today i have been a brave chap. i have ventured into the unknown (well, for me, that is) musical territory known as…

jazz.

i remembered as a kid listening to ABBA in the 70’s, then evolving briefly into the the realms of 80’s new romantic stuff (duran duran… yeah!), subsequently moving out to the angst-fuelled, riff-ladened music of hard rock and heavy metal. rock music was pretty much my staple for such a long time and it wasn’t until recently that my appreciation for all things rawk was more discerning and matured.

for the past two months, i began to drift into the most unvisited section of hmv. i tried out the qawwali of nusrat fateh ali khan. real old school blues from the likes of masters such as son house. since i also knew that blues evolved into, among others, jazz, i have now decided to tread that path.

in the 80’s, i’ve listened to ayah’s cassettes of fusion artistes in the vein of grusin and ritenour. don’t get me wrong, they are great musicians, but i just can’t help feeling that kind of music was more suited to commercials and background music for soft porn flicks.

so, i decided if i wanna try jazz out, i’d go get the classic ones.

i don’t know anything about jazz. i know jack. i’ve heard of greats like thelonius monk. john coltrane. and who’s not heard of miles davis. i knew who they were. but no idea what they sounded like.

i was first exposed to miles davis’ genius while watching ‘finding forrester’. “oh, so that’s what miles davis sound like”, i mused to myself.

probably that was why i chose to buy miles davis’ ‘tutu’. saw it on the cheap at fopp, i simply bought it. only to realise that it was so 80’s! damn! i dared to call the album a limau. much to the chagrin of my mate, imran. “go get ‘bitches brew’ and ‘sketches of spain’ lah!”. ok. i got the picture. should’ve done a little research.

on the way home from work, via hmv, i endured 20-odd minutes of ‘pharaoh’s dance’. damn. that was some serious shit. now, was that free form? i don’t believe that the piece was actually written in the conventional way. it felt like that they just jammed. and recorded the whole thing.

however, i do believe that music is to be enjoyed rather than endured.

i suppose sometimes you endure to understand why music is the way it is. like the day when i first listened to the raw blues of robert johnson to understand where the trademark licks come from. in the words of the one, “whoa”. or the neon, “gila. sakit otak sial…“. in all honesty, i change the cd after listening to just three tracks.

on reading the cd liner notes of ‘bitches brew’, i found familiar names. john mc laughlin. joe zawinul. chick corea. i immediately smiled to myself knowingly. no wonder these people are jazz greats.

i simply sat back and just let the music take me for a ride. in fact, while writing this blog post i have his ‘sketches of spain’ cd playing in the background. have i converted yet? probably not.

but i can tell you my ears (sic) have definitely opened. wider.