Any other Jazz fans here?
 

I dont see too much discussion about Jazz around here (not surprising, with the exception of the swing era, jazz never has been popular). Are there any other jazz fans here? What are your favorite styles? Favorite players or groups? How did you come to like jazz?

My favorite styles are either bop/hard bop or cool, depending on the mood. I have always liked a little Miles, and Art Blakey has long been a favorite as well. Also, some of the other Bop greats like Monk and Parker. I have recently taken a liking to Dave Brubeck. While not the most original group (heck, his sax player, Paul Desmond is an exact copy of Lee Konitz), he does know how to write some good music. I first started liking jazz when I started listening to swing. I then found a great jazz club in my hometown, and it grew from there.

I grew up on jazz. I love it. My dad raised me on Miles Davis, Charlie Bird and Thelonius Monk. Jazz has so much influence on today's music and new, incredible jazz keeps making a huge scene in clubs around the world. I think it is one of the most dynamic genres of music around, especially considering how it has endured so long, and still continues to change.

I'm a big fan of group vocal jazz (Rare Silk / Lambert Hendricks & Ross / New York Voices / Manhattan Transfer), but that's probably considered a completely different genre.

Yeah. A lot of people don't consider it jazz because it has no improvisation in it. I think it falls in the jazz category, but is a different breed than instrumental jazz. I like a lot of it though. Ever heard of Eva Cassidy? She sang a lot of things other than jazz (lots of blues and folk, too), but she was just incredible. Might want to check her out.

I was never too fond of any jazz past the swing age, i dunno, a lot of it just didn't do it for me. however, i absolutely love early jazz that still has its ragtime/dixieland roots. it's just so nice to listen to.

absolutely, Eva was a beautiful singer in so many ways.
i grew up on jazz as well.
my folks listened to it all the time when i was young.
we still go to concerts when the local legends get together, like Don Burrows etc...

for me, jazz is alot about the moment... by that i mean, live jazz concerts are really something else...

absolute favourite; well i just love every single thing that Oscar Peterson has ever done... but then, i´ll never see him live, so i guess recorded jazz ain´t that bad either...

Yeah, I love live jazz. There is a group that plays in my hometown of Charlotte, NC that is incredible. They play every Thursday night. As they get further along into the night, others in the jazz scene just show up, instruments in hand, and join in. I have seen some *incredible* shows watching these guys.

Was in Jazz band in highschool and in college (before changing majors).

I loved it. We actually played better stuff in highschool. Our instructor had us playing all kinds of stuff from Miles Davis to Earth, Wind & Fire.

The staples were some Chuck Mangione (Bellavia), Route 66, Jumpin' at the Woodside, A Train & Steely Dan's "Home at Last".

I still have a large collection of Jazz.

I'm mostly a rock lover, but I do like some jazz. Brubek is real cool, I come from the area where Spyro Jyra(sp?) is cool, and same area where Chuck Mangione came from. I do switch it over to the jazz station when I want to fuck the old lady! Sorry for being so blunt! Jazz is great fucking music!

Herbie all the way. Herbie's my main man, followed by Miles, the Trane and then whatever's lying around. Anyone heard this Jamie Cullum kid?

My fave jazz players are:

Oscar Peterson (especially Night Train)
Charlie Hunter (just mentioned him in another thread)
Miles
Brubeck
Bill Evans (Conversations With Myself...wow)
Charlie Parker
Coltrane
Art Tatum
Cannonball Adderly

One of my other favorites is pianist Marian McPartland. She lives in my hometown, and does a concert every year with our high school's jazz band. When I was in high school, I played piano in the jazz band and I had a chance to get very close with Marian. My god, there is nothing like trading four's with Marian during a concert. I couldn't match her to save my life, but she always gave me the chance. ;) She used to recommend records to me, and if she had an extra, she'd leave it on her porch for me to pick up while she was out of town touring. I still have her copy of Miles' "Seven Steps To Heaven."

She has an NPR show called "Piano Jazz." It's essential listening.

I dont know as much about jazz as I'd like to. But I do enjoy it quite a bit. I'm really into drum and bass and about 1/3 of my tunes are jazz influenced. I've loved the amount of feeling and emotion that can be projected through jazz, that's probably why i'm attracted to it.

