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[jay-ell]

So, on a whim I put on last.fm's jazz station the other day (as I mentioned in another thread) and discovered that it played a huge catalog of songs that I have loved for years and years but never really collected together mentally in order to make the statement "I like jazz." It's weird, these are mainly songs I know by heart and adore, but I always wrote them off as stuff that I liked in spite of it falling outside my normal listening patterns (mainly classic rock). I guess I never thought of myself as the kind of person who would be into jazz -- white people who claim jazz as a favorite genre always seemed pretentious to me -- but here I am figuring out at the age of thirty that it's a part of who I am that I never took the time to put a label on before.

We can talk about jazz here if you want (apparently I was born a Chet Baker fan but never heard his name before Tuesday), but I'm also interested in knowing if anyone else has had a similar epiphany -- maybe your musical tastes have changed since you've gotten older, or maybe the image of a genre has changed while your tastes have stayed the same (like hearing Steppenwolf played on the "oldies" station). All of it interests me.

So who has a story?

[Nabubrush]

Blossom Dearie is my imagination wife.

[greenkoolayd]

i knew my life was over when they started playing pearl jam and green day on the 'classic rock' station.

[Choop]

i knew my life was over when they started playing pearl jam and green day on the 'classic rock' station.

not helping

[jay-ell]

i knew my life was over when they started playing pearl jam and green day on the 'classic rock' station.

Pearl Jam I can maybe see, because some of their old stuff dates back but...Green Day?

Wow, nevermind, I just Wiki'd both of them and found out that Pearl Jam dates back to 1990 (a couple of years later than I thought) and Green Day started in 1987 (they didn't hit my radar 'til 1995 or later). Strange.

[theinevitable]

wtf those bands.

the idea of "classic rock" bugs me enough without stations skipping over all the good stuff to play early 90s crap.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately: the fact that "Unsatisfied" by the Replacements is not played on every "classic rock" station, and isn't a song that every dad and son and sister and mother loves, is proof forever that people do not know what is good.

There are a lot of things where I can say "OK, sure, Pussy Galore isn't for you, that is fine. It isn't your thing, I like it, it's OK to disagree on this."

But that damn Replacements song belongs on Classic Rock radio. That is a Classic Song that anyone can enjoy as far as I am concerned.

It isn't even my favorite replacements song.

THE END OF THIS DAMN INTRO MAKES ME SHIVER.
Also that weird yell right before the guitar kicks in makes me think of Bruce.

[miles]

See I think that the term Classic Rock was invented to describe a very specific type and era of music, namely album rock from the 60s and 70s. It shouldn't shift. Music made in the 80s and 90s will never, by definition, be Classic Rock.

[jay-ell]

See I think that the term Classic Rock was invented to describe a very specific type and era of music, namely album rock from the 60s and 70s. It shouldn't shift. Music made in the 80s and 90s will never, by definition, be Classic Rock.

I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[theinevitable]

I am fine with that definition as long as people don't think that being "Classic Rock" makes something a rock music "classic."

[robot_god]

The Jazz World is a dangerous world that will transform you into a person who gets MAD when AC/DC comes on the radio.  Be warned, you may or may not like what you become.

Anyway, have you heard through these albums?  If not, doing a joint or a fat bowl and giving a listen should be anyone's priority:

Dave Brubeck - Time Out (the ripe fruit of cool jazz is like drinking sweet nectar)
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (the opening of Pandora's Box that influenced all music as we know it)
John Coletrane - A Love Supreme (a fitful prayer of anger and ecstacy culminate with an orgasm straight into the sky)



The last jazz show I went to was Ahmad Jamal at the Blue Note in the spring.  Great band he had.

[miles]

I am fine with that definition as long as people don't think that being "Classic Rock" makes something a rock music "classic."

Yes and no. I mean stuff originally played on Classic Rock radio was considered classic, and that's why they called it that. But really we're just talking about album rock from those two decades. It doesn't matter if you like it or not. And of course there is good rock made after that era that has become classic, but it's just not Classic Rock. Today it clearly doesn't mean that. It probably means something like "rock music made ~20 years or more before today that was popular in its time." My main thing is that Classic Rock isn't something that shifts with time. As soon as a Classic Rock station starts to play early 90s U2, it needs to be renamed. It could also be that I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about, and I'm OK with that.

John Coletrane - A Love Supreme (a fitful prayer of anger and ecstacy culminate with an orgasm straight into the sky)

That and The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady by Charles Mingus are my two favorite jazz albums. Two of my favorite any albums.

[jay-ell]

Yes and no. I mean stuff originally played on Classic Rock radio was considered classic, and that's why they called it that. But really we're just talking about album rock from those two decades. It doesn't matter if you like it or not. And of course there is good rock made after that era that has become classic, but it's just not Classic Rock. Today it clearly doesn't mean that. It probably means something like "rock music made ~20 years or more before today that was popular in its time." My main thing is that Classic Rock isn't something that shifts with time. As soon as a Classic Rock station starts to play early 90s U2, it needs to be renamed. It could also be that I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about, and I'm OK with that.

The local rock station here got around that by switching formats a couple of years back by playing both "classic" and "new" rock and calling themselves "96 Rock, EVERYTHING that ROCKS." I miss the old classic rock station, though -- they played a heavy dose of blues, too.

The Jazz World is a dangerous world that will transform you into a person who gets MAD when AC/DC comes on the radio.  Be warned, you may or may not like what you become.

Then my conversion was complete before it began. I hate all AC/DC except "You Shook Me (All Night Long)." Why that one? I don't know.

Anyway, have you heard through these albums?  If not, doing a joint or a fat bowl and giving a listen should be anyone's priority:

Dave Brubeck - Time Out (the ripe fruit of cool jazz is like drinking sweet nectar)
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (the opening of Pandora's Box that influenced all music as we know it)
John Coletrane - A Love Supreme (a fitful prayer of anger and ecstacy culminate with an orgasm straight into the sky)

Thanky, much obliged. I wish to heaven I could smoke a joint along with a listen, but since getting married that particular game of golf has been verboten to me.

[littlefallsmets]

I'm not that into jazz and I already get angry when AC/DC is on.

Not my thing.

[robot_god]

That and The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady by Charles Mingus are my two favorite jazz albums. Two of my favorite any albums.

My favorite Mingus album would probably be Pithecanthropus Erectus.  I did an electronic cover of the title track a bunch of years ago and ironically I just happened to listen to it for the first time in years on like Monday.

There was this note for note 8-bit cover of Kind of Blue called Kind of Bloop that was pretty fun.  But I never got the whole thing.

[theinevitable]

wait, wait, A Love Supreme?

I have never gotten as into A Love Supreme as I am into Giant Steps. Giant Steps, when I heard it, activated the part of my brain that was like WOOOO JAZZ.

the way he lays out the insane chord changes on Giant Steps and then just GOES OFF like some sort of insane jazzy bird?
YEAH.