Your golden moments in listening .

Paul Warburton · #1 05-10-2009, 07:04 AM

We all have them. All players, instruments, singers, composers, arrangements and all musical genre. Those moments when our favorite players "speak" to us in special, musical, emotional and sometimes earth-moving ways that can change our playing and even our lives. Most of us love sharing this stuff with friends who we feel safe and comfortable with. I think it might be an interesting thread here, because we all hear things differently and internalize musical statements in ways that mean so much, in terms of individual tastes, to us on deep and even humorous levels. Or just how god damn cool they are.
With digital read-outs on our devices today, we can pin-point a musical moment that we can share. Or we can just talk about these moments together...what they mean to us and how they might have impacted our lives.
Here's one example for me....no digital read-outs just yet.
My very first jazz record....the one that made me a bassist: "The Hampton Hawes Trio" Contemporary records.1955(available now on CD.)...Hampton Hawes, piano. Red Mitchell, bass and Chuck Thomson, drums. Cut: "Hamp's blues". I first learned to sing the head, and all of Hamp's musical statements, plus Red's great walking solo. When I got my first bass, I learned Red's solo note for note without having lessons. To this day, I can still sing and/or play most of the music on this side. It will live with me until I cash in.

As the tune goes..."How about you?"
PS...Slabbers welcome. Just don't gimme no ****. Thank you very much.

**Chris Fitzgerald** · #2 05-10-2009, 09:42 AM

Recordings:

Mahler 10 Adagio - New York Phil/Bernstein. I couldn't move from the spot until the whole thing was done, and then was speechless for a long time.

Cello Suite #5 - Janos Starker. I used to wake up dreaming this one.

Bartok - Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste. Again, speechless.

Bonnie Raitt, singing "Dimming Of The Day" and "The Glow". If I could sing like that, I don't know if I'd ever feel the need to pick up an instrument again.

Keith Jarrett - "Stella By Starlight" with the trio. The introduction slayed me, and i remained slayed throughout.

Bill Evans - "Detour Ahead". I forgot to breathe for about a minute the first time i heard it.

Kenny Barron - "Skylark" from "Green Chimneys". If anybody is channeling Bach these days, it's Kenny.

Fred Hersch - "I Fall In Love Too Easily" from "Dancing In The Dark", then later, that entire album. After hearing it, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.

Chick Corea - "Three Quartets". This one had me in its grasp for months, and i hardly listened to anything else.

Live:

Fred Hersch Trio with Drew Gress and Tom Rainey, early 90's. They played an entire set without walking, and I didn't notice until it was over. That concert changed the direction of my musical life.

Chick Corea Akoustic Band. Tight chops, clean sound, and a joyous vibe all night. I ended up sitting in a Denny's in Frankfort until 3 AM with a friend who was also blown away. We ate several breakfasts and basically just sat there with our minds blown trying to figure out what we just heard.

Frank Morgan and Cyrus Chestnut - played "A Nightengale Sang in Berkeley Square". I was in tears and didn't realize it until my wife handed me a Kleenex.

I could supply a digital read out for the "I Fall in Love Too Easily" and "Stella" cuts, but that's about it. Great thread idea, Pee-dub. I'll quit hogging it now.

Eli_Upright12 · #3 05-10-2009, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Fitzgerald

Recordings:
Bill Evans - "Detour Ahead". I forgot to breathe for about a minute the first time i heard it.

That track is amazing, to me that is where I base my ballad interpretation from.

Paul Warburton · #4 05-10-2009, 10:43 AM

+1. On Detour, and the entire sessions. I learned the tune before I heard them play it. That was an eye opener. Another Golden was when I asked John Frigo (one of the authors) to join me in my bass feature at a jazz party. I played the melody and he just backed me up...then he took a chorus that layed me out cold.
When I was first trying to grasp what Bill and Scott were trying to do, and finally got to the point where I could listen without getting lost in the form, I was digging "My Romance" and there's a spot in Scott's solo where he plays the first bit of the melody....but he DISPLACES it. I thought..."Oh ****! I got lost again." He almost got me on that one. I you want, I'll give an exact read-out later.
DURRL, no problem "hogging". Your post was exactly what I had in mind. From those "Eureka" moments to those little precious ones. I think this thread will be a free wheeler anyway. I already like it.
I been listening to Ahmad, Israel and Vernell this morning...Golden moment after moment.....Tell you later.
Aw, what the hell....one more: Bill's solo on "Goodbye" from Cannonball's "Know what I mean?" Phew......take me now, sweet Jesus.

