I was talking to someone the other day about how great Jazz music is, and how it really is a big influence on Rock music, especially the modern Jamband scene. He looked at me like I was crazy, and proceeded to give me the old stand-by lecture on the origins of Rock and Roll. You know the one, "In the beginning, God created the Blues . . . blah blah blah . . . Rock and Roll." What's always bothered me about that "rock came from the blues . . . period" way of thinking, aside from it being about as far from factual as possible, is that it's a shining example of how people really don't think when they listen to music.

Yes, blues music evolving into early R&B very much sounds like early Rock and Roll. They are sonically similar. But influence goes beyond just sound. Influence is about common ideas, and over the years Rock has shared common ideas with virtually every kind of music that preceded it (Blues, R&B, Country, Folk, Classical, Jazz etc.) as well as continuing, to this day, to assimilate new sounds that arrived on the musical landscape after it's inception (Rap, Disco, Techno etc).

Exhibit A: The Rolling Stones. Considered by many the greatest Rock and Roll band of all time, The Rolling Stones have been plugging away at this rock thing for over forty years. As the elder statesmen of the genre, the Stones can serve as a microcosm for all of Rock and Roll. They've done it all, good and bad. They've had members die, members quit, had bad periods, great periods, drug problems, sex scandals, jail time, club gigs, stadium gigs, deaths at their gigs. You name it and the Stones have done it or dealt with it. They also prove my point about rock's various influences more completely than any other band I can think of.

Looking through the Rolling Stones' catalog, you will surely find the blues songs that the casual listener thinks of as their only influence. Things like "Love In Vain" or "I Just Want to Make Love To You". But then you will also find country songs like "Far Away Eyes" or "Country Honk". And you'll find Disco songs like "Miss You" and "Emotional Rescue." And you'll find Reggae songs like "Cherry Oh Baby" and "Too Rude." And you'll find Techno songs like the recent EP of "Sympathy For The Devil" remixes. You'll find a half dozen genre's and mixtures of genres in their music . . . and guess what . . . it's only Rock and Roll.

Anyway, I gave a long rambling version of the above to the guy I talked about in the first paragraph. In the long version I talked about Dylan and his musical relationships with Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams. I talked about how The Pogues and Flogging Molly took traditional Irish music and turned it into a new type of Punk Rock. I talked how bands like Rage Against The Machine and Limp Bizkit created a new genre by fusing Heavy Metal and Hip-Hop. And I talked about how a large portion of Heavy Metal is actually based on Classical music. He conceded my points and then told me that I still hadn't explained how Jazz and Rock specifically were intertwined in any way. So I made him a mix tape.

Charlie Christian		Benny Goodman

Charlie Parker		Charlie Watts

	Jimmy Smith		Lonnie Smith

Jaco Pastorius

	Warren Haynes