Interview: Ted Gioia (Part 1)

I've never been big fan of blues music. I grew up in New York City, so blues has always been a bit simplistic, one-dimensional and repetitive to my ear. I much prefer how jazz artists like Count Basie, Art Tatum, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday and others have interpreted the back-country idiom. But over the past few weeks, I've become much…