Jazz and me.
Feb. 10th, 2010 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fingsGrowing up, anytime I heard something that was described as "jazz", it was something I disliked. Years later, I realized that most of what I heard described that way was either "smooth jazz" (ugh) or some modern form, like free/cool/avante-garde. Still, the association stuck, and I steered clear of anything labeled "jazz", even though there was plenty of stuff out there I was listening to and enjoying; I just didn't realize it was jazz!
Like this, for example, from Sesame Street. (That was done by Turk Murphy's San Francisco Jazz Band.) Or Disney's Jungle Book -- Louis Prima is the King of the Swingers, for crying out loud!
Still, the light was slow to go on. One of the key events was at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
1cmf and onecrazymother's wedding reception. They played a lot of old time stuff, including Louis Armstrong, and I was grooving on it. Much of it was familiar, stuff I had heard in bits and pieces over the years, but all together it had an impact.
My interest really started expanding in the early 2000's, back when emusic still offered unlimited download subscriptions. That really encouraged experimental listening. I rediscovered Louis Armstrong in a big way, along with Cole Porter, Louis Jordan, Cab Calloway and a host of others. Ken Burns's Jazz was a big help too, exposing me to a more organized history of the subject.
Now I look forward to listening to Hot Jazz Saturday Night every week (usually sometime during the following week via streaming from the website, or downloaded to my mp3 player.) I like most jazz from the first half of the 20th C, and traditional and dixieland stuff from after that, plus a smattering of other stuff. I've gotten into swing music, crooners, and big band. I've even been listening to Sinatra with a new ear, which is tough after living in Hoboken for so long.
Intermixed with all this has been my exploration of other jazz-age related art forms, such as Jeeves and Wooster, the art of George Barbier and John Held, Jr., and art deco architecture.
I leave you with a song I discovered today, while trying to find out where the phrase "vo-do-de-o" and its variants arise: Crazy Words, Crazy Tune. (Not the origin of the phrase, but popularized it. You hear it everywhere; a version even shows up in Rubber Duckie.)
Like this, for example, from Sesame Street. (That was done by Turk Murphy's San Francisco Jazz Band.) Or Disney's Jungle Book -- Louis Prima is the King of the Swingers, for crying out loud!
Still, the light was slow to go on. One of the key events was at
1cmf and onecrazymother's wedding reception. They played a lot of old time stuff, including Louis Armstrong, and I was grooving on it. Much of it was familiar, stuff I had heard in bits and pieces over the years, but all together it had an impact. My interest really started expanding in the early 2000's, back when emusic still offered unlimited download subscriptions. That really encouraged experimental listening. I rediscovered Louis Armstrong in a big way, along with Cole Porter, Louis Jordan, Cab Calloway and a host of others. Ken Burns's Jazz was a big help too, exposing me to a more organized history of the subject.
Now I look forward to listening to Hot Jazz Saturday Night every week (usually sometime during the following week via streaming from the website, or downloaded to my mp3 player.) I like most jazz from the first half of the 20th C, and traditional and dixieland stuff from after that, plus a smattering of other stuff. I've gotten into swing music, crooners, and big band. I've even been listening to Sinatra with a new ear, which is tough after living in Hoboken for so long.
Intermixed with all this has been my exploration of other jazz-age related art forms, such as Jeeves and Wooster, the art of George Barbier and John Held, Jr., and art deco architecture.
I leave you with a song I discovered today, while trying to find out where the phrase "vo-do-de-o" and its variants arise: Crazy Words, Crazy Tune. (Not the origin of the phrase, but popularized it. You hear it everywhere; a version even shows up in Rubber Duckie.)
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no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 04:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 01:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 03:23 pm (UTC)Somewhat humorously I was on the sidelines during a rather sound trashing of the Burns' documentary in a music forum. Once Marsalis's name got tossed in the ring all hell broke loose.
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Date: 2010-02-11 05:41 pm (UTC)As far as people trashing the documentary, I highly doubt *anyone* could make a <20 hour documentary on the history of jazz that would get approval of >40% of jazz fans and critics. Music fans love to slag other people (you favorite band sucks), and anything made is by necessity going to have omissions and simplifications, as well as the occasional mistake. But I have to say I liked it; it gave me a framework to work with and a basic understanding to build from, that I did not have before.
I'm fine with other people loving bebop or hating big band or whatever, it's just for me, the "newer" stuff doesn't click the same way the older stuff does.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 06:54 pm (UTC)The biggest complaint with Burns' documentary is that he practically ignored jazz's evolution post 1960. One thing I've learned during my jazz exploration of the past few years is that the dividing lines between fans of different eras and forms are very strong. Unfortunately Burns took a side and it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. But I just noticed half of it is on Netflix watch instantly. Might just queue it up.
Do you listen to Mingus? He seems to me to be the natural progression from the dixieland era, so I wonder what someone with your tastes thinks. Also, if you're still on eMusic you should probably check out Archive of American Popular Music (http://www.emusic.com/album/Various-Artists-Archive-Of-American-Popular-Music-1895-1927-MP3-Download/11463371.html) - it's also on Amazon for a decent price.
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Date: 2010-02-11 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 10:38 pm (UTC)http://www.danzanes.com/houseparty/song_washington.shtml
I grew up listening to some of the sorts of Jazz and Big Band that I like these days -- listening to my grandparents' records, or going to local free concerts with my parents -- but a lot more of it I picked up in late high school and early college -- absorbing the musical tastes of the first guy I dated. And a lot of it seemed to be a natural progression from the era of Broadway shows I particularly liked (Cole Porter, mostly, yeah). But because my dad's Jazz records were all relatively modern (as of the 70s) experimental things (not my style), and I was encountering the stuff I *did* like in a vacuum (picked at random out of the rest of my grandmother's collection, for example), with no idea of when it had been recorded or what label other folks would file it under, it never occurred to me to look under "Jazz" for more of what I liked -- not until really embarrassingly recently...