Subject: musical histories
Hi everybody. I've been really enjoying hearing about all your musical
pasts, so I thought I'd give you my story too, even though I'm more of
a lurker and listener on mailing lists than a frequent poster. I seem
to have followed a rather different path to most of you.
0-11
I don't recall any particular musical highlights at all. I learnt to
play the piano in the standard classical exam-training style, but
didn't enjoy it. We sang hymns and songs at church, but never listened
to music on the radio, and the only records my parents had were
classical and stage-musical. I recall seeing quite a few
stage-musicals throughout my childhood, and of course whatever music
was incidental to programmes on television.
circa 11
We got this tape called "Pop Piano Party" from Readers Digest which was
actually a compilation of boogie-woogie and ragtime piano from the
first half of the century. It is the first time I remember ever
getting excited about music. It made me want to move my body! Around
this time I also started to learn the trombone and joined the school
'concert band', which played swing and other jazz-influenced brass/wind
music.
11-14
Meanwhile, my school friends were arguing over whether they still liked
Abba or not (it was cool not to), and played Adam and the Ants, the
Police, Duran Duran, and all that sort of stuff. I liked odd bits here
and there, but none of it turned me on or excited me. I was introduced
to "Switched On Bach" and J M Jarre as "synthesiser music" and thought
they would have to be excellent because synthesisers were cool things,
but in fact they left me cold.
15
I realised that I still liked the boogie-woogie and ragtime piano
stuff, and connected that with the fact I was still learning the piano,
coming to the conclusion that I should start to play ragtime. From
here, I decided that I would probably like Jazz in a broader sense, and
started listening to the weekly jazz programmes on national radio.
16-19
I progressed chronologically from ragtime to New Orleans and dixieland,
to swing and big band, to cool quartet jazz (missing out on BeBop).
The crucial element for me was that I could BOTH dance to the music AND
there was plenty to analyse in it. It was physical, but intelligent
too.
circa 18
Between leaving school and going to university I dropped for a time
into "show" music: pre-WWii Broadway, Gershwin, Cole Porter, and so
on, but got very schmaltzy and I abandoned it again.
19-20
Discovery! Dave Brubeck! Here was a jazz artist I could respect:
immensely enjoyable and accessible, but at the same time doing
interesting and intelligent things with the form. I started to collect
him (an obsession I still carry on today, though somewhat lessened as I
have over a hundred of his albums and there are only about another 20
left to find). Meanwhile my college friends were into the Smiths,
Dire Straits, U2, the mainstream. I wasn't at all keen on any of it.
20
Perhaps I should branch out and spend a little money on other jazz
artists? I developed a small collection of the "greats": Miles Davis,
Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, etc.. My closest friends had
developed tastes for the Butthole Surfers, Velvet Underground, Sebadoh,
and other noisy bands. At the time, I had an open mind but didn't like
them much. Now they bring back fond memories. Late night listening
usually involved Pink Floyd, Roy Harper, the Ozric Tentacles, and other
hippies.
21
A musical wasteland as my Brubeck collection expanded and my friends
graduated, leaving me without aural stimulation. My jazz horizons
advanced to include 60s and 70s experimental and electric jazz.
22
I started my DPhil research and moved into a house where people
listened to goth rock, industrial and rave. None of it inspired me
until I heard "Get Higher" by the Moonflowers, a pschydelic dance track
by a hippy band and the first 12" I ever bought, followed closely by
"Summer's Magic", one of those rave tracks which samples kids TV
programmes, in this case The Magic Roundabout. It predates "Sesames
Treet" by about six months. My housemates took me to a goth/industrial
club which I hated, and a rave club which I loved. I especially liked
the Italo-house sound with lots of piano breaks and jazzy influences,
and became a regular at the rave club. Another major turn-on was
listening to "Hallelujah 92" whilst flying over the snow-capped Italian
Alps at Easter. Also "Screamadelica" following the psychedelic vein.
23
Highlights of the year were seeing the Orb, the Shamen, 808 State, the
Moonflowers, and many others live at Glastonbury 92, and NOS at
Greenbelt 92. I gradually moved away from commercial rave towards
progressive house, then further underground to intelligent techno,
trance, and ambient. Got bored of the Orb very quickly, but discovered
AFX, FSoL, and the Warp AI series. The re-emergence of acid in January
93 grabbed me, as did the Latin rhythm craze started by the Good Men in
March 93, then digifunk from Easter 93.
24
Played my first proper rave event as DJ, mixing up lots of acid,
trance, tribal and latin, which went down a storm.
-malc.