My dad would have turned 74 years old this week. That means it's been about 8 years without him to celebrate it. In honor of his birthday, Don Cheadle is releasing a movie based on one of Dad's favorite musicians.

But besides that, I've done a lame job on this particular New Years Resolution, writing more. But I've been extremely busy so that is okay. Great things have been happening my friends!

It's been over a year since my last radiation treatment. It's been over 7 months since my foot surgery. It's been almost 2 months at my new fantastic paralegal job. And the most exciting news for me is, after an extremely long dry spell which included a pretty nasty divorce from an exhausting marriage and going through cancer without a partner,  it's now been about 3 months since I started dating a really awesome man that so far has done everything right. Everything is really going well. I can't complain about anything.

Also, I bet I've listened to more music this year than I have listened to in the last ten years. That is an amazing thing too? What have I been listening too?  I started this year visiting a few record sales. You know, the kind where they have table after table stacked with records. Some are in really bad condition. Some are really bad records. Some are really great records in bad condition and those were really tempting. I did manage to find some decent records that were in the $1 stacks. Mostly, I have been trying to round out my collection with some of my favorites, like Neil Young, Bob Marley, The Cars, Prince, The Police, U2 and so on. I've also found some obscure deals like Yo La Tengo and Roxy Music. I have gone off the jazz journey, per se, but jazz is still in light rotation on my turntable.

I pulled out of the Pandora radio trap and landed in a Spotify guilt trip. With all of the controversy on how terrible Spotify is to artists, I have not let that stop me from making it my outlet to replace the music programming I used to love to do for a living. I basically just make myself playlists for my listening enjoyment. The great thing about Spotify is that, other than Taylor Swift (which doesn't bother me) and Prince (which most certainly bothers me), you can find any song and any artist that you want at any time you want. I've got 18 hours of music from "when I was cool" which I consider to be anything prior to 1999 that may have been played on my college radio station, 88.5 FM, WRAS in Atlanta. Yes gotta give cred; I'm sick at what has happened to my first love at the hands of the Georgia State University administration and Georgia Public Broadcasting.

http://savewras.com/the-latest-updates/

Needless to say, it pisses me off!

So back to the good news. I have a boyfriend and he has a most excellent collection of music including a ton of vinyl records that I would LOVE to own! However . . . no jazz! : (
Since punk music is his number one genre, I decided to approach him with Art Blakey as the Tre Cool of jazz. He liked it. I can't say he loved it, but I don't have to break up with him or anything because he seems open to it. We almost had an argument about the blues, in that he says he hates the blues. But there is some blues that I hate too. Well, hate is a strong word. Anyway, our best conversations are about music so this is going to be fun!

Gotta get to work on my Spotify jazz playlist!

An interesting chain of events caused my jazz journey to come to a silent halt. When I began this blog in 2013, I was partially unemployed and suffering from a raging pain in my neck. In April, I got a great job but my body just wasn't healing. Over the summer, I was taking a shower and noticed a large lump in my left breast. I called my girlfriend and we decided that I am just hypochondriac enough to not freak out and keep an eye on it. By September, we learned that I was stage 3 having cancer not only in the breast, but also in 3 lymph nodes. After chemo, radiation, miraculously keeping my great job and over a year later, I am ready to get back to my jazz journey. 

 I have managed to relent my refurbished record player to a Crosley that just looks old fashioned. My speakers are still quite old and could use an upgrade. The record collection has grown beyond my Dad's jazz. I worked my way through the entire Ken Burns jazz documentary, so my knowledge has deepened and I have a number of Pandora channels devoted to various artists.  Dad's records have really brought me joy and peace through the healing process. I was so glad I started this blog because it really gave me a foundation.

I am a completely different person now. I have cut loose of all people and sources of negativity and temptation. I have learned to rely on myself completely. I don't really care to reach out to other bloggers or promote my blog, although I hope that I will naturally find an audience. My journey has changed. 

