I have my mother—the beatnik, alcoholic artist and reader of poetry—to thank for my deep appreciation of jazz.
And I can still see her, cigarette and brandy at the ready, prancing around the kitchen in our Larkspur postage stamp house in the 1950s, snapping her fingers to the classic Ahmad Jamal interpretation of “Poinciana,” recorded at Club Pershing in Chicago in 1958. That rendition is as close to defining the genre as anything I have heard in my 74.6754389 years. I love Jamal’s piano, bass and drums legacy as much as any other musician’s work, but there is a lot more to seek and sample.
Because of my mother, I heard the first song ever played on KJAZ radio, 92.7 on the FM dial, which came on the air Aug. 1, 1959, broadcasting from its Telegraph Avenue studios in Berkeley.
The song was “Springsville,” the lead track on the Miles Davis recording, Miles Ahead, a collaboration with arranger Gil Evans. Like “Poinciana,” “Springsville” sounds as fresh today as it did 67 years ago.
The disc jockeys on founder Pat Henry’s new station did more than spin records on the turntable. They were artists and curators of a musical world just starting to get some headway with the listening public, outside of jazz clubs like Blackhawk, Keystone Korner and El Matador in San Francisco; the Blue Note in New York; and the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach.
We are fortunate to have the legacy live on in the Bay Area, on radio and at SFJAZZ in Hayes Valley in the City. Keeping jazz alive is an uphill battle. Just ask the people at Yoshi’s and Freight & Salvage in the East Bay and the Blue Note up in Napa (which closed this past New Year’s Eve).
For many Americans, listening to jazz is at best an annoying experience and at worst excruciatingly painful. Without going into too much detail and droning on like an insufferable NYU music historian and critic, jazz has a long, wide, rich, varied history. Describing and defining it is impossible. One has to go listen.
Craig Corsini is a writer and jazz aficionado in Marin County.
