As someone who didn’t grow up in a jazz-friendly home, I’m fascinated by the paths of discovery that led other people to the music. Stanley Clarke’s "School Days" and the free Sunday concert series once sponsored by Kansas City gave me the bug.
I know several people who were led to jazz through the music of Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears. The tangential connection between jazz and that form of rock engendered my curiosity about the 1970s band Chase.
“We like jazz and we like rock, so we do both,” bandleader Bill Chase says before this performance of the band’s biggest hit.
Prominent Kansas City trumpeter Jay Sollenberger joined Chase in 1973. He sat in with Hard@Play, a self-described “classic rock with horns” band, at a free concert early Friday evening. The band played first-rate renditions of material by the likes of Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, the Ides of March, Al Green and Earth, Wind & Fire.
Will Hard@Play's performance lead anyone in the audience of about 300 to jazz? You never know.
(Original image of Hard@Play by Plastic Sax.)
2 comments:
interesting. my path started i'm sure with dave brubeck. we didn't live in jazz friendly house per se, but "take five" was a popular tune and got radio play. from there, amidst the beatlemania and british invasion, i discovered wes montgomery, grover washington, jr. and the modern jazz quartet. i'm sure there were others. chicago was a favorite band (first release still is), BS&T also a favorite. got into fusion quite a bit too with jon luc ponty, weather report, among others. oddly, took me years even after that to discover miles davis and "kind of blue". - mike t.
Heavily in to 70's rock and pop then I joined the school band. My jazz love and career started in middle school with the music of Glen Miller and then on to Basie and the Boss Brass and Dizzy, Bird, Dexter etc.
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