Jazzdogg · #5 05-10-2009, 12:07 PM

1: I was in high school - I'd been playing for about 5 years and had no idea how limited my playing and listening abilities were; my sense of self-satisfaction was unwarranted. Pop placed a pair of headphones over my ears, put on an LP of Art Tatum ("Tea For Two"), followed by Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown.

Pop didn't have to say a word.

2: Still in high school. I'd taught myself every Tower of Power song recorded - without ever having seen TOP perform. Then I attended my first TOP concert and was absolutely thunderstruck by Rocco's technique.

Back to the woodshed with my tail between my legs.

3: Fast-forward several years. My wife and I were living in Denver and attended a concert by Sarah Vaughan. Turns out, it was her birthday. For her encore, she came back on stage alone, and sang another 3 or 4 songs, accompanying herself on piano. Goose pimple time.

4. Memorial Day, 2002. I accompanied my brother - a brass player - to Fort Rosecrans cemetary where he plays taps every year. After the ceremony he brings out his trombone and plays the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Grown men of all ages are seen weeping openly. I am among them.

Nathan Parker · #6 05-10-2009, 01:00 PM

I think the first moment that I truly felt spoken to by music was listening to Cannonball Adderly and Nancy Wilson. I had just started playing the double bass, but hadn't really found something that truly grabbed me until I heard Sam Jones on that album. It was definitely a light bulb moment for me, and I am still trying to sound like that today.

fingers · #7 05-10-2009, 01:03 PM

Miles Davis - My Funny Valentine/Four and More the '64 live concert. There has been so much I have loved since but that album made me want to play jazz.

reedo35 · #8 05-10-2009, 01:04 PM

Brahms 1 Finale - It was like the gates of heaven opened up,
and I knew my Destiny was in Music at that moment.

Barbers Adagio - There are no words

Bill Evans - +1 on "Detour Ahead".

Ludwig Streicher- Bottesini -I listened to this for years in awe.

Miles- Kind of Blue- Amazingly Simple yet complex. Does that make sense?

Chick Corea - "Three Quartets". The first time I heard this was in High School, and I thought it was a bunch of unintelligible crap. Three years later, I couldn't stop listening to it.

Jason Sypher · #9 05-10-2009, 01:45 PM

Mine are kind of odd because they, on the surface, don't seem that "heavy". When I first heard scotty on "Alice in Wonderland" that really clicked for me. Same with Gary Peacock on Trio 64 on "Little Lulu". Something about the way Gary bullies the beat around. There are tons of more obvious moments particularly with Coltrane, Ornette and Duke Blanton. But those are two cuts that, for some reason, really spoke to me. Certainly Charlie Haden's "For Ellen" also moved me greatly. St. Mathews Passion under the direction of Solti has had a lasting effect as had much of Casals and Jacqueline Du Pre. Funny list I think...

**jumbosilverette** · #10 05-10-2009, 02:10 PM

Quincy Jone's 1969 record Walking in Space. First bass lines I sang in my head, most of them by Ray Brown and Chuck Rainey, I think: Oh, Happy Day, Walking in Space, Killer Joe

Marcus Johnson · #11 05-10-2009, 02:19 PM

Hearing Ron Carter's bass line on "Basin Street" on the Miles album "Seven Steps To Heaven" was the turning point for me, the moment I knew I was going to play the bass. I guess I was maybe 11 or 12.

I had been listening to a lot of rock music at the time as a normal young guy, until one day, may dad opened my bedroom door and flung that album in, "here, check this out". So I put it on the turntable, and it stayed there for about three weeks, I didn't listen to anything else. That opening track, and Ron's playing on it, exemplified everything that I ever wanted to achieve... still does, as a matter of fact. Go check it out if you have it, it's ****ing brilliant.

After about three weeks of nothing but that album, I went back to Dad and said "okay, what else you got?" So then he went back a little further in his Miles stuff, and I heard PC, and then I was just gone. There was also Monk, and Ellington, and some Basie, Mingus for sure, Bill Evans with Scotty! I can't remember it all now. It was kind of a blur for a young kid. Nice blur. Thanks Dad.

seanm · #12 05-10-2009, 02:40 PM

"Stone Crazy!" by Buddy Guy. The amount of energy and emotion in that album is unbelievable.

Marcus Johnson · #13 05-10-2009, 02:43 PM

Oh man... I had the pleasure of doing a double bill with Buddy Guy once in the early eighties... that guy just laid me out flat. He was on fire.

Paul Warburton · #14 05-10-2009, 03:04 PM

Funny, Marcus. Buddy laid you out "flat', and John Frigo layed me out "cold". We been through some painful situations, you and I.

zeytoun · #15 05-10-2009, 05:24 PM

As a teenager, I would claw out chords and melodies on the piano, and had the sheet music to Sentimental Mood (which, not having much of a jazz background, I had never heard). When I got to the melody for the "loving attitude" line, the raw power of the melody/chord combo of the song just blew my mind. But I was too amateurish to actually do the song justice, and when I found the Coltrane/Ellington recording, I fell head over heels for it.

