4 Comments
User's avatar
Stregoni's avatar

The various 1941 after hours recordings featuring Charlie Christian and Thelonious Monk were where I got my beginnings in more extensive jazz listening beyond a few stray tunes now and then. With some exceptions, I have been taking a more historically focused path back from that point in time.

Expand full comment
Stregoni's avatar

P.S. During my own personal music journey, I began listening to these albums around I had started exploring the path from The Beach Boys to The Four Freshmen to the history of early 1900s songs recognizably in the barbershop genre. I didn't consciously associate The Four Freshmen with jazz until this year.

Expand full comment
Tyler King's avatar

Interesting. I too kind of discovered jazz backwards. Starting with modern jazz and finding my way back in time to early fletcher Henderson and Erskine Hawkins, for example

Expand full comment
Stregoni's avatar

I think because I got into the history of barbershop quartets before I became more conscious of jazz, it was more straightforward for me to shift back to late 1890s ragtime piano right after listening to these 1941 proto-Bebop records featuring Thelonious Monk and Charlie Christian.

Expand full comment