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Most often associated with Reggae/Ska, cool enough, but this is the side of Ernest I was first (knowingly) exposed to:
Originally Posted by Peter C
Like this collab, too:
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09-30-2023 06:42 PM
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I remember my parents listening to George van Eps. It just sounded like schmaltz to me.
In high school, someone played Stanley Clarke’s School Days for me and I thought, “If this is jazz, I guess I like jazz.” Stanley led me to Chick Corea at I time when I thought of myself as a piano player. Then, at the same time as “Frampton Comes Alive” came out and made me start thinking about guitar, someone gave me “The Norman Granz Jam Sessions,” which got me listening to older, more acoustic jazz.
My dad played “Waiting for Benny” for me, and it was the first time I’d heard jazz and guitar at the same time. So I guess Charlie Christian was my jazz guitar gateway!
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Mary Halvorson.
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My friend Chris, as it happens. We used to play all kinds of stuff and I latched onto songs like Nuages and Georgia. Then this forum. If it wasn't for this place I'd probably still know nothing about jazz...
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For me, it was mostly Chet Atkins and Les Paul, other than my father. They were about the only identifiable guitar players on the radio, and radio was about all there was for us. Down in the county seat the drug store sold some records, but not much of a selection, just what was hot at the time, pop stuff, no jazz at all. I remember my father playing Benny Goodman Sextet/Septet 78rpm records, and I would ask him what instrument was playing. I was maybe 5 at the time, if that, and had never seen a musical instrument in real life other than his guitar. That's how I learned how instruments sound. There were also big band and western swing records in the house, and I listened to all of them. I didn't even hear of most of the jazz guitar greats until after college, other than Wes, who became a pop star. I still envy those who lived in big cities with live music everywhere and easy access to recordings and TV.
IMO the best guitar player Bob Wills ever had was Jimmy Wyble. His solos on Roly Poly and Fat Boy Rag still kill me. I had no idea who he was way back then, but I knew I really liked that sound.
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I preferred Junior Barnard, but yeah Wills always had great players. I found I could never suffer through Will's schtick "eeeeeee,aaahhhhh......ah-haaaaaa" enough to hear the players. The music was great, but the hillbilly schtick really rubbed me the wrong way. And I got nothin' against hillbillies- I come from rural Ohio and am a bit of a redneck myself. My dad was a hillbilly from Appalachia. But the Will's "routine" was just too slapstick for me. Originally Posted by sgosnell
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You don't have to like Wills, or anyone else. Listen to whoever you like. But he was huge in his day, back in the '40s. More people came to his performances than to Miller or Goodman's. Lots of people liked his 'schtick', and bought huge numbers of his records. Huge numbers of people buy tickets to Taylor Swift's concerts now, but I'm not one of them. Personal preferences are strange and varied, but they're all valid.
Late in his life Wills traveled with just Tag Lambert, in a van, and hired local musicians to play for the night. My parents went to see him one night, and seeing who had been hired, he said "I know those guys, and they can't play a lick. This will be bad". Once they were playing with Bob Wills, they became very good. He was somewhat amazed but enjoyed the night. Just Wills' presence made them better than they were. And like Ol' Waylon said, down here in Texas, Bob Wills is still the king. Even after all those years.
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Sgosnell is correct, the Texas Playboys were huge and I don't care if he's screaming like Yoko Ono (,well maybe that's a bit extreme
) but his band was chock full of great musicians.
I don't listen to him much anymore but I did plenty years ago especially when I was in my western swing phase and bought all the Tiffany Transcription lps. Dug all the guitar and steel players, especially Leon Mcaullife and Junior, and the twin guitars lineup plus Tiny Moore, they played some cool harmonies.
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Cool your jets, LOL. I KNOW I am "allowed" to not like someone. We are all just having a conversation here. And I highly doubt "more people listened to him [Wills] than Goodman or Miller." You can't make that statement without numbers to back it up. Both were hugely popular with their fan bases. Originally Posted by sgosnell
You'll note I did NOT disparage the music or talent in his band at all, on the contrary in fact. It was WILL's schtick I disliked. And yes I am "allowed" LOL. Just as you are "allowed" to like his hillbilly hootin' and hollerin'.
