Do you like good music?

I've been thinking about music a lot recently. I know that I shouldn't: a provincial gentleman of my age should not be concerning himself with this preserve of the young. I always had the plan that I would listen to popular music in my twenties, only jazz in my thirties, and then solely classical music from forty onwards. I did try: I invested in most of Miles Davis' back catalogue. I even enrolled in a Jazz Improvisation night-school class.

In the end, it was the invention of the MP3 player that made my plans go agley. I'm still constantly finding new music that I love, and rediscovering old classics.

Despie my being passionate about music, I still struggle when somebody asks me what kind of music I like. It's not that I don't know. It's more that there is too much to mention. But I worry about this. I fear that someone will ask me what kind of music I like, and I will mumble the reply: "Oh lots of things... very ecclectic...", which will lead them to the suspicion that I haven't really the first clue about music.

So in answer to your question:

I like Jazz, but not all Jazz. Blue note and cool jazz, but not bebop. Not really modern Jazz, though I do have soft-spots for people like Todd Gustavsen, The Bad Plus and Tortoise. I'm starting to think that I might like trad-jazz, but I must be wrong about this, because I am only 33.
I like some rock music, but not Metal. Mainly a kind of ill-defined Lazy-Rock. Within this category, I would group Pavement, Beck, Mercury Rev, Lambchop.
In my more reflective moments, I like a lot of acoustic stuff: Elliott Smith, Richard Buckner, Bonnie Prince Billy, Neil Young, Nick Drake.
And then I like any odd kinds of World Music that I can get my hands on: Fela Kuti, Daara J, Manu Chao.

These then are the main 4 subgroups of my taste at present. Hovering around at the perimeter are bits of Soul, blues, reggae and classical. I tried to like minimalist music, but have pretty much given up on it now.

There you have it. My musical soul on the line.