Musical upbringing

[obrienslalom]

This is sort of an extension of the following thread:
http://forums.allaboutjazz.com/showthread.php?t=42016

I was curious what everyone's parent/guardian had them listening to when they were growing up. If it wasn't jazz, how did you get into jazz? Also, for the musicians, did they play instruments, the same as you ended up playing?

[Jeff Brent]

My parents watched TV mostly. They never listened to music. They only had a half dozen LPs and those were almost all from movie-musicals: Oklahoma, Gigi, The Magnificent 7.


However, at every birthday (no matter which one of us kid's it was) they always took us to a Shakey's Pizza Parlor. In that era (and that town - Denver), Shakey's always employed a ragtime pianist (with sometimes a banjoist on the side).

The front was always off the upright pianos and you could see the hammers working away inside like a kind of a manic puppet show while the pianist played.

I was fascinated by that action, and the fun energetic music they played. The musicians themselves always seemed ecstatically happy, too.

I was so fascinated that, in fact, the very first kind of music I got into playing was Ragtime and the Tin Pan Alley tunes (Charleston, Indiana, 5'2", Piano Roll Blues, etc).

Not only that, some of the very first paying musical jobs I ever got was playing piano in various Shakey's pizza parlors (I even got groupies!).


As everyone here knows, Ragtime was the direct precursor to Dixieland, and Dixieland is the first type of jazz ever invented.

Scott Joplin led me to Jelly Roll Morton who led me to James P. Johnson who led me to Fats Waller who led me to Art Tatum who led me to Charlie Parker, etc etc, etc.

So I pretty much came into jazz directly from the ground floor.


As far as any musicianship in my family is concerned, both of my grandmothers played piano and my paternal grandmother bragged that she could listen to any song twice and be able to play it.

Since she was a teenager in the Roaring Twenties that was maybe not the great feat it seemed to me at the time.

After I'd had a year or so of lessons, one day while visiting her, we convinced (begged) her to play a little piano for us. She grudgingly played the waltz "Over the Waves" (the song the old cartoons always played when people get seasick).

When I got home, I went over to our piano and figured it out in about half an hour (and I'd only heard her play it once).

When I started seriously practicing piano at home it caused a lot of problems. It was in the same room as the TV, and the entire family was constantly pissed off at me because I was playing so loud that they couldn't hear their shows (and I was constantly pissed off with them because I couldn't hear myself playing).

After a few months of those arguments, they finally moved the piano out to the garage.


In any case, my parents didn't really want me to be a musician. They did their very best to discourage me. It was probably reverse psychology that made me more determined than ever to play just to spite them (you know how rebellious teenagers can be!)

They never paid for a single music lesson, or college or university tuition either. I paid for my entire musical education myself.

[Jakeweiser]

My Mother is tone deaf and has no music in her directly although likes music a lot (she has no choice but to, described below) and she moreover has a pretty strong understanding of the importance of music and the amount of work it takes to become a Musician (capitol M)

My Father plays many instruments from guitar to mandolin to banjo, used to play some tin whistle and he sings at a high level. His musical background is a mixture of traditional Irish music, folk music and country music from his childhood. But he also has a huge rep of Standard tunes he knows and sings for his own enjoyment. He knows the words to as many tunes as I do if not more and although he cannot play for himself the changes I think he'd be able to do a few sets of gigs if he had a band that could back him up lol.

In terms of what we listened to it was everything. Growing up in the 80s meant mix'd tapes were king and we always had music in the house, live or on the radio/stereo. When I look back on those days it was mostly all a mix of everything and in fact very little Jazz.

When we all were young (me say around 10ish for me) my Folks put us all in piano lessons. My brother excelled and proved to be somewhat a prodigious talent although perhaps a late bloomer for the word prodigy. He started playing all the time and was improving rapidly which I probably resented since we were fairly competitive with each other. I think he started with Jazz when he was 15 or 16. I didn't get serious about it until I was 19 or 20.

Jazz now makes up 95% of my listening. Probably that is too large a percentage.

[Justin V]

My mother loves country, so I'd be stuck listening to that. We lived in PA in a decent-sized city, so I never understood why country appealed to her. My dad always listened to the classic rock stations. I still enjoy some classic rock, like the Beatles, Stones, Eagles, etc.

