Did any of you "Jazz cats" start out rockers?

Matt Till · #1 05-24-2006, 09:22 AM

Jazz has become a bastard term that doesn't really mean anything: I mean Victor Wooten sounds nothing like Paul Chambers, but you know what I mean by "Jazz." But both loose definitions can stick to this topic.

The reason I ask this: I'm somewhat of a young man, 23 and 1/8 years old, and I'm currently in a metal band, perhaps mostly because I can't find enough like minded individuals to create a weird as hell prog band. While I'm young, I suppose I want to be a big scary monster, with huge monster bass tone. I scoff at the modern bass sound, it doesn't have the big rock sound, which is understandable in a jazz setting for sure.

I do have a certain appreciation for the smoothest of fretless bass sounds though, as "elevator" as they might sound. But I have no current interest in persuing it outside of a bedroom setting. But I could see that changing, I've certainly found myself mellowing with age. While the rest of my band finds comfort in the soothing sounds of Pig Destroyer and early Napalm Death, even in my metal listenings, I go for the "non brutal."

Any of you jazzy mcjazzbones start out a big scary monster bassist? Maybe not metal, but rock or psych or something.

superbassman2000 · #2 05-24-2006, 09:46 AM

i'm not a big jazz head, but my musical tastes have had a big shift--from Deep Purple and rage against the machine, to now, which is Jacob Fred Jazz Oddysey and Bill Frisell

granted i'm sure the hardcore jazzheads will argue that JFJO isn't real jazz, and only coltrane and parker are the only two "real" jazz players, but i consider my choices jazz as well

lilboo77 · #3 05-24-2006, 09:55 AM

I play rock / metal now at 29 yrs old, but I would love to play jazz or funk. I think it has more to do with finding a guitarist that doesn't have to shred everything he plays than your age. The drummer I am currently playing with and I are on the same page. He is also 29 yrs old and wants to play jazz or funk, but we can't find a guitarist or singer that even has the same book, much less same chapter or page.

steveb98 · #4 05-24-2006, 10:11 AM

I would say as a player you continue to look for challenges and at some point rock for some isn't a challenge anymore. Jazz, Fusion, other music offers more rhythms and harmonies to explore. The same as many of us started with three chord rock and went looking for more challenging rock.

Also Jazz is an overloaded word, it means different things to everyone. Same as Rock covers a lot of sub-catagories.

markjazzbassist · #5 05-24-2006, 10:19 AM

i started out big on classic rock and alternative rock when i was in high school. then my buddy got me hooked on stevie wonder and return to forever. i am a huge jazz guy but mostly R&B and funk now.

fish slapper · #6 05-24-2006, 10:23 AM

...(tell us a story, Grandpa)...

I started playing in garage bands in the 70s. Got recruited by a desparate band director to be in the school stage band and got my first exposure to Jazz. During the Disco insanity I started getting more interested in Fusion.

Now late in life I have gotten into "straight-ahead" and latin forms and have taken up the DB. I've even gotten crazy and taken some classical lessons but I don't think I'll ever get to a perfomance level in that regard.

You should play the music you dig. What ever you listen to in the car boppin' down the road, that's what should be on your set list.

ldiezman · #7 05-24-2006, 10:24 AM

Well... I started out Jazz, R&B, and Funk.... now I play country... I still do the Jazz and Funk as much as I can, the country touring gig just pays nicely

Tony G · #8 05-24-2006, 10:30 AM

+1 here for the rocker turned jazz-cat

XavierG · #9 05-24-2006, 10:36 AM

I started out playing rock... Cream, Allman Bros., Stones, Santana, etc. This was back in the very early 70's when I was just a wee little lad. I was quickly introduced to the likes of Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Chick Corea, and others. My musical taste changed quickly. I guess that having started playing at about the same time as these "jazz-fusion" artists were "breaking out" made a difference. It was new and exciting stuff back then. I'm not sure that I would be making that "switch" if I were a rock bassist today... nothing new and exciting about "jazz-fusion" nowadays. I still love the stuff though.

jonathan_matos5 · #10 05-24-2006, 10:37 AM

what you can start on rock why didnt you guys tell me that

oh yeah

because i wouldnt have listened

/end sarcasm

sorry ive been playing for 2 months and i started out on jazz because i thought rock would be too easy. yes it would be easier to find a band and start playing gigs with rock but thats not my style in fact i started on bass guitar because i could pull together $200 for a cheap bass and not 2 grand for an ok upright.

back on topic

styles do change with age so do what ever you want to keep yourself interested in what you do

**Pacman** · #11 05-24-2006, 11:16 AM

I did. Started playing because of Steve Harris.

Rick Brienzo · #12 05-24-2006, 11:17 AM

I started out as a punk rocker then got into some heavy alternative/independent type stuff which you could call rock when I was ages 14 to 20. Now that I am getting near 30 I am trying to blend all of my varying tastes, which includes jazz into the music I play. We don’t do straight “jazz” and I am not claming to be a “jazz” musician, but I may be someday (with some practice). Our music is a hybrid that I call Indie jazz for lack of a better term. If you want to check out some demos see my sig.

