Bo Eder
Platinum Member
I know I'm big on musical history, and can often pinpoint when certain musical moments happened and why we play what we play, but I had a very cool mid-week when my brother gave me a turntable he bought a few years ago, but he never plugged it in.
So now I have this belt-drive Numark turntable on a table in my computer room, I had to get a pre-amp for it so I could plug it into my room mixer (and consequently can plug it into my SD card flash recorder so I can eventually get tracks into my computer for CD-burning). But for now I'm just listening to some old vinyl that I hadn't seen, much less played in some 25 years. And many of these records are older than that as my parents probably bought them new before I was born!
I'm listening to Chico Hamilton playing with Gerry Mulligan, and an unlisted drummer play with Bud Shank on some old Crown records (a budget label out of Los Angeles back in the 50s and 60s). I have some Paul Motian playing with Bill Evans, and of course, all those Brubeck albums with Joe Morello. The rhythm section of Shelly Manne with Monty Budwig on bass - I think those two guys played with everybody in Los Angeles at one point or another.
Like one of my later heroes, Stewart Copeland, after spending most of the day listening back to this stuff, I realized I learned how to swing before I learned how to rock, just by what my parents had in their record collection. I was turned on to really good singing with a bunch of Four Freshmen albums my mom must've been listening to since I was three - and whoever those unlisted back-up musicians were on all those jazz albums.
Of course, there's a whole bunch of Hawaiian stuff I found, the old Don Ho's, and other various island offerings simply because mom and dad came from there. I didn't get into rock 'n' roll until my pre-teens when my oldest sister started infiltrating the house with the Beatles, and later Led Zeppelin......
I feel humbled and grateful to have access to all this great music. Music I hadn't heard in 25 years since that's when we last had a record player! Now I'm listening to it again and it still sounds good - although I was dreading hating it when I heard it again, but I don't.
Now I'm listening with a more critical ear and hearing new things I hadn't heard before, and of course, I realize even more that I just don't have it together when comparing myself to Shelly Manne! Time to go back to the woodshed.
Hopefully some of you will get a chance to re-discover stuff like I just did!
So now I have this belt-drive Numark turntable on a table in my computer room, I had to get a pre-amp for it so I could plug it into my room mixer (and consequently can plug it into my SD card flash recorder so I can eventually get tracks into my computer for CD-burning). But for now I'm just listening to some old vinyl that I hadn't seen, much less played in some 25 years. And many of these records are older than that as my parents probably bought them new before I was born!
I'm listening to Chico Hamilton playing with Gerry Mulligan, and an unlisted drummer play with Bud Shank on some old Crown records (a budget label out of Los Angeles back in the 50s and 60s). I have some Paul Motian playing with Bill Evans, and of course, all those Brubeck albums with Joe Morello. The rhythm section of Shelly Manne with Monty Budwig on bass - I think those two guys played with everybody in Los Angeles at one point or another.
Like one of my later heroes, Stewart Copeland, after spending most of the day listening back to this stuff, I realized I learned how to swing before I learned how to rock, just by what my parents had in their record collection. I was turned on to really good singing with a bunch of Four Freshmen albums my mom must've been listening to since I was three - and whoever those unlisted back-up musicians were on all those jazz albums.
Of course, there's a whole bunch of Hawaiian stuff I found, the old Don Ho's, and other various island offerings simply because mom and dad came from there. I didn't get into rock 'n' roll until my pre-teens when my oldest sister started infiltrating the house with the Beatles, and later Led Zeppelin......
I feel humbled and grateful to have access to all this great music. Music I hadn't heard in 25 years since that's when we last had a record player! Now I'm listening to it again and it still sounds good - although I was dreading hating it when I heard it again, but I don't.
Now I'm listening with a more critical ear and hearing new things I hadn't heard before, and of course, I realize even more that I just don't have it together when comparing myself to Shelly Manne! Time to go back to the woodshed.
Hopefully some of you will get a chance to re-discover stuff like I just did!
