Help me populate a jazz library
 

I want to start listening to jazz.

Broadening the music horizons for yet another time, I'm interested in non vocal jazz, good drums a must, prefer small groups over big band jazz...

That being said, recommendations anyone? I'm extremely new to jazz and don't know shit all, so I was hoping you guys could help me out.

Please and thank you's all around :D

i can recommend jamie cullum's twentysomething. it's new, and a bit pop-ish at times... but its my favorite jazz album to come out in years. you seem like you may be wanting more of the jazz classics and landmark performers... but if you are open to the new stuff this should be one of your first purchases.

Do you like piano? Bass? Sax? Trumpet? Tbone?

Download Winamp, goto their Shoutcast radio site, goto Jazz, look for:
'the spirit of KJAZ San Francisco' ... Best Jazz Ever. 24 hours, nonstop :)

(You can skip the Download Winamp part if you have iTunes, I don't know
any other popular players that play Shoutcast stations... shrugs)

Hey Ace'O... don't expect to GET IT Right away. I've been open to jazz for 10years or so and i still don't "get" half the shit out there.
although I WAS fortunate enough to get Miles' "Kind Of Blue" in the middle of the night, one night a few years ago...
It tore me down and I've never been the same.

There is a lot of different jazz out there. Some is wild and experimental and some is quiet and moody, so it depends on what kind of mood you are looking for. My personal favorite is John Coletrane, probably since his lines transfer really well to guitar. For one who is just getting into jazz I recommend "Blue Train", "My Favorite Things" and "Giant Steps". Wes Montgomery also has a good version of "My Favorite Things", and he is generally a good easy introduction to Jazz. If you like lots of improvisation, but still not wild bebop, you should check out Miles Davies' Kind of Blue and Birth of the Cool and the Chill Out no 4.

My favorite jazz artists in addition to the ones above are Herbie Hancock, Jim Hall, Bird, Dizzie Gillespie, Bill Frisell, Mingus, Cannonball Adderly and Monk. I also like some of Allan Holdsworth's stuff and some John Scofield.

For something interesting and kind of World Beat/eclectic, try Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Some with lyrics, mostly not. He's one of the few jazz banjo/sitar players in captivity, and his percussionist plays a self-invented instrument called the drumitar.

My personal favorite by them is a piece called "Big Country" on the album "Left of Cool."

ace: if you could give a bit more information about what you are looking for within jazz, i'd be happy to inundate you with names/titles, etc....i am just unclear about exactly what you are interested in within the range of things called jazz.

I'm a huge avant garde jazz enthusiast. The more experimental, the better.

Here's my recommendations:

John Hollenbeck Trio
John Coltrane - Interstellar Space
Miles Davis - Bitch's Brew
Ui

hmm, i thought the second thing i said in the original post was descriptive enough... but I'll elaborate :)

Good drums! Good drums, good drums, good drums. Bass, Trumpet, Sax, Keyboard, guitar... Prefer non-vocal although there is some great vocal jazz I've heard.

Thanks for all the recommendations so far

check out charles mingus. he is probably my favorite jazz muscian. he has both a big band and he released albums with trios, quartets etc. i think his best album is Ah Hum.

also check out

T. Monk
John Mclaughlin
Dexter Gordon
Herbie Hancock
Charlie Parker

ok--that helps.

for the drumming:

ornette coleman's comp "beauty is a rare thing" is lovely--features billy higgins and in particular eddie blackwell.

old and new dreams, particularly "playing"--ornette;s band from the mid 1960s 20 years later, without ornette.

for elvin jones:
john coltrane's records from the first live at the village vanguard onward. my favorites are africa brass and love supreme.
interstellar space, as mentioned above, is amazing stuff.
kulu se mama
sun ship

mingus:
black saint and the sinner lady
ah um
blues and roots

rahsaan roland kirk:
rip rig and panic

art ensemble of chicago--pretty much anything.
i like fanfaroe for the warriors, stances a sophie, nice guys

john carter
anything by this guy. astonishing clarinet player, great great bands, really fine arrangements--very underrated, i do not know why.

steve lacy
moon, the way, windows, the record with don cherry (evidence i think its called)

miles davis: live/evil, on the corner
miles smiles, filles de kilamanjaro, esp, nefertiti

monk:
anything on riverside records. there is a huge compilation of all of it out there, but it is expensive. a good reason to pillage a college library.
the music on prestige is really fine too, particularly the track with sonny rollins on tenor

i would recommend warne marsh..there is a great duet album he did with art pepper but i cant rememebr the name (sorry)

andrew hill:
point of departure
two for one (a blue note compilation-great stuff)

for charlie parker, you should try to find the savoy and dial recordings first.

newer stuff:

polwechsel
john butcher
boston sound collective
ellery eskelin

you might like much of sun ra's output--i would try the singles collection or cosmic tones ofr mental therapy for earlier stuff, maybe concert for the comet kahoutek or maybe lanquidity for later stuff and go from there. i like almost everything sun ra put out.

there is more, but it is early--if i think of other stuff (and thereis alot), i'll post it.

