My Survey of Jazz: Joplin to Japanese

I met my wife in a college class entitled "A Survey of Jazz." Actually, I met her on the campus shuttle on the way to that class, but we had it together, so jazz has become somewhat meaningful to our relationship. We were fortunate enough to see Ray Brown, Sergio Mendes, and John Pizzarelli together on class assignments. Everyone has their favorite jazz eras. When I told my grandmother that swing was just considered an era of jazz, she said "I don't think it's jazz at all." So there you have it. But like it or not, everything from ragtime to dixieland, swing to bebop, and cool to fusion, IS jazz. I personally don't like almost anything after 1960. The Beatles stole a lot of thunder and I prefer my jazz to be acoustic over electric. Cool is BOOORING to me and the 1970s was a bad decade for music, period. Here are my favorites (or at least the closest representations I could find on Mixwit):

1. "Maple Leaf Rag" - Scott Joplin (1899) I repeat: 1899; can you believe it?; I think my dad had the The Sting soundtrack on vinyl, so I've probably been familiar with Joplin since birth, or shortly thereafter

2. "Livery Stable Blues" - Jelly Roll Morton (1917) I prefer "The Pearls" but it wasn't on Mixwit; it's nice to have something with the word "blues" in the title

3. "Ain't Misbehavin" - Louis Armstrong (1929) "Armstrong returned to New York, in 1929, where he played in the pit orchestra of the successful musical Hot Chocolate, an all-black revue written by Andy Razaf and pianist/composer Fats Waller. He also made a cameo appearance as a vocalist, regularly stealing the show with his rendition of “Ain't Misbehavin,” his version of the song becoming his biggest selling record to date." (from Wikipedia)

4. "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart" - Ella Fitzgerald (1938) I first heard the Duke Ellington instrumental version on the Ken Burns Jazz DVD series; this may have been the song playing on the menu screen; it's SO melancholy; my other melancholy favorite I found on those DVDs was "Begin the Beguine," as done by Artie Shaw

5. "In the Mood" - Glenn Miller (1939) my teacher told us that "jazz nazis" consider Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller plain ol' pop music; maybe that's where my grandmother got it from

6. "Jumpin' at the Woodside" - Count Basie (sometime between 1937-1943)

7. "Salt Peanuts" - Dizzy Gillespie & Charlie Parker (1942) my son got his middle name from musical prodigy Charlie Parker, but also Peter Parker, Spider-Man and Parker Lewis Can't Lose (my favorite TV show; see top ten at the bottom right)

8. "Ah Leu Cha" - John Coltrane & Miles Davis (written by Charlie Parker in 1948) I own the 1955 'Round About Midnight album version by Davis, also featuring Coltrane, but it ain't this fast; as I mentioned above, I love the 1950's hard bop

9. "Focus on Sanity" - Ornette Coleman (1959) enter free jazz

10. "Take Five" - The Dave Brubeck Quartet (1959) I think this is the top selling jazz record, at least in its day; very music theory - each song is done with a different time signature

11. "Moanin'" - Charles Mingus (1959) as you can tell, jazz seemed to peek in 1959, and then get very weird thereafter

12. "Oleo" - Sonny Rollins (1954) I prefer "The Bridge," both songs are on his Ken Burns CD

13. "Skating" - The Vince Guaraldi Trio (1965) everybody knows the Charlie Brown Christmas music; I never got into all those holiday specials but I love this song

14. "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" - Sounds Orchestral (evidently written by Guaraldi in 1963) this cover band went top ten on the Billboard charts

15. "Tank!" - The Seatbelts (1998) the word "Japanese" in this post's title refers the theme song for the anime series Cowboy Bebop, named after my favorite era

OUT TODAY ON DVD: LEATHERHEADS