Brad Lyerla

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I love jazz because it swings. I grew up in Illinois, but I was first exposed to jazz as a child when I saw Lee Konitz at a club in NYC. It was a matinee and I accompanied my mother. It must have been 1963 or 4. I met Benny Golson at Sweet Basil a long while back. I have also met many others over the years, including Duke Ellington, Cedar Walton, Ravi Coltrane, Kenny Barron, Roy Hargrove, Tom Harrell, Kurt Elling, Ryan Cohan, George Cables and too many others to count. The best show I ever attended is impossible to single out, but the most memorable was Duke Ellington in Kenosha WI when I was a freshman in college. The first jazz record I bought was Miles Davis' Quiet Nights. My advice to new listeners is to keep listening . . . Introduce your friends to jazz too. Our audience is shrinking, I fear.

I hosted an annual jazz party on New Year's Eve with some friends for several years. It was a black tie party in Chicago in the south loop. It began at 10 pm, but when the clubs closed and the gigs were over many musicians would join us for the after party. Roy Hargrove had a regular New Year's gig at the Jazz Showcase in those days. He and his band were regulars. Hard to believe that he is gone now.

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