Maybe this is growing up?

To continue the theme of my last post:

I was raised in a household where music was played all day.

My mom listened to great jazz & classical music – from Django Reinhardt & Chick Corea to Beethoven & Stravinsky……….

My older brother listened to pop & classic rock.

As a kid I loved it all. Then I became a teenager & rebelled – punk was the thing. The Stranglers, The Clash, Dead Kennedys, Bauhaus….the list is endless & gloomy! (Anyone here remember “The Dirtbox” & “DV8”?)

After school I studied music and slowly became a jazz snob. I’d outgrown all the rubbish from my teenage years & realised jazz was the only real music: It has soul and great musicianship.

And so for many years I frowned upon anything that wasn’t jazz, but played many rock & pop gigs to earn a living (jazz doesn’t pay the rent). I moaned and groaned about those horrible gigs.

But as I got older, I found myself secretly enjoying playing pop & rock gigs. Finally I decided to come out of the closet (the musical one, not the one you’re thinking of!). I now derive great pleasure from listening to most kinds of music. I’ve recently even discovered country music – the Dixie Chicks, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Brad Paisley – it rocks!

This is one of the fantastic things about growing up: You don’t feel the need to belong to a subculture any longer. I’m not a punk or a jazz-purist, but I do like Madonna, Siouxie & the Banshees, John Scofield & Ella Fitzgerald.

A quote that I think comes from Duke Ellington: “There are only two types of music – good & bad”

It either moves me, or it doesn’t.

If this is what it means to be “grown up” then perhaps I’m grown up?

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