I was just sitting here wondering. When I hear a great horn riff I just get lost in the groove, Man. :beatnik:However, when I pick an album to listen to it is usually the drum work that makes me snatch it off the shelf. But once the horns or even sax kicks in, I'm real gone.

That's a tough question... I think it's just the whole feel of it with me. It's Not any one instrument. Improvisational jazz hooks me every time no matter what. It's just that magic place where all the musicians are instinctively in sync with each other. That's what pulls me in more than anything. In my mind that is the nirvana of making and listening to music.:yes:

It's Not any one instrument. Improvisational jazz hooks me every time no matter what. It's just that magic place where all the musicians are instinctively in sync with each other.

Amen! I second that nomination. It's that 'magic' that just 'clicks'. When all the elements within the 'system' come together, and create magic. We audiophiles frequently talk about our 'systems', and those 'systems' contain many elements (amps, preamps, speakers, sources, cables, speaker placement, acoustic treatment, etc., etc.). Well, the recording side has their 'system', and when all their parts come together and 'click', the result is magic. The performing artists are in sync, the mastering guys are on their game and having a good day, etc., etc.

One of my favorites is a DVD of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Live at the Quick. Some may say that the audio is not top notch. Some may say that the video is not top notch. But when you see how the artists are in sync with the other artists, and there are no generation gaps, and there are no ethnic differences, then you will realize that this is something special (magic).

I'll tell ya what hooks me, man! Listening to my George Benson rare "Real Jazz" LP just makes my spine tingle every time! On that Album, Herbie Hancock gets wild on the keyboard and his rythm is just fluid like water flowing over a rock. Billy Cobham also gets me with his drum tunes of which he does a few songs on the album, along with Harvey Mason and Phil Upchurch on Bass. Just an incomparable group of old school musicians is what really gets me to the bone. Chuck Mangione's early days, Bob James, Earl Klugh, Wynton & Branford Marasalis, Sonny Rollins, Doc Cheatham, Grover Washington Jr, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane to name a few:)

I was just sitting here wondering. When I hear a great horn riff I just get lost in the groove, Man. :beatnik:However, when I pick an album to listen to it is usually the drum work that makes me snatch it off the shelf. But once the horns or even sax kicks in, I'm real gone.


Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.

Track A - Solo Dancer, when that tune begins with the lazy horn, and the fading Sax...I was instantly hooked on Jazz, or mostly Mingus. I haven't had that overwhelming feeling of being enthralled with Jazz like that Mingus album. Not from Coltrane, and certainly not from Miles Davis. That entire album is gold.

I'm not sure if I explained myself correctly, i'm definitely getting tired.


*edit* oh yeah, i guess the horns give me the hook, and maybe when the drummer picks it up and splashes a hi-hat when everyone gets back on rythym; yeah, that one definitely.

Do the musicians have that 6th sense,knowing what the other members are playing? Do the musicians fill the holes with music when it is their turn to solo? Does the music have swing? A fine example would be Miles davis Live at the BlackHawk Volume 1. magical.

For me it is stuff recorded live, especially when a group gets into a groove and pull each other along, yeh!

The one thing that always makes me immediately take notice is a Hammond B-3.

Definitely the groove and live does it for me, but I'm always down for a great sax player.