My parents never played instruments. When I was 15, my dad knew I wanted a bass. We were at the VFW, and he said, 'How about we go get you a bass?' He had taken out money from savings beforehand and wanted to surprise me. I got a cheap, crappy P-bass by Bently (some weird off-brand that I've never come across since) and off-brand amp. A few months later, after it was apparent that I was still interested, I upgraded to an Ibanez and Ampeg.

I fooled around with some punk/hardcore/metal bands, and stumbled upon jazz when I took an 'Evolution of Jazz' course. I bought a Dizzy album and dug it. I bought the Evans Village Vanguard album and Scott LaFaro blew me away. My teacher, while checking out in my line at the grocery store, told me to check out Jaco.

That was all she wrote. I kept picking up cd's, and now my house has jazz littered throughout it. I switched to double bass a few months ago. I might not be ready to go to a jam session anytime soon, but I'm in it for life...

[tornado]

Both my parent's are musicians. My dad is a bassist, who's resume includes steady engagements w/ Arnett Cobb, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Red Garland, David "Fathead" Newman, Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, Kenny Burrell, etc.

He would take me to gigs with him, when I was as young as a few months (there was a review of a Kenny Burrell show from the fall of '81 in the Houston Chronicle, I believe, that mentions me laughing and making baby noises a lot during the bass solos, and I was born in summer of '81.), and by the time I was 6 or so, I had countless hours logged, of watching extremely hot cocktail waitresses throw themselves at him. So I was pretty much doomed....

Around the house though, he didn't listen to jazz, at all, except for Nat Cole. It was a lot of classical, and gospel. In fact, when I started playing jazz at about age 16, he had to dig his jazz LPs out of the attic.

[page]

Great to read your stories guys!
At our home there wasn't really that much music except for classical music from the radio. No record player there even. There wasn't really money to spend so none of that. No professional musicians in the family but my parents expected me to learn to play the piano because it was sort of tradition for the girls in the family from my father. Both my aunts had learned to play and they sang too. When my grandmother had to move to an oldfolks home I got the piano from her. I was send to music school when I was 8 and after 2 years basic knowledge I could go take lessons on the piano.
I always was singing as a girl so I enjoyed going to musicschool. They recognized my musicality there, but also saw that I was really shy and always kept myself in the background.

From my mother I have the love for the music of Chopin. Occasionally we went to classical coffee-concerts on sundays organized by the musicschool, they were free. I can't really remember my fathers taste in music. He died when I was 14. A year after that I did quit my pianolessons because I could not really concentrate at it anymore because of this happening.

Both my brothers tried to pick some instrument up when they were a bit older but they didn't stick to it. I still have my brothers guitar. I learned to play a bit at a course especially for primary schoolteachers for playing and singing with children in their classes. I have had a lot of fun doing that and the children loved it when I brought my guitar.

I always kept singing so I sometimes wonder what would have happened if my parents had put me on vocalclass instead of piano. I do have benefit though from what I've learned then although it wasn't that long that I have had lessons. Or maybe when I have had more of a say in the repertoire that I learned to play. My pianoteacher was a bit oldfashioned. Girls were expected to play classical music and I liked it but I so much wanted to do boogie woogie and stuff too. We did once and I taught myself to play 3 different parts of the one piece together. There were 4, lol.

I saved for a cassettedeck but lost my wallet on the way to the store. My oldest brother felt so sorry for me and while he was moving in with his girlfriend anyway, he gave me his. From him I got tapes with Simon & Garfunkel, Neil Diamond and Leonard Cohen, music that I probably wouldn't have discovered myself because it was a bit before my time. I liked all of those though and could sing along with most songs. I wrote all lyrics down by listening. I recorded from the radio. Yes, nice memories.

I did watch all those old movies on tv, which all had jazz I think. But it wasn't untill about 4 years ago that I got into jazz. I've listened to a lot of pop and rock, disco and soul, singersongwriters in the past, lol. I guess I have a wide taste in music and that will never go away but finding jazz did feel like coming home to me. It just feels right. Maybe I will get into some singersongwritersmusic too because songs with meaningfull lyrics still attract me.
I didn't find jazz by any member of my family. My oldest brother is still mostly into classical music although he sort of became a fan of Eva Cassidy. My other brother has this soft pop taste, not the real jazz.

