Aaron Gratzmiller

I was first exposed to Jazz as a 5th grader after my saxophone lesson at a local music store in Pittsburgh, PA. I really liked the Jazz-inspired soundtracks from a few different Disney movies at the time, and when one of the guitar instructors at the store heard about that, he told me to come check out a recording of John Coltrane's "Blue Train". We listened to a few tracks from the album, and I remember being shocked by how brilliant Coltrane's sound was and how much energy he could put into his playing. I listened to that album regularly all the way through high school, and it's still one of my favorites today.