Drum corps & jazz. Specifically, the Concord Blue Devils and Dave Brubeck. First off, hard to believe that it's been fifty years since six seminal albums were released, taking jazz to a whole new level.

Miles Davis- Sketches of Spain & Kind of Blue
Ornette Coleman- The Shape of Jazz to Come
Charles Mingus- Mingus Ah Um
John Coltrane- Giant Steps
Dave Brubeck- Time Out

Of all six albums, Time Out is the one I'm most intimately connected to. It was my first real jazz album. I've owned it on vinyl, cassette, CD, & digital download. When I was in jazz band, I played both Blue Rondo a la Turk and Take Five. I was absolutely fascinated by Take Five the first time I heard it. It was my first experience with irregular time signature and that Brubeck was playing on my instrument, the piano... le swoon. It felt slightly naughty and wicked and I understood why jazz clubs were so often portrayed as dark, smokey environs. It seemed as if music like this could only be gestated and born in those dark corners, the clink of glasses and the quiet murmur of conversation as background. Allowing for the musicians to feel even more as if they were locked in their world, giving them the freedom to experiment. My greatest regret in life is that while I was a serviceable jazz pianist in terms of being part of the rhythm section, I absolutely sucked at improvisation. I was too locked into my extremely classical training and couldn't let go. It was assuaged somewhat by the fact that I learned I had some improvisation skills as a vocalist, but it still broke my heart that I would never play like Uncle Dave.

Then, when I joined drum corps, my love for jazz and really, music as a whole, only grew. It's such a magnificent art form, athleticism and artistry wrapped up into a powerful package that reduces me to goosebumps, even to this day. My greatest creative growth happened in those three years I marched drum corps. I learned that there were absolutely no limits, no boundaries, and that all was possible if you could only imagine it.

I give you my example: The Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps, long my favorites (after the Florida Wave, of course *g*) performing Brubeck, with a soupçon of Bernstein thrown in. There's a reason these cats have been DCI champs more than any other corps. And this (a universal this) is why I chose drum corps as my backdrop for the Carmen story.