[Jay Norem]

My mother played albums by the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Mamas and Popas, that sort of thing, and I also remember her playing Broadway musical albums. "My Fair Lady" is one I remember she liked. "I could have danced all night..." I remember that one. And she was always playing the radio.

Then she got herself one of those horrible organs that a lot of people had back then, and I enjoyed messing around on that. She actually got pretty good, she even took lessons.

Later I found out that she'd been in a girl's harmonica band way back when she was a kid in Iowa.

My father didn't really seem to care much for music, although he had a few dixieland records for some reason.

[derekd]

My parents were not musos, but my mom always had the radio on. Pop music of the day. We spent a ton of time at her sister's house, and my uncle had an EXTENSIVE record collection. Everything from rock to pop, to adult contemporary. So they turned me on to Zep, Steely Dan, Streisand, Humperdink, Frankie, Bing, War, it was quite a hodge podge.

I got into jazz from smooth jazz. After growing up with, playing it in bar bands, what we know as classic rock just got really old and stale after 20+ years. It was the only channel on the dial that featured instrumental guitar music. I started listening to these guys and would read interviews with them. They pointed to all the jazz greats, so that is how I got turned on to jazz.

[tpt1]

Neither of my parents are musicians but they could both sing and carry a tune. My Dad would sing like Dean Martin and Mom knew the words and melodies to hundreds of songs from the 1940's.

Dad wanted each of us kids to learn a musical instrument. So, when I was eight years old he took us to see Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. This was in 1966. I must have made a stink about the trumpet that night because a couple of months later he bought me a trumpet for Christmas. A beautiful brand new King Cleveland. The case had purple velvet lining. It was gorgeous sitting in that case, which is where it stayed most of the time for the next eight years.

When I was about 16 I decided to really start playing and I got pretty serious right away. Around that time, my aunt married a very cool man who played tenor sax like Ben Webster. He got that big fat phoo-phoo sound. He was a Julliard graduate and had worked with Mitch Miller as a clarinetist. He got me going in the right direction. I also had a very hip friend who was a couple of years older than me. He turned me onto Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage" album and that led me from Freddie Hubbard to Miles to Lee Morgan to Clifford Brown and on and on...

[xtombronx]

Cool Thread. My parents didn't play any instrument, and they didn't really listen to much jazz. I got very interested in piano at an early age, usually most kids like to cluck on the piano keys, so my parents decided that I should take piano lessons, to try music out. My mom was from Croatia, and I was being brought up in a pretty European way with a European mindset to things, meaning that I should have a good reason to quit something before quitting it. I played piano for a while, and I started to dislike it and all of the strict classical rules I had to abide by at the school I was going to. But then I was introduced to jazz in middle school when I took up saxophone. I haven't really -listened- to jazz before that, It just sometimes kinda came on in the background. Now that I started to think deeper about this music I got very interested and tried to bring jazz with me to the piano stool as well as playing it on the sax. It is then that I really got a passion for playing music and started loving jazz and its ability to be very simple or very complex. I continued throughout middle school liking jazz more and more, and I finally decided to take up guitar in 8th grade. I added some bluesy rock to my repertoire and the rest is history ^_^

[obrienslalom]

I guess it's only fair if I contribute.

My father had a history of playing music. He played drums in a rock band I guess during high school maybe. Then he played bluegrass guitar, and is back playing that with a group of guys now. When we were really young, he didn't play much, the guitar was just something under the bed that you 'didn't touch'. I guess a bit of interest between my brother and I got him interested in it again. He introduced to me to mostly classic rock and bluegrass.

My interest in drumming was spawned by him. I am still using his drums to this day (Champagne sparkle Ludwig kit).

Jazz was introduced to me only about a year and a half ago. I took a theory course in college. My teacher played a few Herbie Hancock and Coltrane songs that I guess I liked. Since, I have really been getting into it. I definitely have a long was to go musically, but I'm sure most of it will be fun.

I feel like I would have benefited from listening to jazz much earlier. I probably would have taken a better discipline learning music if I had. Although, I won't blame my parents . I'm trying to introduce jazz to my family and friends slowly...

[Jeff Smith]

Listened to AM radio growing up in a non-musical household. First heard jazz on college FM radio. Thank goodness.