Check out some Hip-Hop / Jazz fusion stuff too, some of that is GREAT.. Diggable Planets, Jazzmatazz, JOI, Solsonics, to name a few are awesome, specially if you dig the hip-hop or Rap feeling.. It's NOT primarily instrumental though. Harry Connick Jr.'s always a good primer for stuff, but other than his "25" album, lots of vocals again there. I don't know how experimental or "out there" you want to get, or if you're really looking more for adult contemporary "dinner jazz"... Herie Hancock's got some of the best licks in the world if you want a kind of older sound... John McLaughlin's a hoot, if you can sit back and let his music drive the experience. Keiko Matsui or Larry Carlton will not offend anyone's ears for a glass of wine and lovely sensual chat... If you can find it (and call me if you do!) Madhouse was a band from the paisley park label that prince worked with, and it's the neatest combination of garage jazz and some kind of spaced out house groove kind of thing... 16 was my favorite album, but I had it on tape, and cannot seem to find it digital! Medeski, Martin, and Wood is just some really unusual avant-garde dancable jazz... probably most palatable with chemical intervention... Easy to fall into the groove and find yourself in another mind. I cannot drive with their music on the iPod. And just in case I haven't gone all over the page enough, never forget about Russ Freeman and the Rippingtons. ;-)

Peace to ya cats!

Hey Roachboy, wanna check out some music as a weapon, gotta get the Gil Scott-Heron, because the revolution will NOT be televised!! ;-)

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
Erroll Garner - Concert by the Sea
Chick Corea - My Spanish Heart
Return to Forever - Musicmagic
Weather Report - Heavy Weather
Flora Purim - Butterfly Dreams
Chuck Mangione - Feels So Good
Stanley Clarke - Journey to Love
George Duke - I Love the Blues She Heard My Cry
Charlie Parker - any "collection" set
Count Basie - Basie Jam I, II, and III
Grover Washington, Jr. - A Secret Place
Bob James - Heads
Earl Klugh - Living Inside Your Love

God, there's tons more, but here's a start.

I don't know much about jazz, but I like David Sanborn's Straight to the Heart CD.
Buddy Williams on drums, if that means anything to you.

drums:
check out
Art Blakey
Max Roach
Philly Joe Jones
Roy Haynes
Tony Williams

to better understand "jazz" listen to early stuff.
Louis Armstrong from 20s-50s
Sidney Bechet
Jellyroll Morton
Eddy Condon groups
Ellington small groups
Coleman Hawkins
Lester Young

listen seriously - it's not pop. try to get beyond flash and glamor

later, listen to Charles Parker, Dizzy gillespie, etc.

There are some Great big bands to listen to.
You like drums. Buddy Rich & Mel Lewis are two of the best.
Two great big bands not well enough known are the Gerald Wilson Big Band
recordings from 1959-1965 or so; Terry Gibbs Big Band about the same years.
Both have M. Lewis on drums. Buddy's band 1966-1968 was a very good one.

best I can do for now.

:) /me big fan of Jamie Cullum :)

/agrees with early jazz fans. if you want to understand jazz start by listening to the people who have molded and influenced the genre. Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is widely considered as one of the definitive jazz albums, if you dont like that there is a good chance your not going to like a great deal of jazz. Bitches Brew is astounding, but you should wait on that until you warm up to it. Herbie Hancock, Duke Ellington, Charlie "Bird" Parker, John Coltrane, and Art Pepper are all wonderful musicians with great rhythm sections (when they use them, which they do most of the time. drums this includes you!). im excited for you and hope you like this truly wonderful form of music.

not sure about kind of blue as a litmus test for the music as a whole.
personally, i find the record tedious, but really like the next phases of miles' output (the quintet with wayne shorter, herbie hancock, ron carter, tony williams and the first electric phase).
i am also not so sure about moving through the music in chronological order--it makes as much sense to move back and forth, following things that catch your interest--but be aware that this particular form of music built itself within/around/with reference to a tradition, so that there is much chattering between more recent music and what precedes it. but it is not as if by finding the earlier referencepoints that you will "decipher" the music--rather, it may add another level of complexity to how you hear it.