Since jazz can refer to music as well as life, I want to continue this jazz journey. I won't limit it to music. The jazz of life is pretty loud. The most important thing that I learned from having and beating cancer is that pain, fear and loneliness is necessary to appreciate the other side. I no longer numb myself to these things. Because of what I have faced, I can embrace pain, fear and loneliness. It still hurts, but there would be something seriously wrong if it didn't. 

If I continue to travel on my journey, I will remind myself about the things that can get me through. Mediation, positive mantras, reaching beyond myself and losing myself in music are saving grace. The brain changes in response to experience. Letting go and staying strong will be my new jazzy journey. C'est Si Bon.

In order to devote myself to blogging, I have to make sure there aren't any kids around. The last week has given me plenty of kid distractions with fake holidays like, President's Day. And then there was a sickness and a snow day. I put on Bill Evans with Jim Hall Intermodulation several times over the last week. It provided great background noise, but I just couldn't immerse myself into it like I wanted, in order to write about it. While listening to vinyl records gets my inner music snobbishness going, I am not liking the fact that I have to get back to the turntable every 10-20 minutes to flip the record over. Small price to pay, I guess, for the honor to hear these original recordings that my Dad loved so much.

I noticed some of my favorite composer's songs were on the first side. I kept waiting to hear a familiar tune. It took a few listens for me to recognize "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "My Man's Gone Now." The way these tunes were rearranged and played made them brand new songs to me. I love Porter and Gershwin so much and it was a treat to hear such imaginative interpretations.

The girls liked Intermodulation and immediately asked me if it was samba music. It's funny to get 10-year old's reaction to jazz on top of my journey. Based on my limited ear for samba, my immediate answer was that this was not samba. Then I saw that one of the songs was called "Jazz Samba." I checked my Stan Getz records and the album, Jazz Samba does not include a song of the same title. I was hoping to hear the same song by two different artists playing completely different instruments. This hasn't happened yet, but I'll be strangely thrilled when it does. I hear the samba time on "Jazz Samba." But my dog did not get up and dance with me. Wonder if he is just a Getz fan instead of a samba fan? This samba was faster and pointier than Getz's delicate samba.

I am the daughter of a pretty fabulous piano playing mom who tried to pass her talent on to me as much as she could. Mom plays amazing by ear. I'm more of a sight reader which is probably why the idea of improvisation amazes me so much. From what I can tell, Evans is a genius and probably born with a prodigy gene. I believe this even more after doing my google search to learn more about his drug use and personal problems. He put the piano in the jazz spotlight and was the first in jazz to overdub himself. I can imagine how ballsy that was, back in the 1960's. Artists still get criticized for overdubbing today, although I just see it as a way to make your art bigger.

I appreciate the duo of Evans and Hall just doing their thing with a piano and a guitar. That's all, there are no other instruments on Intermodulation or Undercurrent. How incredible is the cover of  Undercurrent? Plus the jacket is so thick, it looks almost brand new after over 50 years! I didn't know I was going backwards on the Evans and Hall timeline, but I figured this record must have been newer than the first. The music is striking many of the same emotions and so I finally got a chance away from the kids to jump in. I have found the best way to do this is to read the liner notes. Holy bejezabub! What the? What were they smoking? Wait Quickly by Barry J. Titus after Jim Hall and Bill Evans:
                  "Rimmed iron wheels chew candy between tracks window smithers. Xmas tree window silver money fleeing blank wall perspires omens heads nodding close gaped lips seen stick stuck taxi sign disrobes May 15th, 1959, hanging about her knees mail bundle wheeled cripple clutches Read Wall Street clock white sun monocle IIV or VII long blink see eyes time?"

And it just goes on and on. That's some messed up people right there. I believe if I had the right drugs, it would all make sense. How was that allowed to be published on this United Artists record? I wish I'd lived in the 60's. Whoo-hoo!

