A few weeks ago I asked you: What was your trigger? What got you into the music we love hear at Jazz FM. Jazz, soul, blues, funk, fusion, rhythm & blues….I’ve had some amazing responses and thank you for sharing something so personal with me. Please keep telling me your stories about the song you heard or the gig you went to or that magical discovery in a music store.
Below you will find just a small selection of some of the responses. In order to avoid information overload I have chosen some of the ones that I found fascinating, compelling or ones that just made me smile. Thank you. Please keep sending them in and spread the word: Jazz FM is back!
Leelananda Rajapaksha in Sri Lanka:
As a postgraduate student at UCL over 10 years back, I enjoyed listening to Jazz FM on line while writing my PhD thesis, and on FM radio back in my room in Tottenham. Then I went back home (Sri Lanka) and continued to listen to Jazz FM on line. The trigger was I needed some background music which does not distract me, and at the same time, cut me off with the rest of the world so that I can focus on writing. So, Jazz music did it. Now I am back in London for an academic visit, I am amazed at the quality of Jazz produced by DAB. During the time I learned a lot about jazz performers and have collected over 30 CDs just from Jazz artists. I must say, where I come from, we don’t get access to these artists’ CDs, thanks to online download, I continue to increase my Jazz collection and I get to know about new albums and artists by listening to your radio channel on line on my ADSL in Sri Lanka.
The gorgeous Rosie Kendrick, Presenter of ‘Smooth Jazz Through the Night’, Saturday & Sunday 3am to 7am:
Tom! If you were listening to my show this morning, you would know that my Trigger Track is the Girl from Ipanema by Astrud Gilberto…
John Turner in Coloma, Michigan:
During the sixties my Dad and his friends would sit around listening to Coltrane and Miles…I was hooked.. Really dig the melodic groove of the smooth jazz sound of today. From a small city across the pond …Coloma Michigan…A true Jazz FM Fan!!!
Maggie Downton:
My first memory with soul music was going to a friend’s house and he was listening to Phyllis Hyman that was it i was hooked atfer seeing her in a gig in New York at the Blue note.
The legendary PY, Presenter of The Peter Young Show, Saturday 3pm to 6pm :
My first soul record was ‘Fingertips‘ by Little Stevie Wonder. I bought this at the age of 12 in 1963, after hearing it in a record shop. It had a genuine excitement, and you felt you were part of some secret society by knowing about the existence of Motown in its early years.
First jazz album was ‘Dave Brubeck’s Greatest Hits‘ in ‘68. I remember listening to it in my bedroom with my first girlfriend – smoking a cigarette and thinking how ‘hip’ I was – little realising that millions of people had caught on about a decade earlier!
First blues album: ‘Bluesbreakers‘ – John Mayall and Eric Clapton. I bought this after my cousin had a copy and played it to me. He said this stuff is better than the Beatles and Stones. I took a while to be persuaded, but eventually agreed!
David Edwards/West Midlands:
It might sound obvious but Miles Davis and Kind of Blue. 50 years on and it still sounds fresh and makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Pure genius!
Mike in Clapham:
Not sure if I should admit this but it was pirate radio in the early eighties. I heard Luther Vandross in the guise of the outfit Change and that was it. Since then soul music has been my thing, both old and new.
