Background Noise

I recently bought another couple of Jazz albums with my latest freebee Amazon voucher: Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage and a Best Of compilation by Weather Report. I knew Birdland by Weather Report and I fancied trying out some of their other stuff. I also had the track Maiden Voyage on a Hancock compilation which I really liked so I thought I'd try the rest of the album. On first listening I really couldn't get into either album. Even Maiden Voyage wasn't as good as I'd remembered and, whilst I'd heard a couple of other tracks on the radio, it really just didn't register with me. Am I over my Jazz fad or is something else amiss?

I listen to music mainly in the car. This does mean that it has to compete with traffic noise although I've never found it that much of a problem - except with classical music. Possibly the quietest car I've ever had was actually one of the smaller cars I've owned. I bought a Skoda Fabia when it first came out and it had an interior which I could describe as very Radio 3 friendly. It really was a calm and peaceful place to be - possibly only matched by Jaguar and Mercedes of cars I've been in. Maybe the fact that the little Skoda was designed by the same people that do Bentley cars has something to do with it but I've never quite found a match for it.

Certainly, my Toyota isn't the quietest but I came to the conclusion that the interior was an intolerable din. It was due to have its 50,000 mile service so I asked the dealer to check it out. What they found was that the auxiliary belt was slipping and a wheel bearing had gone. I had to pay for a new belt but, fortunately, Toyota stumped up the bill for the rest. The result is quite a revelation.

So, in fact, I do like the new albums. Herbie Hancock's nautical adventure from 1965 is as good as I recall and, whilst Birdland is the only track I knew, Weather Report are well worth a listen - sometimes they veer more towards Funk or even Progressive Rock but it's all very interesting. It also goes to show: music in the car is more than just background noise.