The year I was born was also the same year my Dad bought this 10″ LP of lounge-style jazz piano and guitar by the popular Page Cavanaugh Trio; this in age when jazz was more mainstream and more popular than the typical 1-2% of music fans of today.
I played it often from about 1 year on to about 3; it was the only LP my folks had then; the rest of their records were 78s. I would sit in front of the medium-sized light-colored wooden cabinet which contained the radio-record player console which we used until 1964 when we bought a big, long Electrohome stereo console.
Little did I know then that as I sat listening to this record, emotionally and physically into it, that this would be my first imprinting of the jazz genre and jazz piano and guitar, in particular. My small fingers would run over and ‘play’ the keys on the front cover of the album to enhance this memorable, engaging experience.
Page, incidentally, had a long career and recorded and performed into the 2000s ( I got this rare copy in the 2010s). He had a very ‘cool’ voice and I enjoyed his vocal on “One for My Baby (And One for the Road)”, the ultimate bar classic and the only vocal on this instrumental album of 8 jazz standards.
70 years later, I continue to re-experience it, beginning with the long-since ear-wormed first cut of “Autumn in New York”….
70 years later: touching the past, literally and figuratively.