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Don Baraka

About Me

My Jazz Story

I love live jazz because it's different every time. I was first exposed to jazz in the 1940s, my parents ran a jazz record collectors club, kicked the slats out of my crib listening to Kid Ory. I met Dizzy Gillespie in the infield at Monterey, 1960, a gracious, wonderful man. The best show I ever attended? Too many equally wonderful to pick one! Dexter Gordon, Horace Silver, Eddie Jefferson with Richie Cole, Les McCann, Mose Allison at clubs in San Francisco, Sonny Rollins at the Masonic, Otis Redding at the Fillmore, Jimi Hendrix @ Santa Clara Co. Fairgrounds, & perhaps Bob Dylan & the Hawks, 3 Dog Night, Grateful Dead @ San Jose Civic. And lets not forget the blues B.B. King heading the Zenith blues festival and Gatemouth Brown, Ecaussine Festival in Belgium, 1999... The first jazz record I bought was Genius + Soul = Jazz by Ray Charles & Quincy Jones. My advice to new listeners - find an artist you like, create a Pandora station, start finding other artists. I love early Blue Note label recordings, found Pandora's Hank Mobley station a real winner. There are many accomplished and entertaining musicians who've never had a record deal and prefer to lay low in their own geography - try to find a local favorite or two or three and attend their events, say hello, give them your support.