How Do You Listen?
Lots of philosophical/existential comments on the previous post, which we all love, or at least some of us, or at least me. I have another one: What do you actually listen to and how do you listen? For myself, I have two primary listening modes. One is really listening, which is sitting down with no other distractions, no devices, no cell phones, no iPads, no books or magazines, putting a record on the turntable, actively listening and concentrating solely on the music. When I do this, vinyl is the only choice and I would say, at this stage of my life, I don’t do this as often as I would like and, when I do, my choices are typically records that I already know and music I am familiar with. I can’t tell you exactly why, but I think it is because I don’t do this frequently enough and, when I do listen to my favorite records, it feels like I am reuniting with old friends, and it’s a great feeling. The other night, for example, I had about three hours I was able to devote to listening, which was a somewhat extraordinary event. I didn’t put a single record on the turntable that wasn’t an old friend. I started with Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street; moved on the Sonny Rollins Plus Four; Roland Kirk, Volunteered Slavery, the live side at Newport; Thelonious Monk, Criss-Cross; Dave Brubeck plays Bernstein, the West Side story side; then I was in the mood for a vocal, so I went with Ray Charles and Betty Carter. It was a lovely way to spend an evening and, after doing so, I vowed to myself to do it more often.
My second mode of listening is background, and for that I sometimes choose vinyl, and sometimes not. It depends on what else I am doing. If I am doing something that takes 20 minutes or so, or if there are a lot of people in the house and we are playing a game or something, I often put on vinyl because I am being active and don’t mind walking over to the turntable every 20 minutes and turning the record over or putting on a new record. But if I have music on in the background when I am reading a book or relaxing on my iPad with the New York Times or a crossword, then I typically will listen to a digital format, usually Sonos, which I have in all rooms and all locations. I will often put on music that is comfortable in the background, maybe some Ella or Art Tatum or even Bill Evans, stuff I know and don’t have to concentrate too much on, but is comfortable and somewhat soothing even. At night, going to sleep, I always use Sonos. I have created about 60 or 70 playlists I have labeled “Ballads,” as in Ballads 1, Ballads 2, Ballads 3, Ballads, A, Ballads B, in multiple combinations using a mix of music, jazz and vocals, plus other favorites such as James Taylor, Allison Krauss, Nancy Lamott, Sinatra, and The Beatles.
Then, there is the question of what to do with new records that I purchase. In the past, I have always tried to listen to each record before putting it on the shelves and immersing it into the collection. But, that stopped working years ago when I started buying more and more records at at time, and then collections, and, at the same time, stopped spending as much time listening as I did before life got in the way. So, sometimes, new records will get buried in the collection without a listen but with the promise that someday, when I get old and retired, I will have all of this time to put great music on the turntable and it will all come as a pleasant surprise to have fresh music in my ears after all of these years. I do realize that scenario is just a pipe dream and, if the time ever does come where I do have more time to listen, I will much more likely go back to my old friends and enjoy their company and remind myself of great times in my life and how and when I purchased each record and where I was when I first heard it and all of the other associations it brings and all of the other things you do when you get together with friends and family and reminisce.
And that’s my story, today, Dec. 8, 2019. I am perhaps somewhat nostalgic on this day because this was the date, 39 years ago, that John Lennon was shot, just a few blocks from where I am sitting now and writing this post. Sometime this afternoon, I will walk over to Strawberry Fields in Central Park and join the crowds of people there singing Beatles and Lennon songs and paying tribute.
i like jazz so much because it rewards both active and passive listening. when i have to time to really enjoy, i listen to my records. when i have other things to do, i usually have itunes on. i try to listen to about a record a day.
As I’ve gotten older, my ability to concentrate on music has diminished. As a teenager, I could sit and do nothing but listen to an entire album, something I learned from my dad. But now I always seem to reach for the phone or the IPad. My brain seem to have been rewired in favor of multitasking. I still enjoy my listening sessions, and consider them to be an important part of my life.
The Beatles were something else. All of those songs were written while they were in their 20’s. Staggering what they achieved.
I like the ‘old friends’ concept. When I relax I prefer to be with old friends.
The idea to finally listen to all the accumulated goodies upon retirement does not work out like that. Expectations are too high or tastes have changed. It happened to me in the past to lay hands on sizeable quantities of interesting albums. You cannot listen to fifty albums in a row. So they were immediately stored, and often forgotten. Now, after a long hibernation, it would be logic to give them a spin. In fact, some go straight into the out bin. I just cannot cope with a new listening experience. I prefer to be with old friends.