for example, you can listen to steve lacy without necessarily being steeped in monk's music--but you will hear lacy differently if you do know monk. players like lacy were not simply stuck in a circle of repetition, but used what came before as a template for moving into other spaces--when you get to someone like marsalis, things become otherwise--marsalis is interested in making jazz into something like european classical music, which i think is pretty much the death knell for it as an interesting form.

that all said, kind of blue is not a bad place to dip your feet into the pool---neither is coltrane's "impressions" or mingus's "ah um" or the duke ellington collection "the blanton-webster band" or anything on riverside that thelonius monk put out.

it is a big tradition. there are lots of great players involved with it. what matters is that you find ways to enjoy yourself as you get to know it.

miles davis - kind of blue

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Opens up a whole new world, jazz and beyond. Do you have cable TV that offers digital music channels? Best thing to do is to turn to that while you're working around the house and when you hear something you like, make note of the artist. I guess the same can be said for some of the internet radio stations too.

new jazz www.peterepstein.com sorta weird but I like it.

I would suggest Charles Mingus: Mingus Ah Um. Definetely some of the great jazz compositions on that one.

Kind of Blue by Miles is suggested alot. Anything by Miles is tremendous. Lately I've been listening to an earlier version of Miles group on the CD "Relaxin with the the Miles Davis Quintet". In the mid 50's Miles quickly recorded 4 alblums for Presige to get out of his contract and they all have a great small band appeal to them. They are Relaxin, Cookin', Workin', and Steamin'. I would recomend those CDs, just be sure you find the remastered versions of them.

"Kind of Blue" and "The Birth of Cool" have already been mentioned. Sticking with Miles, you have got to get "Sketches of Spain.

Next up: Shadowfax - "Shadowdance", and one of the Mickey Hart drumming albums, "Drumming at the Edge of Magic" or "Planet Drum". This covers the edge of the new agey stuff, and it wonderfully trippy without being dully repetetive as I find trance to be.

For Guitar Jazz, John McLaughlin, Al Dimeola, and Paco De Lucia did a studio and a live album together, "Passion, Grace, and Fire" and "Friday Night in San Fransisco" respectively, that cannot be beat. Of the Three, I like Al DiMeola's stuff best, in particular "Kiss my Axe" and "Land of the Midnight Sun".

Now, I consider Joe Satriani and Steve Vai jazz, but most people don't. Satch's "The Extremist" and Stevie's "The Ultra Zone" are my two favorites.

Also, don't sell Zappa short for Jazz. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend any one album of his as a solid Jazz album (With the possible exception of "Jazz from Hell". I just don't care for that album). Parts of "One Size Fits All" and "Them or Us" are excellent jazz, though, and you should give "Weasels Ripped my Flesh" a listen, if not a purchase.

How could I forget? Bela Fleck! Any or all are excellent.

You will also need to find some Duke Ellington. I don't know of a good album, but everything I have heard of his has been fantastic. Ditto Coletrane.

I would stay away from Ornette Coleman, though. Sort of Jazz's answer to James Joyce. I have heard he was a genius, but the only thing I can figure is that it takes a genius to sell a record of someone beating a bagpipe to death with a live maribou stork. Opinions may differ, but that's what it sounds like to me. Methinks the man was too clever to be understood.

I have nothing to add, but wanted to say thanks for suggesting this. I've been listening to it off and on the last couple of days and it's fantastic.

Thank you very much, :thumbsup:

i get bored with a lot of jazz. since most of the big names have already been mentioned, i'll give you another. you may like it because it is a little more accessible.

raymond scott did some neat stuff, although it is probably considered novelty by purists. anyway, his music was used in the background of those merry melodies cartoons years after he had written it. get the "reckless nights and turkish twilights" album to hear it.

later he started making electronic music on homemade instruments, often used in 1950-60's commericals. this stuff is surprisingly cool (headphone music).

Everyone here has given good suggestions, but as you can probably tell the range of jazz music is huge and covers a wide variety of styles.

What triggered your interest in jazz music? If you can provide any references of music and players you like in other genres, maybe some that are a little jazz tinged and show your tastes, someone can provide an accessible entry point into jazz for you.

Jazz influence has crossed over into many styles of popular music... by starting with jazz that sounds more like music you already listen to, you can initiate yourself more easily and work backwards to explore more and understand the traditions.

All forms of jazz are greatly interconnected, via style, technique and personnel. Once you find a few good starting points, you can explore forever.

Schnab

PS This is my first post :)