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I don't especially like or dislike it. I do like his music, especially the immediate post-war lineup of the Tiffany Transcriptions, with Tiny Moore, Herb Remington, and Eldon Shamblin, along with Joe Holley and others. Tiny Moore was a beast on 5-string electric mandolin, and had some breathtaking solos.
My jets aren't hot, so neither should yours be.
As for the numbers, they're in the newspapers of the day. You can believe as you wish.
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Yes, you're absolutely right but it's been really cool reading everyone's replies because some of our gateways were jazz saxophonists, vibes players, or rock guitarists or whatever! Originally Posted by ruger9
I can read into these replies a real sense of our community; where you were, musically-speaking, at the gateway; how old you might possibly be; what your parents were into, etc.
I also am new to knowing the exact parentage of "Walk Don't Run" but Hank Marvin was 99% of why I was holding any kind of guitar in the first place!
There's also a subtext around when people started to 'get' jazz, and I get that so much. In my '20s and '30s I may as well have tried to speak Swahili as understand how to play "jazzily". For the past 20 or so years I've collected a lot more jazz LPs than ever.
My jazz appreciation has gone right up; I feel it's a language I can understand a lot more now but still can't hold a conversation. That said, this weekend, I taught myself some rudimentary versions of A Taste of Honey, Idle Moments and Sleepwalk and a couple of others on my new guitar. (See exciting NGD thread for more details!) These are songs I know backwards so the challenge is somewhat diminished over trying unfamiliar stuff.
Keep 'em coming!
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Hearing Wes play 'Here's that Rainy Day' on Benny Green's Sunday afternoon show on BBC Radio 2.
Listening to Charlie Christian live at Minton's. As a young rock guitarist I remember being a bit puzzled when one of the other players suggested, 'Charlie, lets play the blues! Let's play the blues...in B'. When I began to play with horn players, I realised that B was a bit of a challenge, even for those guys.
Rory Gallagher's albums with Taste and his first two solo albums. Lots of jazz feel and he even played sax on some tracks.
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Irishmuso,
I've not heard Wes on BBC radio, just my albums. However, his "Here's That Rainy Day" is one of his very best, at least to me.
Tom
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The musician who suggested playing the blues in B was Johnny Guarnieri, the pianist. If you listen closely, somewhat later someone, I don't know who, asks "What the hell key is that?", and Johnny replies "B".
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Jim Hall, All Across The City
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Maybe some of you then I found myself.
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Lonnie Johnson, live. Django, on records.
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My first was Earl Klugh's jazz trio album, but then one day I heard Joe Pass playing "Stomping at the Savoy" from his Virtuoso Live album on the radio, and I was hooked for life.
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George Bensons’ Body Talk lp.
Read a review in either Downbeat or Guitar Player. Bought the LP and it is still one of my all time favorite Bensen lp.
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I had an interesting memory come to me yesterday. This wasn't my gateway. But it was the first jazz album I ever listened to. I found it looking through my dad's cd collection while in high school in the early 00s. It was a lot of mediocre 70s and 80s. I couldn't find much traditional jazz because I knew I wanted to investigate that. While listening to it, I knew the aesthetic was kind of weird, but I still thought it was pretty good. This was before I knew anything about jazz or music, I played electric bass to tabs.
Looking back on it with what I know now, I see it's from 91, early 90s 80s vibes, it's the music of Billy Strayhorn, the composer of A train, I know Joe Henderson is a great saxophone player, there's Wynton, and there's a teenaged Christian McBride sounding fully matured on the bass. Pretty interesting and random, but a nice album. It's the same personnel throughout the album but each track has a different combo of instruments.
My gateway was the local jazz station in San Diego, then I found Monk was my favorite after investigating some random musicians and some of the traditional gateway musicians like Miles.
Duo
Trio
Quartet
Quintet
Solo
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Rock Fusion led me to Scofield, which led me to Metheny and Frisell. From there I just started listening to jazz of every decade.
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Chunking, does it work for Jazz improv?
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