8. John ColtraneAfrica/Brass
This is also from the record store. I asked a coworker who knew a lot about jazz to help me out, so he showed me Coltrane and Coleman and Miles and Mingus and started to get deeper from there. I’m not a huge jazz head despite what people think about Tortoise. I even play improvised music occasionally and I’m not a jazz head. That doesn’t mean I’m speaking for my bandmates. Jeff Parker’s depth of knowledge is unfathomable. But anyway, this was a turning point for me, listening to jazz I mean.
Before Tortoise, John Herndon and I played with this slightly unhinged guitar player who could never really play the same thing twice. We never really made it out of the practice space but practice would often be John Herndon and I playing Africa/Brass while the guy played free guitar.
I also remember this junkie that hung out at a bar I worked at saying he took lessons from Jimmy Garrison. I thought he was full of shit until I found out that a lot of jazz guys give lessons. To me Jimmy Garrison was… I don’t know, like Hendrix giving lessons or something.
