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Tom Artin

About Me

My Jazz Story

I first heard jazz at the age of 10 or 11, surfing the radio, and stumbling on live broadcasts, many from Nick's, in Greenwich Village, in Manhattan. I had no idea what sort of music I was hearing, but I consulted with my 6th grade classmate John Harbison, who knew a great deal about music, and he guessed that what I was describing was jazz. He took me to a record shop where we could listen to records in a booth, and he put on a 78 rpm record for me. Within 4 bars I knew this was what I had been trying to describe to him. "That's jazz," he told me. A few months later, John started a jazz band which included me on trombone, and I've been playing jazz ever since.