I can't leave out Bill Evans at Shelly's Manne Hole. I am reminded of my first thought when I started listening to Bill Evans. Is this the guy who played piano on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood? Googling . . . . and funny story. I knew my Dad worked in television. His name was Roger. For a brief moment at the youngest of age, I may have thought that my Dad was Mr. Rogers. He did kind of look like him too . . . Anyway, it was piano virtuoso John "Johnny" Costa who played on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. But you have to admit that there was a Bill Evans influence! But I like Bill Evans with the orchestra just as much as with only Jim Hall. All of it is so natural sounding and these classic songs are once again made new.

I looked to see if Evans will be on any of Dad's Miles Davis records. I don't find him on any of them, but I know they played together for several years. I'm interested to hear Miles with Evans in the future. I feel compelled to look for Jim Hall in other places too. One of the things I hope to accomplish on this jazz journey is to meet the players and know their families. What fun!

     The one guy I'll never mistake for any other jazz musician is good ole' Louis Armstrong! Even my 10-year-old twin daughters recognize his voice from countless cartoons and movies they've seen. Even his trumpet sound is pretty recognizable. I grew up in the 1970's living in Slidell, LA, a 45 minute ride across a long bridge to New Orleans. My dad was a news producer at Channel 8 and had access to meet many of his heroes. Being in the single digits, I was clueless and pretty much just assumed every household in America had Louis Armstrong records. Back then, it is not too far a conclusion to reach. He was the essence of New Orleans. I don't care how much anyone says he "sold out" and abandoned his hometown and old school jazz, he will always be a pioneer and King of the format.

    The first record I put on was, The Real Ambassadors. Even though I realize this is a Dave Brubeck project, Louis is involved. Is it okay if I say, I couldn't get through it? Another question that has popped in my mind is, how will I be able to tell if the jazz I'm listening to is bad. I don't think this is bad, but maybe a little too happy. Too boppy. I know I was in the right mood. It was Fat Tuesday and I was even wearing Mardi Gras beads. I love Dave Brubeck and went to his concert a couple of years ago when he played in our small Missouri town. I feel like I have to explain why I didn't like it, but I can't.

    Next up, Hello Dolly. These are standards. Many of Satchmo's songs are standards. And he is the one who made many of them famous. I feel like this was a record he did because, maybe executives told him to. Nothing wrong with these songs, but I knew the next two records would satisfy my thirst for the real deal.

    Ambassador Satch lighted me, my kids and the rest of the Fat Tuesday evening on fire! But what is this? The name, Donald Guttringer is written on the back. Who is that? Dad must have picked this one up used. Or maybe, he stole it from someone in college. So, Donald, if you are reading this, I got your record and you cannot have it back!

    One thing led to another and I let a day go by to recoup from the festivities of Fat Tuesday. And let me tell you in Springfield, Missouri, that really doesn't mean much and just goes to show you that I've become a light weight in my old age. Today, Valentines Day, I've got Louis Armstrong, V.S.O.P (Very Special Old Phonography) on my refurbished turntable and it gives me chills. Armstrong in the 1930's, when he was being criticized for straying away from traditional jazz and giving the popular tunes a go, is as sweet as this day is. I love the primitive recording sound and I can hear Louis' youth. Bravo to Dan Morgenstern, the writer of the liner notes. Dad loved Louis, New Orleans and Jazz, and this record is why.

    I threw on the Gilberto & Jobim record because I recognize Gilberto from the Stan Getz research, last week. I can't tell you how exciting it is to start to know who these people are. Unlike much of what I've heard so far, aside from the Armstrong, this samba record is most definitely not improvised. I'm still not sure if I can put samba in the same category as jazz. Maybe it is like Bob Marley gets played on rock radio stations. Rock artists love Marley and throw in a little reggae into their songs every now and then. Samba is just too preorchestrated for me to consider it jazz. But, I'm new to this. Anyway, my dog, Biscuit, a Sheltie, loves samba. He nips at my legs and forces me to dance every time I play a samba sound. Cute, huh?

     Last week, I was ready to explore Wayne Shorter's contributions to my Dad's record collection. I made a reference to the Jazz Messengers and now I offer my sincere apologies to the estate of Art Blakey for leaving out the most important name in this group. Free For All is the only Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers vinyl record I could locate.

