Home is where the heart is, or so the old expression goes.  My heart is with my music, and like so many others I cherish the sounds of my youth while continuing a never ending search for new and expressive forms, be they traditional or not.  My heart belongs in other places as well, but for this site, music is, and will remain, the core of my thoughts, opinions and soap box screeds.

I feel especially lucky to have grown up during a period where the search for new forms of expression was taking place at a breakneck pace.  I purchased my first Miles Davis LP at 15, (Bitches Brew) a year after its release.   Not quite on top of things, but not really behind the curve either.  What I find humorous after all of these years is the dichotomy of the reality of those days; on the one side, there was no foundation in experience to fully appreciate the sound of Miles snapping his fingers to Dave Holland’s bass and Benny Maupin’s bass clarinet 2:51 into that album’s title cut; on the other, I did appreciate it none the less, and it was absorbed with all the muster and gusto a young teenager could realize.  It was cool, it was deep, and it opened my eyes.  A new world of potential experience suddenly became visible, and I couldn’t wait to hear it.  All of it.

When I listen to the music today through supposedly more mature ears, the realization manifests itself in such a visceral way that I would not trade those early days of discovery for anything the world has to offer.    A treasure unearthed, like a thing of beauty, is a joy forever.

There is still much to uncover.  In the mid ‘70’s, I went through a period, lasting nearly three years, of which 98% of my listening was jazz only.  Every genre was well covered, with free jazz and the avant garde receiving, in retrospect, way too much attention.  With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, it is clear to me now I would have enjoyed digging into the Blue Note back catalog much more than I did listening to Cecil Taylor’s “tonal clusters” ad infinitum.  All that attention into one realm naturally caused worthwhile gems from others to fall through the cracks, if not to be missed altogether.  I feel myself to have been in “catch up” mode ever since.

Various friends have helped with this over the years.   Rob Weissbard brought me up to speed on groups like Eloy, Grobschnitt, Brainticket, Il Volo, Magma and numerous other artists over the years.  In my time at TVT Records, “Clutch”, warehouse manager and boy wonder, who appeared to know most, if not all, of the U.S. area metal bands on a first name basis, brought me to realms where Stoner, Doom, Black and other forms of Metal rule the day.

There were others as well, too many to mention.  And you know who you are…

With a little help from them and others, catching up seems like a possibility. So does rolling the boulder up the mountain to see it tumble back down just when it appeared to go over the top, but hey – unlike Sisyphus, I’m having a blast.

I hope you are as well.

If your visit here leaves you with something good (or not), let me know, care of jazzmanblue@protonmail.com.    All the best, and happy searching.

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