What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?

zmotula asks: "What Jazz records do you think are a must-have for a Jazz Geek? I've got about twenty records I really love (Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, Tijuana Moods by Charlie Mingus, Lush Life by John Coltrane, just to mention some) and I want to spend some more money on buying more. Alas, I can only afford buying around two CDs a month. What records do you think are essential?"

Comments

Two Suggestions

[StillDocked]

Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet and Ella and Louis on Verve Records (which isn't the best of either of their work, however, they are amazing together).

Another suggestion I would make is listen to the Music Choice Jazz channels, which are available on most cable and dish systems(in the States at least) They play great music and have the song/album information.

Get Dizzy.

[handsomepete]

You've got to have a little Dizzy Gillespie in your collection. Pick something from later in his career (there's a three disc Verve comp that covers his career pretty thoroughly), then pick up Groovin' High which has some really beautiful orchestrated music that's perfect for... well... anytime, really.

Let's See

[GypC]

"Mingus Ah Um" Charles Mingus

"Bitches Brew" Miles Davis (early acid jazz, very unnerving)

Try some big band stuff, you can't go wrong with anything by Duke Ellington.

You're definitely going to need some Thelonius Monk, John Coltrane, and Billie Holiday.

Good Jazz Labels

[mcSey921]

Good Jazz is easy to find by label. Look for anything on:

• Blue Note (anything)
  
• Prestige (50's to 70's)
  
• Verve (60's)
  
• Atlantic (make sure it's jazz;) (50's to 70's)
  
• Savoy (any)
  
• Pacific related jazz labels (50's to 70's)
  
• CTI (any)
  

Further if Creed Taylor produced it, buy it. If Rudy Van Gelder engineered it, for Chrissake buy it!

Getting CD reissues of a lot of these labels is not a problem, and you always guaranteed pretty good stuff. Also check out Emusic.com, they've got a pretty good selection of jazz in a hastle free (though sometimes crappy quality) mp3 format.

mcsey

Emusic has 128 Kb joint-stereo mp3s? What is this 1999?

What about modern Jazz

[linkages]

Ok. Enough suggestions for classic Jazz. If you want some more modern sounding albums, I would suggest the following:

Any Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.
You really can't go wrong here.

Jaco Pastorious in any form which includes solo albums and any Yellow Jackets CD you can find.

Victor Wooten
By far the best modern Jazz bassist around.Also part of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

Stanley Jordan
This man is just amazing. Plays the guitar with both hands like its a piano. If you can find any of the live stuff you will defineatly be able to tell that it is live and he is just that good.

If you want more mellow stuff try John Pattatuci (spelling?). Modern Jazz bassist that plays with lots of emotion which most will translate into lullabies. Morons.

Can you tell that I am a bass player.

My Top Ten album

[light101]

"Kind of Blue" Miles Davis Columbia CK 40579

"Night Train" Oscar Peterson Verve 821 724-2

"Time Out" Dave Brubeck Columbia VCK 40585

"Birth of Cool" Miles Davis Capitol Jazz C2-92862

"A Love Supreme" John Coltrane MCA Impulse GRD155

"Getz / Gilberto" Stan Getz/Jao & Astrud Gilberto Verve 810 048-2

"Giant Steps" John Coltrane Atlantic 781337-2 Rhino R2 71984

"Blue Train" John Coltrane Blue Note B2-46095

"Sketches of Spain" Miles Davis Columbia VCK40578

"Bill Evans Trio Sunday at the Village Vanguard" Bill Evans Riverside RCD-018-2

Re:What kind of Jazz?

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Question: Pat, could you tell us your opinion about Kenny G - it appears you were quoted as being less than enthusiastic about him and his music. I would say that most of the serious music listeners in the world would not find your opinion surprising or unlikely - but you were vocal about it for the first time. You are generally supportive of other musicians it seems.

Pat Metheny's Answer: Kenny G is not a musician I really had much of an opinion about at all until recently. There was not much about the way he played that interested me one way or the other either live or on records. I first heard him a number of years ago playing as a sideman with Jeff Lorber when they opened a concert for my band. My impression was that he was someone who had spent a fair amount of time listening to the more pop oriented sax players of that time, like Grover Washington or David Sanborn, but was not really an advanced player, even in that style. He had major rhythmic problems and his harmonic and melodic vocabulary was extremely limited, mostly to pentatonic based and blues-lick derived patterns, and he basically exhibited only a rudimentary understanding of how to function as a professional soloist in an ensemble - Lorber was basically playing him off the bandstand in terms of actual music. But he did show a knack for connecting to the basest impulses of the large crowd by deploying his two or three most effective licks (holding long notes and playing fast runs - never mind that there were lots of harmonic clams in them) at the key moments to elicit a powerful crowd reaction (over and over again). The other main thing I noticed was that he also, as he does to this day, play horribly out of tune - consistently sharp.

Of course, I am aware of what he has played since, the success it has had, and the controversy that has surrounded him among musicians and serious listeners. This controversy seems to be largely fueled by the fact that he sells an enormous amount of records while not being anywhere near a really great player in relation to the standards that have been set on his instrument over the past sixty or seventy years.

And honestly, there is no small amount of envy involved from musicians who see one of their fellow players doing so well financially, especially when so many of them who are far superior as improvisers and musicians in general have trouble just making a living. there must be hundreds, if not thousands of sax players around the world who are simply better improvising musicians than Kenny G on his chosen instruments. It would really surprise me if even he disagreed with that statement.

Having said that, it has gotten me to thinking lately why so many jazz musicians (myself included, given the right "bait" of a question, as I will explain later) and audiences have gone so far as to say that what he is playing is not even jazz at all.

More right here...