What was the tune that made you a jazz fan?

Jazzpunk · #1 03-18-2011, 02:51 AM

What was the first tune or album that caught your ear and started you on the path to becoming a jazz fan?

His Hollowness · #2 03-18-2011, 03:57 AM

jeffroi · #3 03-18-2011, 04:04 AM

23skidoo · #4 03-18-2011, 05:59 AM

When I was twelve, my dad borrowed a coworker's car. The guy was Italian, from the northeast, I thought he was a gangster, lol..... this was in the tape deck. I still listen to this all the time - a little bit of cheese, but later CB at his best....

Stian41 · #5 03-18-2011, 06:47 AM

As seems logical to me, it started with something "light".

I don't know if any of you have heard about Norwegian jazz singer Silje Nergaard, but I love her music. It's really "easy" jazz to listen to, and beautiful tunes.

Anyway, the song that got me into jazz was her version of This Is Not America, my dad used to play it. I still consider it one of the prettiest songs I know.

pingu · #6 03-18-2011, 07:18 AM

The Sax Bass Drums blues jam off the end of 'The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines' off the Shadows and Light album

Jaco was great on that blues

hot ford coupe · #7 03-18-2011, 08:43 AM

Oh wow. I don't know if I can remember back that far but I think it started with big band stuff. Having been born in 1950 (old fart), big band jazz wasn't that old and as soon as I heard it, (I think I was about 7) 50's rock and roll went out the window. Then when I was 18, my bass teacher got me into a quartet where the guys played some jazz. I was hooked. I think the first true album I really heard was Night Train by Oscar Peterson with Ray Brown and Herb Ellis. Ray Brown became my bass idol, but later, Joe Pass and Barney Kessel became my guitar idols.

Stackabones · #8 03-18-2011, 09:26 AM

Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now) -- I first heard it on Van Halen's Diver Down.

YouTube Video

It took me years to realize that David Lee Roth was updated 80s version of Louis Prima. That's Eddie Van Halen's father on clarinet.

mr. beaumont · #9 03-18-2011, 09:48 AM

Cliche as it is, it was "So What."

But it took hearing Grant Green's "Selma March" about a year later to think playing jazz guitar was something I could actually do...

Flyin' Brian · #10 03-18-2011, 09:48 AM

There were two:

markerhodes · #11 03-18-2011, 10:50 AM

Two records I chanced upon. One was a compilation that opened with Clifford Brown playing "Cherokee." I loved that and played it over and over; finally, my younger brother got mad, yanked the record off the stereo and threw it against the wall--it broke. (That was a *thick* album.)
The other was The Les McCann Ltd plays "The Shout," a live set in a small club with Roy Haynes on drums.

paynow · #12 03-18-2011, 10:54 AM

"End Of A Love Affair" from this recording.

bako · #13 03-18-2011, 12:06 PM

Some of my earliest favorites.

John Coltrane "A Love Supreme"----"Sun Ship"
Eric Dolphy "Out To Lunch"
Sonny Rollins "Freedom Suite"
Charles Mingus "Better Get It In Your Soul"----"Ecclusiastics"
Rahsaan Roland Kirk "Bright Moments"

hot ford coupe · #14 03-18-2011, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyin' Brian

There were two:

The Johnny Smith stuff didn't make me want to play jazz. It made me want to throw out my guitar and never touch another one again. He completely blew me away with his incredible precision, tone and close voicings. When I heard that Barney Kessel called Johnny Smith the best guitarist he ever heard, I actually became inspired instead of discouraged. Smith was simply in another class. Wait. Change that from another class to another galaxy.

I'm also glad to see someone else choose Organ Grinder's Swing besides me. It's a great album.

pierre richard · #15 03-19-2011, 07:26 AM

Midnight Blue....Kenny Burrell

Time on the instrument...pierre

brad4d8 · #16 03-19-2011, 07:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hot ford coupe

Oh wow. I don't know if I can remember back that far but I think it started with big band stuff.

Big Band did it for me, too. I grew up with a small 78 rpm record player in my room and had my mother's big band records interspersed with my little red and yellow kids records. Arite Shaw and Bennie Goodman along with the Andrews sisters and a few others hit me hard. Like many others of my age, this was put on the back burner when Elvis hit the scene. Still listen to Big Band classics a lot, only widh they had more guitar solos.

