What was your defining moment? That moment in time when you decided jazz was the music for you. Or the decision you made that led you to the trumpet rather than the banjo or, admitedly an unlikely scenario, vice-versa?
For me, I fell in love with the saxophone the day I heard Earl Bostic playing "Flamingo". I'd heard Charlie Parker, Johnny Hodges, Lester, Hawkins etc. but it was later that I appreciated their genius whereas Bostic hit me with a haymaker and knocked me out with the first punch.
My peers laughed and rubbished him but for me, at 16/17, he was the most exciting player I'd ever heard.
I discovered, years later, that John Coltrane played tenor on "Flamingo" and, in an interview, he gave credit to Earl Bostic as a great saxophonist and one of his first influences. I felt exonerated and even more so when I heard him on an old Rex Stewart disc ("Dreamers Blues") sounding like Johnny Hodges.
Lance
I had played Shadows and R&B stuff as a teenager but lost interest. Later, when I was already well into jazz, my decision to buy another guitar and try to learn to play jazz was solely inspired by George Barnes - those albums with Ruby Braff. In particular a wonderful, free-wheeling solo on 'Struttin' With Some Barbecue'.
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I don't think I had a defining moment. I grew up with it, My dad was such a great guitarist, he passed it all on to my brothers, and all I remember is nights filled with guitar playing..but only the good stuff. My dad knew them all, and I can see him now, searching for that elusive chord, and saying to me " this is a beautiful tune" & away he would go on " Stella by Starlight" and the like. Everything I am I owe to him
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