I first discovered jazz when I saw
I Want To Live at the Idle Hour Theater, with a score (and
appearances) by the
Gerry Mulligan Septet. Pretty soon I was listening to all kinds of jazz
and, better yet, seeing the greatest artists of the 1960s in person because
they just loved to come to Germany — not only Gerry Mulligan but also
Dizzy Gillespie, JJ Johnson, Art Farmer, Benny Carter, Ben Webster, Bob
Brookmeyer, Coleman Hawkins... — And not only seeing them in a giant
concert hall, but afterwards in the intimate, super-secret,
members-only
Jazz Keller
(domicile du jazz), behind a completely nondescript and unmarked
door in a dark alley in the financial district, and down lots stairs, where
they would jam into the morning after a concert. You had to show a
membership card to get in.