A little while back I wrote this post about how jazz has started to become a big part of my music listening. A kind commenter, Ed, dropped by and provided a list of musicians he thought I should check out to expand my listening. Well I haven’t checked them all out, but I have expanded my collection a little thanks to his suggestions. I’ve also picked up a few albums of some artists I already had albums of. Here is the complete list of new additions:

• Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Ugetsu
• Horace Silver: Horace Silver & The Jazz Messengers
• Duke Ellington & Johnny Hodges: Side by Side
• Coleman Hawkins: Centennial Collection
• Charlie Haden with Liberation Music Orchestra: The Montreal Tapes
• The Ornette Coleman Quartet: This is Our Music
• Pat Metheny & Ornette Coleman: Song X: Twentieth Anniersary

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One of the more interesting, for me anyway, side effects of my recent commitment to writing is my new-found love of Jazz.

I had a short-lived flirtation with Jazz back in my high school days. I was a member of my school’s concert band (don’t laugh – it got me to Vancouver, New York and Paris) and several of my friends were a part of that and the school’s much smaller jazz style band. I remember that our teachers pointed us to a jazz concert series that would be taking place at the local University one year and a couple friends and I were the only ones I knew who decided to take advantage of it. I really enjoyed the music I heard going to those shows but I didn’t really stick with Jazz any further than that. At the time exploring music wasn’t quite so easy or cheap as it is now.

Fast forward to a few months ago and I decided that I wanted some music I could listen to while writing. The problem I quickly found was that I can’t write when I’m listening to music with lyrics. Other people’s words coming in my ears when I’m trying to get my own words out of my head just doesn’t work well. There are some modern albums with vocals, such as Bon Iver’s Bon Iver or Radiohead’s Kid A that I can listen to when writing. On albums like those the lyrics are just another part of the overall sound and easy to block out. There are also some classic rock albums, such as Quicksilver Messenger Service’s Happy Trails that are pretty much just instrumental pieces, but I’m going to leave off with the non-jazz albums there. That can be a post for another day.

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