Woody Shaw's "Rosewood" album back in 1976 introduced me to the legendary playing of Joe Henderson and Woody Shaw. I was just beginning college and being a rocker, jazz was very new to me. There were plenty of idiots in the music program who were on power trips over the types of music they were playing and It went like this.
The classical players thought they were better than the jazz players who thought they were better than the blues players who thought they were so much superior to the rockers.
A half drunk, but brilliant music teacher at Hunter college once said in class that all a musician is, "is a big ear." It was such a simple concept, but it really helped me. It boiled all the complexities of music theory down to something I could understand at the time.
A friend of mine had Rosewood in his basement and after he played it for me---I borrowed it and he never saw it again. I had never heard of Joe Henderson or Woody Shaw before and Henderson's wailing solos instantly inspired me. He became one of my all time favorite saxophone idols.
As I was trying to find a Youtube of this record I realized I didn't own it anymore. So, I'm going to buy a copy because I haven't listened to it in a very long time. I owe this record a lot of gratitude. It really helped me to plow into the world of jazz without worrying about how advanced I was in music when I was very young and inexperienced and somewhat intimidated by my surroundings.
What record or recording helped change your perspective?
