Albums it took you a while to start enjoying

[John Litweiler]

and lastly finally warmed up to Ornette through a zen-like approach of listening by not listening (not sure if that counts, but I can say that I dig him now).

I too have come to enjoy lots of music via osmosis. As a boy in IN in the early 1950s, only two-beat music and 1920s jazz moved me. Over the years came swing and blues, then modern jazz - Parker, Ammons, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Monk, etc. all at once. A few TV shows - The Sound Of Jazz, some of Bobby Troup's Stars Of Jazz - certainly stimulated curiosity. Miles Davis was a mystery to me back then and has intermittently been a mystery ever since.

[Milestones]

Getting into Ornette's music was pretty effortless for me.

So what does the box version of On the Corner add?

[JSngry]

Perspective.

[ATR]

Getting into Ornette's music was pretty effortless for me.

So what does the box version of On the Corner add?

Most of Get Up With It and some great tracks that were either never released or only saw limited release. There are really no outtakes from the On the Corner album itself and in my opinion the box won't illuminate On the Corner for you. But it's a great box.

[Clunky]

For me Cecil Taylor until one day it clicked and heard what was goin on. For me it was a great moment when I realised what people here were banging on about. It's good to persist. Really listening. Is that possible with an iPod and ear buds?

Oh and Louis Armstrong , it took me years to really wake to what a genius and visionary he was. For many a moon I was totally indifferent, he was ok but I didn't see why he was so important.

[ElginThompson]

I'm enjoying this thread thoroughly, in particular the commentary on Dolphy ... if it's not obvious, I am a fan. Years ago, like many, I started with Out to Lunch and had a similar reaction. Found it odd but intriguing and original. I put it away and then listened to Dolphy's work with Mingus and then continued to work backwards to his early Prestige stuff. The time and education was worth the effort. Full on completist now.

My personal contribution to the thread is Mingus (not an album per se). Back in college, I started with Ah Um. Appreciated it, but did not get it. Kept listening and picking up more Mingus. Still was not there. Then at some moment, it clicked. Most likely when I heard Antibes it all fell into place. Now Mingus is like oxygen.

[mjzee]

Not sure this can be called an "album," but Duke Ellington's early work (through the late-40's, as contained on the 40-cd box set that was around for awhile). I had always found Duke's work too stodgy; it didn't have that rhythmic propulsion or pulse that's in Count Basie's work (and which is one of the most enjoyable aspects of music for me in all genres). It sounded more like society music to me. Also, a 40-cd box set is just too big to digest. What helped for me is iTunes' random listening feature. I hear one track every so often, mixed in with other artists and genres. Through this, I've been able to hear the swing and drive in the many tracks that have that, and the compositional and orchestrating skills in the more "composed" tracks. I now have more patience to listen to his work. I'm still not there on his '50's work - the Columbia box is largely a snoozefest for me. But maybe someday I'll write something similar about that box.

[TedR]

John Coltrane's Newport '63. A close neighbor of ours died from a difficult illness. Soon after I played this album. Coltrane was playing just what I was feeling. I needed to hear it. Since then my ears were open to the artistry of Coltrane's later years.

Edited February 16, 2013 by TedR

[A Lark Ascending]

It was a good few years into jazz listening before I started enjoying Ornette Coleman. The groundwork was done for me listening to the Jarrett American Quartet and then Old and New Dreams. Eventually I jumped.

It's good to persist. Really listening. Is that possible with an iPod and ear buds?

Of course it is. I've had many a revelation whilst out walking in the countryside with the earphones on. Hi quality stereo may enhance your enjoyment and reveal detail; but what is there is there. It can grab you on the most expensive equipment or coming over Radio Luxembourg while the signal drifts in and out.

Also, a 40-cd box set is just too big to digest.

Quite!

*******************

The fact that a great deal of music takes a long time to reveal its delights is one of the pleasures for me. I've had so many experiences of music that just lies dormant for months or years and then, through repeated playing, starts to unfold. Free jazz and atonal classical are probably the toughest nuts I've found to crack, but every now and then the mists lift on certain records or performers (not so much in 'understanding' but in gaining pleasure from). Thankfully, there's lots that continues to be out of reach, keeping the paths of exploration open.

Edited February 16, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[Shawn]

One of the first Coltrane albums I heard was Live At The Village Vanguard and I wasn't quite ready for it at the time. Instead I went back and bought the big Prestige box, then followed that with The Heavyweight Champion, then started getting the Impulse albums. By the time I revisited Village Vanguard I was not only ready for it, I was entranced by it. I just had to learn the vocabulary first.

