On Monday I went to La Tapa here on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. I’ve been here on every trip I’ve done to this little tropical paradise. It’s a wonderful spot right in the mix of action. What I didn’t know is that they have live jazz music on Mondays. I sat at the bar with family and friends, ordered a refreshment and some tasty appetizers and got to listen to a quartet do their thing. Two Saxophonists, one guitar player on a beautiful 1964 hollow body Gibson guitar and a bass player on electric bass. For the next hour my senses were stimulated by great music, food and drinks. Jazz music has been a re-occuring theme on this trip. I’ve meet some fantastic people who are big jazz enthusiasts. Some were players, others just fans, but they have been to Jazz festivals all over the world including our own back home in Toronto. I always have a decent selection of jazz in my iPhone. On this trip I brought some Joe Henderson, John Coltrane, Roy Hargrove, Lee Morgan and Hubert Laws. I like to walk and listen to jazz, especially when it’s fall in Toronto, or when it’s raining. It makes the perfect soundtrack.

It’s amazing how I got into jazz.  By discovering the samples used in early 90′s hip hop, I started searching for the records that A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Eric B. & Rakim were sampling.  My budget was very limited, but I was buying records with my friends Marlon and Roland who taught me so much about jazz, and were always ready to share a gem they had found. Up to this day, they are still teaching me. In music you never stop learning, and they discovered jazz music the same way I did. We shared this journey together. Music is always best when it’s shared.

Thanks St. John for sharing so much jazz with me.

Photos by yours truly with my trusty iPhone 4S, and edited with Camera+