I knew I’d get in trouble with Peter Hum when I wrote, in passing, that I’m not listening to much jazz these days, “because studying classical music takes up so much of my spare time and because — might as well say it — so little contemporary jazz rewards serious attention.” Peter writes a very good, unflaggingly enthusiastic blog on contemporary jazz for the Ottawa Citizen, and sure enough, he’s come up with a bunch of recommendations for me. And by extension, for you. (I’m amused that one of the recommended CDs is by Jim Lewis, who used to give me trumpet lessons in Sarnia. I worked hard at moving the joints of my fingers the way Jim did, paid insufficient attention to the more important information he was trying to convey, and washed up in journalism.)
I knew I’d get in trouble with Peter Hum when I wrote, in passing, that I’m not listening to much jazz these days, “because studying classical music takes up so much of my spare time and because — might as well say it — so little contemporary jazz rewards serious attention.” Peter writes a very good, unflaggingly enthusiastic blog on contemporary jazz for the Ottawa Citizen, and sure enough, he’s come up with a bunch of recommendations for me. And by extension, for you. (I’m amused that one of the recommended CDs is by Jim Lewis, who used to give me trumpet lessons in Sarnia. I worked hard at moving the joints of my fingers the way Jim did, paid insufficient attention to the more important information he was trying to convey, and washed up in journalism.)
Fair’s fair. I’m familiar (wearily, horribly familiar) with many of the musicians he names, but none of the specific CDs. I will listen to several in good faith, and get back to you all. I have been hesitant to write about the problems I perceive in modern jazz, on the, I think, well-founded principle that nobody cares, but you don’t have to read what will follow if you’re one of those, like, 98% of readers.