A positive note to finish my comment: some new discoveries do indeed become friends. So I am not a hopelessly lost case.
Some music,I find,grabs my attention so completely that it is impossible to do anything else except listen and over the 55 years that I’ve been buying records I’ve always tried to only keep those that have this quality.
I’ve collected 3000 or so LPs and CDs over that period and,of course,not every one reaches that standard but they are the ones that I can dip in and out of while doing something else.
My listening today so far has been:
Junior Wells–Hoodoo man Blues
Miles Davis–Bitches Brew
Fire! Orchestra–Arrival
and I hope to have time to squeeze in some of Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra before my wife gets back from shopping!
Not much chance of dozing or doing anything else while those are on the turntable.
My approach is similar to your’s, Al. When I listen to jazz vinyl, I LISTEN. I hunker down in the music room, open a bottle of red or bourbon, and I play five or six albums. I usually do this on weekends, Friday and Saturday. Sometimes I squeeze in a “dry” listening session on a week night. Other than that, I listen on Spotify when I travel.
Agree with the comment that age and myriad distractions have taken a toll on listening. I actually might do my best listening with headphones while at work (and sadly that’s not a turntable environment). Or on the occasional car trip. When we get out of this cramped Brooklyn apartment in a year or so, hopefully there’ll be a better environment for spinning!
Most of my listening these days is background, which works well for my lifestyle. Hey Al, what’s your favorite Beatles song?
Favorite Beatles song? Not possible for me to choose. Did I mention on the site that I went to Liverpool earlier this year, and did a tour of both John and Paul’s childhood homes? If you’ve never been and you are a Beatles fan, it is an amazing experience. So, Bill W., you asked me, so my assumption is that you can name a favorite?
Favorite Beatles song is probably Strawberry Fields Forever.
I mostly listen while playing with the kids or really early before anyone gets up. I do miss the quiet nights listening to a nice setup and concentrating just on the music. I’m sure once the kids are grown up I can go back to that. Right? Please someone tell me I can get it all back?! 😉
GST, yes, actually, you can. I have this very strong memory of Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane. I had just turned 14, or was about to, and it had been months since the Beatles released a single or an album. There was this real lull: What has happened to the Beatles? Where are they? They had been so consistent with releasing singles every few weeks or months. I was in the car with my grandfather. We were heading into Manhattan to go to a track meet at Madison Square Garden. I think it was the Millrose Games. Anyway, I had the radio on, WABC, and the announcer said “we have now, for the first time, the new Beatles single.” We were on the Triboro Bridge and I started screaming. My grandfather panicked and went across three lanes, almost smacking into about 12 cars. He wasn’t the best driver in the first place. We survived. I think they played Penny Lane first and I was in heaven, what a great Paul song. And then they played Strawberry Fields and my first reaction was: “What was that?” It was so different and unique. I eventually figured it out, but that first hearing was definitely a bit of a mind fuck, in a good way of course. Sorry to go off course from jazz vinyl to all of you who come here for that, but I don’t think we’ve ever talked about the Beatles here.
Well, I can’t comment on accumulating under the mantle of collecting because I stopped and I can’t comment on listening because I really don’t listen to records or CDs that often anymore. Simply because I mostly ain’t got much left.
I can comment on Beatles, however, if perhaps in a different way. Growing up in my neck of woods in Chicago, the Beatles were for the girls. It was the Stones, rough and raunchy, for the group I hung with. Remember seeing them in ‘65 or so, very intense and sexy loud, about the same time I saw Coltrane and Shepp at Downbeat Jazz Fest in Soldier Field. And of course there was the time I saw Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees. Like, Too strange.
Anyway, there it is for what it’s worth.
Your listening experiences mirror mine. Several hours at a time in front of my dedicated system, no distractions. Mix of mono and stereo, mix of artists and genres as the mood hits. My secondary system includes my computer, and is in use as background when I am working at home. I stream about 80% of the time; from NAS files or online sources. Remaining 20% is from a TT connected to an external phono stage (that has a ADAC output to facilitate digital rips of vinyl) connected to the integrated map at the heart of my computer system. Even then, there are times I am forced to put down my work and concentrate on the music because it is so good. I have another system in the family room, that is HT based and connected to our network from streaming of files and online sources as background music.
