Jazz album recommendations?
I'm stumped.
I used to go to a really cool used CD store on Bloor Street called Second Spin, to get Jazz CD's and I still do, but I usually find myself buying blind.
So are there any must-haves for any Jazz neophytes? Any notable names or record labels to look for?
Lately I've been getting stuff from ECM Records, and they have some really cool 'out-there' records (like Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Frank DeJohnette's "Always Let Me Go"), but lately I'd like something more traditional and less "post-modern".
Any thoughts?
I used to go to a really cool used CD store on Bloor Street called Second Spin, to get Jazz CD's and I still do, but I usually find myself buying blind.
So are there any must-haves for any Jazz neophytes? Any notable names or record labels to look for?
Lately I've been getting stuff from ECM Records, and they have some really cool 'out-there' records (like Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Frank DeJohnette's "Always Let Me Go"), but lately I'd like something more traditional and less "post-modern".
Any thoughts?
Comments
my piano jazz recommended list is different than vocal, than acid jazz
off the top of my head, I'd suggest Brubeck, Ella/Billie, Armstrong, Coltrane, Davis... this would get long.
check some of the reviewed Top 100 lists Google returned
See if you can check out the fabulous Ken Burns documentary on Jazz.
Each episode (and the DVD box set) include recommended listening per period/style/era.
Getz/Gilberto featuring Antonio Carlos Jobim
The Quintet Jazz at Massey Hall
Benny Goodman Lize at Carnegie Hall
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers - A Night in Tunisia
Monk's Dream is always the one that comes to mind first though.
a great label similar to ECM, isWINTER AND WINTER they do some really interesting things and their packaging is as interesting as can be for cds.
Dave Douglas is one of my favorite newer artists has a couple of releases on W & W, but now records exclusively for bluebird, which is kind of a shame as they've hampered his productivity considerably. his style varies greatly from release to release, but his current quintet is similar to miles' sound just before he went full electric.
i also like Steve Coleman's work and much of his stuff can be DOWNLOADED at his site.
my favorite all-time artist is Thelonious Monk (i named my second son after him) and many of his recordings are warhorses.
my top ten (actually twenty) can be found here these are all great records to start with.
Best Jazz Movies (not including Burns' Documentary):
Round Midnight - Dexter Gordon does 50's Paris
Bird - Clint Eastwood and Forest Whittaker do Harlem
Cotton Club or Chicago- for a period piece feel
The Legend of 1900 - Tim Roth piano duel with Jelly Roll Morton wins
A Great Day in Harlem - documentary of the 1958 Art Kane Photo shoot
a sweet Shockwave version of the poster exists online here
rollover some of the artists for audio samples. click for popup text.
and that's not even approaching concert movies
Originally posted by curiousuburb
on the alternate media front...
Best Jazz Movies (not including Burns' Documentary):
Round Midnight - Dexter Gordon does 50's Paris
Bird - Clint Eastwood and Forest Whittaker do Harlem
Cotton Club or Chicago- for a period piece feel
The Legend of 1900 - Tim Roth piano duel with Jelly Roll Morton wins
A Great Day in Harlem - documentary of the 1958 Art Kane Photo shoot
a sweet Shockwave version of the poster exists online here
rollover some of the artists for audio samples. click for popup text.
and that's not even approaching concert movies
Ken Burns documentary was good in what it covered. what it didn't cover,
and what it ignored was a huge dissapointment. a documentary with this breadth of scope shouldn't have a point of view, unfortunately ken burns had too much of Wynton Marsalis's and Stanley Crouch's point of view.
Eastwood's company (who along with Bill Cosby is a great friend of jazz) made a great Monk documentary around the same time as BIRD, called Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser that's excellent but a little long.
and the book that gave birth to the movie ROUND MIDNIGHT, based on Bud Powell's days in paris, written by Francis Poudras called DANCE OF THE INFIDELS is a great read even if you don't like music.
I saw the Great Day in Harlem movie with a Q & A afterward of Johnny Griffen and it is just tremendous, such a short movie but with a lot of anecdotal info in it that really gave you a great feel for those days, when jazz WAS pop music.
Although I'm ashamed to admit it, I actually bought most (if not all) of my ECM stuff based on their fantastic cover art, and I haven't been disappointed yet.
Coltrane seems to be one of the most revered names in Jazz and pretty much everyone here's mentioned him...I'll be sure to look out for him.
I also just remembered "1+1" by Herbie Hancock (and someone else who's name I don't remember) -- I actually got to like it by listening to someone else's Shared Playlist on the University network.
What about acid jazz/techno-jazz? I picked up Tourist by Saint-Germain, and it was okay, but it didn't really impress me.
You want some good "out there" stuff:
Eric Dolphy --"Out To Lunch"!!!!