Brad

barrymclark · #17 03-19-2011, 08:30 AM

My love for jazz come from a silly place. haha. When I was a kid, I saw Steve Martin's All of Me. The tune that was played throughout the movie, All of Me, hooked me; however, I didn't really jump in with both feet until I was in my thirties.

docbop · #18 03-19-2011, 11:06 AM

I had a bad Jazz experience at first being a rock/blues guy and a Jazz player I knew started playing me "Jazz". He was playing me all this Free Jazz and Free Improv stuff and that was noise to me. Later hanging out at the local music store with friends a Jazz sax player we knew fell by and convinced us to go to a Jazz club that he gananteed would change our minds about Jazz. We all went and it was Legendary Jazz organist Jimmy Smith with Phil Upchurch on guitar and a drummer. Dam that was funky and we were all sold on Jazz after that.

Soco · #19 03-19-2011, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stian41

As seems logical to me, it started with something "light".

I don't know if any of you have heard about Norwegian jazz singer Silje Nergaard, but I love her music. It's really "easy" jazz to listen to, and beautiful tunes.

Anyway, the song that got me into jazz was her version of This Is Not America, my dad used to play it. I still consider it one of the prettiest songs I know.

I hope you know that Pat Metheny wrote that tune. David Bowie has performed it, long before Silje.

smdantas · #20 03-19-2011, 04:07 PM

I was a classical and rock n roll fan until one day I listened to Duke Ellington's Caravan. Since then, I am a jazz enthusiast, more than everything else.

cosmic gumbo · #21 03-19-2011, 05:42 PM

When Buckwheat got done collecting his paper route money, we went over to Wild Willie's House of Vinyl and asked Willie to lay something cool on us. We raced back home on our bikes to throw it on the turntable, and an hour later we were in the backyard shooting Jimi Hendrix records with our BB guns. Next thing I know, we were listening to Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis and Eric Dolphy...talk about a "gateway" album...

tonedeaf · #22 03-19-2011, 08:35 PM

"Scotch and Soda" by the Kingston Trio
"Mac the Knife" by Bobby Darrin

Maybe not jazz, but different enough to put it in my head that there was a better world than the pop fluff being played at the time.

I suppose that Jobim's "Wave" is what really got me going.

kenbennett · #23 03-19-2011, 09:35 PM

I don't remember ever not being a jazz fan.

Flyin' Brian · #24 03-19-2011, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tonedeaf

"Scotch and Soda" by the Kingston Trio
"Mac the Knife" by Bobby Darrin

Maybe not jazz, but different enough to put it in my head that there was a better world than the pop fluff being played at the time.

I suppose that Jobim's "Wave" is what really got me going.

Two GREAT calls. I remember how much I liked both of those and it was definitely the pocket that they both had compared to the usual stuff of the day.

Stian41 · #25 03-20-2011, 04:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soco

I hope you know that Pat Metheny wrote that tune. David Bowie has performed it, long before Silje.

Yes, I'm aware of that

I guess Nergaard picked it up when she worked with Pat Metheny.

-Stian

msr13 · #26 03-20-2011, 05:46 AM

My teacher taught me What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life, and I was hooked on standards. Then my father bought me a Jim Hall Album-- I actually forget which one now, but that was it. I was into jazz.

invisible pink unicorn · #27 03-20-2011, 10:03 AM

YouTube Video

This got me into jazz, and it started my wish to be able to play jazz piano.

Marcel · #28 03-20-2011, 02:11 PM

Some people will say it's not "real jazz". Between playing this and sitting outside the club Sunday nights listening to the local players at the age of 15, I was hooked. I also realized how many different styles there were that are called Jazz. Unfortunately by the time I hit 21 the Jazz clubs around here were gone. I still love that album.

jazzbow · #29 03-21-2011, 03:04 PM

I guess the tune that got me 'aware' of jazz was Louie Armstrong's track 'High Society' from the film of the same name. Now I was eight and I found me mum had that track on 78 along with Benny Goodman at carnigie hall on 33. Then I found some MJQ 45's. Wow! Then punk happened which really spoke to me as I had also discovered mums Elvis, Buddy Holly and Gene Vincent, so rock and roll was king! What brought me back was 'Birds of Fire' album with John McGlaughlin then the sucker punch from 'Midnight Blue' and Mr Kenny Burrell!

amhabz · #30 03-24-2011, 01:03 PM

Art van Damme, Accordion a la mode. Leon Sash's Scooby dobbie do (I think that was the name) about 1959 I was about 12. Kept studing classicals but started down another path. It helped to have a teacher that was a Andy Rizzo student himself. Studied Bach 2 and 3 part inventions for piano and clavicord and played Misty at the same time.