Why do humans like jazz?

[Deleted member 58722]

All humans, surely not... Most humans, apparently, like music. Therefore as some jazz is music, then some people will like it.

 

[Adi777]

I've always considered myself human, but I don't like Jazz all that much ... SO?

Improve for the future

 

[Multicore]

Thanks for sharing this video. I think it might make a superb exemplar for a critique of everything wrong with YouTube 'splainer culture. So many whoppers in so little time. But that's part of the art of YouTube virality.

 

[ahofer]

related.

A millennial's rant on classical music

Maybe--probably yes to being exposed as a child but not necessarily because of what was played in the home. The only classical music played in our home was what I was playing, but I did take a course in elementary school called "Music Appreciation", which included a lot of exposure to the...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[threni]

Forcing? No, this must be automatic. Okay, so you recommend "For Alto" for the start? I think it's not good idea.

I think I was reasonably clear in my recommendation. For more information, re-read it.

 

[threni]

My first contact with jazz was "Ascension" by Coltrane. Very sure not the easiest step into jazz. But it was exactly the way I felt music has to go in that years. I hate this mainstream jazz "in the style of" till today. Jazz belongs to his time. Reproduction from what I still call improvised music is not my way. If someone asks me to show a way into jazz: 1. Coltrane A Love Supreme 2. Monk Monk's Music 3. Miles Kind of Blue 4. Miles Bitches' Brew
And believe me, I give this recommendation even to people which don't ask me

Quite!
See also: https://www.theonion.com/frank-zappa-fan-thinks-you-just-havent-heard-the-right-1819567331

 

[Deleted member 58722]

He's playing those ol' COGIC talk music progressions!!!!! Also that shout music!!!!

They sound like they 'invented' the pairing of the hammond to the leslie!

 

[BuddyJ]

One of the ways I've been exploring Jazz is through Ted Gioia's book The Jazz Standards. Gioia compiles a list of the popular so-called "standards" of the genre, details a bit about the song, and then includes some notable recordings that showcase the song and different takes on it. It's really helped me understand and appreciate jazz as an artform where there can be so much variance around a piece as artists add improvisation. Even if you don't want to get the book, there's playlists out there that compile almost all the songs so you can hear them back-to-back. Makes for good listening. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1x7TzCfKamyyOoR5OC7Nxn

 

[anotherhobby]

My upbringing was a relatively isolated (rural) and simple (poor) one in the US. We didn't have a TV until 1986 when I was 10, and our house did not have any sort of stereo in it. We mostly just heard recorded music in the car. When I was quite young, my father used to drive me into the city sometimes when he was working the night shift, and he would drop me off at my Grandparents. The one hour drive was always at night and always accompanied with Jazz (Minneapolis 88.5 FM), and my little child brain was enamored with it. A funny perspective I had when I was little was from those trips into the city; I simply knew and thought of Jazz as "night time city music," and it's very funny to me how accurate that actually is.

As I grew up, I'd occasionally tune into what the other kids listened to, but my ear always bent toward Jazz and almost anything that was strongly influenced by Jazz. In general it's made me relatively poor at talking about music with most people, because most people haven't heard of any of the music I listen to, other than the famous ones; and likewise I'm not very good at following other peoples excitement with more popular music. I'm okay with it though, I'm used to being a step or two out of pace with the rest of society.

I could name all sorts of aspects of Jazz that I think make it great and explain why I love it, but the reality is that I most likely love Jazz because of that connection with my father, that prized 1:1 time we spent in the car together (big religious family), that it was a trip into the big city full of lights, and that I was also going to spend time with my beloved grandparents. Jazz was delivered to me wrapped up in a bow of of happy feelings that made me feel special, and I've loved it for that ever since.

 

[Adi777]

I think I was reasonably clear in my recommendation. For more information, re-read it.

"I think it's best to (force someone to!) listen to bits of all sub-genres of a genre to see if anything immediately hits the spot."

This is absurd. If you don't like it, so what? When I listened to Gentle Giant for the first time, it seemed terribly chaotic to me. They are now one of my favorite bands.
Would you recommend Gentle Giant, Art Bears or Henry Cow to a person who wants to start an adventure with progressive rock? Because I don't.
Okay, there's a possibility that someone will like avant-garde jazz or even free jazz, and hard-bop not, but it's unlikely, so it's better to start with simpler, more communicative music.

 

[threni]

"I think it's best to (force someone to!) listen to bits of all sub-genres of a genre to see if anything immediately hits the spot."

This is absurd. Check what you like right away? For what? If you don't like it, so what? When I listened to Gentle Giant for the first time, it seemed terribly chaotic to me. They are now one of my favorite bands.
Would you recommend Gentle Giant, Art Bears or Henry Cow to a person who wants to start an adventure with progressive rock? Because I don't.

