First LP to keep you in genre for life


I started in jazz-rock when all my buddies were in rock. All my rocker friends thought I was nuts and called it con-fusion music. I dragged them to shows and converted quite a few. One time, I had buddy who thought Ginger Baker was the greatest (no disrespect) and I took him to see Billy Cobham. Cobham started with a short solo and halfway through it he turned to me and shook my hand. Once Jazz-Rock digressed I then quickly took on jazz as my main music of choice. It took awhile to open the ears.

Inner Mounting Flame (Jazz-Rock) - The Mahavishnu Orchestra. The interplay, spirituality, ragalike repetition and volume was otherworldly and never to be matched. In this style McLaughlin and Cobham were the masters of their genre.

A Love Supreme - Coltrane (Jazz). Why go to church when you can just play this classic? My favorite jazz is still modal with a spiritual bent.

Rock and Roll Animal - Lou Reed (Rock). Dark and angry. The guitar interplay is fantastic. I always picture myself in a subterranean, urban bar; it's 2:00 am and raining outside and everyone is as pasty as Casper; when seeing this band. I'm glad I survived.
richardmr

Showing 1 response by jeffreybehr

Henry Mancini's music for the TV show 'Peter Gunn'. (Ever heard of it?) I too was a diddeebopper and rabid Presley fan in my teens, but the music from that show just grabbed me. Bought the LP and soon was a small-group jazz fan. Of course this was so long ago they played jazz and not jazz-rock (just as the country-western music of that time was not country-rock). Rapidly fell in love with Oscar Petersen, Ahmad Jamal, and especially Dave Brubeck.
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