You never forget the first time...How was it for you?

I've often asked myself the question as to when/how it was that I first heard jazz and became hooked.

Answer is, I don't really know! It was certainly in the early fifties just after I'd left school and started buying records (78s). Back then jazz and popular music - the latter had yet to be reduced to a three letter word or, in some cases, a four letter word - were still, more or less, working the same side of the street. Family Favourites or Housewife's Choice had no inhibitions about playing Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong or even Stan Kenton alongside Guy Mitchell, Johnny Ray or Frankie Laine.

The big bands such as Miller, Shaw, James and the Dorseys also figured high on my radar but, I suppose, it wasn't until I acquired a record of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five playing Cornet Chop Suey that I became, initially, a purist - I'd also discovered Chinese food at the same time but that was probably a coincidence. Spanier, Condon, more Louis and, of course, Lyttelton and Colyer. A mouldy fig was I - until...

...until I went to the City Hall to a concert by, of all people, Joe Loss. It was all going nice and sedately, full of corny vocals and In The Mood played too fast but then! A small group from the band came down front and played Dizzy Gillespie's The Champ. Reg Arnold was on trumpet and he knew his flattened fifths inside out. This was it! Damascus was in sight - maybe just this side of Gateshead.

Looking back at those early voyages of discovery reminds me that jazz is all encompassing and that compartmentalism of any art form is anti progressive. Nevertheless, whenever I hear Louis blowing Cornet Chop Suey or Dizzy playing The Champ I wonder if either of these classics are ever incorporated into the various jazz education courses.

Still that is bye the bye. What I really want is for our readers to tell us how they got into jazz either as a player or a listener. Your comments please - Lance