Hello and Welcome to A Jazzy, Proggy,New Age Safari.
I’m EKReader and I’ll be your guide on this safari. On this Safari we will be exploring the jazz, progressive rock and New Age music genres. Actually you will be joining me several years into the safari. That’s the reason there are so many posts already on this website.
I started blogging about the books that I read and the music that I listen to about eight years ago. Initially, I wrote mainly about mysteries and Americana music. After about four years of blogging, I started to explore both the jazz and progressive rock genres in more detail. I had always liked jazz. But through the years, I mostly listened to Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Smith and occasionally Miles Davis. Now though, I wanted to know more about the musicians who were Miles, Wes and Jimmy’s contemporaries, as well as, today’s jazz musicians.
EK Rediscovers his Rock and it’s Prog Rock
Likewise with Progressive Rock. As a teenage and young adult, I listened to a lot of rock music. Some of my favorite bads included: Jethro Tull, Emerson Lake and Palmer,The Moody Blues and King Crimson. But as I grew older and started a family, I drifted away from rock. Well, actually, I drifted away from most music that wasn’t “kid” related!
It wasn’t until my oldest two sons started to listen to music and build their music libraries, that I returned to exploring music. And when I did I stayed with Americana music.I listened and bought mostly folk, blues, and Texas Country CDs. It wasn’t until around 2013 that I finally gave in and started exploring Prog Rock. That exploring started at the urging of my second so Andrew, who would return from Prog Rock Festivals and say, “Dad, you have to listen to this music, because almost everyone at the festivals looks l like you! Old guys with long hair and gray beards!”
So what I discovered when I took the plunge and started to explore Prog was, the bands I listened to in the 60-70s created progressive rock! And that I missed a lot of good music, from many great bands, during those “Kid related” music years!! I also discovered that I do like the new bands and I have a lot of music to explore!!
EK Expands His Explorations into the New Age Genre
So far I’ve discussed the first two genres found in the title of this blog, the Jazz and the Prog, but what about the New Age. Through the years I have listened to New Age music. Mostly, whenever I remembered to listen to Echoes with John Deliberto And that was not that often! The first New Age artist that I really listened to a lot was R. Carlos Nakai and his wonderful Native America flute.His music often calmed me down during the final years of my working life.
However, like jazz and prog rock my listening to New Age music has increased over the last several years. Part of the increase is that like jazz I listen to New Age music when I read and I’ve done a lot more reading over the last three to four years. I also listen to New Age, when I do my morning yoga and meditation. As I become a fan of more and more New Age artists, I listen to more of their music.
As a result of all of the above I currently listen to more jazz and New Age music than I do Americana.So as I try to get back to blogging about music (most of this year so far has been spent reading) it only made since to start with these two genres. Adding Prog Rock to the mix made in that many prog rock groups draw on jazz to create their music. Many New Age artists do the same thing.
Putting It All Together in A Jazzy, Proggy, New Age Safari
The bottom line is that A Jazzy, Proggy, New Age Safari is composed of almost all of the posts I have written as I have explored these three genres. I have tried to present them so that you can use my explorations to start your own explorations. I will say that right now the site is still partially under construction. As I am still adding links to some of the Prog Rock pages. In addition, I am going back through the old posts to rewrite them and make the sure pictures and videos at there on each post. So bear with me and please come back and visit again!
Now You Know! So Welcome and Let’s Start Exploring!!