How does your spouse react to your hobby/obsession?

[Dmitry]

On one hand I should be grateful my wife takes my jazz pretty well, doesn't piss and moan about the loud music, or about thousands of records strewn on the floor [see the Music Room thread in Audio], or about all the gadgets and stuff.

On the other hand she is totally indifferent to the whole thing, doesn't care one way or another. I gave her Billie Holiday's Columbia box as a present some years ago; she didn't even open it. But I sure did.

She knows who Miles and Trane are, and that's about it. Once in a while she sits down to isten to the stereo for a minute, says ,"This was nice", and takes off.

I guess I shouldn't be complaining...

Edited December 18, 2006 by Dmitry

[sal]

With jazz, as long as one's sweetheart is somewhat tolerant and doesn't bitch, one should be grateful.

[Joe G]

I'm fortunate to have a girlfriend who loves the music!

[Morganized]

I'm fortunate to have a girlfriend who loves the music!

The operative word there being "girlfriend".

[sheldonm]

Gina doesn't really care for the music but does her best to be tollerant of it. Between thousands of recordings and many thousands of photographs and the equipment to make said photographs, it's probably jazz overload for her....that said, she's pretty supportive of my interest....most of the time....probably lets it go in one ear and out the other!!!

m~

edited for spellin'

Edited December 18, 2006 by sheldonm

[relyles]

My wife refers to all of my music related activities as my "mistress" with no hint of humor.

[brownie]

I'm blessed with a rather tolerant spouse!

She's not listening to jazz these days. Not like the early days of our life together when we went to concerts (Cecil Taylor at the Maeght foundation, Miles Davis at Salle Pleyel, Sam Rivers at Studio Rivbea, François Tusques and Beb Guerin in a Left Bank club, etc...).

She still responds favorably when I play some Herbie Hancock sides. But closes her ears and gives me cold stares when Peter Brotzmann is on! Time to plug in the headphones then!

[Niko]

my girlfriend came home from work last week almost pissed because a group of colleagues wanted to go to a jazz concert and asked whether she wanted to join (how could they think i was interested in this type of stuff she knew what she WAis talking about )... but she has her own musical obsessions and thus understands what is going on

[.:.impossible]

She likes music. We don't necessarily have the same taste, and she doesn't necessarily have the same need for 'new sounds', but her taste/collection is actually pretty admirable.

[porcy62]

My wife likes most of the music I listen to, a part some of the most extreme stuff. And she loves going at gigs, she even liked John Zorn, Ornette and the Art Ensamble at gigs, stuff that he doesn't tolerate at home.

She has her taste, like Jarrett or Bill Evans, I bought some dupes of my Lp on cd if she really love it. (She is scared by the cost of original LPs and TT, cartdrige, ecc, and doesn't suffer the hassle of handling records.)

Not a bad situation.

The main difference between us towards music is that I have to sit down and listen to, she have to do something' else while listening, cooking, reading...and other things that would be out of topic in this forum

[EKE BBB]

She doesn't have any actual interest in music.

But I've taken her to a few jazz concerts (mainly piano solo concerts, as she plays some piano) and we have learned to live in harmony... all of us: me, her, our two children (a third one coming soon) and my music.

[jlhoots]

When UPS or the mail comes she says, "Oh, it's the CD of the day".

Actually she likes a lot of what I like.

Exceptions are what she calls "tootin', squawkin' & squeakin".

[paul secor]

My wife has no interest in music (even though she played piano as a teenager), and refers to my obsession with music as my "secret world". And that's ok with me. I married her because I loved her - not to have a listening buddy.

[Hot Ptah]

My wife enjoyed listening to hours every day of mainstream jazz on vinyl and CD, and went to over 100 jazz concerts with me, in the first 15 years of our marriage. She liked concerts by Sun Ra and by Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy. She usually did not like to listen to avant garde jazz at home.

Then about 10 years ago she announced that she liked only Bach, Mozart and a few other classical composers, would not listen to jazz or go to jazz concerts any more, and that was that.

