I am rediscovering my love for Jazz and this can be solely attributed mainly to iTunes, or to be more accurate it is down to the new gizmo in the latest version of ITunes called Genius. Genius searches through ones iTunes library and recommends other songs it thinks might be to ones taste. I was completely skeptical at first but then again, I am an Apple freak and will give any new Apple idea a bloody good go like the rest of the Apple faithfully. This blindly believing that Steve Job can do no wrong. Well I was well and truly stupefied! This gizmo actually works. And as a result, I have bought as much music from iTunes in the last two months as I have done for the first eight months of the year. Hey, hey hey not daft these Apple folks
Most if not all of the music I have bought on iTunes in the last two months has been Jazz in one format or another. I pretty much like most formats of jazz except the so called Trad Jazz which I loathe with a passion.
Jazz is somewhat akin to marmite in so much that you either love it or hate it. I live it. Words can not begin to express my passion for jazz. It ability to not only to reflect my moods if need be but also to change my moods when called upon to do so.
My earliest memories of being captivated by jazz was in my early teens by George Benson, before some A&R man suggested it might be a good idea if he sung, Earl Klugh was another favorite of mine. What Mr Klugh and Mr Benson had in common was that their instrument of choice was the guitar. Which, interestingly enough, belies the much held notion by some that jazz equal saxophone. I can't for the life of my remember Earl's track but George's was called 'Weekend in LA'. In fact I am going to buy the tune again on iTunes. Three decades after I first heard it.
Somewhere along the road to complete jazz addiction I came across Oscar Peterson. A great pianist. The first time I ever heard 'Take The A Train', it was Oscar's version. Mr Peterson did to jazz piano what Ella Fitzgerald did to vocal jazz. To listen to him languidly but effortlessly sprinkle tunes from his perch in front of an ever shiny grand piano was to have you mesmerised that sound beautiful music can emanate fro such a large contraption.
So my journey began. I devoured jazz where ever I could get it to satisfy my insatiably appetite for the format. This was back in the day before CD, before internet and certainly before iTunes. Of course a journey like this begins cautiously taking in the well known jazz greats which are pretty much household names these days but I get hook on the be-bop boys, the moody melancholists, the new school. Dudes like John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Art Blakely, et al. Yeah the smokey black and white clips were cool, the suits were sharp but most of all the music touch my soul, stopped me in my tracks and made me think "This is why we live".
Okay some random shots
Paparazzi Bar in Bratislava
