I get a lot of people that come up to me and ask what type of music I tend to play a lot of. They are a little surprised when I tell them I am a contemporary player and tend to follow on the side of Jazz. If I am playing in a festival I will most likely be at a Jazz Festival. Then I get the same blank stares and the : "that's great. I am not a jazz person but good for you." Funny enough, I hear this all of the time but I don't believe it. Unless you are into Prog. Rock, Electronic, or something along those lines I'm pretty sure you probably like jazz. Why would I say this? Because our basic music that we have today has stemmed from it. Do you think way back when we just had the beginning stages of pop and we just have a more sophisticated version of it right now? Spirituals and Field Songs started out as the produced and distributed music. Albeit, by word of mouth in order to communicate, this is what started it all. Then from that grew blues and then added rhythm to the blues (R&B). Not only was it vocal but it was also instrumental. Every sector of the states or the islands had some form of this process grow. And as in other countries, where different states or areas produce their own personal touches to the structure, so did it happen here. That is why you come up with genres like Bebop, Big Band, Dixie, Fusion, and Avant Garde. These were all genres that catered to the area from which they originated but all can be traced back from the same type of music. When you listen to the greats like Miles Davis, Dizzy Gilespie, Charlie Parker, or Duke Ellington you are listening to pioneers of expanding the musical genre. When you listen to Stevie Wonder, the late BB King, Smokey Robinson, and more, you are only listening to the expansion and the homage to the original formation of music. They all draw from their heritage. No matter if you are listening to Motown, your greatest R&B artist, or one of yesterday or today's Jazz artists - in any and every form of sub genre, it is safe to say that you Probably Like Jazz and we just need to find the type that speaks the most to you.