How did you first get into Jazz?

[EdgarHF]

I have been trying to remember how I got into listening to jazz and I just can't remember. I know I bought my first jazz album around 1975. It was a Louis Armstrong album I no longer own and can not find on the internet. It was put out by Columbia and had Stardust and Black and Blue on the record. I must have had some interest in jazz already by then or I would not have bought the album.

My question is how did you first get into listening to jazz and what was the first jazz album you bought?

[ibobunot]

I was an avid watcher of Ralph Gleason's Jazz Casual.

Expanded my musical horizons in all kinda ways....

[sax4blues]

I played saxophone, get it... sax4blues, in junior and senior high school jazz band.

[kelnet]

My dad had a large jazz collection. I remember listening to Dave Brubeck, Gene Krupa, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Bessie Smith, and lots of Big Band stuff, even before I started school.
I think the first jazz album I bought was Time Out, by the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

[ibobunot]

The first jazz album I bought was Charles Lloyd - Forest Flower.

[Tim Bowen]

I'm a very late bloomer. My 70's were mostly spent in a small north Georgia town that, to be kind, wasn't very forward thinking as to the arts in general, and "jazz" was a dirty word. My friend Ken Lasaine (who grew up in, and resides in, southern California - and who I'm actually a bit older than), was listening to and digging every bit of Pat Martino's Consciousness in 1974. I'd read about Martino in my Guitar Player magazines, but I'd never heard him. I was barely aware of who Jeff Beck was in 1974. Within the next few years, I'd heard Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, and others, but I still wasn't sure what I was listening to. Nobody took me aside and said, "Listen up son, you need to check some Miles, Parker, Monk, and Mingus" until about 1979. At this point I started studying privately with a teacher that was a Berklee grad, and he turned my head around. We learned and analyzed lots of standards, and I went on to study with him for four years, and then I attended GIT in Los Angeles in 1984. The first time I ever played a jazz standard at a paying job was in 1986. I think the first jazz record I bought was For Django by Joe Pass.

[Mark Davis]

1st jazz album I bought for myself was Oscar Peterson but was exposed to jazz at an early age my Dad played clairnet so I got to listen to alot of good stuff.

[EdgarHF]

Originally Posted by Tim Bowen

I was barely aware of who Jeff Beck was in 1974.

I saw Jeff Beck along with Mahavishnu Orchestra in concert in 1975 at the LA Forum, but I didn't think of them as jazz at the time.

[Dan German]

My parents had jazz albums in the house, but it wasn't a constant presence or anything. But I started taking guitar lessons at 16 from Al Racketti. His knowledge of pre-war jazz and blues was mind-boggling, and he became my hero. Still don't like most jazz from the late '50s on though.

[Telarkaster]

My first taste would have to have been this:





My favourite Vince Guaraldi piece was "Skating" from the Christmas special. This is a different version from a later special:



I found this version of Skating that I absolutely love, check the guitar on this and the great drumming:



The thing is that I didn't even know that it was Jazz, I just knew that it was good music and that I liked it.

[Travis in BMore]

..jazz was playing on dad's hiFi. I guess I've always been into jazz- part of my childhood. I fondly remember the sound of Joe Pass and Grant Green beaming through the old Tannoy dual concentrics when I was a kid. I thought they were aliens! Ahhh....good memories. I still get warm and fuzzy when I hear Joe play.

[cdc3jj]

I heard metheny's travels sitting on a couch in a girl's house I was dating. Her younger brother was hanging out with us and playing their dads records. Hearing that album totally screwed up my life.

[emiller45]

Many of the old school country/western swing players I worked with in the early days were jazz oriented. I began to pick up on the sounds and some of the chord progressions from them. I bought a Chet Atkins album in the 60s that was all jazz standards. It blew me away.

Being primarily a "commercial" player my explorations into jazz have been more in the context of learning and improving my chops as opposed to something I specifically used on the gig every night.

[markothefish]

my Dad always had Big Band music playing in my house . I grew up hearing Benny Goodman,Les Brown and Duke Ellington as much as The Rolling Stones and Rock and Roll.

[catalankid]

Wes Montgomery was popular at the time I went to high school. I engineered at the school's radio station. Spun a lot of Wes. Couldn't help but like it. My favorite album was a day in the life, where he covered that Beatles tune. Very tasty. I played a Gibson Es 335 at the time and could almost nail his tone. I tried playing like he did with my thumb, playing in his octaves style. It satisfied me then to be able to play just a few bars of his stuff.

[BlueJim]

My mother had three Dave Brubeck albums. I must have listened to those a thousand times each between the ages of 12 and 16. It took hearing some Oscar Peterson trio stuff to start to realize that jazz wasn't always played in odd meters.

[OutlawSteph1975]

My dad had Take Five. I guess it's that one jazz album that a lot of non-jazz fans had as he didn't have any others, but that doesn't diminish it for me at all. I used to listen to it as a kid and still love it. I wish I'd learned more about jazz when I was younger.

