response 25 of 50:

Jul 11 22:06 UTC 1997

self education is beneficial, however, i think that a classical education with
exploration can't be too bad.... That is how i got into jazz... I was on the
symphony/ orchestra and while i loved it i explored other types of music and
such.

response 27 of 50:

Jul 21 19:13 UTC 1997

(Dunno Bassett, but Bill Albright and Bill Bolcom are two of my
favorite ragtimers.)

response 29 of 50:

Sep 29 07:11 UTC 1997

Re #21:  Was her name Leslie Hogan?  If so, she was a friend of mine
back then.  We had the same piano teacher for a year.

Ironically, I studied composition at UM with Bolcom, Albright, and 
Bassett.  Took four semesters altogether, just because I thought
it was interesting.  These days I don't compose at all, though.

response 31 of 50:

Oct 21 20:27 UTC 1997

I guess I have been exposed to music as long as I can remember. My parents
are both big fans of "classical", jazz, and folk music. My parents met in the
record store in Chapel Hill, NC that my day was working in.  My mother came
in and asked my dad if he could order a Four Freshman album. The Four Freshmen
happen to be one of his favorite groups. Later, while attending a (I believe)
Lena Horne concert, they ran into each other again. And the rest is history.
My parents both play piano and recorder, and they were always playing together
when I was very young. At a young age, my brother, my sister, and I were given
recorders. When I was in 5th grade, I started playing clarinet for the
elementary school band. At that time, I also started singing in the choir.
I shortly quit the choir (something I've always regretted) because we were
always standing up.  :)  Through 6th and 7th grade, I played clarinet, and
in 8th grade, I switched to bass clarinet. This I played during high school,
until my senior year when I switched again to contra bass clarinet. Wow! What
an instrument! That was 1986, and I've not played clarinet with a group since.
In 1991, the year I got out of the navy, I got a job delivering pizza. Well,
I still had my old recorder, and I started playing it while I delivered
pizzas, and started to get good at steering with my knees. This is something
I've continued until today. I now own two soprano clarinets (one for my car
and one for my bacpack, so  I can play while biking to school) and one alto
recorder for playing at home. Oops! Did I say soprano clarinets? Sorry. I
meant soprano recorders. heh! Anyway, I've picked up some guitar along the
way, as well as a bit of saxophone (my roommate has one), and I'm trying to
get back into playing clarinet( I just recently bought one). 

As far as the development of my musical tastes, I didn't really enjoy the
music my parents were playing until much later in my life. There was always
a love of certain classical peices that I played in the bands I was in (school
orchestras and wind ensembles), but I don't credit the beginning of my own
musical tastes until that fateful day in 1979, when I bought my first album,
Van Halen's _Van Halen_. Back then I listened to Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath,
Boston, AC/DC, Blue Oyster Cult, Kansas, etc. I hadn't really discovered
"classic rock". Well, about 1980 or 81, I got my first stereo (a cheesy
boombox). It was at that time that I started listening to THE RADIO. Well,
seeing as how the airwaves were saturated at that time with Pink Floyd's
_Another Brick in the Wall, part 2_, it was just a matter of time before I
heard it. It changed my life. All of the sudden, the Boston, Kansas, and Blue
Oyster Cult all seemed hollow and lifeless. It wasn't before long that I
purchased Pink Floyd's _Dark Side of the Moon_. These days, whenever I hear
that album, each song brings back specific memories. From there, I became a
classic rock feind. All I listened to was the classic rock station from
Baltimore, and the classic rock station from Washington (I lived almost
halfway between the two cities). Although I don't listen to classic rock
stations anymore (commercial ones anyway), because of the constant playing
of Stairway to Hotel CaliFreebird type songs, these kind of stations
introduced me to a large variety of excellent groups and musicians. I then
had to go and explore these artists' stuff that wasn't being played on the
radio. Oddly enough, my history of jazz enjoyment starts out with a single
album. Before I had ever(that I was aware of) heard any Davis, Monk, Coltrane,
Parker, Brubeck, Getz, Hancock, Mann, or Montgomery, I heard Chuck Mangione's
_Feels So Good_.  <shudder> At the time, I thought it was the funkiest thing
I'd ever heard. About that time I started checking out the public radio
stations late at night, and heard some great jazz. My tastes in all of the
styles of  musicthat I enjoy are still evolving. 

response 33 of 50:

Oct 22 04:58 UTC 1997

Yeah, he plays fluglehorn (sp?) I agree...taken by itself, its not bad. But
listen to it right after some more serious jazz, and you can't help but wince
slightly. I'm not sure which song you're referring to, but the first song on
the album has the same name as the album: _Feels So Good_. The other tunes
on the album are:
_Maui-Waui_
_Theme From "Side Street"_  (hey, that's probably it ;->  )
_Hide & Seek_
_Last Dance_
_The XIth Commandment_

Hmmm...never heard of a show called _Side Street_.

response 35 of 50:

Oct 23 18:29 UTC 1997

Fortunately, our high school jazz band director was strictly a traditional
jazz man. We played (well, not me...I played bass and contra bass clarinet
in the wind ensemble......but went to all the jazz band shows) mostly cool
jazz. I agree that jazz (the good stuff) is sort of intellectual music. That's
why its not as popular as .....well, pop music. With pop music, you don't have
to think about it. Its right there in your face. No ambiguity. You've got
catchy words and phrases to pull you along (not to take away at all from all
the excellent vocal jazz out there). With jazz, on the other hand, I think
you end up taking in more of the song, than with pop.

response 37 of 50:

Oct 24 01:24 UTC 1997

Folk pop? You mean something like John Denver? (I've never seen the term folk
pop before.) 

response 39 of 50:

Oct 24 16:13 UTC 1997

Ahhhh...the Weavers...haven't thought of them in quite awhile. I believe they
sing _Kisses Sweeter Than Wine_. Very beautiful song. Brought tears to my
eyes. I've got to get ahold of it again (that song). There aren't too many
artists that you could lump together with John, though. I'll agree with that.
Would I be totally out of line to put Joan Baez and Bob Dylan in the folk pop
category? Maybe so. I think Joan and Bob are more of a bridge between artists
like the ones you mentioned, Mike, and artists like Woody Gutherie or Pete
Seeger.

response 41 of 50:

Oct 24 23:43 UTC 1997

I was thinking also of James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, Carole King, Jim Croce,
Paul Simon (and Art Garfunkel-- sort of), etc.  Anne Murray, Kenny Rogers,
and Linda Ronstat are also put into this category.

