gridjam

Ha! Yeah, my 'purist' friends would give me crap for listening to Spyro Gyra, but hey- it was only in my mom's car and she only had a cassette player,and yes-it was pretty hard to find good music in the stores in Canada. There was something bubble-gum poppish in their sound (and UZEB too, uh uh, Quebec) that satisfied my teenage needs in a wierd way and made the long commute (an hour plus a day to school and back) kind of fun. Things changed drastically when we got a stereo that we could record cassettes on- Freddie(Red Clay), Jaco,Trane, Woody Shaw,etc..took over. One more good source for inspiration and education can be a CD/record store that specializes in jazz or rare Cds/lps. I was in Seattle recently and found a great store with rare, used stuff that you could spin and listen to before buying. These stores are almost as rare as 'clubs that let you hang out after the gig' these days and can be great sources of direction for your taste. I used to take the ferry over to Vancouver and shop for LPs and was able to do the same thing, often getting advice from the cats working there and/or (OMG) meeting people that would direct me to music I might dig. I sound old- fashined here, but I do worry that we will end up in our little computer bubbles and miss out on the sensual experiences that we really need,in order to live and feel life.