Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

Jazz Recommendation Thread

<< < (2/7) > >>

superboyac:
Well, since you have Basie on there...you must know I'm a little obsessed with him.  Here's a double-piano combo with oscar peterson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZENl2u79hTU
(I'm learning that one currently).

Another track with similar personnel is this one with Oscar Peterson and Joe Pass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y34I-NfHkVg

Here's another one in a similar vein plus a showoff horn player:
http://youtu.be/5n450NHhpbI

MilesAhead:
I don't think I've run into any "Live at the Village Vanguard" release for any jazz artist that was bad listening.  John Coltrane is no exception.  It's probably more difficult to find an album of his that sucks.  But I would recommend any versions of "Favorite Things" as it's a good example of Coltrane taking a pop piece and converting it to "sheets of sound."  Supposedly Miles Davis asked Trane one time why he did such long solos.  Trane answered to the effect "Because I can't figure out how to stop the solo.  I can't think how I should finish it."  To which Miles replied "Take the horn out cha' mouth."  :)

I'm not a big band enthusiast.. but likewise it's tough to find things bad by Duke Ellington. He's considered the greatest jazz composer.  There's an "Ellington and Coltrane" album that's quite good.

And of course there's Miles Davis.  The thing with Miles is that he spans many styles.  When he first came on the scene he got to sit in with Dizzy Gillespie's group in Harlem.  Dizzy played so fast Miles just couldn't keep up. It may be as a reaction to this that he adopted the emphasis on "using space."  One of his quotes is "Don't play what's there.  Play what's not there."  The CDs Cookin', Relaxin' etc. from the 50s are among the best of his work of that period.  Kind of Blue and other works of the 60s.  Then he got into more avante garde or free form stuff like Bitches Brew, Pangea, even using a Whah whah peddle on the trumpet in the late 60's and early 70s. I especially like the album Water Babies.. all the tunes written by Wayne Shorter. In fact Wayne is a good listen. 60s classics like Speak No Evil will never go out of style. He and Joe Zawinul(who wrote Mercy Mercy Mercy which broke through to the top 40) founded Weather Report... fusion at its best.

My technique was sort of "spider web" and I recommend it.  If you have an album you like a great deal, look at the personnel.  Find albums by each of those and try to sample them.  The various quintets and other groups of Miles Davis is a good place to start.  Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Paul Chambers, Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, Joe Zawinul.. I just never heard any bad albums by any of those guys.

Then when you find an album of one of the Miles "side men" that you like very much.. continue the process. Almost like a recursive algorithm. It just keeps fanning out.

MilesAhead:
I'm not a huge jazz person but over the years I've run into some stuff that I really love.. I'm hoping to get more recommendations from those who are real jazz aficionados.

Anyone is welcome to post about their own tastes, but I'd also love to have some recommendations for music in the same vein as my favorites below:

John Coltrane - Blue Train album (my favorite of all)
Chet Baker - I fall in love too easily (incredible)
Count Basie - Kansas City Six album (love it)
Kenny Dorham - Quiet Kenny album (love it)

ps.
I've linked to the youtube pages just because that's the easiest way to listen -- i don't care about the videos.

-mouser (September 26, 2013, 12:51 AM)
--- End quote ---

A few specifics ..
Kenny Dorham
Afro Cuban - very good
Whistle Stop is also good... but it's kind of in an old fashioned style

Chet Baker
In New York is good.  Generally it's a good omen for 50s and 60s (and some later) jazz albums if they are
Original Jazz Classics, Prestige or Blue Note label.
There's lots of Chet Baker stuff.  Too much to sift through here. But I'd generally stay away from stuff with "stings" in the title unless you plan on being stuck in an elevator soon.  :)

I don't know much about Count Basie.  But if you want to sample some big band stuff I'd vote for Oliver Nelson.  The Blues and the Abstract Truth stands out.

superboyac:
My technique was sort of "spider web" and I recommend it.  If you have an album you like a great deal, look at the personnel.  Find albums by each of those and try to sample them.  The various quintets and other groups of Miles Davis is a good place to start.  Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Paul Chambers, Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, Joe Zawinul.. I just never heard any bad albums by any of those guys.

Then when you find an album of one of the Miles "side men" that you like very much.. continue the process. Almost like a recursive algorithm. It just keeps fanning out.
-MilesAhead (September 26, 2013, 11:42 AM)
--- End quote ---
I second this.  THis is how I found all my favorite stuff.

40hz:
+1 w/Miles on the spiderweb strategy. It works well for the listener since (like SB) that's how I discovered who I liked.

 I understand that's also the way a lot of those performers first learned about each other and decided who they wanted to work with. No web back then, and very few "real jazz stations" on the airwaves either. So LPs were how you stayed on top of the genre back in the day. Talk to an old jazz musician and he can quote you chapter and verse on who played with who, when, where, and on which albums.

--------------------

As far as mainstream jazzers go, I'd strongly recommend listening to just about anything by Thelonious Monk. Brilliant improvisational madness.

Monk was one of the early practitioners of a style that eventually evolved into a style generally known as: Bebop. Other notables in the bebop style were Dizzy Gillespie :-* and Charlie Parker :-*, both of whom are well worth listening to.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page