I must have been 8 or 9 years old. My parents took us to a concert down at the university. The stage was outdoors on a gentle summer evening. It was setup in a courtyard between the dorms. I remember crawling underneath the risers on which the band was playing, and hearing the music through the floor.
Afterwards, my parents bought the record or two and we went over to their friends’ house. They played the record over and over and I remember falling asleep on the floor listening to the music and the sound of my parents’ conversation.
Later on, I used to listen to the band over and over in college. It was great for getting high to, although I only think I did that once. Even friends of mine would listen to it over and over. It was what we now call world music. There were great gongs and african drums and a cello and sax and oboe. David Darling and Paul McCandless and Paul Winter among others. When I finally decided to buy some MP3s, their original album is the first thing I bought (the rest of my music is from other CDs I already own).
I only have one other memory that is as clear as the one I have of the first time I heard the Winter Consort and that is of the first time I heard Frank Zappa. But that was because that was the first rock concert I ever went to, not because I liked Zappa.
Let’s see. What else. I remember the first time I heard Max Roach (wonderful) and the first time I heard Wynton Marsalis (very disappointed). I remember Louis Armstrong very faintly—we were way up in the nosebleed seats, and that’s all I remember. I don’t remember the music. We could barely see the stage. Did I ever see Dizzy? I think so, but no clear memory. Maynard Ferguson blew me away, but I have no active memory of the concert.
Laurie Anderson uptown in NYC. Way cool. I remember going there, but not the concert. That’s all that comes to mind now.