If you like jazz you should try to integrate some of that style into your playing. I think the music tastes of the general public are getting bigger now. You got kids that listen to rap, metal, blues, jazz, and dance music, all day long depending on their mood. And there isn’t any reason to limit your self to one set standard or label in music. After all it is art. Rock On!!!!!!!!!

FreeSpirit · #13 05-24-2006, 11:25 AM

I started to playing punk rock about 4 years ago. The whole sticered up p-bass straight 16th notes and a big thick pick. AFter getting lessons my teacher strted introducing me to more ska/reggae/fun and motown tunes. SO since then I have been playing more funk and jazzier stuff then the rock I used to love. I started getting into jazz last month by getting "Kind of Blue" and one Coltane record. Now by now means am I an old guy, I think I would be put into the "Wee Lad" groupings at 19. But when I do get older and grow up, I want to be able to play more jazz and possibly when I finish school form/join a jazz band to play weeends and such.

I currently quit all three "rock" groups I was in to learn more and be able to spend more time listening to jazz and playing and learning.

Kyle

Matt Till · #14 05-24-2006, 11:55 AM

It's awesome hearing the history of everyone's musical evolution, especially some of the older members. I often wonder where I'm going to be musically in about 20 years. I like all music (everyone says that, but I pretty much mean it), I find validity in every genre for one reason or another, and it makes me wonder what gig I'll be landing in the future.

Snarf · #15 05-24-2006, 12:08 PM

I started out playing in a hard-rock band, mostly influenced by Guns N Roses and Soundgarden-type music. This was my freshman year of high school, and it was fun, the band was really, really good. During high school I was all into Rush (80's thru present), Dream Theater, Symphony X, all that prog stuff. Towards the end though, I was studying more and more jazz, that's ALL I did. Now, I am very much a jazz player (I play upright now too), but also play jazz/jam/funk music with a great band.

Basically I try to be as versatile a musician as possible. I really can play anything I want to, except for the stupid-fast math metal stuff. I'm professional-minded, meaning I never tie myself down to just one genre (and I want to eventually make some green live and in studios).

As for what I listen to now, it's a lot of jazz (Bill Evans, Dave Holland, John Patitucci in particular), world-fusion/pop, chill, and 80's pop and hair metal (Starship and Skid Row primarily). And I'm still one of the biggest Rush fans you'll ever meet.

tkozal · #16 05-24-2006, 12:33 PM

At the age of 29, I quit the rock band I was in and started studying jazz. I had played some fusion, Maha, WR, RTF, but walking jazz bass lines over standards was something I had never done. I studied not jazz bass, but jazz theory with a well known sax player. I learned a hell of a lot. Got to the point where i was playing jazz gigs like Sunday Brunches at big, well-known restaurants, for actual FOLDING MONEY and free meals.

Bu then I moved, the day job got intense, and the people I knew for jamming were all classic rock and jamband types. I have been dying to get back in a jazz environment.

Ed Fuqua · #17 05-24-2006, 01:05 PM

Well sorta. But I'm from Augusta GA, so even the garage bands there (at least in my age demographic) have the whole Steve Morse/Dixie Grit/Dixie Dregs/Dregs thang in their background.
But yeah, electric bass, Cerwin Vega 18" folded horn, playing too loud. The whole schmeer...

pointbass · #18 05-24-2006, 01:21 PM

No, I started out in 1962 on DB as a jazz guy and stayed that way through the early '70's, until I graduated from college. Then I had to make some money so I went where the cash was, which was pretty much in "pop" music. A little rock, some early disco (I hated that crap), beginnings of funk (Sly, GCS, JB), whatever paid money.

By the early '80's I was a musical prostitute, working for money in the hopes of feeding my family. I have to admit music wasn't much fun at that time. I finally had to get a "day gig" to pay the bills .... then I went back to my jazz roots and finally enjoyed playing again.

Today, it's mostly jazz and fusion stuff for me. The rocker scene just never appealed, but it did pay when I needed it ....

anonymous278347457 · #19 05-24-2006, 02:24 PM

i really like funk and jazz right now, but i started out listening to metal and rock(and i still do)

Richard Lindsey · #20 05-24-2006, 02:52 PM

Sorta. I started out as a guitar player, first taking general/all purpose/borderline jazz lessons from a guy who ended up playing with Airto and Flora in the '70s; then five years of classical guitar. I added bass during my classical period, when the HS stage band didn't have anybody who could read bass clef (I'd learned from playing along with my brother's piano music). Then I was continuing along with the classical, stumbling along on electric, and getting more interested in bass, listening to a lot of LA singer/songwriters, Neil Young/Buffalo Springfield, CSN(Y), and prog like Yes, and Gentle Giant.

I can't remember where I first got into jazz, but it was somewhat gradually, first indirectly through bands like Chicago and Blood Sweat & Tears, and then more directly through jazz radio. I still remember a late-night disc jockey who liked to play this tune called "Peresina," from a McCoy Tyner record called Expansions. I still love that tune. College was where the jazz bug really started to bite me, and it's never stopped, though it's by no means the only thing I listen to and play.

I don't really consider myself a "jazz cat," just a guy who likes to play jazz, along with other things.