Jazz lovers....

JHawk

JHawk

Just Another La Flor Whore
Joined
Jan 16, 2006
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Dunno if this is the proper forum... I went to my first jazz club last weekend. I really enjoyed the music. I would like to know what are some "essential" artists/cd's that I should download or purchase. Thanks in advance for any input!
 
Begin by whistling the theme from "Love Story" into a fan on high speed. This is reminiscent of the immortal ballad by "Lead Jelly" called, "Love Through a Picket Fence". Proceed with caution.

NA
 
I hsould add--Itunes (if that's who you use) has a few "essentials" compilations. not sure who is on them, or if it's worth it, but you might want to check it out.
 
Count Basie. Louis Armstrong. John Coltrane. Miles Davis. Charlie Parker. Thelonius Monk. Dave Brubeck. Terence Blanchard. Joshua Redman. Roy Hargrove. Nicolas Payton. Anything with Marsalis in it.

Start with those. You'll have just scratched the surface of what truly amazing jazz can be!

(if you want to blow your mind, find Coltrane's A Love Supreme) :D
 
Start at the begining with Jelly Roll Morton, move on to Louis Armstrong's Hot Five recordings. Then try some Be-Bop, Charlie Parker, the early Miles Davis. Most of the greats played with Davis at one time or another, find recordings by people who played with Miles.

Doc.
 
Thanks to everyone who has given serious answers!! :cool:
Looks like I have my work cut out for me... lots of options!
 
JHawk said:
Thanks to everyone who has given serious answers!! :cool:
Looks like I have my work cut out for me... lots of options!
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Bite me. :cool:

NA
 
icyo said:
Count Basie. Louis Armstrong. John Coltrane. Miles Davis. Charlie Parker. Thelonius Monk. Dave Brubeck. Terence Blanchard. Joshua Redman. Roy Hargrove. Nicolas Payton. Anything with Marsalis in it.

Start with those. You'll have just scratched the surface of what truly amazing jazz can be!

(if you want to blow your mind, find Coltrane's A Love Supreme) :D
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Click to expand...

Out of these I would also recommend Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk and Dave Brubeck. Artists like Michael Brecker, Wes Montgomery, Billy Cobham and Martin Taylor are also regularly on my playlist. If you want to try some great Finnish jazz, try Trio Töykeät. I got their newest CD for Xmas and it's excellent. PM me if you want more info! :thumbs:
 
I love the older syuff but I also enjoy the new stuff, ie. Dave Koz, Brian Culberson, Rick Braun, ect. You might want to stream WWW.wjjz.com out of Philadelphia, great station all around...... :) :thumbs: :cool:
 
I'd recommend any Blue Note RVG (Rudy Van Gelder) Editions as essential. One of my favorites is Lee Morgan-The Sidewinder. But anything by Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Stanley Turrentine, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Grant Green, Larry Young, Jimmy Smith, Kenny Dorham etc.
 
wow you have some really great suggestions here. It really depends on the era you want to be immersed in. If you like the old and croany, I am a fanatic of Nina Simone, to the point that her " love me leave me" is a ringtone on my phone. " she was dubbed the " highpriestes of soul"and for good reason. Another track I love is " See line woman " oh and " it don't mean a thing ". Then there is the " First Lady of Song " Ella Fitz-

The More obsure ones I love are Bea Wain, Mildred Bailey, and Dinah Shore.


Oh well, I am sure that you have pleanty of homework to do.
 
Give Miles Davis' album "Kind of Blue" a spin. Probably the most famous (and rightly so) jazz album. For vocals, like Cheekie said, you can't go wrong with Nina Simone.

A BOTL on this forum by the name of MilesMingusMonk (a.k.a. 3M) can probably give you some great reccommendations, but if you take any work by the three artists in his handle, you won't be dissappointed.
 
There have been some great suggestions in this thread. I'd add one of a different nature though (but sort of along the lines of smokelaw). Since there are so many different genres of jazz (dixieland, early, bop, fusion, big band, smooth, free) and so many arrangements (trio, quartet, quint and larger, big band, orchestra) and so many modes (vocal, instrumental, short pieces, standards, improv, live) that the chances of you hitting the mark early on with a few purchases is slim. But you might get lucky.

My suggestion is to head to the local music store and chat up the salesman about jazz. Of course this only works if you go to a bona fide music store where the people know jack about the music (mom and pops, Tower Records, etc). Don't even bother with places like Borders or Sam Goody. They will ask you what other types of music you like and try to learn a bit more about you to help make appropriate suggestions.

Then go for a sampler from that period as a start. If you have the bucks, you might even want to check out the Ken Burns PBS series. You don't even have to buy it, go take it out at your local library. Learn a bit about the music and the people while you learn what you like.

As for me, I love bop and the classic era stuff. Think Blue Note and Muse from 1956-1965. And then my tastes get more specialized from there. I can certainly recommend a few artists and albums that I think are essentials and will do so if you're interested.

I know that's a lot to take in, but I wanted to give you a bit of perspective.

Wilkey
 
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