Shred XLIX: And then the North Koreans attacked

20 discs of Beethoven.... sounds grim.  I've tried, but I can't really get into classical music or even jazz.  Which sucks, because my dad has a zillion jazz albums, and I've got a good friend who's kind of an insider in the classical music world.  I had dinner with Itzhak Perlman once at his house.

Most of the classic jazz albums make me think of trendy white hipsters in turtleneck sweaters saying, "groovy" a lot.

You'd think I would be.  Like the Soft Machine, for example.  But even they are very much an electric band.  Same with other stuff I love like Secret Oyster and Embryo. The supposedly jazzy stuff I like tends to primarily work within rock structures, even as they use jazz instruments and improvisations.  Sometimes a rock band will have one pure jazz number on their album (Spirit, for example), and I like that too, so long as the whole album isn't just that.

I'm also a sucker for the European flavor of jazziness, which I;m much more tolerant of than the American stuff.


Edited by HolyMoly - November 08 2012 at 12:20

I like some straight forward Jazz but usually I'm into jazzy rock/prog.

Undercover Man wrote: rushfan4 wrote: I can listen to some jazz, but I'm really not that big of a fan either.  I seem to lean more towards the drum-oriented jazz of Buddy Rich, Bill Bruford, Dave Weckl, etc, although I really have only scratched the surface there. Then you should check out Billy Cobham's Spectrum, the only i've heard by him, but it's a great album. He's an amazing drummer!

I have By Design from him.  I've not heard Spectrum yet, but it is on THE list.

Billy Cobham, on the other hand (lest ye misread my point), is an absolute monster on the kit.

Let me also clarify -- I don't really dislike classical and jazz per se.  They sound nice when they're on.  But as far as stuff I regularly listen to, and hunger for more of, jazz and classical just don't get me that excited. I don't GET INTO IT in the same way.


Edited by HolyMoly - November 08 2012 at 13:37

I like some Pat Metheny from time to time.  That track you posted sounded like the kind of stuff I like by him.  It's more the electric kind of jazz (or "fusion" if you will), which I probably prefer to the acoustic quartet kind of stuff (though Coltrane and Miles can really hit the spot at times too... the point is, I just don't have any long sustained periods of time where I'm seeking that kind of thing out.)

Edited by HolyMoly - November 08 2012 at 14:43

A colleague of mine, the one who's a musician, Genesis fan and a friend of Jose Cid, recommended Pat Metheny to me. Can't say that I've been impressed with what I've heard from him so far, but I've just sampled some tracks, not listened to a full album, so it might be something I enjoy. You never know.

Edited by The Bearded Bard - November 08 2012 at 15:16