Yläasteikäisenä saavuin toisinaan kotiin ennen kaikkia muita perheenjäseniä. Huhuilin ovelta, kukaan ei vastannut. Olin yksin kotona. Hiivin levysoittimelle, kaivoin esille hyllystä isäpuolen Shelly Manne & His Men at the Black Hawk-vinyylin tai Oscar Peterson Trion Another Day:n. Kuuntelin jazzia jokseenkin salaa, koska kaverit luukuttivat poprockhittejä ja fanittivat poikabändejä, kuten asiaan olisi eittämättä kuulunut. Sitten unohdin jazzin ja tilalle tulivat grunge ja 90-luvun puolivälin brittibändi-invaasio.
Viime vuosituhannen vaihteessa näin The Talented Mr Ripley-elokuvan, jossa Matt Damonin esittämä Tom Ripley tutustuu jazziin tehdäkseen vaikutuksen Jude Lawn roolihahmoon, Charlie Parkeria intohimoisesti fanittavaan Dickieen. Yökerhossa Tom laulaa My Funny Valentinen. Siitä se sitten lähti, oma kömpelö jazzin harrastamiseni. En väitä ymmärtäväni jazzista yhtään mitään enkä pidä itseäni kovinkaan musikaalisena. Lähestyn jazzin maailmaa vuosi toisensa jälkeen uteliaana, ihmettelevänä, täysin noviisina. Kuuntelen kaikkea ragtimesta swingiin, big band-musiikista bebopiin, itärannikolta länsirannikolle, brasilialaisesta bossa novasta suomalaiseen nykypäivän jazziin asti. (Välttelen ainoastaan vaikeaa fuusiojazzia, koska kaikki tähänastiset kuuntelukokemukseni ovat olleet pelkästään epämiellyttäviä.) Viime aikoina levylautasella ovat pyörineet vanhat klassikot: Duke Ellington, Chick Webb ja Benny Goodman. Suosittelen lämpimästi!
When I was in my early teens, I was often the first one home from school. I'd holler from the door, no one answered, which meant that I was home alone. I snuck up to the record player, got out my stepdad's vinyls: Shelly Manne & His Men at the Black Hawk, or Oscar Peterson Trio's Another Day. My jazz fandom was somewhat of a secret, because all of my friends were listening to the pop/rock hits or the boy bands of that era, as teenagers were more or less supposed to do. Eventually I forgot about jazz when grunge and the mid-1990s Brit band invasion came along.
Somewhere in the turn of the millennium I saw The Talented Mr Ripley, where Tom Ripley, played by Matt Damon, learns to know jazz in order to impress and intrude into the life of Jude Law's character, Charlie Parker-loving Dickie. In a smoky nightclub Tom sings My Funny Valentine. It started from there - my clumsy, slow return to the world of jazz. I don't claim to understand anything about the technicalities of jazz, nor do I consider myself a particularly musical person. I approach jazz with childlike curiosity and wonder, and these days I listen to anything from ragtime to swing, from commercial big band music to bebop, anything from the East Coast to the West Coast, from Brazilian bossa nova all the way to current Finnish jazz. (The only stuff I try to avoid is hardcore fusion, because I find it simply unpleasant.) Recently I've been listening to good old Duke Ellington, Chick Webb and Benny Goodman. I recommend whole-heartedly!
- - -
When I was in my early teens, I was often the first one home from school. I'd holler from the door, no one answered, which meant that I was home alone. I snuck up to the record player, got out my stepdad's vinyls: Shelly Manne & His Men at the Black Hawk, or Oscar Peterson Trio's Another Day. My jazz fandom was somewhat of a secret, because all of my friends were listening to the pop/rock hits or the boy bands of that era, as teenagers were more or less supposed to do. Eventually I forgot about jazz when grunge and the mid-1990s Brit band invasion came along.
Somewhere in the turn of the millennium I saw The Talented Mr Ripley, where Tom Ripley, played by Matt Damon, learns to know jazz in order to impress and intrude into the life of Jude Law's character, Charlie Parker-loving Dickie. In a smoky nightclub Tom sings My Funny Valentine. It started from there - my clumsy, slow return to the world of jazz. I don't claim to understand anything about the technicalities of jazz, nor do I consider myself a particularly musical person. I approach jazz with childlike curiosity and wonder, and these days I listen to anything from ragtime to swing, from commercial big band music to bebop, anything from the East Coast to the West Coast, from Brazilian bossa nova all the way to current Finnish jazz. (The only stuff I try to avoid is hardcore fusion, because I find it simply unpleasant.) Recently I've been listening to good old Duke Ellington, Chick Webb and Benny Goodman. I recommend whole-heartedly!
No comments:
Post a Comment