'The Atomic Basie'

Jazz is very interesting to me and I figured out why listening to Count Basie's "The Atomic Basie."

I think pretty much all jazz is good except for all the modern stuff (1980s on) that is real electronic, overproduced with synth and keyboards and crap.

Otherwise, I can not really and truly criticize jazz music. To me, it's so well done from the musicianship to the production and songs that there is little to nitpick from a jazz idiot's point of view (see: me).

Particularly, the musicianship is perfect. Think about it: In country music, rarely do you get the best of the best of guitarists, drummers, bass players, steel guitarists, fiddle players and mandolin. Even in rock music, most of the guys thrashing around on their guitars aren't too terribly accomplished at anything, more or less the guitar (there are exceptions -- Hendrix, Stewart Copeland in drums, Paul McCartney on bass, et al).

But on just about any jazz album of note, say, in the 1950s, you are probably listening to one of the top 3 or 5 drummers, horn players, bassists and any other instrument. And the thing is, if a drummer leaves a rock band, they replace with another mediocre, ho-hum drummer.

If the drummer leaves Count Basie's band, he is then replaced with probably one of the best drummers in that genre. Same goes for saxophone, trumpet, bass, trombone or piano.

There's a certain dedication to the music and craftsmanship that is clearly missing from just about all other genres of music. This is probably why there are jazz snobs and why those jazz snobs memorize what seemingly anonymous drummer played on this record or that record.