THE CLASSIC
Dave Brubeck's TAKE FIVE took me out of a rock and
pop world into jazz back in high school. I found a
jazz station on the dial and was hooked, though my
buddies barely tolerated it on my car radio.
I enjoyed being able to punch back and forth between say,
Satisfaction by the Stones and and Sidewinder by Lee Morgan. When they drove it was all Beatles, Stones,
Beach Boys, Dave Clark Five, etc. That was fine
but jazz held a special allure.
As a school kid I worked in the downtown area of Indianapolis as a "stringer" and gofer for the Indianapolis Times and as a board operator for a "fine music" FM station headquartered in an old hotel. Well the jazz station was on the top floor of another hotel that I passed on my commute. I'd stop by that hotel, buzz at the studio door and be ushered into warren of an album filled rooms.
"Look around kid, see what you like."
The DJ's were not like the
pop star jocks at the rock stations. These guys were older, both black and white, musicians themselves and
somewhat tickled that a white middle class kid
was hooked on jazz.
It all started when I first heard Brubeck's piano and Paul Desmond's sax.
So the Weekender :) wants you to dig it.
See you down the trail.
Beach Boys, Dave Clark Five, etc. That was fine
but jazz held a special allure.
As a school kid I worked in the downtown area of Indianapolis as a "stringer" and gofer for the Indianapolis Times and as a board operator for a "fine music" FM station headquartered in an old hotel. Well the jazz station was on the top floor of another hotel that I passed on my commute. I'd stop by that hotel, buzz at the studio door and be ushered into warren of an album filled rooms.
"Look around kid, see what you like."
The DJ's were not like the
pop star jocks at the rock stations. These guys were older, both black and white, musicians themselves and
somewhat tickled that a white middle class kid
was hooked on jazz.
It all started when I first heard Brubeck's piano and Paul Desmond's sax.
So the Weekender :) wants you to dig it.
I discovered jazz when my dad took me to a Louis Armstrong concert. I wavered between rock and dixieland jazz in high school. An older college friend introduced me to Brubeck and I couldn't stand him . . until I went to college. And the rest is . . . jazz!
ReplyDeleteI was born in the wrong era... I could listen to Brubeck all day and all night until the end of time.
ReplyDelete