You can probably imagine the thoughts racing through my head upon stumbling across quite possibly the largest, legally free, downloadable, meticulously tagged and organised collection of jazz recordings on the web. What to listen to first? What exactly is in this collection? How on earth do I find the time to listen to all of these? Whilst all these questions remain or have only just begun to be explored, I find my feelings of near intimidation, at the hours of listening pleasure available to me, diminish as I read through some comments written by original compiler, David W. Niven. Upon learning of the immense passion and effort put into this compilation by Niven, its as if a portal between his day and ours opens up. His very human desire for his children to share his love of the music is something this writer, and hopefully many of you can also relate to; that when we all pass on, that our life's love and labour will somehow transcend us and continue to provide the same excitement, inspiration, solitude and comfort as the first listen, whenever that was or will be.
As I mentioned earlier, I've yet to even begin to scratch the surface of this epic compilation, however it is already clear that Niven's selection of 'legends' is not too far off what you'd expect. Whilst this may provide the perfect way in which to make your first foray into the world of early jazz, it seems to certainly have the breadth and depth to allow for this collection to also serve as a way of finding new recordings of artists we may already be familiar with. Furthermore, Niven also offers brief commentary at the beginning of each tape for those keen on learning about each artist and particular recording.
I could really yap on all day at the brilliance of the David W. Niven collection, however that would be besides the point and would also take away from the time you could be enjoying the trip back through time in your cassette tape spaceship.
Keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks for recommended tapes to listen to as I begin to make my way through this huge collection.