Matthew Luedke

Jazz for me is a little like good Scotch. When I first get a taste of it, I didn’t quite know what to think of it, but I knew it was profound. I remember going with my father to a Lionel Hampton concert. It was a remarkable experience. But I was a grunge kid in the 90s and had no context for it. In college I took a course on the history of jazz and was fascinated by the evolution and culture of the art, but my appreciation stultified in professional school and my early career I let my aesthetic brain atrophy. When the mid-40s came around, I had to pick my midlife crisis, so naturally I chose guitar (I’m still trying to convince my wife she got off light in the midlife crisis department). My guitar teacher is a jazzman and this has rekindled my love of jazz. Even better, my son has gotten into it and we get to share evenings at our local jazz club.