What got you into jazz?

Jazz Band class in high school. But it wasn't just that in itself, mostly when we arranged combos one trimester and I realized how fun playing in a combo can be. The freedom of improvisation and communication. My friend did a really interesting arrangement of Freddy Freeloader that involved switching the feel from swing to latin to funk, which was recorded and I put on youtube, despite how much we sucked   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km6JVqpc85Y&feature=share&list=UUnMDBu3GIm317SHbaUa6T1A

Um, well don't say I didn't warn you

idlero wrote: I was bored listening again and again toi the same classic and prog music , I needed some new music to listen to, so I started to listen to jazz.

Where does your Dad teach?

Ha, you guys are close by, I'm in Memphis. Is South Miss in Jackson?

I've been through there many times, often as the turn off towards Mobile, stopped at a Mexican restaurant not long ago.

Don't remember now, they were playing some high speed techno-cumbia on the juke box, I was surprised to hear that in the south, it sounded more like something you'd hear on the west coast.

I play out almost every weekend in the Memphis and North Miss area, as well as the casinos in North Miss., its just local bar band music, RnB, funk, blues or rock depending on the band.

The first jazz record I ever heard that really connected with me (a hitherto inveterate Prog Rock and Post Punk fan) was a Best of Jimmy Smith compilation. It ain't that hard to unearth the attraction eg. Hammond organ being de rigueur in 70's prog, bop vocabulary assuaged by Blues inflections plus funky drums and Lalo Schifrin horn charts that require a change of clothing in the listener.  However, at many parties circa 1990 when I lived in London, the mention of Jimmy Smith was met with the rebarbative refrain that 'it's only blues' as though this invalidated the spirit of the music.

Hey ho, some things cannot be invalidated by description....

From what I can remember, my father played the Ramsey Lewis trio in the 60's. As a teen, I liked Earth Wind & Fire, who in the early days played improvised music. That makes sense because Maurice White was the drummer for a while in the Ramsey Lewis trio. I bought the Crusaders Street Life album and saw them at Carnagie Hall in 1980. I guess these were my early influences to jazz.


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