[tiktok]

I'd say my first real jazz album was Kind Of Blue. I was eighteen or so, and thought it was time to try and acquire the taste, and I read some article that said that it was the easy way in to jazz. My first copy was on vinyl, and I remember trying to play along with some of the tracks that were mastered at the wrong speed and using the vari-speed on my turntable to nudge them a little closer to A440.

[stantheman]

Louis Armstrong.

[Eric Karonen]

Two things. One was a childhood friend named Mark, wise beyond his years, and he eventually became a high school teacher, and secondly, the free jazz concerts throughout the parks in Toronto, from trios to big bands in the 60s, something that should revived. Mark taught me about jazz, classical music, and literature.

We especially loved big bands in the day, listening to a transistor radio in a school yard, after dark, lying on a hillside, tuned to the local jazz station playing Glenn Miller et al staring at the stars.

Yep, I love jazz to this day.

[klasaine]

My dad was a jazz trumpet player (piano and bass too) and arranger.
I was defenseless in the matter .

*all the kids in my neighborhood listened to rock and pop and most of their parents were into country. I was digging on all that too. My pops was pretty good about NOT pitting one kind of music against another (though I know he thought most 'rock and roll' was crap). He was cool with me liking what ever I liked - he even bought me a copy of "Sgt. Peppers, Blow by Blow and Zoot Allures". I thank him every time I see him!

[flatout9]

I was playing in a band in school and a journalism teacher, who was jazz bassist, gave me a tape with Metheny and bunch of other players. I just remember Pat and was having good time listening to that. Then I went to North TX and had my a** handed to me. Good times though wonderful experiences.

[Wardpike]

I heard one sung line... "I'm not in love, but I'm open to persuasion." Anyone care to guess the name of the song and artist?

[Wardpike]

OK, so it wasn't really jazz but it opened my mind to it... and there I went.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTIs-TBwcbk

[flatout9]

Originally Posted by Wardpike

I heard one sung line... "I'm not in love, but I'm open to persuasion." Anyone care to guess the name of the song and artist?

Lets say Boy George. No, George Clinton from P-Funk, hmmm. I know it's Redd Volkaert.

[bingy]

I would have been 8 years old lying on my grandparents living room floor in my pj's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xex3CQS_vXQ

[beep.click]

Must have been Vince Guaraldi. I got some of the Charlie Brown CDs and Dave Brubeck's Take Five about the same time, so I'm not sure what my first album would have been.

[studio1087]

I played guitar in high school jazz band for 4 years. 1978-1982. We had a great bass player and a great keyboard player (the high school had a Fender Rhodes) and me on guitar (hack) and a great drummer. I sat in the rhythm section and read chord charts.

We played tons of jazz standards and some funky stuff at solo ensemble contests.

I was dating a horn player in the band. I was a music person in high school.

I also played guitar in jazz band in two years of college. The music selections got weirder. Lots of fun.

[slauson slim]

From my mom & dad. They played big band music around the house, told me about seeing Lady Day in NYC on their honeymoon, seeing Nat Cole and Benny Goodman in LA, and going to Johnny Otis's Club Alabam and Barrel House in LA. For a few years they also owned a nightclub in South Central that featured mambo, cha cha and salsa.

My cousin turned me on to Cal Tjader and Ahmad Jamal. There used to be an after midnight radio show in LA called Milestones in Jazz, and the theme song was Miles's "Milestones". First jazz LPs I bought were "Milestones" and "El Chico" by Chico Hamilton - with a sublime version of "People" by Gabor Szabo.

[Larry F]

When I was 15, I started learning jazz chords on the guitar, in preparation for the high school stage band. When I talked to the band director at the beginning of the year, he said he already had someone and to come back next year. I wish there had been an audition, because I might have made it. It made it seem boy's clubbish, which I did not dig one little bit. Fortunately, that director left and a new one came on board. I passed the audition for that. I made a lot of friends with the other guys in the band, all of whom turned me on to different records, Monk, Miles, Bird. Moved to a bigger city my senior year and managed to get into the local university jazz band, as well as the high school band. All of this opened more doors to jazz. I had seen the Cannonball Adderly Quintet the year before for a daylong seminar. The next year, in the big city, I saw Miles at the university I mentioned here. *****es Brew band. The following year, I took part in the National Stage Band Camp, and played again with the university band. That year, the band has a guest singer who hosted a jazz radio program. I loaned me a big pile of the jazz guitar greats, which I absorbed like a dry sponge. After that, I left school to gig full time. Became entranced with Larry Coryell, Chick Corea, Mahavishnu, Pat Martino. Met up with a bass player who would go out with me to sit in with people. We listened to records together and went to concerts, even driving 200 miles to hear Bill Evans. Around this time, Jerry Hahn wrote a column in Guitar Player listing the required listening of jazz: Ornette Coleman, Ben Webster, Charlie Christian, Lester Young, Bird, Billie Holiday, etc. I went out and managed to find each record in town. I didn't study them at all, instead my bass player friend would get stoned and listened to these and talk about each tune, usually as it was playing.

