I Like Jazz

I suppose there are other auto racing fanatics who love jazz, but I haven’t met any of them.  Actually, I just like good music.  Of course I am fond of 60’s and 70’s rock, since it was the sound track of my life.  I really like Southern rock-the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd especially.  I have infected my son Matt with that dread disease, and we’ve have been to three Skynyrd concerts together.

 

I like blues, and am a great fan on Stevie Ray Vaughan.  One can only imagine the star he would be today if he had not been killed in a helicopter crash returning from a show. Eric Clapton is a favorite, and so is Carlos Santana. But just when you want to label me as a sledge hammer rock lover, you should know that my favorite singer is Tony Bennett, and I traveled 350 miles to see one of his shows.

 

I am not big on country music, but I have been a Patsy Cline fan since I was a kid.  Johnny Cash too.  I can remember their songs playing on a juke box in a bar in tiny Prague, NE, in between playing games in a baseball tournament. And if Hank Williams played somewhere close by, say 100 miles or so, I would go to his show too.  He is still a fantastic entertainer.

 

And I like jazz.  Standards, smooth jazz, Latin jazz.  Piano, sax, or guitar.  Tony Bennett is an American treasure, and so is Lena Horne. I wish Stan Getz was still around, and that the bossa nova would come back. I very much enjoy the songs of Diana Krall and Jane Monheit.  Jazz even makes me think serious about Sirius, but I only live 6 minutes from work. 

 

Yes, I do like jazz and rock and blues.  Actually, and if any intellectual is reading this forgive me, but the only music I truly do not like is opera.  I just don’t get it.  And don’t want to try to either.

 

This put me in the mood for some Tony Bennett.  I Left My Heart In San Francisco a long time ago.

 

 

~ by Ron Meyer on July 11, 2008.