     I played the first side to Free For All about six times as I read the liner notes. I approached this record from an interest in Wayne Shorter. I heard a bit of his very latest record, Without A Net, and was very impressed with his lightening fast attack on the tenor sax. Shorter's sound is much different than the smooth touch of Stan Getz. I'm getting very excited because I can determine these differences and I'm learning about key players in the tenor sax jazz kingdom. This girl, who thought she knew plenty about music, had to google tenor saxophone to learn the difference in saxophones. I knew there were different kinds, but I always referred to them as just saxophones. I love that Wikipedia lists my guys, Getz, Coltrane, and Shorter to describe the tenor sax.

    So I'm digging the back and forth conversation on this record and then comes a drum solo like I've never heard on vinyl. (I'm just a short ways into this jazz journey, so I anticipate more of these.) I've always liked drums. I play pretty good air drums. I admire the strength and endurance it takes to play drums in any band. I'm suddenly in love with Art Blakey. The liner notes from Free For All have a great quote from Blakey. "No jazz band is any better than its drummer. If the band is better than the drummer, then it's not a jazz band. He puts everything together there and keeps things rolling. This is what I was taught by Chick Webb and by my predecessors, and I think they're proven to be right." Well said, Art! Art's biography on his website tells a great story of how he started as a piano player. (I've tinkled the keys myself.) But one night, a club owner ordered him onto the drums at gunpoint! Seriously! That is just crazy and I'm glad it worked out.

    I guess I've seen Shorter's name in a lot of places and I recognize some of the album covers in his discography, like Night Dreamer and Second Genesis. I didn't get any of these for me to add to my journey. Of course, he's on at least seven of Dad's Miles Davis records. I'm not ready for the Miles journey. I'm saving that for last. If I need more, I've always got the CD's Dad made. There is a big box of those somewhere in my tiny apartment.

     I ask myself, what have I learned about Dad through his records so far? For sure, I get my good taste in music from him. While most of these records are from the 1960's, I don't think these were just promo records he took home from his college radio station. He's put his name on the back and drawn 5 stars on Free For All. I know he had many more records. He loved the few that are left enough to keep them in pristine condition and protect them from hurricanes, moving across the South and even my prying hands, until now. Dad was a dedicated television news producer by day. Often he would put on these records late in the evening. It was the only time I saw him dance. (thank God) No other genre made him dance. I think these particular artists reminded him of being a hip DJ in College. I understand the euphoric power being a college DJ can give a person. But also, getting lost in the music is a gift, both from the artist and for the person who allows them self to do so. Jazz is just jazz when it is in the background. But when you are lost in jazz, you appreciate the difference between Stan Getz and Wayne Shorter.

     Today I am listening to the gem of all of the Stan Getz records, Getz/Gilberto, featuring the stellar "Girl From Ipanema" with Astrud Gilberto. She must have been in the right place at the right time, being the wife of Joao Gilberto. Wikipedia says she had never sung professionally before this recording. You would have to live under a rock to not know this version. Until now, I may have guessed this song was originally by Burt Bacharach. I got some learning to do.

     It is raining today and this album goes perfect with the weather! I got a feeling I would love it in any weather scenario. I'll reveal some more of my ignorance here, but I never thought of samba as jazz. Where is the improvisation? Where are the alternating instruments playing against and with each other at the same time? Definite melodies are audible on every song. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Perhaps this kind of jazz is where smooth jazz came from. It is smooth and syncopated.

    In an effort to stay motivated to keep at this blog, I reached out to a real jazz blogger, Doug Ramsey, author of Rifftides. He caught a few errors I made when I assumed I knew something I obviously didn't. I laugh at myself now, because this may have been a dumb move. I am certainly writing about something I know nothing about. All I know is that I love it and I want to learn. J.J. Johnson played a trombone, not a trumpet. I said trumpet because I looked at the picture on the record. Surely all of the years I have spent in orchestras and music, I could have figured that out. OR, I could read the liner notes more carefully. This was one of the first things I thought I learned this week. Next, Charlie Byrd is not Charlie Parker. and therefore, was not portrayed by Forrest Whitaker in the movie I saw. Luckily, I am not the only person to make this mistake. Parker was nicknamed, "Bird,"Thanks, Doug Ramsey!

