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I'm 64 and I've been enjoying jazz since I was 14. Somebody sold me a Channel Master stereo and gave me some albums to start off. They included Miles Davis "Kind of Blue", a Woody Herman Album, Count Basie, Mahalia Jackson, Dave Brubeck, to name a few. Heady stuff for a 14 year old but man...what an influence it had on my musical tastes. I was also listening and playing drums covering The Ventures, Bill Black, etc. but with my new found love of jazz, my music appreciation really opened up.

Today, I'm in the video production business and
I still love jazz but I am partial to old school jazz. Big Band, Dixieland and jazz that I can follow. Fusion and rambling time signatures leave me cold.

Lots of todays jazz is a bit too artful for me. I appreciate the talent it takes to execute such music but I really need Ramsey Lewis, Brubeck, J.J. Johnson, Cannon Ball and one of my favs, Mose Allison among many others, to get me to come out.

I really dig Cannon Ball and in particular Joe Zawinul. When Zawinul started "Weather Report", they cam to Atlanta and I was stoked. I went to the concert and I could understand a thing he was playing. I have come to appreciate Weather Report through the years, but sparingly.

As they say, so much of today's jazz is "Too Hip for the Room" and I think that may be part of the problem.

And speaking of rooms...there is a lack thereof. I'm sure there are more jazz venues than I'm aware of here in Atlanta...but so many venues are a mixed bag. One night is open mic, another is folk or bluegrass, another night might be jazz...hard to keep up when it's lightly publicized.

The answer? Back to basics and a bit more promotion.

Wondering if Smokey's heard of Mulatu Astatke, who's from Ethiopia—who's discography is AMAZING!

I live in Westfield NJ and every Tuesday night during the summer there are 4-5 jazz bands playing at various locations throughout the downtown. We go all the time - my kids (age 13, 10, and 7) love it (maybe because it is also ice cream night, but who cares!). There is always a variety of Jazz genres playing (fusion, standards, vocals, Big Band etc). It's one of our favorite things to do in the summer. Give it a try.

I'm thinking Jazz needs to jazz up new, current songs
instead of still singing about the man I love coming along.
Ella and Billie didn't do songs that were 60 years old; they sang what they dug at the time, their time.

John Davis

Sorry to send in a second email, but do any of you know what it costs to go for an evening to one set of music at a major New York jazz club? That's why I don't go as much as I might!

Nobody goes to see jazz performances anymore because all of the good venues are gone. The only places you can see this music is in horrible venues like the Blue Note and Iridium.

And clearly Wynton Marsalis has killed off what was left by trying to tell people that the only music worth listening to happened in the 30s. Whoever gave him that power must want to see it die.