"I can listen to jazz recordings for hours on end but can scarcely
remember a dozen tunes."
If you can’t remember what you are listening to, either the music is not leaving an impression on you or you are not paying attention to it. I suspect you are multi-tasking with the music in the background and are probably a digital listener. There is nothing wrong with that per se. People listen to and collect music for many different reasons. Some want the best recordings, some want rare or historic content, some collect from a certain era, etc, etc. I don’t have any music in my collection that I don’t like and wouldn’t play. It’s mostly jazz and I can name most any song from any album. I don’t try to intellectualize the music as many do, I just listen and enjoy it on a nice system that allows me to do so.
If I’m auditioning a piece of gear or changing something in the system, I cannot relax until I get everything in synch and singing together. At that time I am listening to the sound of my system. Once everything is satisfactorily tweaked, I'm back to listening to the music.
remember a dozen tunes."
If you can’t remember what you are listening to, either the music is not leaving an impression on you or you are not paying attention to it. I suspect you are multi-tasking with the music in the background and are probably a digital listener. There is nothing wrong with that per se. People listen to and collect music for many different reasons. Some want the best recordings, some want rare or historic content, some collect from a certain era, etc, etc. I don’t have any music in my collection that I don’t like and wouldn’t play. It’s mostly jazz and I can name most any song from any album. I don’t try to intellectualize the music as many do, I just listen and enjoy it on a nice system that allows me to do so.
If I’m auditioning a piece of gear or changing something in the system, I cannot relax until I get everything in synch and singing together. At that time I am listening to the sound of my system. Once everything is satisfactorily tweaked, I'm back to listening to the music.