I loved the music. So I began reading up about Ben Wolfe and learned that he plays hard bop jazz—a category I didn’t know existed, although it turns out that I had heard that kind of jazz often enough. How come I didn’t know what it was called? And it made me think that there are probably a whole bunch of people who don’t know what it’s called.
Like most listeners, I listen to music without a music education. Oh I’ve heard plenty of music in my life, but I haven’t taken any classes, or spent much time reading about music, or collected specifically in a genre, or played much more than beginner tunes on an instrument. I listen to what I can get—country, blues, classical, punk, rock, folk, Irish, pop, jazz, reggae, Indian, almost anything around. I don’t like it all, but I like a lot of it and at least some in all genres.
It’s music. In the case of the Ben Wolfe Quartet, it’s jazz. It has a beat. It’s ensemble playing with exciting solos. It’s talented, honed musicians showing virtuosity, beautiful tone, and a love of the music they’re sharing.
The Ben Wolfe Quartet made me smile for their entire set. I grooved, the whole time. I didn’t want them to stop. When Wolfe sounded like two bass players playing at once, or Marcus Strickland’s saxophone made me feel like I was floating, I was awed. I walked away from the evening wanting to hear them again. As far as I’m concerned, that’s good music, whatever it's called.