Since then, she has been cheerful about my jazz CD purchases, has asked for gift lists of jazz CDs for me for my birthday, and is fine with my jazz CD buying and listening as long as she doesn't have to hear it. I think that it could be worse, but it was more fun when we shared the music.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

My wife appreciates the music and the collectibility craze of mine with the mini-lps and all. She likes to go up to The Kitano and visit the in-house club and a few others like Birdland and the VV. If she's in her car driving to work in D.C. (plotting, scheming, deciding the fate of small nations, while tightly gripping the wheel ) she'll always have on something that's pretty revved-up like Tom Petty, Pat Benatar, AC/DC or Damn Yankees (most of which I've bought for her because she's not one to hit the cd stores)......but up here in the study likes to listen to jazz when in after hours relaxation mode. The only time she had a sour look on her face was when I attempted to spin the Trane/Pharoah 'Live' in Seattle disc.....truthfully, neither of us liked it.

[Jazzmoose]

My wife refers to all of my music related activities as my "mistress" with no hint of humor.

I can relate!

[Hardbopjazz]

We fight over it all the time. She doesn't like jazz and wishes I would sell all my CDs.

[.:.impossible]

Next thing you know, she'll be trying to get you to change your name from Hardbopjazz to Adultcontemporary!

[Jim R]

Actually she likes a lot of what I like.

Exceptions are what she calls "tootin', squawkin' & squeakin".

Damn... those are three good albums.

[Quincy]

No problems here whatsoever. My partner was a Deadhead whose tastes leaned towards '60s rock due to older siblings. I introduced to her to a few more modern bands when we first got together 17 years ago. Jazz has become a bigger part of the collection over the years. She doesn't like "noisy" music like Ayler or AEC, and she doesn't seem to care for hard bop, or at least with prominent trumpet. She really likes Blanton-Webster Ellington and Billie Holiday, and a good part of the H.R.S. sessions. I've taken this as an opportunity to spend more on early jazz!

As she's not an active pursuer of music I've been better about using yourmusic to upgrade some of our beat-up albums by Traffic and so forth for her. And as I used to be a very busy trader I've added a ton of Dead and other shows by her old favorites along with things I introduced her to long ago like I.R.S. era R.E.M.

No problems in the music department, or really anywhere else. Life is good.

[Chuck Nessa]

Ann's reaction is "You got some more cds in the mail".

[gslade]

Next thing you know, she'll be trying to get you to change your name from Hardbopjazz to Adultcontemporary!

Nikki does not like alot of what I listen to

However she does like some of it.

I do most of my listening on my IPod these days.

When I spend too much $ I get the "Ray"

Edited December 19, 2006 by gslade

[chris olivarez]

My wife appreciates the music and the collectibility craze of mine with the mini-lps and all. She likes to go up to The Kitano and visit the in-house club and a few others like Birdland and the VV. If she's in her car driving to work in D.C. (plotting, scheming, deciding the fate of small nations, while tightly gripping the wheel ) she'll always have on something that's pretty revved-up like Tom Petty, Pat Benatar, AC/DC or Damn Yankees (most of which I've bought for her because she's not one to hit the cd stores)......but up here in the study likes to listen to jazz when in after hours relaxation mode. The only time she had a sour look on her face was when I attempted to spin the Trane/Pharoah 'Live' in Seattle disc.....truthfully, neither of us liked it.

I think the combination of Trane and Pharoah will not go over well with most women.

[chris olivarez]

No wife.No problem.If she hates jazz and goes to great lengths to tell you so consider that a smoke signal if you don't already. Sorry to say that but that's the way it went down for me when I was married.

Edited December 19, 2006 by chris olivarez

[Ed S]

No wife.No problem.If she hates jazz and goes to great lengths to tell you so consider that a smoke signal if you don't already. Sorry to say that but that's the way it went down for me when I was married.

Boy, doesn't that sound familiar.