Marcus Johnson · #16 05-10-2009, 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Warburton

Funny, Marcus. Buddy laid you out "flat', and John Frigo layed me out "cold". We been through some painful situations, you and I.

Hah! I didn't even notice that.... great minds and all that.....
Hey, at least we both got laid!

MR PC · #17 05-10-2009, 06:37 PM

Golden Moment, that's a great idea for a thread, destined as a sticky I think.

I think for me it might of started with hearing Ray Charles sing "What I Say", I didn't know what a bass was then, so I might have thought that his piano riff was bass. Maybe it was when I heard Chuck Berry sing "Rock 'n Roll Music". Great recording. My dad gave me lots of Mozart to listen to. Evry night in the 1970's after my C&W gig I'd listen to Duke doing "Solitude" and Wayne Shorter with Milton Naciomento "pointa de area" just to bring peace and sanity back before retiring. So, Dunno. If being in the womb counts as a listening experience, I heard a lot of good things there, like Lionel Hampton and Stravinsky. Best part for me is, the Golden Moment is always there waiting to be noticed. (Moments are tangible things to me.) Just last night I stumbled across a classic 1961 recording by Arthur Grumiaux "Bach: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (PHILLIPS).

LM Bass · #18 05-10-2009, 07:41 PM

Gary Karr playing Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise"
Portrait in Jazz Bill Evans with Motian and Scotty
Miles ESP

I was a rock and roll teenager with a classical piano background when I tried out for "Stage Band" at my high school. The teacher said, "Go and buy some Weather Report, Bill Evans, and Miles Davis, and by the way you WILL be taking double bass lessons with Monty from the symphony". Bless his heart!

I ended up hating "Mr. Gone" but wore out "Heavy Weather" playing along to it every day for about a year. Tony Williams and Herbie and Ron -well that was a transcendent listening experience for me. . . Gary Karr gets such a vocal sound from his bass, shattering what a bass meant to me.

abaguer · #19 05-10-2009, 11:56 PM

When I first heard My Foolish Heart by Bill Evans at the Vanguard. I consciously remember it being the first bit of "beautiful" music I'd ever heard.
Another one that had the same effect on me was Rain forest by Hampton Hawes and Charlie Haden on As long as there's music. That's what got me interested in jazz and also left me transfixed. Two Folk Songs by Pat Metheny on 80/81 also ranks up there.
Also Chan Chan by Buena Vista Social Club and the fist Cachao Master Sessions album. It starts with Al Fin Te Vi which was just flute and bass.

Treyzer · #20 05-11-2009, 01:21 AM

My dad was a Navy fighter pilot. he lived through WWII and Korea. He played sax in Kansas before the war and he loved jazz unlike many of the people he worked with. When I was about 12, I remember coming downstairs after an adult cocktail party (early 1960's) and watching my dad listen to some beautiful music; turned out it was Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" and I think the cut was Freddie the Free Loader. Dad was sitting on the stairs, eyes closed with a scotch in one hand and cigarette in the other. We were pretty close; still are. When he saw me come down the stairs he smiled and said, "Trey, listen to this. This is real music. Listen to that horn. We listened to the rest of the side together and obviously it made a big impression.

The Bill Evans records with Scotty LaFaro. They are ingrained into my head. Again I was first introduced to these records by my dad.

Going to see James Brown and the Famous Flames maybe 1964? I was maybe 15 and we saw him at the Pensacola, Fla. Civic Auditorium. Remember that this was the south and overall race relations were pretty strained. However, James Brown was unbelievable and everyone in that audience was caught up in the gospel revival spirit of "Please Please Me", "Baby Please Don't Go" and "It's a Mans World". Life changing....

Mozart's concert in A minor for flute and harp. So achingly beautiful!
It kills me every time I hear it!

There are so many more......

Walking into Dante's in L.A. and being so close to Ray Brown I could see him sweat and of course feel his big smile. I don't even remember the tunes he played or the combo, just his incredible power, drive and feel!

Return to Forever and how they changed everything!

One funny personal note. Joe Cocker used to sing a Jimmy Webb tune called "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress". It's a haunting ballad. I played with Joe for awhile. Anyway, we were in Europe somewhere in front of many many people and he sings this song and I just totally got lost in the moment....a total fan.....almost didn't come in on time...just turned to total absolute mush....

There are so many more but that's enough for now!