Danish Whirl #1 - the Intro

Well, here I am , two days late, but beginning nonetheless.
Beyond what's in my profile, I have been a devotee of amny
diffeenttypes of music from a very early age.
My introductions to jazz came fisrt, at home, to the likes of Oscar
Peterson and Fausto Papetti, then via my uncle, to Milestones-era
Miles Davis and other similar artists.
During the 80s, hip hop intervened, and a lot of my teen years
were consumed with that genre aswell as with the then burgeoning
dancehall.
Withthe advent of gangsterism in both genres, I soured on them and returned
to jazz towards the end of the 80s
Writing as a freelancer - initially - for the Jamaica Observer newspaper
gave me increased acess to live performances locally, including the
Air jamaica jazz and Blues festival (which I had been ionvolved with, in
another capacity, from its inception).
At the 2004 festival, I met Chris Porter, then editor of Jazz Times magazine
in the US. We quickly struck up a friendship and shortly thereafter, I became a
Jazz Times contributor - doing predominantly CDreviews, but also a few
features.
The following year, I meagre Cd collection, and convivnced the owner of a local
coffee shop/Intenet cafe, Cafe Whats On Jamaica, to let me play Cds there on
Thursday nights. Often it would be myself, the wiater and a couple of security guards
who heard the music, but every so often, people would walk in and I would
engage them in conversation about what they were hearing (or they would often
open with a comment).
With both my confidence and reputation as someone with a great deal of interest
and a fair bit of knowledge about about jazz, I began to think of other initiatives
to promote appreciation for and acceptance of jazz in Jamaica, as well as
promoting Jamaica's rich history in the art form to the world. This blog is
thus far, the prinicpal outgrowth of those thoughts, and through jazz websites,
bulletin boards (like allaboutjazz.com) and email, I was making
contacts with jazz musicians, record execs, club owners and other aficionados
form around the world.
One of those wasa young musician form Denmark. This association was to
forcefully bring home the dangers of acting on enthusiasm and a little knowledge
without experience or wisdom

next post: Friday February 16

Happy Valentine's Day all