August 18, 2006

Introduction to Jazz

First of all, this is not a definition of jazz music rather an account of my personal
experience with jazz. I was 20yrs old, third year college (1994), when I started collecting
Jazz cds but as early as 1991 I already enjoyed listening to it. That time, I’m a bit young
for my age but not too young for jazz. I always believe that jazz is the music of the baby
boomers and the preppy ones. I’m talking about contemporary jazz not blues from the
1950’s or bee bop jazz of New Orleans.

During that year I was very thankful because a newly operated radio station aired
only jazz music. Crossover 105.1 fm. There are only 2 radio stations in Manila which
faithfully air jazz music namely 88.3 City Lite and 105.1 Crossover. Both stations are at
the far end of the dial. Crossover station aired world music and contemporary and main
stream jazz while City Lite plays fusion jazz and acid jazz, so I seldom listen to the latter
because I’m just a newcomer to this kind of genre.

Crossover carries “On the Sunny Side of the Street” song as its station I.D. jingle
– the last part of it - which I learned to like also. Day and night, I would listen religiously
to Crossover to enrich my knowledge to my new found love for jazz.

Personally, listening to jazz is a different kind of experience. It is something you

must acquire. Something you must love. An obsession. Far from other genre which
captures you easily, jazz is a kind of music that grows within you.

Most of jazz music is instrumental. I remember buying a cd of Spyro Gyra, one of

the best I’ve had. It is so soothing. During those times, Kazaa and Limewire are not yet
available and bootleg copies are few. You really have to look for your songs on selected
record bars, thus came the term “hard to find.” I hunted for it, if I may say. More often
that not, I find myself humming, if not singing, to sales personnel in order for them to
know what song I am referring too because radio disc jockeys seldom mention the name
of the artist and the title of the song but this does not make me frustrated, more, I am
challenged. Patience is a virtue. All that jazz. This kind of game hunting resulted to my
frequent trips to jazz bars and numerous conversations with jazz loving people. Jazz bars
will outnumber all other bars which cater other music.

I studied in UST, España, Manila. Luckily, there is a jazz bar located at least
200meters away from the campus. I usually go there. The scene is really die hard jazzy.
Posters of Louis Armstrong “Satchmo”, Earl Klugh, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie,
Duke Ellington and others grace the wall. Statuette of jazz quartet adorned the place. It
dons a black interior finish with a dim lit low-ceiling mezzanine area. The most
significant of all is the 15 ft mural of Miles Davis En Concert – “my idol”- on the
exterior.
 The place is called Naked Ear. What a name?! This bar gave birth to my favorite
words…”spoon, diesel, and blue sanity.” The crowd is great; I guess the uniform of
different colleges added a bit of a fetish atmosphere to the intoxicated hub. Who says you
can’t have fun in uniforms. Jazz is smoke. Jazz is beer. Jazz is conversation. Jazz is
flirting. Jazz is kiss. Jazz is sex. Jazz is love. Intimate one.

Most jazz lovers could relate to what I’m talking about. Ok…ok…so you are not
a jazz lover yet…Let me explain further, rather, I’ll set an example na lang. So, you are
with your soon to be girlfriend or boyfriend, would you rather have that dinner or long
talk over Jon Bon Jovi or to the “no failure” charisma of Ambrosia. Listen then tell me. It
is with jazz that I learned how to smoke. It is with jazz that I learned how to drink
sociably. It is with jazz that I learned to kiss passionately. It is with jazz that I had
intimate relationships. It is with jazz.

For me, jazz is a kind of music that will definitely define you as a person.

“In striving to develop a personal sound or tone colour—an idiosyncratic sense of

rhythm and form and an individual style of execution—performers create rhythms
characterized by constant syncopation (accents in unexpected places) and also by swing
—a sensation of pull and momentum that arises as the melody is heard alternately
together with, then slightly at variance with, the expected pulse or division of a pulse.
Written scores, if present, are used merely as guides, providing structure within which
improvisation occurs. “

Need I say more? Read again. Now, read between the lines. It’s not just jazz but
it’s a personality. It is your style. Your attitude.

Experience....listening to “How Much I Feel” …close your eyes…in your hand;

you hold a bottle of beer or better yet a glass of bourbon on the rocks. You puff a smoke.
You look into her eyes….the rest is jazz.

Occasionally, I meet people who love jazz…but ever so rarely…I’ll meet

someone and ask….what is jazz?

My answer is a smile….

For those who don’t give a damn….Miles Davis – the prince of darkness – would
play “So What”

An introduction to jazz.