So jazzed

Lately, I've been polishing off my jazz CDs and having a listen to them. I'll admit, I'm not the foremost expert on jazz, so it makes excellent background music, especially on the rainy days we've been having lately.

Let it be said that when I hear jazz, particularly hard-bop, I find myself dreaming about sitting near a rain-soaked window in a high-rise apartment in a big city.

Now, I've gone in a big circle with jazz. My high school concert band played a tune called 'Big Band Signatures' when I was a senior and I bought the Benny Goodman Story soundtrack to obtain several of the more familiar tracks like 'Sing, Sing, Sing,' 'Let's Dance' and 'One o'Clock Jump.'

When I got to my music program in college, the emphasis was on the small combo. I have vivid memories of my late drum teacher asking us what we wanted to learn that semester. I told him that I wanted to learn to play jazz. I had just bought my first drum kit and only could play rock rhythms. He asked me if I owned any jazz albums and I told him about the Benny Goodman disc. He told me - and I found myself a little offended by this at first - that he wanted me to think beyond that.

He had me buy a copy of Jimmy Smith's 'The Sermon!' and told me the key was to listen to the title track and play along with Art Blakey's consistent swing.

I never could last 20 minutes, but I got the idea and began to harbor a silly vendetta against the jazz as 'shoved down our throat' at school. I played the obligatory jazz tunes in my combo and ensemble classes while openly wanting to play some rockers.

It wasn't until my final semester at school that I began to realize how much of an impression the small-group jazz songs I played made on me.

My favourites from school were 'Line for Lyons' (Gerry Mulligan), 'Maiden Voyage' (Herbie Hancock), 'Afro Blue' (John Coltrane), 'Stolen Moments' (Oliver Nelson), 'Speak no Evil' (Wayne Shorter) and the one that introduced me to the genius of Miles Davis 'So what?'

The life-changing moment for me was while on a lunch break at the Grand Avenue Mall, I found a used vinyl copy of 'Kind of Blue'at the Music Recyclery.

I now own 95% of the Miles Davis accoustic catalog, while not being able to appreciate any of his fusion after 'In a Silent Way.'

I persuaded my in-laws to take my wife and I to the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2001 where Miles and John Coltrane's 75th birthday was celebrated with the playing of some of their standards.

The Moment for me of that entire festival was seeing Ravi Coltrane performing with so much of the energy of his father. I have yet to purchase any of his works, but have planned on doing so for years afterwards.

I have long wanted to assemble a small-group to play some of the classic jazz from the 1950s and 60s.

That said, I take issue with the 'jazz' scene in my little neck of the woods.

There are many 'jazz' groups out here and I've been invited to watch/listen and maybe 'jam' with them. My problem is they are those traditional/big-band/Dixieland jazz groups that I find antiquated and much too stodgy.

I've been asked more than once if I can play 'streetbeat.' My reply is "what the hell is that?"

So, I continue to languish, laughing at those who speak of 'trad-jazz' like it is the only jazz worth listening to, while proudly blasting 'A Love Supreme'from my stereo turntable.