My grandfather collected big band records and some classical recordings, all old 78s that were played on a wound-up Victrola. I remember dancing around the dining room table to the William Tell Overture, Babes in Toyland, and Count Basie. The first album my mom bought to play on the new (electric)record player was either Belafonte at Carnegie Hall or a Burl Ives recording, I'm not sure which. The Belafonte recording haunted me then and haunts me now--I was completely stunned by Odetta's voice, I just couldn't believe a woman could sing like that, was allowed to sing like that. Sigh. My neighbor down the street was a classical pianist and composer, so his daughter and I would sneak into his practice room to hear him play. I also began studying modern dance at a young age--5 or 6--and so got to hear a lot of music that my dance teacher (a wild red-haired woman who was, I was convinced, my hometown's reigning beatnik)had, such as African, jazz, classical and (gasp) folk. I also grew up around the Congregational church and loved the melodies of the hymns, though I wasn't too interested in the lyrics.

blt