I didn't say "check what you like". That makes no sense. How would you know what you like if you've not heard it? If you already like it why are you "checking" it?

You seem to be saying there's only one way of approaching "Gentle Giant" and that's your way, which is - presumably - listening to more accessible music first and then sort of working your way up towards progressively (no pun intended) more unconventional music. If that works for you, great.

But my comment, which I'd hoped was pretty clear, was that this is not the only approach, and that some of us went straight for the hard stuff - and might even have been put off trying anything more experimental if they'd first been confronted with something blander and less interesting.

 

[Adi777]

But my comment, which I'd hoped was pretty clear, was that this is not the only approach, and that some of us went straight for the hard stuff - and might even have been put off trying anything more experimental if they'd first been confronted with something blander and less interesting.

Yes, this in not the only approach, so I wrote: Okay, there's a possibility that someone will like avant-garde jazz or even free jazz.

But I think my idea is better for more people who want start listening jazz.

"and might even have been put off trying anything more experimental if they'd first been confronted with something blander and less interesting."

This is very unlikely, but okay, maybe you are right.

 

[ahofer]

A live performance is always the best way to get introduced to new music. Being around fans helps you find what is great about music.

HOWEVER, going to a major concert venue to listen to Schoenberg won’t really work, because a lot of the audience is still treating it like tooth extraction. I had a similar experience with the Pat Metheny/Ornette Coleman tour for “Song X”

 

[Achim1812]

Consumer...listener...informed listener...fan....enthusiast....obsessed...everyone (who wants it) will find his stairway. With or without (my) missionary zeal.
I hijacked my granddaughter (11) to a ballett with Schoenbergs Verklärte Nacht and Strawinskys Sacre. She still is enthusiastic. And I am a proud grandpa who cannot stop praising the musical intelligence of the little lady

 

[Gorgonzola]

Improve for the future

I do occasionally listen to some Hard Bop and Modal.

 

[EJ3]

Consumer...listener...informed listener...fan....enthusiast....obsessed...everyone (who wants it) will find his stairway. With or without (my) missionary zeal.
I hijacked my granddaughter (11) to a ballett with Schoenbergs Verklärte Nacht and Strawinskys Sacre. She still is enthusiastic. And I am a proud grandpa who cannot stop praising the musical intelligence of the little lady

I just encountered (at a party that may be the person whose party it was last but it was an upbeat gathering of friends) a man (the lawyer who did the final will & testament at the party) who had spent much time in Western Europe, Oceana & the Far East as I have. We were not in the same areas at the same times. But attended musical events of the same types. (Likely by some of the same orchestras, etc.) And have made plans to get together with other German speaking people that I know (in Charleston, SC USA there are many). This came about through some familiarity with the orchestral, symphonic & folk music from these areas. A good empirical (actually attending events and getting to know the people) musical education is quite helpful, no matter where you came from or end up being (even if you are only there temporarily). Wonderful that you are exposing her to these things. I recently took a high school friend to a symphony because, in her 65 years, she had never been to one. She was amazed.

 

[sejarzo]

Our son played alto & tenor sax from 4th grade through his final year in college in concert and marching bands...never in jazz bands.

The associate director of his high school program is also a saxophonist who is a great guy--he encouraged our son in many ways. His MA in performance from UMass was in "legit" sax under one of the top profs in the field, but he also studied jazz under Dr. Yusef Lateef, who was a noted tenor sax/multi-instrumentalist in his own right, but toured with Charles Mingus, Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie.

I liked to tell my son that meant had only one or two degrees of separation from some of the top jazz artists of all time...but neither he, nor that associate director, ever cared much for jazz. Only once did the associate director fill in on bari sax with the school's jazz band (a totally extracurricular activity, led by a non-faculty member) when they really needed him.

The associate director did love to tell how Lateef always called him "Brother", and how one day Lateef said "Hey brother, for that concert next week, I need you to double on flute" to which he replied "Uhhh, sorry, I don't play the flute"...and Lateef replied "OK, but you are doubling on it at the concert next week!"

 

[tuga]

I've always considered myself human, but I don't like Jazz all that much ... SO?

I think that you may have missed the point, although to be fair the question might have been better formulated as "how can humans like jazz?" or "why do some humans like jazz?".

I'd say that most humans will find it hard to appreciate/enjoy more complex forms of experession (visual art, literature, cinema, etc.), which is why you won't see any Classical or Jazz music in the Top 100.

 

[tuga]

 

[sejarzo]

I think that you may have missed the point, although to be fair the question might have been better formulated as "how can humans like jazz?" or "why do some humans like jazz?".

I'd say that most humans will find it hard to appreciate/enjoy more complex forms of experession (visual art, literature, cinema, etc.), which is why you won't see any Classical or Jazz music in the Top 100.

So people have regressed since the times when classical and jazz music were indeed the popular music of the day?