Who was your first

Interesting thread. Back when all I listened to was mind bending rock like Hendrix, King Crimson and Procul Harum I bought Miles Davis Bitches Brew for the cover art. Man was I disappointed; it sounded like incomprehensible, unmusical noise. A short while later by a lucky coincidence I heard the McCoy Tyner album Trident and several by Rahsaan Roland Kirk. I've been hooked ever since. 30 years later Bitches Brew sounds out-of-this-world marvelous but hey, that's not really jazz, it's that more mainstream, stepchild fusion music, haha.

Yeah I can appreciate the cultural myopia that might conclude that jazz is an answer to social ostracism or that musicians who must work for a living never tire of complaining about the competition. But of all the genres jazz is the one solely about its sound, one that transcends looks, cars, clothes and hairstyles. Cultural pride is righteous but assigning racial labels to individuals or groups in an attempt to somehow explain, define or symbolically organize their behavior is the absurdity of racism itself. Detlof, does a turntable sound white due to its creative origin? Beethoven isn't great because of where or when he lived. Genius is genius. Some cats can play and some can't.