4 ms·

What got you into modern jazz, and was it an acquired taste?

• fredrikholm 4y ago
  Not OP, but been playing classical music for ... christ, 17 years. It often is. "Modern" usually implies dissonance, syncopation, and sometimes downright atonality and free time. These concepts are fun from a musicians standpoint, as they break away from formalities and rules, but do so within a complex musical context in ways that are very difficult as the instruments are balancing between having the cake and eating it against each other, simultaneously. This is hard to pick up on, which in effect often leads to the sub-genre confining itself to musicians-listening-to-other-musicians demographics, eg. "are they high?"-jazz. Similar comparisons can be made for Picasso and art in general I suppose(?).
• analog31 4y ago
  Probably a combination of acquired taste, and non-conformism. I took classical lessons as a kid, and played in the school jazz band. I think among some musicians, we get sick of the same old stuff, and thirst for "hotter" music. This tendency was what propelled jazz forward, so if you progress through jazz along a more or less historical path (as a player or a listener), you will kind of experience the same thing. In high school, being interested in anything but top 40 made you a freak. Oddly enough the kids who were accepting of a shy nerd who liked jazz and classical, were the punk rockers. That's whom I hung out with. For some musicians, "hotter" can also mean older, such as baroque or early music specialists.