It's been a few years since I owned a functioning record-player so I was really happy when Sarah bought me a new deck for my birthday last December. At long last I could start filling up the house again with more old vinyl! ( We're constantly battling for space with all our books, DVDs, comics, assorted junk etc etc so I'm not sure she really thought that through. But bless 'er anyway. ) But first, I had some Christmas money burning a sizeable hole in my pocket ( ouch! ) so I hit my local HMV and picked up a couple of Miles Davis albums, the first "new" vinyl I'd bought in literally decades.
Jazz is a relatively new passion of mine, something I've never really listened to throughout my life except for the Swing-era Glenn Miller stuff that my Dad, Pete, always loved. I always felt I was missing out but didn't know where to start, especially when the concept of jazz always conjured up thoughts of a bunch of musicians all playing different tunes at the same time - Sarah recently heard jazz described as "a fire in a pet shop" and now can't stop using that phrase. Funnily enough, it was the jazzy sounds of Bowie's final album, Blackstar, that made me think I ought to give this difficult music a try. I figured Miles Davis was a good place to start as he's one of the legends of the genre and I thought Bitches Brew would be the best choice to begin with as it was a kind-of-rock-jazz-hybrid. Ho ho. I bought it and found it completely unlistenable ( at first ) so had to rethink.
After a while I had another go at this jazz thing and bought Miles' Sketches Of Spain which I instantly fell in love with. This album felt more like a movie soundtrack to me and its arid, sun-baked soundscapes became my way in to jazz. I bought more stuff by Miles and then began to investigate John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, Dave Brubeck etc etc. I also branched out into Herbie Hancock's jazz-funk, starting with the monumental Headhunters, and discovered another new passion. I still often struggle with jazz and found I've had to virtually train my brain to process it after a lifetime of listening to rock music in all its permutations. But I'm getting there. The pet shop is still burning but now I can appreciate the noise. I can even listen to Bitches Brew...
But, of course, it's not just about the jazz around these parts. Another album I picked up recently ( from Gloucester's excellent
Vinyl Vital Signs ) was Funkadelic's iconic
One Nation Under A Groove.
A strange album this, more of a rock album than I'd expected with some very, er, far-out extended jams and a curiously scatological turn to the lyrics. Probably not going to be a favourite but the title track is of course a classic and the sleeve artwork is just bonkers...
And, talking of bonkers sleeve artwork, my vinyl collection has recently taken a turn for the weird...
Long live vinyl!
Soundtrack: Deserter's Songs by Mercury Rev ( on CD... shameful, I know )
