Non-Urban Music Jazz

[Jokerman]

At some point years ago I wanted to know all about it so I immersed myself in it. I learned who was who and what was what for each era and style. I listened to the classics in the field and followed recommendations from those who know. Eventually, I got my own favorites. I now feel I know the field as well as anyone who doesn't live and breathe jazz. And yet, jazz has not and will not become a big part of my future listening time. Why? Besides a lot of it still being monotonous-sounding for me, it's just too damn depressing. Not the early stuff, like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, etc, but starting with Bebop. It's a lonely, depressing sound that makes me want to shoot heroin. I just can't listen to it for long. It doesn't make me feel good. I've got an empty place inside that I don't need to be reminded of (esp. since the housing market collapse has made it hard to sell).

Of course I recognize the great musicianship and skills of the jazz greats, but if music is going to be depressing I've got to stay away. Now I don't have a problem with a depressing pop song about a failed relationship. I can relate and get some comfort out of it. Words are not a problem. But with jazz it's the very sound of the music that's depressing. Even classical music is much easier for me to listen to. But jazz, only in small doses. Jazz piano is easiest for me.

So how do any of you feel about jazz? Can you relate to what I said or never really thought of it like that? And if anyone wants to get more into jazz let me know. I can recommend definitive songs for any artist, style, or era. Spotify is a great tool for this.

 

[Chronic]

I don't know a single thing about jazz. I've really only heard it as background music in a cafe or something. Kind of like my experience with a lot of south american music. A lot of people seem to love as background music as it sets some kind of special mood for them. To me it's usually very boring and doesn't make me feel anything. I'd like to explore it though and give some artists a proper listen. If you're up for it I'd love some recommendations. Perhaps your personal favorites combined with the 'popular' choices, from whatever era or style.

I have John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, I have yet to listen to more than a minute of it though.

Definitely not jazz related but I was curious what you'd think about music like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvbroNo-g5I

It's depressive but powerful. I find it to be a very interesting type of music. It's odd how much beauty there is in a song so ugly. [/hijack]

 

[Jokerman]

what you'd think about music like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvbroNo-g5I [/hijack]

It's not bad. The "singing" does nothing for me, but this type of sound doesn't depress me. It's more an ugly sound than depressive. Jazz has an early-dawn lonely tenements sound to it that just confronts you with I Am Alone.

 

[Chronic]

It's not bad. The "singing" does nothing for me, but this type of sound doesn't depress me. It's more an ugly sound than depressive.

It took me a while to sift through the ugliness and (purposely) bad production to find geniune emotion in this type of music. I barely hear the ugliness anymore. Listening to that with headphones at night on the balcony and it's as depressing as any music. But enough about that.

Jazz has an early-dawn lonely tenements sound to it that just confronts you with I Am Alone.

Could you give an example of that? Then I can give my opinion on that sort of jazz.

 

[Jokerman]

The most widely known classic jazz song is "So What" (from Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, 1959). It's one of the most easily liked jazz songs by ppl not into jazz. You got Coltrane on the sax and Miles on the trumpet. It's almost 10 minutes long, but worth it. Might be my favorite. Every instrument stands out on it, even the drums and bass. It's the first place to start, and it's not generally depressing to me.

 

[Chronic]

Thank you.

 

[Jokerman]

Lonely tenement sound, for instance:

Naima (from John Coltrane, Giant Steps, 1960)
Summertime (from Miles Davis, Porgy & Bess, 1958)
Masqualero (from Miles Davis, Sorcerer, 1967)

 

[masta247]

I enjoy Jazz as background music, as you mentioned. I don't know anything about Jazz other than a few big names. The music itself.. well, personally I find it relaxing and when it plays in a cafe I'm in a different, warm mood.
However it's just the feel of that type of music that does it for me. If I had to just take on my headphones, sit and listen to it I'd feel bored probably - I like this type of music for the feel of it, not the music itself because to me it often sounds like a compilation of random sounds and improvisation.

 

[Jokerman]

^Yeah, that's how most ppl who grew up with pop or rock or polkas feel about jazz. And there's a difference between the soft jazz they play in cafes or elevators and real jazz. Once you get into a particular player, like Miles Davis or Coltrane, it's like Hendrix (or Bieber), every time they come on you feel you're hearing greatness. And you know their style.

 

[S O F I]

So im fucking this guy in the ass, right? And im fucking him, im balls deep, and then he gets up and puts some jazz music on and im like eww what a faggot.

 

[S O F I]

I've heard jazz here and there, in movies, as background music, and I've randomly been at a live jazz show once or twice because drinks were cheap or something. I'm not a big fan but for different reasons. Like, I need logic in a beat. I need for the beat to tell me how and when to nod my head and it has to be rhythmically logical. With jazz, they throw in random shit all the time so you end up always bopping off-beat. Like, how can I just do the ....ughh yeah that's whassup. You can't cause the rhythm fucks you over.

 

[Ristol]

Giant Steps has been a staple in my rotation for years. I've never gotten into much else, though. Weird.

 

[Casey]

My old man is a big "traditional jazz" fan. Heard a lot growing up. Coltrane, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, etc.
Me, I appreciate it as an artform but I'm not so into it. And I hate that some jazz fans are SO FUCKING ELITIST. They are the most elitist group of music fans ever. Everything else that isn't jazz is massively intellectually inferior to them.

Now, my main problem with the artists mentioned above (Mingus aside) is that I'm really not a big horns fan. Give me synths any day over horns. So, I like a lot of jazz vocalists - Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, those sorts of artists. And I LOVE Jaco Pastorius - widely considered the greatest bass player of all time. He made bass driven jazz music, like this:

And I love jazz pianists like Bob James. Every last one of you on this forum should recognise this grooves as they've been sampled to death in hip-hop.

Another issue I have with some jazz stuff is like what SOFI said - the randomness of the beats. Now, we as a generation are used to syncopated rhythms and that's what we generally require in our music. People who grew up in the early to mid 20th century weren't used to that, as it wasn't commonplace until the advent of rock n roll in the 1940's - which all modern day music is descended from.

So, SOFI, have a listen to this. You might like it. It's a track from a 1980's instrumental jazz band called Madhouse that released two albums, and it's very beat driven. The funny thing is, although his name is nowhere to be found on the credits.... it was all composed and performed by a very famous pop artist anonymously...........(hint it's the guy in my avatar). Now, traditional jazz elitist folks probably don't even consider this stuff jazz because they're so fucking snobby, but it is, it's a modern contemporary take on jazz, and actually, Miles Davis himself loved what Prince was doing in the modern jazz realm with side projects such as these.

Now, that's the kind of jazz that I really love, and it's beat driven and comtemporary, and you can dance to it.

 

[Jokerman]

Madhouse is jazz fusion. Here's a fav of mine: