Blog

Alright.

The first jazz CD I ever bought was A Love Supreme. In some ways, I wish it wasn't because it totally ruined me. It spoiled me. It spoiled me rotten. For the longest time until I took a jazz appreciation class, that was jazz to me. I listened to a few other people during this time, most notably Miles Davis (Kind of Blue actually got me into jazz), Wes Montgomery (Smokin' at the Half Note was the start of my Wynton Kelly fixation), and Ornette Coleman (Shape of Jazz to Come was also one of the first CDs I bought), but nothing touched me quite like A Love Supreme. Later, when I was in that jazz appreciation class, I realized the damage of hearing stuff like A Love Supreme, Ascension, and Free Jazz before I heard the masters. I couldn't take the old stuff on its own merits. It was like I was driving a Porsche my whole life and you suddenly dropped me in a Model-T. Yeah, I could appreciate it when I took it into context, but it's not how I liked to get around town. To this day, minus Django, Bean, Prez, Tatum, Ellington and a few others, I have a really hard time listening to stuff that's pre-bop. That doesn't mean that certain things don't have an impact. I still remember hearing West End Blues for the first time and being floored, but I didn't have the right mindset. It wasn't, "Wow, so this is jazz!" it was more of a, "So this is jazz before Trane, eh?" I didn't go through the growing pains that a lot of people in those classes have. Bird and Diz didn't throw me a loop because I had been digesting Giant Steps for a few years before. What am I getting at? Well, amazing music is amazing music. A good Ellington song isn't going to be soured just because I listen to Mingus before hand, but I feel with some music there's a certain order to how you should listen to things. You'd be better off for it. For example, I have a real hard time listening to Scream Bloody Gore by Death because I spent so much time with Symbolic. I'm not saying it's not a death metal classic, I'm just saying that my perception of it has been colored by what I heard first. If you're listening to Death, it's better to start at the beginning and work your way up or you're missing a lot of great music, a lot of powerful music that will never hit you in the right way, the intended way, if you sampled something newer before it. I kind of feel that jazz is the same kind of deal. I wish I would've discovered A Love Supreme later because I would then have an easier time listening to Fletcher Henderson or Artie Shaw. All they are to me now are footprints on the path to Trane. A love supreme indeed.

You get what I'm getting at? Maybe not, it's late.