It could be said that Linda Ronstat's later work was more poppy, but
_Canciones de Mi Padre_ was definitely a return to her Hispanic musical roots.
(Canciones de Mi Padre= Songs of My Father)

response 43 of 50:

Oct 27 06:09 UTC 1997

I don't know that there are any good definitions for folk-pop, folk-rock,
etc. etc. etc....  ((krj wonders if he shouldn't try to jump this over to 
folk music item, and says the hell with it.))  You start out with
two conflicting defintions of folk -- the academic one and the 
market one.
 
Yes, Pete Seeger was in the Weavers; and before that there was a band 
called The Almanac Singers, with Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and others.
The Weavers occupy a key position, historically; in our culture, they 
were the first band to sing folk music professionally, and be successful
at it.  Sometimes I get the feeling that Pete Seeger has some regrets
over inventing commercial folk music.
 
Joan Baez started her career singing traditional songs.  Lots of 
revivalists followed her career trajectory, starting with traditional
songs and moving towards original material.
 
The original folk-rock band was the Byrds; there is a direct line of 
influence from the Byrds to the British folk-rock bands, but in the 
1970s & 1980s, folk-rock in Britain implied a drawing on traditional
sources which was rarely seen in America.
 
And then there is the singer-songwriter swamp...

response 45 of 50:

Nov 8 04:17 UTC 1997

If you all don't mind hugely (and even if you do) I'm going to bring you 
up on my own musical background.
  Music, first of all, has always been part of my life, and probably an 
integral one.  In other words, if some were to take it away from me 
(impossable) I would probably not be a very usefull person.
  My parents were extreemly musical.  My dad used to play the 
french-horn for many years, before switching to choral work.  As a 
singer, he has a certain degree of success.  He's the lead soloist at 
our church, and he often does many of the solos for 'The Ann Arbor 
Cantata Singers', one of the premier (in my oppinion) local choral 
groups.  He has recently resumed French horn.
  My mom also is in choir, and she plays piano quite well.  She was a 
music major, and a composition wiz (a talent which I pray she will pick 
up again upon retirement).  My parents, of course, met in collage choir.
  I'm not reciting this to brag so much as to give you some idea of 
where I'm coming from ('though I AM rather proud of them).  There only 
major downfall, musically, which I could see, was that they entirely 
focused on classical music.  At which point I can only say 'thank God 
for Avery'.  Avery is my brother, and simply put, has one of the best 
and most eclectic tastes in music I've ever seen.  It was he who 
introduced me to progressive rock, for which I can only thank him 
eternally.
  So what about me, you ask.  Well, I've been singing in church choirs 
for as long as I can remember, and when I entered fourth grade, I 
entered the Ann Arbor Boy Choir, where I first learned to develope my 
voice.  I've had a couple faux pas at musical instruments (traslation: I 
sucked), and I settled with simply voice.  I remained with the AABC for 
abour four years, at which point my voice changed.  When my voice 
settled down enough to sing properly again, I immediately began singin 
again.  Since then, I've been in a variaty of choirs, taken voice 
lessons, sung in a jazz band, and started a band of my own.
  And that's the story so far, 'cept that I have a cold and can't sing 
much of _anything_ at the moment, much to my dismay. <Cricket shuts up: 
"stop your blathering"...>

response 47 of 50:

Nov 9 04:36 UTC 1997

  <laugh>

response 49 of 50:

Feb 24 19:08 UTC 1999

I guess I got into music through listening to my folks music. That mainly
consisted of the Beatles, Neil Diamond, Chicago, Kenny Rogers, Elton John,
and the Godspell soundtrack. I also watched all of the music based kids shows
including The Monkees (still a favorite of mine), the Beatles cartoon, the
Jackson 5 cartoon, and Menudo <shudder>.

The earliest personal influence that I remember was an early love for
classical music. I had a recording of the Nutcracker Suite that I listened
to constantly as a kid. I also got this set of classical LPs that were sold
as a huge set at Meijers (I think) when I was a kid. At the time, that was
the only way I could listen to them.

It wasn't until I got a Walkman for Christmas one year that I really got into
pop music. Sure I listened to it, but I didn't pay attention to the artists
until I could actually buy their music. During high school, I bought a lot
of mainstream tapes, especially Genesis and Phil Collins.

It wasn't until I got into college that I developed the music tastes I have
today. My folks bought me a CD boom box for my B-day one year. I started to
buy any CD that grabbed my attention. Eventually, I stumbled into the
alternative scene and more unusual stuff like The Residents and Throbbing
Gristle. I also developed a taste for female singer/songwriters like Kate
Bush and Sarah McLachlan.

Thanks to years of late night jobs, I listened to the Liz Copeland show on
WDET. Now I listen to a wide range of music including Techno, Ambient, Goth,
Reggae, Funk, Punk, Classical, J-pop, Celtic, and World Music. I haven't
explored any kind of music to any real depth, but I have tried a wide variety
and enjoyed most types of music. This conference has given me many ideas of
music I should look for.