What Piece Got You Into Jazz?
 

Jazz isn't always the most accessible part of the music world to listen to, but sometimes there's a song or an album that just sort of 'clicks', and gives you a better understanding of what it's all about. The same goes for other genres, as well.

For me, it was Stanley Turrentine's track Sugar.
First listened to it years back, rifling through my dad's old CDs. The cover art caught my eye, and so I played the title track; it was totally unlike anything I had ever heard before, and it caught me off-guard. A kid at the time, I always thought jazz was just some crazy-boring thing adults listened to, in order prove their maturity, but after this I just left the track on repeat, because it was just, so different. I think that's what sort of opened the door for me.

What 'clicked' for you?

I felt I've always been into the sound, from the Bebop and Cool Jazz you hear at the mall, in Disney movies, and during Christmas, to now things like Jazz Rap, Avant-Garde, Free Jazz, and Nu Jazz.

I don't think there's any one piece that got me into jazz, but I guess I first really started my listening with Monk's Dream.

The very first piece of jazz that i really understood and appreciate is Footprints, by Wayne Shorter :)

who starts a song like that???!!?!?!?!!?!?

That's really out there.
I like it.

I'm actually really fond of that album, one of my favorites.

Never heard it, but I'll give it a listen!

Oscar Peterson's Night Train.

Herbie Hancock - "Maiden Voyage"

Can't say this in particular got me interested in jazz (which is only a small part of my listening anyway), but if I had to name something I'd pick this.

Not sure what the first one was but I'd be willing to bet this might've been it...

**** you too, Jerry.

I think it was something from a compilation album of 1920s-30s jazz and ragtime that I checked out from the library when I was 12. (I was a decidedly uncool kid) Cab Calloway, Whispering Jack Smith, etc. But hearing John Coltrane's Psalm was probably what truly converted me later on.

Other than the pop jazz I got into at the beginning, such as Jamie Cullum, it was artists like Coltrane that got me into "real" Jazz.

I had this song on my ipod for years, but it clicked one night when I was on vacation fresh out of high school and this song came on shuffle. I was sitting on the beach in Florida (gulf shores along the panhandle) by myself looking up at the stars, and this song came on. I will never forget that moment, not only because this song was so relaxing, but I was going through **** at the time and this was a positive moment in my life. an epiphany type of moment if you will.




For a stretch, this song became my favorite after that night.



I don't like this one as much as I use to, but still good stuff.

Like this a lot

This was the last jazz album purchased by my father, who was a jazz drummer. I still have a strong spiritual and emotional connection with it.

Not specifically jazz but reciting the lyrics over and over again in and out of the car as a child (around 5-6 yo) was definitely my entry into the world of Jazz/Jazz Fusion etc






Another main contender would be

I can't really remember. I know the first jazz album I got ecstatic about was Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch, which is still one of my favorite jazz albums.
There was a point where I was buying lots of Miles Davis albums but found after a while that he didn't quite scratch my itch. Then there was Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, Thelonious Monk, Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus.

Yeah! :D

For the most part I'd say I feel the same about Davis

Miles has a lot of jazz that set the stage for things like standard bop and cool jazz which don't sound innovative after years of people building on his ideas, so context is important in that sense. I agree that he has a lot of incredibly overrated material though (*cough* Kind of Blue *cough*) and there are better jazz artists out there (Coltrane will always be king). Then there's stuff like In a Silent Way, Miles Smiles, Sketches of Spain, Live-Evil, and above all, Bitches Brew. ****in Bitches Brew man. If you only check one of his albums out it's gotta be that one. I'm gonna go listen to it now.

I see Kind of Blue as being Miles' 4'33". It was a big step for him, but much like John Cage, it followed him everywhere he went despite him sprawling out and trying many many different things throughout his lengthy career. I'm certain there's a Miles album for everyone.

The first piece of jazz I truly loved was probably Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World," which was played for me in elementary school and I still it find beautiful today. When I got older and wanted to hear more jazz music I picked up Kind of Blue at a used CD store-- it was a safe and predictable pick but it introduced me to jazz music without putting me off. I got it around Christmas too so it was really comfy and inviting and matched the mood of the times. What Frownland said feels very true, about how that album has followed Miles everywhere. For instance the CD I own pitches it as one of the most important jazz records ever. Makes sense it would be my first, and probably many other people's first, foray into the genre.

Bitches Brew.

Regardless of genre, it's one of my top ten albums.

Hey, I never posted in this...



Technically I fell in love with Jazz when I was twelve and went to go see Fantasia 2000. This is really the only thing I remember from the film and it also sparked my fascination with cities, New York to be precise. This twelve minute animation kind of changed my life in many ways.



It really wasn't until I was fourteen when I heard Kind of Blue that I REALLY started to dive into Jazz. They album is still one of my favorite of all time. Top five for always.

One thing I can't actually share with a video is an old man who is most likely dead who was playing the trumpet and singing at a restaurant we went to for Christmas when I was about eight. I couldn't stop watching the dude. He was solo and just charmed the hell out of the room and eight year old me. my mom had to remind me that we were having dinner together and to try to join in the conversation. That man made a lasting impression on me.

I don't know if there is a single song that got me into Jazz. I always heard Jazz, but I guess the opening track to Take Five is the first time I thought this Jazz stuff is simply incredible.

I guess even before Brubeck, there was Duke Ellington's Take the A Train, John Coltrane's My Favorite Things, Wes Montgomery' Windy and standards like Caravan, & Brazil. They are my some of my favorite songs from any genre. I'm sure they pushed me into Jazz even though I guess I lean to the Popular side of Jazz. Take the A Train I most likely heard in movie, and Windy on the radio or record store. I heard a couple of versions of Caravan. The Billy Vaughn version sounds loungey so I'll post that one.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Blue Rondo à la Turk


Duke Ellington, "Take the A Train"


Wes Montgomery - Windy


Billy Vaughn - Caravan

Wendy-Wes Montgomery

Along with various others, this song had a helping hand in getting me to appreciate jazzier vibes:

Aww ya, those were some AWESOME tunes, Nea (are you Italian? I go to Napoli quite a bit! Va bene!!)

My blood is infused in Jazz/Blues; it was all there inside of me, in my cells since I was a cute little zygote. The feeling, the rhythm, the chords, the scales...Mmm mmm. Yes sir!

I just dig listening to groovy songs, but I just starting to play the piano and working on an old jazzy song. :D

If you're a jazz/ blues lover, do add me as your "friend."

Peace, Groovy People.

First time poster here. I got into Jazz strictly out of curiousity, bought Miles Davis Bitches Brew, and thought it was...eh. It wasn't until I bought Mahavishnu Orchestra's Visions of the Emerald Beyond that I really got into Jazz. Now i'm looking into non-fusion stuff.

Coltrane's My Favorite Things-

For me it was probably Blue in Green.

But it could have been Take 5, or Unsquare Dance

Recently the one that sucked me back in was Ghost of Congo Square

And probably the coolest thing I found drunk one night was Mulatu Astatke - Mulatu of Ethiopia

GAH, almost forgot - Chet Baker's Somewhere over the rainbow

My 4th grade band/trumpet teacher put Maynard Ferguson - MacArthur Park on the turntable one day.
That set my brain on fire.

I was introduced to jazz when it regularly appeared in the singles charts in the late 50s and early 60s. There was Johnny Dankworth, George Shearing, Dudley Moore, Dave Brubeck and also the trad jazz stars Ball, Barber and Bilk. Louis Armstrong also.