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 My
interest in jazz started as a mild affliction and gradually developed
into a mild addiction.
As a
teenager I loved listening to Louis Armstrong play his cornet, but was
not too fussed with his singing: it took me a while to appreciate and
enjoy that aspect of his music.
Then —
I suspect it was round 1960 — I heard Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen perform
their version of Midnight in Moscow and I was well and truly
hooked. I joined a jazz record club and listened to whatever jazz I
could hear on the radio (my only source was the dear old ABC), and this
opened up all the varying forms of the music to me. I discovered such
great musicians as Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Zoot
Sims and Keith Jarrett, etc., etc. I now have a collection of about 200
jazz CDs.
These
days I particularly enjoy listening to the music of some wonderfully
talented Australian jazz musicians. If we rewarded their talents the
same way as we reward our sportsmen, a lot of these musicians would be
millionaires.
A
rather sad comment on our priorities.
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