The A Side
It was in the summer of 1964 that I received my first jazz record as a gift from my brother -- Jimmy Smith's The Cat, arranged and conducted by Lalo Schifrin, on the Verve label. As I remember it, the first time I listened to it, it was late July in the suburbs of Kansas City, Kansas. No one else was in the house, the air conditioning was on, and it was about 95 degrees outside and very humid. The record player was in the corner of the dining room and I put the record on and looked at the jacket. The first song was "Theme from 'Joy House'", some movie at the time which I've never seen or tried to. The song starts with an upright bass: bum- bum- bum-bum-bumbudit/bum-bum-bum-bum-bumbudit, followed by Jimmy Smith's moody melodic Hammond B-3 setting this atmospheric, beat, urban, late'50's-early '60's sonic sketch, part movie house, part nightclub, part street -- melodramatic, cool, thrilling.
Then there was a knock on the window and I threw the window open to find BillBob O'Brien and his younger brother, sweating in the summer heat, wanting me to come out and play. I thought for a few seconds, the song still unwinding behind me, and said "Nah, I'm listening to a record, I'm just going to stay inside." They cocked their heads, shrugged their shoulders and said at the same time "OK" and left.
I listened through the rest of the record and rather than flipping it over, played it again, this time with the arm back so it would just repeat and repeat. I eventually listened to the other side, but have still probably heard it less then ten times. The A side I've easily heard over a hundred times, the jazzy blues of the rhythm section and the big band brightness of the full horn section meeting my childhood's beating heart to form a love of jazz, a love of vinyl, love of liner notes and a love of long listening in solitude.
--John Evans