Almost you, almost me, almost blue

So I finally got round to doing a part of the challenge I always knew I would be making, and one I've been dreading to undergo since the very first beginning : Jazz.
Now, I've always had an intensely dislike/downright hate relationship with Jazz, but it was - at least according to my point of view - entirely justified. When I was very young, my mother was working at a TV station and she often had to view content that was being shopped around by foreign networks. This included - unfortunately for me - content from Jazz festivals. But it also meant that for a few years we'd attend a night or two of a local, internationally renowned Jazz festival, and boy oh boy, did I loathe everything I had to listen to. And I used to have a... not a hot take, but rather a nuclear one : I didn't think anyone really likes Jazz. People are just too afraid to say it, lest they run afoul of these groupthink people who'll call them every '-ist' under the sun. But the sad truth for me is that during my life I have met and worked with people who actually enjoy it. 

Jazz, however, is an ubiquitous, inescapable presence is everyone's life : it's in movies, TV show, it's imagery is iconic, and the names are universally recognized. Miles, Ella, Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Monk, just to name a few. Everybody's heard of them. 

And now that I'm grown up, how do I feel about Jazz? Well, since then I've heard some Jazz - old and new. There were things I liked and things I detested. I tend to like vocal Jazz more than instrumental Jazz. I liked what I heard from Django Reinhardt and his guitar playing. Chet Baker, too, I came to enjoy. I really don't like Diana Krall but quite like Norah Jones. But it's not - and never will be - something that I will actively seek out to listen, I don't think. So did anything here really changed my mindset? Well, read on.

Day 257 - Jaco Pastorius - 'Jaco Pastorius'

I remember a conversation I had about 30 years ago with a guy I was doing service with in the Air Force. I was hardcore into metal, the guy was into Jazz. I was telling him about bass players like Steve DiGiorgio, Joey DeMaio or Steve Harris. He was telling me how they paled in comparison to guys like Stanley Clarke and Jaco Pastorius. I didn't believe him then. And truth is, I still don't believe it now. 

I have a number of issues with my listening of this album. And the first immediately leads to the second, which is a genuine fear I had. To whit, I found this to be far too long. At almost an hour long, this very early on became muzak to me. I just couldn't really get into it. Yes, the playing is amazing, yes, the bass absolutely smokes, and here and there I was pleasantly surprised by some good moments - especially on the shorter songs. But it wasn't enough for me to really enjoy it. I'll give it a 5/10

Day 258 - Herbie Hancock - 'Maiden Voyage'

Now, this one I actually really liked. And whilst trying to figure out just why I enjoyed it so much, I thought of a really good joke to use in this 'review' of mine, but it would have been wasted here, so I'm saving it for a (hopefully) more appropriate occasion, that I'm all but certain this exercise will provide me with. So, I'm not entirely sure that I can articulate the why of my enjoyment. I know very little of Jazz for me to state what is truly different between this one and other works of the genre. But for me was all about the mood it conveyed, how chill it was to listen to. The shortest song being around 6 minutes and the longest being over 10, and none of them feeling like they overstay their welcome, as well as, indeed, the whole album feeling like it just breezed by, is - for me, at least - a huge compliment. I'll give it a good 7/10

Day 259 - Alice Coltrane - 'Universal Consciousness'
The aforementioned joke almost reared its ugly head a few seconds into the first song - which ultimately I just did not enjoy. But I held fast, and the second song didn't show me any reason to love it either. Then I sort of stopped and it dawned on me that what I was listening to actually had more in common with a specific type of classical music that tends to be more towards the chaotic side, stuff like Stravinsky or Shostakovich, or even some Penderecki. I'm not saying they're the same, not by a longshot, but my brain interpreted it that way and then it made more sense to me. Outside of maybe the first two tracks which didn't do much for me, the rest I enjoyed. I'm not going to say that this would be something I'd reach for often, but neither did it make me feel like I'd wasted my time listening to it.

For me, it's a 6/10 

Day 260 - Lee Morgan - 'The Sidewinder'

Re : the joke. I knew from the first second I listened to this that the joke would not be used here. In fact, I am hopeful that the occasion for me to use doesn't arise, though I'm fairly certain it will. Some of my upcoming choices I know will test me. As for this album, just like Herbie Hancock's, it's all about the mood it sets. I'm somewhat suspicious that I may have heard at least bits and pieces of some of the songs here, maybe in movies or commercials. And I would describe this as cinematic, in the sense that it brought to mind something that could easily be heard being played in a seedy speakeasy in some detective movie from the '60s. A very pleasant listen, to be sure, and I'll give it a 7/10

Day 261 - Eric Dolphy - 'Out To Lunch!'
This one almost merited the joke, because alas, I wasn't a huge fan of this one. But I opted to save it for a future entry in this series. 

Now, why didn't I like this one? Frankly, I found it to be fairly... I dunno. Sterile. Lifeless. Lugubrious. It had none of the vivacity, swing or energy the others had. And that's ok, you can't win 'em all. You just move on and hope that the next one's better suited for you. It's not bad, no, just not very enjoyable for me. I'll give it a 5/10 

Day 262 - Sonny Rollins - 'Saxophone Colossus'

When I did my admittedly not very thorough research into what albums I'd choose to feature here, I made sure that I didn't pick anything that was - to my understanding - a record that was so overwhelmingly and universally renowned that even I would have heard of it, and I also made sure to select at least a couple of records that I knew that, and reading from the descriptions in the list I found them in, I would either intensely dislike if not downright hate. This was one such choice, and I am very glad to say that not only I enjoyed, I enjoyed it precisely because this one had - and in spades - that which I found to be missing in the previous record. This one is full of life, contagiously so. I'm of a mind that this might have been the best record of the lot. It gets a great 8/10

 
Day 263 - Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come'

I have to be honest, I didn't love this one. It was... too slow. Sort of like a dirge, really. But I still liked it better than the Dolphy record, though really not by much. I don't know how to put it into words just why I enjoyed some records more than others, maybe it has to do with what kind of feelings well up inside me while listening to them. Some of the records here just seemed to fly by, a few sort of felt maybe they overstayed their welcome. Or maybe I just prefer something with a bit more pep in its step.

I'll give it a 6/10

So what did we learn, kids? Well, for me, I realized that Jazz is best appreciated while being listened to on headphones. In all others instances before it was huge no-no for me, but headphones really helped me appreciate that much more all that Jazz, pardon the pun. In fact, I might even do a further entry into this challenge where I focus on Big Band Jazz / Swing. I might just do that.