     I could just jump back on those posts and edit myself to appear smarter than I am. But this blog is real and so am I. Take me for all of my imperfections and please correct me if I am wrong. How else will I know?

     Back to the conundrum I have over telling Getz from any other tenor sax player. Yesterday, I created a new Pandora channel of Stan Getz. I closed my eyes and tried to guess if I heard him. I am probably years away from mastering that technique, but I did notice a real difference between Getz and Coltrane. Coltrane really blows hard. I don't know if I'm saying that right, but even on his ballads, there was a loudness and aggressiveness that I don't get with Getz. Getz is a master of fluidity. Coltrane is more punk rock. For some reason, there is no Coltrane in my part of Dad's vinyl collection. I know he had some. Mom kept some of his records and unfortunately my parents lived through several hurricanes that may have injured some of his other records. I don't mean unfortunately my parents lived through the hurricanes, I mean unfortunately, the records did not.

     I also learned there is a new Wayne Shorter album. He is 79-years old and taken some of his old songs and jazzed them up even more. I listened to an interview he did with NPR about playing with Miles Davis. He claims they never talked about music. They literally made the music as they played it. That is what dumbfounds me about this genre. I have a few Wayne Shorter vinyl records, including some Jazz Messengers I will dig up for the next blog. I'm sure I'll come back to Getz a few more times. I want more!

     I'm not done with Stan yet! While I'm sure there were many more records originally in his collection, only two more made it to my inheritance. I must explain that Dad got into Napster as soon as it came out in 1999. There are hundreds of CD's he made using the file sharing network. Many of them were jazz, but he had an obsession with any song or artist that was nominated for a grammy. He was a list maker. He had lists of his movies on VCR tapes and later, DVDs, which included the actors names and any awards they may have been nominated for or won. The same with all of his music. There were also lists about sports, but that is for another blog.

     I tried to organize the vinyl last night and found the two more Stan Getz records. As I looked inside Stan Getz and J.J. Johnson at the Opera House, out popped this piece of paper.

     It looks like an outline, maybe for a class or a review he wrote. It could have been for his radio show. These notes were about J.J. Johnson and there is no mention of Stan Getz anywhere. He did write, "excellent style at Opera House. In mood . . . Puts aside fidgety exercises . . . . Lets fly in lusty, virile fashion." There are some books referenced; Alun Morgan and Raymond Horricks, Modern Jazz and John S. Wilson, The Collector's Jazz: Modern , I found these collector's items on Amazon. Looks like they were bibles of jazz in the 1960's, going back to 1939.  I'll need to ask Mom if these are laying around somewhere. The other side of the paper refers to Leonard Feather, Encyclopedia of Jazz. I'm going with, this was a paper for one of Dad's classes.

     Opera House is fun to listen to. I am still in awe of the improvisation of jazz, especially between Getz's tenor sax and Johnson's trumpet. They play off of each other like mind readers. This was recorded live, so there was no room for errors. Norman Granz says in the liner notes "It's also a problem of the artist being at his best, because they obviously play better at one sitting than another, depending on the circumstances surrounding their particular day." He also says this was the first time Getz and Johnson ever teamed up. How is that possible? I'm a creature of habit and as a musician, rehearsal is mandatory. How can these two guys, probably both on heroin, master a conversation on the first sit down. Maybe the heroin helped. Anyway, Dad drew five stars on the back of the cover.

    I have one more Getz record to listen to. But I am wondering, if I heard another jazzy tenor sax guy play next to Stan, would I be able to tell the difference? When I was going to College for music, the professor played classical songs and we had to guess what they were. That was easy because we knew the composer. I know jazz artists covered each others songs and remade songs to fit their style. I want to memorize their style. I need another tenor sax player, maybe one who played Samba music, to compare to Stan. John Coltrane and/or Wayne Shorter may do the trick.