I have very particular listening habits that come in stages over the course of the day. I turn on my tube amp and let it warm up while I make coffee. In the morning I answer emails and I only listen to vinyl: I might start out with Nat King Cole or Tal Farlow, move to something from the Continent like Tubby Hayes or Barney Wilen or Klaus Doldinger, and by late morning go Brazilian or African with lots of brass and textures. Then, when I sit down to work, I switch to Sonos and listen to various playlists that I’ve put together over the years. Not until dinner do I return to vinyl and it’s always vocal: Helen Merrill, Blossom Dearie, Chet Baker, with the occasional Beatles or Donovan record inserted for variety. I try not to use headphones because it feels like the music is trapped in these beautiful little spheres, and what I want from the music more than anything is to take over my environment. I want it to absorb me and envelop the space and furniture around my apartment.
I’d like to take a moment to blend the discussions of the December 4th post and this one.
Several years ago I decided to sell my jazz lp collection. Having been in the retail end of the record (then tape, then cd) business for thirty-five years and a jazz fan for forty, I had accumulated more than my share. Half of my collection had been picked up second hand in the Northeast and half I purchased new. 95% were in VG++ condition. I sold between 700 to 900 lps to a local dealer at a price that was far below top ebay prices but perfectly acceptable to me. Gil Evans, Frank Foster, 70’s and 80’s Verve, 3rd generation Impulse and 4th generation Blue Notes…I wanted them out. Another 1100-1200 (1st and 2nd generation BN’s, many cool Atlantics, Japanese Don Pullens, Shepps, and Max ,a miraculous variety of avant garde, etc) I sent across country to a dear friend and fellow avant-garde jazz collector who was willing to ebay them in exchange for a percentage off the top for each item sold, and more importantly, first dibs on the entire collection at a price per piece we would both agree upon.
It has worked out well. He grades far, far more conservatively than even the most fastidious sellers, selling many lps I played only once as VG++. Some of the items have either broken or have approached the highest prices in Popsike. Other items that might have sold for more through a, shall we say, “generous” grader have sold at prices far below expectations. And some never received a bid at $9.99 but were relisted two months later and went for $75.00. I am truly fine with it all. No rhyme or reason based on the time of year, recent sales of the same item, or what our president had tweeted the night before the end of the auction. Of course the big boys would get considerably more for their Blue Notes and Prestige but I do not think they were getting more for their El Saturn, BYG, or early ESP records, (much less the single release by an aspiring artist who too late recognized that boxes of his/her lps in the basement did not an artistic statement make and dumpstered them forty years ago leaving the 100 sold collectible). Not surprising since the audience for experimental jazz is a tiny fraction of that for post bop as witnessed by the NYC loft concerts I attended with six or eight people in the audience while Dexter had folks out the door and around the block. I collected for the music, not the collectibility.
But, prior to the purge, I wasn’t listening to the records. The very expensive turntable wasn’t even connected. I had lost my passion for the focused do-nothing-else-but-pay-attention session.
Though I was sorry to say goodbye to the vinyl I knew I had lost interest in the vinyl as object. I still have a cabinet of over 1200+ jazz cds. At the moment I am barely listening to them.
I did not and have not lost interest in the music itself. I now have a high-end streamer attached to a pair of rather wonderful speakers in a dedicated room where I listen to hi-res via Tidal and Qobuz. If those two companies don’t have a dear “old friend” like Joseph Jarman’s “As If It Were the Seasons”, I am happy to be re-introduced to some other Coltrane or Rollins I haven’t really heard in years. And heresy among heresy, if I am “listening while doing” (reading, editing photos, putzing) I will even listen to one of Spotify’s dozen of lower-res Mingus titles.
It is the music that brings us all to Al’s website and for me it is the music, not the object, that keeps me coming back. The communication with the notes on and off the staff, not the liner notes.
If Al writes a column such as his Coltrane column once a decade I will continue to check in every week or so to see what is on his mind. When he and others write about the joys of a good listening session, a “reunion” with old friends… that’s the gravy.
Al, I’m responding late to your question… my favorite Beatles song?… Back In The USSR. It’s just a great infectious fun rocker. There are 6 others I also consider outstanding… Things We Said Today, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, I Got A Feeling, She Said She Said, I’ll Be Back & Hey Bulldog.
Al, I’m responding late to your question… my favorite Beatles song?… Back In The USSR. It’s just a great infectious fun rocker. There are 6 others I also consider exceptionally outstanding… Things We Said Today, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, I Got A Feeling, She Said She Said, I’ll Be Back & Hey Bulldog.