The making of a tradition

I received a gift today. A very nice one. Still intrigues me after all these years. Thank you.

On to another subject...but closely tied, I know one day soon I will wake up and simply require a bit of jazz to start my day off. (I WILL RESIST YOU SMOOTH JAZZ!) When I was younger I hated jazz, I have a feeling we all did. Then came the day when I saw the high school jazz band perform in the Christmas concert. It was nice, it had something lively to it. I declared that, "Jazz sucks, but I like it live." 4 or 5 years later, I witnessed a 3 piece in a little bar named Cezanne. A couple of drinks down the hatch and I came out with a memory etched in my mind, "Jazz still sucks, but it really rocks when it's live!" I then dug up Bjork's jazz album...my first interest in listening to a jazz recording and enjoying it. Sinatra, Goodman, Squirrel Nut Zippers all found my ears (yes, not the most jazziezt of jazzinezz, but it's getting there). Dave Matthews opened me up to the sax and the drums (previously I was a complete saxophone hater). Tori Amos changed my mind about the piano (later giving way to the jazzy over tones of Ben Folds). Then there was Matty (DIE SMOOTH JAZZ!)...and my boss. Yes, smooth jazz took me way to the ends of what I don't like about jazz, and coming back has given me some perspective. For that, I appreciate smooth jazz. ... One day at work I was listening to a piano piece on our local classical station, so I thought out loud to my boss, "Ya know, that would sound pretty cool if it had a snare drummer jamming behind it." He said, "Then it would be jazz."

Tonight, a song from Charlie Brown's Christmas Special randomly played on my iPod. And that, is what makes the gift just that much better.