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Why can't I get all jazz

Here you've got Swing, Stride, Bebop, and Free Jazz all in one tune:

 
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Listen....
I like some jazz, some rock, some folk, some classical, etc., etc.

Somebody on here used to have the signature 'So much music, so little time'.

You can't possibly listen to it all and you certainly can't like it all.

Furthermore, liking it all, or even 'appreciating' it all is not a requirement.

Music should be a pleasure, not a chore. By all means be open to new stuff and learn from others, but don't beat yourself up trying to like stuff you don't like. You don't have time.

At almost 64, I have almost completely ceased to be interested in current popular music.
If I hear something of interest, I check it out, but I don't concern myself with charts or any of the nonsense I loved as a teenager.

For some reason, which doesn't matter, I find myself fascinated by music from the 1950s. To put this in context, I was 10 in 1959. I love it all, the pop the rock, the R& B and the jazz. It ranges from groundbreaking, to cheesy. I don't care. Somehow, it satisfies my need for music. That's all that matters.

Relax.

Mull
 
blossomchris said:
Just out of curiosity, how do you react to "Kind of Blue"? I ask because you must have heard it many, many times. How do you "feel" when you hear it?

I have just listened and although I enjoy some of the intros as soon as the lead starts it looses it for me. I am thinking maybe a dislike for trumpets or other instruments used solo/lead instrument in jazz. I need to investigate more music and be more aware of why I do not like it, thus saving a lot of mental anguish
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Well, maybe its not for you, then. You can't force yourself to enjoy something if your nerve-ends viscera react negatively. I can't stand listening to acoustic guitar, classical or anything else, for instance, and flute music drives me up the wall.
 
Mullardman said:
Listen....
I like some jazz, some rock, some folk, some classical, etc., etc.

Somebody on here used to have the signature 'So much music, so little time'.

You can't possibly listen to it all and you certainly can't like it all.

Furthermore, liking it all, or even 'appreciating' it all is not a requirement.

Music should be a pleasure, not a chore. By all means be open to new stuff and learn from others, but don't beat yourself up trying to like stuff you don't like. You don't have time.

At almost 64, I have almost completely ceased to be interested in current popular music.
If I hear something of interest, I check it out, but I don't concern myself with charts or any of the nonsense I loved as a teenager.

For some reason, which doesn't matter, I find myself fascinated by music from the 1950s. To put this in context, I was 10 in 1959. I love it all, the pop the rock, the R& B and the jazz. It ranges from groundbreaking, to cheesy. I don't care. Somehow, it satisfies my need for music. That's all that matters.

Relax.

Mull
Click to expand...

Have you never derived pleasure from something you had to work at? Putting in a bit of effort can mean greater rewards. Not with everything all of the time, but it's often true in life as well as music.
 
Hi BC,

In addition to ther earlier suggestion of 'sneaking up on jazz via favourite instrument selection' there is another approach that might work better for you and that's best described as 'sidling up to jazz via a current favourite other genre'...

A fair amount of jazz is based on interpretations of - and improvisations on - other existing well-known pieces of music.

So if, for example, you currently DO enjoy classical guitar music and are rather fond of Rodrigo's 'Concierto de Aranjuez', there have a number of very tastefully-done jazz interpretations from a variety of musicians/groups (one has already been mentioned in an earlier post in this thread: 'Concerto' by Jim Hall; while others have also taken their turns - eg The Modern Jazz Quartet under the leadership of Milt Jackson on vibraphone.)

On the other hand, some popular music has also been 'adopted' by jazz musicians, so if your fave groove is more popular than classical, this is another option.

Using this approach allows you to "move from the known to the 'not quite so known' by sidling up to jazz", thereby avoiding hitting the completely unknown and almost alien music that can inhabit the jazz universe (some of the more way out extemperaneous improvisational jazz of the late 1960s comes to mind).

Just another $0.02 worth... :)

Dave
 
Anex said:
Have you never derived pleasure from something you had to work at? Putting in a bit of effort can mean greater rewards. Not with everything all of the time, but it's often true in life as well as music.
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An interesting point. One factor as I've noticed as I get older (and I'm not far off Mull's age) is that time goes much more quickly, and thus I'm less willing than I once was to spend time 'trying' to like/enjoy/appreciate stuff. Whereas in my younger days I would plough on through a book that I wasn't actually enjoying or understanding, now I'm quite happy to stop after a chapter or two and move on to something else.

As far as music goes, my tastes are broader than when I was a younger, but there are some genres that I've never 'got' (eg improvisation-based jazz, avant-garde classical) and am happy to leave to others.

Of course, there are no rights and wrongs here. (Apart from The Beatles, of course. Liking them is mandatory).
 
I'm not saying everything is for everyone, but I think Chris is taking the right approach by not being defeated because the rewards will make the perseverance worth while.
 
sean99 said:
Some amazing, but very different tenor playing giving some sense of the evolution of the instrument over the past century






Joshua Redman has incredible technique, but musically not so satisfying IMO


Michael Brecker ... again amazing technique, but leaves me even colder

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Thanks Sean, The above I can get into and this is telling me something
 
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Anex said:
I'm not saying everything is for everyone, but I think Chris is taking the right approach by not being defeated because the rewards will make the perseverance worth while.
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I certainly agree with the general principle; that's it's better to be an explorer than to be stuck in a groove, both in life in general and in one's aesthetic adventures.
 
Briatic said:
I don't know if someone already brought this up, or if you knew it anyway, but Radio 3 Jazz web page has some podcasts made by Alyn Shipton. Unfortuntely they are only about half the length of the original programmes, and the majority of the Jazz Library transmissions aren't available (I think they had to get round some copyright issues). But there may well be something unusual that catches your fancy
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Although these tracks do not appeal I can see what you mean by trying R3
as the 'unusual' may hold more interest for me

Chris
 
Mullardman said:
Listen....


Music should be a pleasure, not a chore. By all means be open to new stuff and learn from others, but don't beat yourself up trying to like stuff you don't like. You don't have time.

Thanks Mull, sound advice indeed. I am also running out of time(62) and
The beating up will be starting shortly as my wife has become enraged at hearing snippets of jazz over the last couple of days


Chris
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As a latecomer to jazz, this is a subject of some interest to me.

I do think that exposure to the music does over time change the way you listen. There are many records (not just jazz) which left me cold first time around, and eventually became favourites.

To me there is an energy, a level of complexity and a degree of expression in some jazz records that is hard to find in other genres.

Two suggestions from me; these are examples of that move me profoundly and moved my goalposts in defining what is good:

Freddie Hubbard - Straight Life
Keith Jarrett Trio - God Bless the Child (from New York Sessions, Jarrett, Peacock and De Jonette)
 
Look, Chris, you don't like it, it turns out you are not an impressionable adolescent, and now you say your wife becomes "enraged" by hearing jazz! Forget it! There are lots of other kinds of music.
 
Try Martin Taylor jazz guitarist on Linn Label ....Jazz comes in many forms some like straight vocals, others like instrumentals keep experimenting you should find your goal eventually
 
My wife is not keen on some jazz styles. She is fine with vocal - Ella, Aretha, Claire Martin and others. Moving towards Be-Bop is a bit of a challenge though.

Fortunately we agree on a lot more than we disagree about. No point in getting enraged.

Cheers

chaz
 
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