I've always been interested in what provided the spark that ignited another's passion for this music.

For me, I grew up in a home where jazz was a normal part of everyday life since my dad was a jazz guitarist. He weaned me on straight-ahead jazz, his passion. But my interest in today's contemporary jazz occurred by accident. My son was playing lead guitar in a rock band at the time and he came home and asked me if I ever heard of a band named "Spyro Gyra?" I sort of snickered and dismissed the idea in my mind since these guys were no doubt just another kooky rock outfit with a strange name. A few weeks later, driving home from a friend's home, I tuned in a local jazz show on radio and the DJ spun "4MD" by this group called "Spyro Gyra." I loved the groove and from that time onward felt a new passion arousing for this type music that has blossomed into a full-blown love for this band, the Rippingtons, Yellowjackets, Tribal Tech, Weather Report, and a host of others. Happened a bit late, but is an authentic love for this music nonetheless.

Destiny and irony . I was playing acoustic when I was in college and one of the clubs did a singer/writer showcase on Sunday nights that my friends and I always played. Well..the guy that bought the bar had a jazz band and decided he was going to put his band in on Sundays. I was not thrilled with losing a showcase but they asked me to bartend and I needed the bucks..so I go in dreading an evening of guys from the music school playing 45 minute versions of "My Funny Valentine" and instead these guys get up and start playing Return To Forever, Weather REport, Crusaders and Jeff Beck. I pretty much stood there for 4 hours with my mouth hanging open and the next day I blew the rest of my financial aid check on fusion, fortunately I worked at a record store so I got some kind of discount. Then as if to seal my fate Joni Mitchell, who was my hero and I still think she is God, started working with a lot of these musicians.(She led me to Pat Metheny via Shadows and Light too) I ended up with a "jazz/fusion"show on our college station which of course irritated the academia jazz police (so what else is new) then went to a commercial station to do Top 40 and started doing a "Jazz Brunch" show that was tamer, but not by much and I have been doing them pretty much ever since. This is probably why the great smoothing out irritates me more than most..because a) I came out of rock/top 40 so I like diversity and energy b. I know how cool this stuff sounded before Feb '95 (the beginning of the "smooth revolution")c. I spend much more time vertical than horizontal so the seduction/relaxation aspect just bores me.

Phil,

Well, this is a fun one for me, because I can pinpoint the exact place and time....well, in a way the foundation was laid by a jazz influenced fusion album titled "Open Fire" by up till then rock guitar hero Ronnie Montrose(someday, and soon, I am going to burn you of a tape of that CD and mail it to you Phil...everyone who has heard a copy of it just goes, "WOW"....THAT'S Ronnie Montrose???

But, I think my REAL love affair with contemporary jazz came on a summer afternoon on a blacktop at my old elementary school, Dr. Peter Marshall.
My brothers and I were playing a pickup basketball game on a Saturday, and I had always brought my ghetto blaster along and played music while we played our three on three or four on four games.

My brother Thom asked if it would be alright to pop in a tape of his. I said, "Sure"...and the rest is history.

The tape was of Spyro Gyra's "Freetime", the bands 1982 release. I LOVED it!!

Funny thing is, it initially struck me musically as being reminicent of Steely Dan.

Fifteen years later, reading the liner notes that Jay Beckenstein wrote for "Spyro Gyra-The First Ten Years", I find out that many players(Steve Gadd, Marcus Miller, Will Lee, Hiram Bullock, and many others)used to leave a Spyro Gyra recording session to go across the hall to sit in on a Steely Dan session....so my ear was good, even back then!!

I then waited months and months for a NEW Spyro Gyra record...it turned out to be "Incognito"....was my absolute favorite Spyro Gyra record for many years, and still is in my top five!

What a band!

Well, that is how I became a contemporary jazz fan....later, I discovered the Pat Metheny Group, which has been firmly my second favorite contemporary jazz band since the mid 80's!

Peace!
Paul