Full-Throttle Jazz
As you may know, I'm a huge jazz fan (as opposed to a jazz fan who's huge). My good buddy
Eric Byrd, about whom I
blogged a long time ago, has a new album out that is climbing the jazz charts (and it's a wonderful listen). Way to go, Eric, Bhagwan, Al Young (my hero), and the Plus Four Horns. As for myself, I'm starting to work on the rudiments (and I mean
rudiments here -- literally counting out the beats) of jazz drumming. I'm pretty old to just be starting (43), but what the hey -- I love it, even if I'll likely never be good enough to play in a jazz band.
Given my passion for the music, I've been searching long for an Internet jazz station that plays the stuff I like (bebop, hard bop, swing, big band), without the stuff I hate (Kenny G., other smooth "jazz"). I've tried lots of different stations, and have, at long last, found a great one. It's WBGO, out of Newark. I've added the Web stream to iTunes, so I just have to click on it and it fires up, without having to hit the Website (this probably isn't news to you Internet radio junkies, but it was a revelation to me.)
I turn it on when I start working in the morning, and leave it on all day. The only time it's off is between 3-4 p.m., the "blues hour." I can't stand blues. I don't know why, but it just doesn't do anything for me. I always listen to a few minutes of it, hoping it will grow on me (the way jazz did), but it never does. But that's alright -- I've got plenty of my own stuff to fill that hour. My latest addition is Somethin' Else, by Cannonball Adderly. What an album. Cannonball, Miles, Art Blakey. I can't get enough of it. It's my first Cannonball CD -- but surely not my last.
If you like jazz, love jazz, or don't know anything about jazz and want to see whether you like or hate it, WBGO is the place to go. Got others that you like? Tell me.
What does this have to do with virtualization? Nothing at all. But life is more than just consolidating servers.
Posted by Keith Ward on 07/31/2008 at 12:48 PM