You pretty much named most of my favorites. A couple more:

Dizzy Gillespie
Thelonius Monk
I can't ever get enough of Louis Armstrong

Vocally I love:
Sarah Vaughan
Billie Holiday
Bessie Smith
Ella Fitzgerald

Last year I really dug deep into jazz. For those who are interested and need a primer, I would highly recommend renting Ken Burn's Jazz Documentaries that he did for PBS. You can probably get them through your library. The series is unbelievable, and will really help the novice and the occasional listener dive into the history of it.

This year I've been mostly into Blues, but I'm starting to fall back in love with Jazz again. They're both so intertwined in many ways that the transition between the two is so easy.

y have i not seen jaco pastorious mentione din here so far... i'm a bassist i kinda have to listen to jazz for inspiration... jazz is all talent especially fusion.... i love jaco pastorious, miles davis, john coltrane, herby hancock, ramsey lewis, the jazz pistols... all that and more. jazz is all good shit

Yahooee! FINALLY! SO glad you mentioned it.

Big jazz fan. Not sure where I got it from. Maybe jsut got tired fo teh run of the mill pop junk that never seemd to have enough feel to it. The biggies include, yeah, Miles (of course). But the rest? OK, thanks for asking:

Jaco (good call h2ogo69) and Weather Report
Pat Metheny
Keith Jarrett
Squirrel Nut Zippers (good ol swing)
Billie Holiday
Paul Desmond
Art Pepper (Meets the Rhythm Section...nice!)
and more......

Too hard to remember more here at work.

If you are just getting in to jazz, but dont know what to listen to or what to buy, start with some traditional stuff like Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, or Blue Train by John Coltrane to get started. Feel free to send me a message if you want to try some other things. There are so many other styles, there's got to be one you'll like.

I've been diggin on fusion lately...particularly Return To Forever's album..."Romantic Warrior". Mahavishnu Orchestra never let's me down...let's see Ramsey Lewis put out an album in '76 I think, entitled "Salongo" , which is unreal...I don't think that one ever made it to disc...that old vinyl copy I have is something special.
I'm also into Eric Dolphy's album, "Out to Lunch"...quality stuff there. A lot of my tastes in music over the years has been heavily inspired by Frank Zappa, a debateably jazzbo himself.

Since I've been a pianist for as long as I can remember, I'm constantly amazed by Thelenious Monk. Duke Ellington is another big favorite of mine.

I enjoy Medeski Martin and Wood a lot. I don't know what type of Jazz they would fall under but that is the kind I like the most.

I've seen em a few times...MMW...I'd call that experimental free jazz. Maybe somebody else has got another name for it though.

'Good Music' I call it. Medeski Martin and Wood are one I forgot to mention. Very moody, very funky and very experimental.

Love listening to any Davis or Coltrane tunes, but I always
have a John Scofield cd in my truck.

pat metheny - bright sized life that hoel album is grat and it features nto jsut oe of the most amazing guitarists ever in pat metheny... but jaco pastorious ( the greatest bassist ever) on bass... tha hoe album is great... i u want to hear a kcik ass ramsey lewis cd check out sun goddess

I was a jazz trumpet player at school so I'm really into the trumpet players like Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Bix Beiderbeck, Harry James and Wynton Marsalis.

Of course, It's not the only instrument I listen too. Art Blakey, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald and Charles Mingus would be my favourite drummer, saxophonist, vocalist and bass player respectively. And Duke Ellington is one of the greatest band leaders.

At the moment I have the following albums on rotation in my CD player (links to Amazon.com):

1. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000000YJX/qid%3D1070027609/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/103-5214147-4722220">Clifford Brown - The Clifford Brown Quartet in Paris</a>

2. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000008RL9/qid=1070027536/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/103-5214147-4722220?v=glance&s=music">Dizzy Gillespie - Lady Be Good</a>

3. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000G4SD/qid=1070027398/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-5214147-4722220">King Curtis - Live at Fillmore West</a>

4. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000007N70/qid=1070027300/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-5214147-4722220?v=glance&s=music">Paul Robeson - Ol' Man River</a>

5. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000001TN/qid=1070027378/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/103-5214147-4722220?v=glance&s=music">Arturo Sandoval - Danzon</a>

God, Jazz is awesome.:)

cool, you´ve just inspired me to go get some Sandoval...

thanks Mac