My parents listened to Jazz. I heard that music in the house all the time. My moms would throw house parties. Their friends would show up, pass around ceremonial beverages, tell tall tales, cut a rug, and listen to Jazz.
I'll always remember my Mother, and Daddy doing the cha-cha in the living room to "Tenderly" by The Three Sounds. Somehow those Gene Harris licks burned impressions into my little brain. I could not have been more than five years old! I remeber Gene Harris' solos to this very day. I'd hear songs like "Let's Fall In Love" by Ahmad Jamal, Sarah, Art Blakey, and Daddy always sang songs to me like, "Moody's Mood" by Eddie Jefferson and "Oop-bop sha-bam ga-ooga mop". Daddy could tell some crazy-mad stories about Miles Davis. I was thinkin' to myself', Boy! I can't wait to get grown, so I can see and hear Miles Davis in concert! So, that was my intro to Jazz. I'd like to mention, by time I heard Miles in concert, to my surprise, he was not the Miles Davis musically, that my father once knew.
As a teenager, I got hip to the likes of Return To Forever, ( my first Jazz concert) Weather Report (who changed my world), Mahavishnu Orchestra, Billy Cobham, Herbie, and my hero of all time, Tony Williams. With excitement, I would take records home that I bought from the record store where I worked, so that my parents could see that I was carrying on the legacy of Jazz that they had passed on to me.
When my Mother heard what I was listening to, she was like, "Wha-at? Girl... How you listen to that noise, I just don't know. You call that Jazz?" Ma-an, my feelings were hurt. I figured I'd let Daddy, who is a pretty cool cat, listen to my new sounds. Daddy said, "girl, that ain't Jazz! That there that you're lsitening to, that's what I call crash bang music."
I was driving to work one day. Listening to the NPR station heard in the town I live in. I heard a song that took me back, the days in my parents' living room. Immediately, I jumped up, and called the Dee-Jay on the phone. I said, "you really hit me where I live when you played that Jazz record! Who and what it was?" The DJ snapped at me, "well, that's not what I would call Jazz but its a song called "Cast Your Fate To The Wind" by Vince Guaraldi." I said, "you mean the guy who plays piano on all the Charlie Brown cartoons?" Sho' nuff... It was him. And that very same song that I heard in my parents' living room a long time ago, I sang Vince's piano solos note for note, as if I had just heard it.
As a music lover, I've played many types of Jazz. When I say played, I mean in the sense of playing records. I worked at a small club as a Dee-Jay, that's how I got my start as a radio announcer. I felt it was my duty to share with the after work crowd known as The Dawgs, (which stands for The Daily After Work Guzzling Society) some of the Jazz favorites that any and everybody should know. John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonius, and the like. After a while a young sistah came to the dee-jay booth and said, "why are you playing that music? I'm about to start cryin' in my beer, and I don't even drink! Why don't you play Kenny G, Alex Bougnon, and some Kim Pencil?"
Lawd have mercy...
Now, according to my tastes, I was stretchin' it, by playing Ronnie Laws, Grover Washington, Dexter Wansel, you know cats of that ilk. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I don't like those artists, or insinuating that those artists are not good. They all are geat artists in their own right. I will say, those artists do not reflect my tastes in Jazz. Diff'rent strokes...
Jazz means different things to many different people. For decades, Jazz has lended itself to many musical styles. Let's see... Asian Jazz, Avant-Garde, Be-Bop, Big Band, Cool and Free Jazz, Latin, Brazilian Jazz, Hard and Post Bop, Swing, Traditional, Modern, Vocal, Fusion, Jazz Hip-Hop, Ska-Ska Jazz (WTH?), Elevator Jazz, Jazz Funk, West Coast Jazz and, Smooth Jazz. The list goes on.
To add to the many styles of Jazz, there seems to be a musical divide between what is Jazz and is not. I've had young lions tell me, "Oh, don't even mention Hip-Hop or Smooth Jazz to the Modern, or traditionalists." I've had older cats tell me that they don't even want to be in the same room with those who are not considered to be of the Jazz "elite". Which leads to a whole nuther (if you will) discussion! I wonder, as Jazz artists, musicians, educators, fans and what not, can we all just get along?
No matter how you define Jazz, reaching out and passing on the tradition of Jazz, and the continued growth of the Jazz audience amongst a broader and younger generation is imperative! In the mean time, you tell me... What is this thing called Jazz?
I'm a Jazz fan, okay. Don't know all about Jazz. What I do know what I like, and that's about the extent of it. I also know that Jazz has payed a lot bills in in my household!
