JAZZ FAN
- New Orleans - Free
- Swing - Be Bop
- Cool - Hard Bop
A Web Page by Roy J. Beckemeyer: See the links below for more JAZZ on the Web
Last Updated 23 June 2007
Background and pictures above left and right: Some of the first jazz albums I owned as a teen-ager in the late 50's.
I started getting interested in jazz when I was about 16, in 1957, which was a time when lots of exciting music was being played on the radio. Without much money for records, and living in a small town in Illinois without access to much in the way of music, I mostly listened to some good local stations, and saved for a special album or two on rare occassions when I got to St. Louis. I also devoured Down Beat magazine.
My first album was one of those nondescript compilations of miscellaneous jazz, but it had old pieces by Lionel Hampton, Django Rheinhardt, Cozy Cole, and J.J. Johnson. The first modern jazz - meaning current music of the time - that I bought was Miles Davis' "Cookin'". I was a big fan of Miles, who was a "local" guy - from East St. Louis, just 50 miles or so from my home. I soon discovered Cannonball Adderley, Ahmad Jamal, Nancy Wilson, and then Lambert, Hendricks and Ross - I eventually collected all of their records. In time I also had Dave Bruebeck's "Time Out" and the first album of Shirley Horn, "Embers and Ashes" (wish I could find it in CD).
In time, marriage and kids and career came between me and jazz, and one of the last albums I bought was Miles' Bitches Brew. Cut to a few years ago, and the PBS series on jazz. My interest was rekindled, and the first thing I did was go out and buy a few CD versions of the vinyl records I had first owned as a kid. Then I bought a Penguin Guide to Jazz CD's, a couple of books on jazz, and started getting back into it big time. Was lucky enough to get to see David Berkman, Dave Holland, Bobby Watson, and Wynton Marsalis this past year at places not far from Wichita, Kansas, were I now live. Having a great time catching up with lots of old and new jazz of all persuasions, and am reading Down Beat again. Guess I have come full circle in my old age.
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