Ornette Coleman and James 'Blood' Ulmer -"Tales Of Captain Black" (very rare, probably vynil only)
Any Sun Ra
COltrane "Selflessness" + ""Paris Live" (for its version of Naima
World Saxophone quartet -"Ellington Tribute album"
Archie Schepp -"Fire Music"
Miles Davis -"Bitches Brew" (for "Miles Chases The Voodoo Down")and/or "Live/Evil"
some good Not so "out there" stuff:
Ellington : --"The Far East Suite" -excellent album that few know of
Ellington: -"Mood Indigos" --Johny Hodges on "Prelude To A Kiss" is the best
Ellington, Max Roach, and Charles Mingus : --"Money Jungle" --can you say: "best jazz album EVAR!"
Mingus -"Pithecanthropus Erectus"
Rhaasan Roland Kirk -"The Vibration Continues" --unbeleivably great . .. though he can stretch it out there . . . he is a blind guy that circularly breaths while playing three saxophones at once and sometimes a noseflute too . . .but not on every tunes . . . its a good compilation of his greatest hits.
Most of these names are established masters of their art . .. even the super out there stuff . . . but Jazz is a big big world . . . you can go back in time and get old stuff that will stay contemporary for ever.
Not necessarily pure Jazz. A combination of genres, but unbelievably good. I saw Mose play in Atlanta this past January at a blue bar.
My $.02:
Ellington's "Money Jungle"' is great.
I like early Miles Davis including " 'Round about Midnight" and "Milestones"
Anything by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. My current favorite is "Buhaina's Delight"
For Piano:
At some point you have to listen to Art Tatum, who I think is in a class by himself.
Oscar Peterson
Monk ( I'm listening to "Live at the It Club" as I'm writing)
Monty Alexander
and a long time favorite since I was 8 or 9 Dave Brubeck. "Live at Carnegie Hall" generates some amazing energy.
Organ:
Jimmy Smith, I like "Dot Com Blues"
for vibes:
Lionel Hampton "Blues for Gates", I don't know what album, I have it on a compilation
and Milt Jackson "Night Mist"
Saxophone:
John Coltrane "A Love Supreme" and "Lush Life"
Joe Henderson "So Near, So Far" "Lush Life-The music of Billy Strayhorn"
Paquito D'Rivera "Havana Cafe"
Sonny Rollins "Lush Life" (Billy Strayhorn does show up a lot)
Trumpet:
Miles Davis
Clark Terry "Daylight Express"
I'm not trying to say anything definitive, just stuff I've stumbled on that does not get old quickly.
One more:
Wynton Marsalis "In This House, On This Day"
Enjoy what you can find, it does grow on you.
N2NRN
Make sure that you know what Coltrane you want to listen to before you buy it
Most of the music I listen to right now consists of indy metal, hardcore and rock. If it helps at all, my most played bands in iTunes are Glassjaw, Everytime I Die, Mogwai, the Mercury Program, Dillinger Escape Plan, Zao, and Vince Guaraldi.
I'm not a huge fan of vocal jazz. I like things with really stellar drumming as I am a drummer.
So basically, can anyone recommend something that isn't very "upbeat", perhaps played largely in minors with an edge, and has really great drumming?
Thanks!
same with some of the Coltrane . .. Chim Chim Cheree is a good tune if you can find it . . its in a minor and rocks
David Murray has some good stuff too: and he can get very hard edged
If you want to really challenge yourself, that Ornette Coleman with the James Blood Ulmer is intense as are any of his albums WITH the original Prime Time band: they were two electric guitars electric bass and drums . . . sometimes two drummers . . . . his 'theory', known as Harmalodics, has no set time signatures, nor key and every instrument can alternate twixt lead-harmony-melody and harmony-harmony-melody . . . if that makes any sense
It is very Avant-Garde and Ornette is, has been and always will be cooler than anybody . . . except maybe Hendrix
The problem is is that I don't think that any of that period of his work has been released on CD . . . some of his later Prime Time Double Octet but that doesn't have the same freaky freaky edge to it . . .
try also Henry Threadgill: his stuff can be pretty intense: both in his new band and in his old band called Air . . . not the rock band but 70s jazz . . . his album called New Air is good because of a hard hitting drummer named Pharoan Aklaf (IIRC) check him out.
Check out The Necks if you like fifty-minute long pieces of spiritual, melodic improvised music (my favourite band.)
You might like John Coltrane's wife, Alice Coltrane, whose 'Journey in Satchidanda' is one of the most... oh look, just buy this record today.
The bigband reinvented: Bob Moses, former drummer for Rahsaan Roland Kirk, genius arranger, not very sane. 'Time Stood Still' is the one in my opinion.
'New Beginnings' by Don Pullen (pianist) is excellent. 'A Thousand Nights and a Night' by Kip Hanrahan is my favourite album. 'Aram of the Two Rivers' by Jonas Hellborg rules.
Anything by Roland Kirk. The Music Revelation Orchestra (James Blood Ulmer, Jamaaladeen Tacuma) are good. Funky.
Tony Williams and Jonas Hellborg with the Soldier String Quartet, 'The Word'. Elegant and too lovely.
'Arc of the Testimony' by Arcana, a group with Tony Williams, Pharoah Sanders, Bill Laswell, Graham Haynes and Buckethead in. Superheavy modern fusion with loud guitars.
'Tenderness' by Kip Hanrahan.