Starting at the beginning

These last two nights, I've found myself in between Netflix selections (last two: Vantage Point - somewhat interesting but lacked impact; The Bank Job - starts slow, but is very well done and interesting because of being based on a true story) and the jazz styles college textbook that I bought last week still hasn't arrived, all of which leaves me in a kind of limbo when I reach the end of the day and I'm worn out from playing the piano. I like to do something with my music, and sitting and listening with the Real Book in hand is usually a good choice, but again, if I've run out of energy playing, I've usually run out of energy for listening-analysis, too. That's really why I bought the textbook. Like I've said before, learning about jazz on all facets, I feel, will really help me "narrow the jazz vacuum" (as I put it), and in my own case, picking up jazz from the ripe young age of 43 or so, I've more or less started "in the middle". It's neither bad nor good, but I feel there is much to be gained by understanding the history and flow of jazz, or at least having some idea of who's music fed who as the medium developed from slaves sing-songing to guys like Evan Parker and Roscoe Mitchell blowing their brains out willy-nilly for twenty five minutes at a time.

Then yesterday, suddenly, I realized that I didn't have to wait for the arrival of the textbook I bought to start studying jazz history. I could just go online. In fact, having already read my share of jazz theory online, history would be a good next step, and it could be very general, since I'm really just beginning. (Strictly speaking, the textbook I bought isn't a jazz history book, either. More on that some other time - after I get the damn thing.) So, I used Encyclopedia Britannica (EB) online and read their entire introduction to jazz. It was just a bit shallow, I thought, and while it did tell me a few things I didn't know, it didn't enlighten me all that much. (Only two years ago, I took a music course through the University of Alabama in order to fulfill my degree requirements at University of Alabama in Huntsville, so my study of music, music theory, music history, styles, etc. is relatively fresh.) Since I own a copy of the print EB - purchased in England when I lived there in 1995 - I decided to have a look at it to see if it covered more ground than the electronic version.

Bingo! Man, the jazz entry is awesome. It is longer, more detailed, and much better written. I've only read the first few paragraphs, but it has been very informative. Two things that struck me so far:
-Thomas Edison was arguably the most influential man in the history of jazz, because jazz songs were never played the same way twice until they began to be recorded. (Some would argue they are still never played the same way twice - and I would tend to agree.)
-White evangelists' attempts to Presbyterianize the freed slaves in the late 1800's resulted in the "Africanization" of the Presbyterians' hymnbooks. (They put it a little more eloquently than that, but you get the drift.)

My Wall Street Journal didn't show up this morning before I had to leave the house for work, so I picked up volume 24 of EB (Metaphysics to Norway) to read at lunch. This is going to be a great way to prep for the arrival of my textbook.

Final note: I'm thinking about taking classes at school to study music. I recall, however, that all the liberal arts courses happen during the daytime, so I'm not sure I'll be able to make that idea work for me. We'll see.