My experience with Jazz began when I was a little girl. I knew when Daddy was home from work. I'd hear him whistling tunes by who my mother said were tunes by Charlie Parker. My parents listened to Jazz. I heard that music in the house all the time. My moms would throw house parties. Their friends would show up, pass around ceremonial beverages, tell tall tales, cut a rug, and listen to Jazz.
I'll always remember my Mother, and Daddy doing the cha-cha in the living room to "Tenderly" by The Three Sounds. Somehow those Gene Harris licks burned impressions into my little brain. I could not have been more than five years old! I remeber Gene Harris' solos to this very day. I'd hear songs like "Let's Fall In Love" by Ahmad Jamal, Sarah, Art Blakey, and Daddy always sang songs to me like, "Moody's Mood" by Eddie Jefferson and "Oop-bop sha-bam ga-ooga mop". Daddy could tell some crazy-mad stories about Miles Davis. I was thinkin' to myself', Boy! I can't wait to get grown, so I can see and hear Miles Davis in concert! So, that was my intro to Jazz. I'd like to mention, by time I heard Miles in concert, to my surprise, he was not the Miles Davis musically, that my father once knew.
As a teenager, I got hip to the likes of Return To Forever, ( my first Jazz concert) Weather Report (who changed my world), Mahavishnu Orchestra, Billy Cobham, Herbie, and my hero of all time, Tony Williams. With excitement, I would take records home that I bought from the record store where I worked, so that my parents could see that I was carrying on the legacy of Jazz that they had passed on to me.
When my Mother heard what I was listening to, she was like, "Wha-at? Girl... How you listen to that noise, I just don't know. You call that Jazz?" Ma-an, my feelings were hurt. I figured I'd let Daddy, who is a pretty cool cat, listen to my new sounds. Daddy said, "girl, that ain't Jazz! That there that you're lsitening to, that's what I call crash bang music."
I was driving to work one day. Listening to the NPR station heard in the town I live in. I heard a song that took me back, the days in my parents' living room. Immediately, I jumped up, and called the Dee-Jay on the phone. I said, "you really hit me where I live when you played that Jazz record! Who and what it was?" The DJ snapped at me, "well, that's not what I would call Jazz but its a song called "Cast Your Fate To The Wind" by Vince Guaraldi." I said, "you mean the guy who plays piano on all the Charlie Brown cartoons?" Sho' nuff... It was him. And that very same song that I heard in my parents' living room a long time ago, I sang Vince's piano solos note for note, as if I had just heard it.
As a music lover, I've played many types of Jazz. When I say played, I mean in the sense of playing records. I worked at a small club as a Dee-Jay, that's how I got my start as a radio announcer. I felt it was my duty to share with the after work crowd known as The Dawgs, (which stands for The Daily After Work Guzzling Society) some of the Jazz favorites that any and everybody should know. John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonius, and the like. After a while a young sistah came to the dee-jay booth and said, "why are you playing that music? I'm about to start cryin' in my beer, and I don't even drink! Why don't you play Kenny G, Alex Bougnon, and some Kim Pencil?"
Lawd have mercy...
Now, according to my tastes, I was stretchin' it, by playing Ronnie Laws, Grover Washington, Dexter Wansel, you know cats of that ilk. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I don't like those artists, or insinuating that those artists are not good. They all are geat artists in their own right. I will say, those artists do not reflect my tastes in Jazz. Diff'rent strokes...
Jazz means different things to many different people. For decades, Jazz has lended itself to many musical styles. Let's see... Asian Jazz, Avant-Garde, Be-Bop, Big Band, Cool and Free Jazz, Latin, Brazilian Jazz, Hard and Post Bop, Swing, Traditional, Modern, Vocal, Fusion, Jazz Hip-Hop, Ska-Ska Jazz (WTH?), Elevator Jazz, Jazz Funk, West Coast Jazz and, Smooth Jazz. The list goes on.
To add to the many styles of Jazz, there seems to be a musical divide between what is Jazz and is not. I've had young lions tell me, "Oh, don't even mention Hip-Hop or Smooth Jazz to the Modern, or traditionalists." I've had older cats tell me that they don't even want to be in the same room with those who are not considered to be of the Jazz "elite". Which leads to a whole nuther (if you will) discussion! I wonder, as Jazz artists, musicians, educators, fans and what not, can we all just get along?
No matter how you define Jazz, reaching out and passing on the tradition of Jazz, and the continued growth of the Jazz audience amongst a broader and younger generation is imperative! In the mean time, you tell me... What is this thing called Jazz?
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