My mother always says that the only thing she can play is the radio. I'm wondering who of us here are jazz fans that don't play and who are the players.

I won't post a link to my jazz website here for fear of being labelled a spammer... fair enough - I find it annoying when cats lay their stuff on me when it's neither the time or the place. I created a site for musicians that deals mostly with sax stuff, but I post a lot of general music junk. Anyways, that's another story (it's new so I'm still excited about it).

Back to the subject: does anyone here have a story regarding their experience as a player/listener? I'm asking about those situations where maybe you play and you're hanging with someone who's a fan, or vice versa.

Just thought it might make a good topic.

I don't know. I can make the uninitiated think that I know how to play jazz, but I really can't. Never really gave it a chance, I guess.

So...jazz is a spectator sport for me.

There is only one real musician in the Satchmo family; I on the other hand am a hack on the grandest scale of hackdom, on the piano. You will know what is being played, and after you finished throwing up, you might want to take a shot or two, but keep in mind you might have to stand in line.

I won't even bring up the singing, I mean I go "Da-da-shoobie-doobie-det-det-det-bap-bap-baaaaa..."

When everyone knows Satchmo would have gone, Ba-ba-yaba-do-do-dee-da-bebin-doo-wap-deet-deet-do-da-da."

On the other hand, I have heard a record or two and seen a performance or two, in my time.

i dont really know (at least im not aware of it) anything about jazz theory, i love improvising though. i spend a lot of my time at the piano doing that, and i'll mess around with a standard every once in a while. on another note, i just started taking blues guitar lessons.

at this point i'd say im much more of a listener, but im working on playing

I'm very much in the listener camp on this one, although I can play some extremely basic piano.

well, I'm s a singer, not a jazz singer though. But I used to be e very good violin player. Then I had an accident and broke my wrists and couldn't play anymore. But my injury is improving, I hope I can play the violin again one day. I still have it, it's a fine piece, an other artist gave it to me.

Blah, I like what you said. Improvisation is for anyone - not just jazz snobs. I've jammed with guitar players who can't read music and only know 5 songs, four of whick were Pink Floyd, and had a wicked time just jamming out and improvising. It doesn't have to always be 'by the book'.

One could say that a person can't be one without being the other. I mean, a good player needs to know how to be an ACTIVE LISTENER, and a good listener can significantly improve their experience by learning how to play in some capacity an instrument.

Anyways, glad to meet you all.

L8R

I started out a listener and became a player about 4 years ago (Bass). Being a listener helps so much in giving you that variety that you need to be a well rounded player. I listen to all kinds of stuff, so it's a natural progression to play all kinds of stuff.

I was drawn to jazz since I picked up my bass. Having legends like Pastorius, Mingus and Wooten to listen to is great and I find them to be very helpful to listen to and try to pick up on.