Jazz for aficionados

@fire_water 

And having seen all the wonderful music others have been listening to, if it wasn’t for streaming how the hell would you have access to all this music? 

Now? Good question. When I was first getting into Jazz in the mid seventies, I lived in Santa Barbara, CA. At that time, Jazz could be heard on a commercial radio station out of L.A. and on UCSB’s university station. I also had friends who turned me on to various Jazz records. And I bought used records that looked interesting. Some of the first Jazz records I bought were on Blue Note-- I found the cover art intriguing. 

In the mid 80’s, living in Maine, I decided to switch to CDs because so many titles I wanted to hear were out of print on vinyl and becoming increasingly expensive. At the same time, major Jazz labels were re-releasing these titles on CD. In the 90’s I lived in Eugene, OR. The Eugene library had a terrific collection of Jazz CDs at that time. I also got to know a guy in a record shop who was very knowledgeable about the genre and recommended titles for me to check out. And I discovered the Penguin Guide to Jazz, which proved very useful. 

Currently, I explore Jazz and other genres via youtube and spotify. Both a local independent radio station (not NPR) and an NPR station out of Sacramento offer some Jazz programming. I’m not aware of any record/CD shops around here that carry much Jazz. The major local record/CVD business in Sacramento (Dimple Records) closed several years ago, so now there’s nowhere for me to browse. I have to browse online, which of course, isn’t the same experience. 

@stuartk I'd like to think artists are benefiting from streaming, hopefully they are.  But I've noticed something strange on TIDAL.  On a few occasions TIDAL directed me to my favorite artists like Bobo Stenson or Tord Gustavsen but the music and artists clearly aren't the same person or genre of music and something entirely different.  It's as if their names have been hijacked.  And this goes for other artists as well. So what's going on here? And why is TIDAL  allowing this?

But I'm thoroughly enjoying JAZZ like I've never did before!

As I sit here waiting to have my car serviced, I’m listening to Han Bennink, Monk Vol. 1 and reading Agon forums.

Ain’t technology great?

@fire_water 

For decades I went to a local record store.  Not only would they give suggestions, but if you had a request, they’d play it for you!  I also use my local library a lot. My good friend @stuartk told me about the Penguin Guide to Jazz. I got a copy from my local library and took a ton of notes!  I read e-mails.  I read forums.

All the best.