Mike Jacobs

Since: 2016 | Position: Contributor | Location: Philadelphia | Page Views: 70,243

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About Me

Mike Jacobs is a serious music addict, writer and a composing/occasionally-performing musician.

Born with the last of the boomers. Formative influences: The wake of the 60s and the accompanying baggage, Watergate, pre-format 70s FM, Monty Python, Joseph Campbell, Ken Wilber, Noam Chomsky, Bill Hicks, Jeff Beck, Frank Zappa, Miles Davis, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jimi Hendrix and others. I have been a semi-pro musician for over 45 years - (let the day gig get the best of me). After arriving in middle age, I decided to focus more of my energy on the things closer to my heart - namely trying to find ways to help the music and musicians I care deeply about thrive and grow in today's world.

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Favorite Musicians / Bands

Aaron Parks

Adam Holzman

Andreas Hourdakis

Andy Milne

Ben Monder

Bill Evans

Bill Frisell

Brad Shepik

Calvin Weston

Chris Potter

Dapp Theory

David Gilmore

Eran Har Even

Gary Husband

Gary Willis

Jim Beard

Joe Zawinul

Kneebody

Lionel Loueke

Maria Schneider

Matthew Garrison

Michael Landau

Mike Miller

Miles Davis

Nate Wood

Nguyen Le

Nik Bärtsch

Oz Noy

Panagiotis Andreou

Pat Metheny

Rodney Holmes

Rudder

Scott Jones

Shane Theriot

Shawn Lane

Snarky Puppy

Tim Miller

Wayne Krantz

Yellowjackets

MORE FAVORITES

My Jazz Story

"Follow the money" is a popular saying these days but if you changed the word "money" to "magic" and applied it to music, that would pretty much sum up my journey into jazz. Though I did have my first childhood Jazz infatuation with Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby doing "Now You Has Jazz" from the movie soundtrack of High Society, even then my musical appetites were too eclectic and voracious to stick to one genre. My first records were classical albums (which probably fostered a predilection for instrumental music that continues to this day), but soon, I was into Johnny Cash, The Beatles, and Burt Bacharach as much as Ramsey Lewis, Flamenco, and Motown. At fourteen, a guitar landed in my lap, and learning to play it gave me a doorway into understanding music that increased my fascination with it exponentially. Though my early inclinations as a player were primarily towards rock, as my ears grew, I was increasingly captivated by any players that really spoke on the instrument, regardless of genre. Eventually, even the instrument-specific fascination gave way to a general pursuit of any players or composers in any genre that were innovative or enthralling. This was the magic that I followed, which inevitably led me into jazz. Jazz may now be my most frequent musical watering hole, but I don't really identify myself as a jazz guy. I'm a music guy, and for me, loving jazz has almost nothing to do with the sound, vibe, or instrumentation many people may associate with jazz. It's the range of exploration, innovation, and depth of the players and music contained within jazz that leads me back, time and again. I seek and love these things in many types of music, but jazz, by far, has the largest cache of those musical riches ready for the mining.