What I don’t know about Jazz
It came to my attention again, recently, that I have a lot to learn about Jazz. I kinda know the basics, who the legends are, and what they played. But, until last week I didn’t know that Miles Davis started in Charlie Parker’s band. I’m embarrassed to say.
There was a great article in The New Yorker last month about an jazz aficionado named Phil Schaap who hosts a radio show at Columbia University. He is a walking encyclopedia of Jazz knowledge and basically grew up surrounded by some of the greats who resided in New York. Reading the article, I started to think about how little I really know about Jazz.
I’ve walked past 52nd Street many times, and seen the “Swing Street” sign but didn’t realize that in the 40s and 50s, this stretch between 5th and 6th Avenue was the premier jazz club center. Sixty years ago it was where many of the legendary performances took place. Now it’s just another nondescript block in Midtown with office buildings.
I know more about Classical music and the composers, because I studied it in college. But, we were never required to read up on Jazz. And then there is the fear of not “getting it”. In many ways, it has become an elitist form of music that is heavily male oriented.
But, this is going to be my new project. Rent a copy of “Bird”, dust off my “Birth of the Cool” CD and hopefully learn something new…
