Oscar Garza has his family to thank for his expansive musical tastes. “I have brothers who are 10 and 11 years older than I am, so from the time that I was a toddler, I was listening to music they were listening to,” said Garza, a former Senior Editor at the Los Angeles Daily News and Calendar editor at the Los Angeles Times. “I know music that I shouldn’t because of them.” But Garza took some time to get to jazz, picking up Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, and Charles Mingus in college. “You get an education,” he said, “And you start with the names you know.” Read more about Garza below.
Q. What do you wake up to?
A. A CD in my Bose alarm. I think what’s in there now is some arias by Wayne Shorter.
Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. Today I’ve listened to a lot of Mingus to get in the mood [for the Zócalo panel on Mingus].
Q. What do you find beautiful?
A. My son’s smile.
Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?
A. Uninhibited music geek.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. Tanqueray martini straight up, olives.
Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. Buying records and CDs. I went through that period when you try to replace everything you have on vinyl on CD. When I’d done enough of that, I hunted for stuff that’s rare, and I started buying and collecting vinyl again.
Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. Like a lot of kids, probably, an athlete.
Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. Spain.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. My dad owned a bar, and on Saturday mornings I would get to go with him because the guy from the company that manned the jukebox and pinball machines would come to collect money. He would always give me free plays.
Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. Pianist. I have tried to learn and I don’t have the patience.
Q. What would be your death row meal?
A. A really good gumbo.
Q. What should you throw away but haven’t been able to part with?
A. A lot of albums that I’ll never listen to again.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead with whom you would most want to have a drink?
A. Thelonious Monk.
To read about the Mingus celebration featuring Garza, click here.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.