[robertoart]

Dave Sanborn in general. I went for years thinking that he sounded like the alto saxophone equivalent of a neurotic chicken's OCD non-stop pecking and clucking, Then, I forget what record it was, exactly, Hideaway maybe, came on the radio and it clicked that, ok, I'd been hearing what he was NOT doing as what he actually WAS doing, and that that was a flaw in MY logic, and I began to develop an appreciation for what he was doing, why he was doing it, and how he was getting it all done. Click.

Still don't "love" the guy or anything, but he gets respect from me, and, in the right setting I can find him pretty damn enjoyable for a little bit.

This is how I feel about Larry Carlton

14 years ago, was when I "got" Pat Metheny's music and now I'm the biggest fan. Teachers in High school had been trying to open me up tohim, Brecker, I was such a hard bop nut then. Trane's late period took me years to get into, as did Electric Miles, I'm still kind of not past 1970, I got into the 80's bands but I still need to get into all the stuff through Agharta. I prefer the live like the Live in Europe '69 box BB stuff over the album. Took me years to really get into Chick's solo stuff but I love it now.

Lucky High School you must have gone too

The Latin motto of my old High School - translated roughly as - 'find out for yourself'

[clifford_thornton]

Not an album per se, but way back when (at about age 13 and for reasons I no longer recall), I couldn't understand why anyone would ever want to hear a guitar solo. Then I ran across a nice/groovy Barney Kessel album "To Swing or Not to Swing" and that prejudice evaporated.

I know what you mean. I came to jazz & improvised music being burned out on rock music, so the last things I wanted to hear were guitars and vocals. Now, of course, that's far from the case.

[danasgoodstuff]

Jeff Buckley's Grace and Elvis C's My Aim is True, all I heard at first was the derivativeness - took me a long time to hear what else they had going on (a lot, IMHO).

[Chuck Nessa]

While in college (early '60s) I went into a period of listening to current Coltrane records intensely, to find what my friends claimed. After about 2 months (and 3 or 4 records) I got it.

[paul secor]

Thought of another - Mingus' Oh Yeah album. I love most of Mingus' music, but this one escapes me.

[bogdan101]

Back in high school the only Mozart work I could listen to was the Requiem. Bach, no problem, Mahler, Stockhausen likewise, but Mozart seemed like a lightweight, more fit to come out of a musical box or to help sales in a fine china shop. I mean, Eine kleine Nachtmusik?!?.. It took me a long time to get it, and seeing Peter Shaffer's Amadeus (the play) multiple times helped a lot.

[Noj]

At first I was like:

Then I was like:

[paul secor]

While in college (early '60s) I went into a period of listening to current Coltrane records intensely, to find what my friends claimed. After about 2 months (and 3 or 4 records) I got it.

There must have been some hip students in Iowa in the early '60s.

[brownie]

It took me years to get into Ellington's Liberian Suite.

I have recently started to get into this. Another great work from Duke!

[Utevsky]

Although I was deeply immersed in the avant garde in the 1970's, tracking down every Art Ensemble record I could find, somehow I couldn't get into Leo Smith. It was 15 or 20 years later when he finally got through to me, or you might say, when I finally let him in.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Larry Young's 'Unity'. Still haven't got it, though I like almost all his PR & BN albums on which Althea doesn't sing (much). I play it every so often and it just seems like a jazz album to me.

MG

[colinmce]

Strangely, Mingus Ah-Um. I liked "Better Git Hit..." and "Fables" but the rest just kind of glossed over my ears; I much preferred Presents, Black Saint, and Pithcantropus Erectus. But one day it just came together. I might still like those albums better, but I listen to Ah Um more often.

[colinmce]

Not an album per se, but way back when (at about age 13 and for reasons I no longer recall), I couldn't understand why anyone would ever want to hear a guitar solo. Then I ran across a nice/groovy Barney Kessel album "To Swing or Not to Swing" and that prejudice evaporated.

I know what you mean. I came to jazz & improvised music being burned out on rock music, so the last things I wanted to hear were guitars and vocals. Now, of course, that's far from the case.

God, lets not even get into things I thought I didn't like in jazz at the beginning...

But OK, I'll embarrass myself:

Anything pre-bop

Guitar

Electric instruments

Anything after the mid-60s

Louis Armstrong

Oof. But like you I came after having my fill of rock, and my mind was a bit conditioned in certain ways.

[Pim]

Evan Parker's Snake Decides took awhile. Then one evening in the dark with only headphones it clicked... It clicked and became one of my favorites. But I still wouldn't listen it trough my speakers, headphones only

[erwbol]

If I hadn't stuck mostly to the usual suspects when I first gravitated from rock to jazz the list would undoubtedly be longer. I sort of fell in love with the sound of acoustic instruments. Pharaoh's Dance is the track I could least relate to on Bitches Brew.