I had a lot of fun learning about jazz that way. I also read Guitar Player and Downbeat. Lots of fun.

[Slow Reflexes]

I've no real memory of what my first "jazz experience" would have been, but I suspect Peanuts might have been involved.

[AtlantaSpike]

I have been reading these comments with interest, because I was sure someone else experience would echo my own - apparently not. I was listening to rock and roll and got turned on to rockabilly by the Cramps around 1979. I went to their source material and got turned on to Eddie Cochran, Johnny Burnette trio, and other less famous, but no less talented guys. Listening to their source material put me on to black jump music from the 40's. From there, it was a short walk to Charlie Christian, Oscar Moore, and Django, which got me started on everything else. It was almost seamless, and I feel the same way emotionally about Kind Of Blue that I do about Baby Blue Eyes. Later, when I got to learn a little bit about Hank Garland and Jimmy Bryant, and virtually every guitarist I admired from the rockabilly era, it seemed only natural that they had done the same sort of thing - starting with hillbilly led to more sophisticated rockabilly, and they sought out earlier virtuosos to draw upon for inspiration. Scotty Moore and Merle Travis would talk about Lester Young with the same sort of reverence they held for Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith.

[olewichita]

when i was 14 i had learned most of cliff gallup's licks but didn't really know what to do with them... somebody took me aside and said for you to really move ahead and comprehend what you're playing you need to hear this guy charlie christian... he played me swing to bop and to this day i still feel charlie christian is the greatest, most naturally graceful guitar player that ever lived... it blew my mind and continues to do so... no matter how often i hear charlie his playing always sounds as fresh and new to me as the first time i ever heard it... tj

[brokenjoe]

I was about 17 or so. A neighborhood kid who played bass, and was studying music in college, kept mentioning 'Charlie Parker this', and 'Charlie Parker that.'

I went out and bought a double album of Parker's Dial, and Verve sides. It was like I had ventured to Mars, or something! I was way in over my head. To be honest, to my ignorant and jazz virginal ears, a lot of it sounded like jibberish to me.

But, for some reason this strange, and mystifying music kept pulling me back. Besides, I had spent $20. on the album!!! It took me years to full comprehend, and appreciate where those bop guys were coming from. But I eventually found myself humming along to 'A Night in Tunisia' and 'Yardbird Suite.'

[telechaser]

I've always love anything jazzy. I'm not really sure how I got into jazz.

[jazztele]

i was into the dead, allmans, lots of the jam bandy stuff in high school, and my teacher at the time said, "if you like to hear guys improvise, you should hear how THESE cats do it," and he gave me a copy of "kind of blue" on tape.

i wore that tape out over the next year, and it was all downhill from there! i'm pretty sure my senior year of high school i listened to ONLY miles davis. wasn't great for the social life when you pick a girl up for a date and you have dark magus blasting, but it started my jazz education, which i haven't and never plan on stopping...

[BlueJim]

Originally Posted by brokenjoe

To be honest, to my ignorant and jazz virginal ears, a lot of it sounded like jibberish to me.

That's funny. I think a lot of people must have a similar reaction to some music sometime in their life. The first Monk record I bought I could not make heads or tails of it as music. It took another 10 years before I could really enjoy Monk.

[EdgarHF]

Originally Posted by BlueJim

That's funny. I think a lot of people must have a similar reaction to some music sometime in their life. The first Monk record I bought I could not make heads or tails of it as music. It took another 10 years before I could really enjoy Monk.

I felt that way the first time I heard Kulu Se mama. It was the first Coltrane album I ever heard. At the time it sounded to me like so much honking and squeaking.

[Larry F]

Originally Posted by BlueJim

That's funny. I think a lot of people must have a similar reaction to some music sometime in their life. The first Monk record I bought I could not make heads or tails of it as music. It took another 10 years before I could really enjoy Monk.

The composer Milton Babbitt for me. The first time I heard Compositions for Synthesizer, I could just not get a handle on it, and I considered myself a relatively open-minded and somewhat educated person. A few years later, I heard it again and was floored by how strongly the composer communicated with me. The older I get, the more rare are those artistic experiences that make me go "huh?" On the one hand, I am glad that I have lived the life of the artist and scholar in such a way that I can feel communication going on, and that I have a context for understanding a new and unfamiliar work. On the other hand, I cherish the times in my life when I first encountered Hendrix, Good Vibrations, Babbitt, my wife.

[brokenjoe]

Originally Posted by BlueJim

That's funny. I think a lot of people must have a similar reaction to some music sometime in their life. The first Monk record I bought I could not make heads or tails of it as music. It took another 10 years before I could really enjoy Monk.

I can see that with Monk. Fortunately -in my case- I had a bit of understanding of what to expect with his music before I heard it.