Steve Washington

I was first exposed to jazz as a very young child when my mom took me to the One Step Down in DC. It was a daytime performance, sort of a weekend matinee type club hit. I'm pretty sure it was Sonny Stitt. I guess it was an impromptu outing meeting up with a friend, and there was no time for a baby sitter. I didn't fully understand what was going on, but it was fun and I remember the performance being so close. Fortunately, I was a well behaved kid with a pretty good attention span. So, I didn't interfere with the grownups doing their thing. There were always jazz albums and standards albums in the house along with Motown, and cross over acts like Mathis, Warwick, Streisand, Bennett. There was Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Sarah, Billy Eckstine, Dinah Washington, Joe Williams, Gloria Lynn, Julie London, etc. Also, Ahmad Jamal, Sonny Stitt, and others. Well written, well crafted, and well executed music was always available in the house and I spent hours and hours spinning the house vinyl collection. My ears guide me to what I describe as "accessible" jazz where the lyric and/or melody matters as the inspiration for the improvisation and the intended sentiment of the material remains a kind of foundation. Although I appreciate improvisation for its own sake, story telling is what moves me most.