Wednesday, November 10, 2004  

John Coltrane, "Say It (Over and Over Again)"
from Ballads (Impulse, 1962)

"Everyone has a story about how jazz came into his or her life. For me, it was during holiday visits to the Detroit home of my aunt and uncle, Bette and Stuart Berry. I would steal away to their basement and listen to records--not jazz LPs, but my cousin's Pink Floyd and Alice Cooper records. It wasn't until my teens that I discovered my uncle's giant jazz collection--despite it taking up an entire wall.

A collector since the '50s, my uncle's musical interests span the gamut, from the earliest swing to the most recent David S. Ware album (which freaked out his dog). His basement was the place I first heard Wayne Shorter, Paul Desmond, Cecil Taylor, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Bobby Hutcherson, Lee Morgan, and John Coltrane. While all these sounds flowed into my head, like a river to a lake, I would read through stacks of music mags--yes, including JazzTimes.

But it wasn't until I heard Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and Hot Seven that I fell in love with the music. My first nonrock LP was Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy--given to me by Uncle Stu."

--editor's notes, JazzTimes, April 2000

Posted by CP | Link |

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