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
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick
Tchaikovsky - Ballet Suites as performed by Mstislav Rostropovich and the Berlin Philharmonic. Unmistakably the best performances of these suites ever commited to disc.

I also love the records that you listed above with the exception of the Lou Reed.
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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My parents bought a cabinet stereo in the '60's. Remember the ones that had built in speakers at the end with a flip up lid and the record player at one end with a high quality ceramic cartridge with the flip over needed for 33's and 45's that was way "hi-teck". Everyone heard to Ad Nausium the train recorded right to left for the real "demo". Man were we audibly challenged. Coming from a portable AM radio land this was pretty cool. WLS AM in Chicago was the rave and was THE top 40 station I would listen to long into the night with the radio by my pillow.

My Mom ordered from Readers Digest LP's of the assorted classics, Beethoven, Mozart, et al and I was hooked on classical music at about 13, even some of them were mono recordings. I then started going to Cooks HiFi and listened to 45's on little turntables with headphones in one of the 8 "phone-booths" they had for private listening. Steel Guitar Rag got me started along with Fabian, Elvis, The Beatles, you name it I liked it. Because of these phone booths we were really buying "used" 45's, but then who would have thought about groove where.

Those 45's along with my baeball card collection from the 50's and early 60's would be of some value today. Who'd a thunk it!

My regret is that I did not know of any adults who had a real HiFi, I mean some one who owned some old AR's, a Fisher or Citation Amp, and a Dual, Benjamin Miracord, or Garrard turntable. If I had heard that I know my paper route money would have gone for something other than wood baseball bats and new baseballs.
The first Santana record rearranged my molecules when I was nine years old. I saw the band for the first time in concert shortly thereafter, which was the most primal music experience I've ever had. A lifelong obsession with music was the result.
I still like Rock and Progressive Rock, but I found Jazz in 1974.
These were the lp's that did it for me!!!

Stanly Clarke / Stanly Clarke / 1974
Donald Byrd / Ethiopian Knights / 1972
Return to forever / Hym of the seventh Galaxy / 1973
Billy Cobham / Spectrum / 1973
Joe Farrell / Moon Germs / 1973
Deodato / Whirlwinds / 1974

Man, these are all great lp's! Stanly Clarke and Billy Cobham are still in regular rotation on my turntable.

As a matter of fact 6 months back I bought off ebay a first Japanese press of Billy Cobham / Spectrum

Peace
Ron