What got you into jazz?

It's interesting that we ask this about "jazz" ... I was never into "something" in music ... I started with classical music way before I even heard the Beatles and Rolling Stones, and already knew some of the famous names in pop music, and jazz/neojazz (songs with the airy/jazzy feel and Brazilian beat) in Brazilian music. 

To me, at 15 years old, it was all about how far out MUSIC was, and the different this and that made no difference.

I came away from the "Progressive" folks for the most part, because the locations these days are being frequented by folks that have not heard "artists" and do not seem to appreciate folks that have been at it for 50 years, and then immediately consider them not good, because they like their thrashing, or their growl, or that one that is on top of all the lists.

And sadly, in my opinion (not necessarily a fact!!!), the folks that work every day in there are not capable of helping steer those youngsters into what "progressive" means ... and then you get a lot of thread created that ... sadly ... diminish the value of a lot of music and specially ITS HISTORY.

I came here, because it lists things, but won't rank/rate them, so you can listen at your own ... and not worry about anything else ... and unlike the sister location, there is a string need here to make sure you see the listings of things ... AND IT'S ALL OVER THE WORLD ... not just in two places. IN this area the folks in charge are not willing, or capable of steering things away from the commercial side of the numbers and rankings, and help the music, specially the new stuff from other countries and places ... and I am glad to see this much more open here on JMA ... and I started, posting reviews here because, it seems more valuable than in the other place, where no one takes a look at reviews, and half of them need to be removed ... because they aren't reviews ... they are fans' ... trying to get a better number for their favorite band! 

Hi,

Given my experience in theater and directing in film, there is a side of the whole thing that I tend to consider is beyond "jazz" or whatever we end up calling ... some examples would be Picasso, changing all the time, as he got bored with pink, and then bored with blue and bored with broken pieces of glass (cubism), and he would find something else to do, and DID. 

My take, after that Miles special was that he could do this in any kind of musical world, but the rock folks were married and jailed to melody and lyrics, and you couldn't do much there because of it, in terms of allowing a person to express themselves ... there i s no room for expression behind the lyrics or one melody that controls the "song", and at least, within the jazz folks, it was not about a "song", but about the MUSIC, which was now being investigated when folks noticed that Miles, and other contemporaries were free forming all over the place ... in other words, for me, as an experimental artist, you create another "something" that is not always possible to describe, and only seems to fit here or there somewhere, because it is where we heard it.

An example ... the Theater Director Peter Brook wrote in one of his books (the one about language, I think) that he directed Keith Michell in King Lear, and there are some important bits in there, and one that stands out is a repetitive series of words ... and Peter specified that in over 200 different performances Keith never one said the same line the same way ... I kinda think that it was "defined" by Keith about the specific feeling at that moment, which would not ... more than likely ... be the same every day, and an actor/musician sensitive to those moments would no doubt find a way to express the line and character without being repetitive or boring. I think that Miles would have done, and did, a lot of different things at many times and places within the music ... he just painted whatever was in front of him ... and this "style" of expression was already in motion in film, theater and literature, and only music, with its link to films, lagged because it had made a play for one thing only ... and the odd expressions, for a long time, were not appreciated ... but all of a sudden, Miles found a place for it, and it took off ... but it is not, I don't think, an exclusive thing to Miles ... the theater experiences and experiments of the 50's and then 60's were just as far out and wild as Miles was ... in a completely different form, which eventually got us what is known as "krautrock", which was originally 100% based on improvisation on stage .... which unfortunately is one thing that the majority of musicians are afraid of ... and the only thing you hear nowadays (in general) is the timing and its link to a style of some sort, a great example of how much folks DO NOT learn to express themselves, but are always ready to express/copy someone else ... the very "basic" of the arts we could say .... a good place to start and learn, but not a good place to stay in all your life ... folks will get bored really fast as is the case with the Internet "fans" dominating the music scenes.

I'm just glad to see "jazz" be appreciated ... but Miles individuality is something that many folks love to listen to, but I'm not sure that it is "connected" as to how he does it ... I kinda like to say that there is no learning here ... there is just doing, and not being afraid of being wrong or make a mistake ... and this is the place where most musicians stop ... the very moment that has the most possibilities is killed instantly ... and no one, would ever suggest that this did not happen with Miles ... it likely was where he found a lot of his moments and off he went ... musicians, in their "basic" ability can only count and follow someone ... and they think that one bad note is a problem ... and thus the bass stays with the drummer, and both are so high schoolish in the standards of progressive rock music that it is really sad, and you can see immediately that the talent for "expression" is not there and is likely not to get developed ... bring up the growl now!

ECM is the guilty pleasure ... though it started with sister having a couple of Keith Jarrett albums, and I heard The Koln Concert, and immediately got it. However, I was familiar with "Facing You", and that led to a few more purchases, as I found them in used bins at the time (1971 on).

When I saw an advert on MM for Ash Ra Tempel and Terje Rypdal, it finally sent me to a lot more ECM, and the same week, I got to hear Egberto Gismonti (No Caipira) and I knew that was for me ... and ended up following up some folks in the albums. David Darling was huge, after listening to EOS and some of that music was used in a film that won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, along with stuff from Jan Garbarek's album Eventyr. I had become familiar with Garbarek from the Symphony that Keith Jarrett put together for him.

I have not, exactly, kept track of the jazz side of things as I have with the progressive/experimental/electronic side of things ... when Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze were the primary purchases for my collection.

It wasn't until a few years ago, that I got to appreciate a lot of Miles Davis, which I was familiar with, but had not given it a good listen, until I saw a special on him on the internet ... which really helped me understand what he did and how ... he was the best "krautrocker" of them all .... and it is amazing that he doesn't seem to get enough credit for his wide open playing and expressions ... a massive rarity in music of any kind! And he did it live ... not on tape, or in today's words ... a DAW.

As thundercat (musician) reminds me...THEM CHANGES!!!!

Music itself is not the same as the advent of jazz created a multitude of rhythmic synchronizations rivaling language itself. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMQD3Bv5ZG4&t=1826s