Jazz and Vinyl!

Jazz and Vinyl.

If there's one genre that's somewhat unrepresented in my record collection, it's Jazz. I'll admit that I have heaps more Jazz CD's than vinyl records, a situation I'd like to correct eventually. From memory, I think I have only of couple of Jazz albums but what fine albums they are! Benny Goodman's two album set of the Carnegie Hall concert from January 17, 1978 featuring the talents of Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Mary Lou Williams, Debi Craig and others and an compilation album of Sarah Vaughan's superb Jazz efforts. I think she would have to rate as a very close second to Billie Holiday as my favourite lady of Jazz! My Benny Goodman (two album) set is interesting for a few reasons, apart from its musical merits. I actually bought them from a second hand store but didn't actually play them until a year or so after being purchased. Why I did that, I don't know because when I eventually did play them I realized what a superb set it was/is with such enormous musical and historical value!

Listening to these Jazz vinyl albums I definitely get the feeling that there is a nice synergy between Jazz and vinyl. The endearing warmth of the vinyl seems more apparent compared to Jazz CD's. Listening to the Benny Goodman set is a little sad in a way, when I realise that most of the personnel playing on that set have 'passed on ahead', as they say, but their great music is preserved forever within the grooves of their records. That's nice. At the risk of going off on a slightly philosophical tangent, of late personally I seem to have realized how precious and wonderful life is, and we shouldn't really waste a second of it as our time here strictly limited. Enough philosophy, but it's true though!

I think I like Jazz more than any other musical genre simply because of the incredible range of sounds that can be called 'Jazz'. I actually think that often when music seemingly defies description, it is labelled as 'Jazz'! I've often listened to Jazz and looked for the little things that tell me it's Jazz, but I don't really know if it's as simple as that. Perhaps it's just my imagination, but I've heard elements of Jazz in the work of Classical composers like Chopin and even Beethoven! As an example, a recent (CD) album by the Australian Jazz combo, 'The Java Quartet' on their album 'Dark Garden' featured a track called 'Nursery Crimes' that to my ears has piano passages that sound distinctly 'Chopinesque', yet it's so very 'Jazz'!

Even the way that rock and the Blues have merged with Jazz has been wonderful. Our National Classical FM radio network features a few superb Jazz programs and one of them on late Friday nights, hosted by Gerry Koster ('Jazz Up Late' 10:30 pm until 12:30 am), features a lot of these hybrid Jazz creations and they are wonderful! My ears have been well and truly opened to the possibilities. However perhaps this Jazz hybridisation is not all that new. One of the pioneer groups in this scene was 'Soft Machine' from the late 1960's and 70's and beyond. What an amazing sound they developed. I note with some sadness that Hugh Hopper their bassist, passed away very recently!

John McLaughlin through his work with the Mahavishnu Orchestra has done much to hybridise Jazz with some wonderful 'electric' sounds. Even Jimi Hendrix dabbled with Jazz as evidenced by various tracks on the 'Electric Ladyland' set and some of his other lesser known recordings and collaborations. But in the end, it's all still 'Jazz'! More to come! Felix.