May 2, 1959

“…. What is The 1959 Project? Most jazz fans find themselves suffering from golden age syndrome at some point or another; for the casual listener it might define their relationship with the music, given that so many of the genre’s seminal (and best-selling) records are now well-worn classics. A fair number of them, in fact, were released or recorded 60 years ago, and thus form the inspiration for this (quite probably foolhardy) endeavor. But for me, and I imagine for others, the best thing about jazz music isn’t the albums. It’s the privilege of getting to witness musicians’ search for authentic expression in real time; to see their masterful technique in service of some fleeting, genuine thought that will never be heard again in the exact same way. It’s a fundamentally live experience, which makes the golden age syndrome more painful — we might listen to Kind Of…