Jazz starter CD?

Agreed. I sold my copy,a Verve Master Edition because it was among the 4 or 5 poorest sounding jazz cds in my collection, though I would consider picking up a less bright sounding version if I saw one. My point though is that for me, Night Train was just another jazz recording. If I held it in such high regard as you did, I wouldn't have sold it no matter how bad it sounded.

 

Not bad choices,easily among the most famous jazz recordings of all time (and Giant Steps was along with My favorite things, one the the first jazz recordings I really dug into seriously)

But, they are each in their own way unusual recordings.

 

I'm late to this post but find myself in a similar position. I love Sonny Rollins soundtrack to Alfie and was wondering what to try next. I have Coltrane's 'Giant Steps' but find it hard work sometimes. Maybe I need something a little closer to Alfie. Any recommendations?

 

You have quite a bit of Sonny Rollins to work through. Try
Sonny Rollins in Impulse
Way Out West
Newks Time
The Bridge
Saxophone Colossus

Then try some Clifford Brown/Max Roach stuff - I know Sonny Rollins played in that group for awhile and even when he left they played the same style,but just about anything they did (it wasn't much as Clifford Brown died very young) if worth getting.

Hank Mobley:
Workout
No Room for Squares
Soul Station

Johnnie Griffin - Little Giant

Art Blakey - Moanin, Freedom Rider, Mosaic

and
Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners (with Rollins on Tenor)

 

Thanks, that's great. I'll let you know what I think of them.
I think my love of 'Alfie' the movie helps with appreciation but I'm looking forward to exploring further.

 

I don't know if it's the one to start with, but I like it.

 

There are eight million stories in the Naked City; this has been one of them.

Seems like everyone has their own story to tell, and an album that did it for them. The OP hasn't re-posted, I wonder if his head is spinning? So, to confuse matters even more, I'll add my own $0.02.

Firstly, I agree with the suggestions to check out a jazz radio station, either over-the-air, XM or internet. This will give you a chance to assess various artists/styles that you could pursue further by using your local library's CD collection.

Secondly, another way to hear a lot of different artists/styles quickly and easily is to attend a local jazz festival. Since you won't have any preconceived ideas, you can freely walk around until you find something that takes your fancy.

Thirdly, I tend to agree with the suggestions to move to jazz from your current comfort zone, however, no one seems to have asked more about your listening habits. Classic Rock, Blues and Reggae cover a lot of ground, and mean different things to different people.

If you like Jimi Hendrix/Santana, for example, an entry via something like Miles Davis' Jack Johnson makes a lot of sense, but this will expose you to jazz-rock or jazz-fusion, depending on who you ask.

Similarly, if you are familiar with Frank Zappa, you might want to consider an album like Grand Wazoo which can now be found in a 3 CD box cheaply with Hot Rats and Waka Jawaka which are also considered Zappa's 'jazz' (jazz-rock?) albums. Moreover, tracks like The Purple Lagoon on Zappa In New York feature a big band composed of established jazz players.

If you like vocal music, you may want to consider something from Joni Mitchell like the aptly named Mingus album. Her albums Hejira, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter and Shadows & Light all feature all-star jazz line-ups.

Alternatively, if you like things a bit more manic/oddball, you might enjoy an album like Radio by the band Naked City, which is experimental but mixes all kinds of genres together (to great effect, IMO).

I'm sure the purists would consider none of the above to be jazz, but they will give you a flavor while still having some rock/pop elements that you may be familiar with.

I own virtually all the classic albums that have been recommended, but I don't listen to any of them. I recognize the greatness of the two legendary Miles Davis quintets (and I have plenty of their recordings), for example, but it's the electric material that holds my interest. Similarly for John Coltrane, I have the Heavyweight Champion box of all the early classics like Giant Steps, but it's later albums like A Love Supreme and Ascension that do it for me. To this day I have never liked anything by Charlie Parker or Dizzy Gillespie, so bepop is out as far as I'm concerned. When I do want to listen to acoustic jazz, I tend to pull out something by Shirley Horn who I can listen to all day. So, it's different strokes for different folks, and I think checking out a few radio stations makes most sense to begin with.

 

I've given this set (or loaned my copy) as gifts to friends that were just starting to explore Jazz - The Instrumental History of Jazz

http://www.amazon.com/Instrumental-...=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1255014389&sr=8-3

The CD and booklet highlights each of the Jazz eras and provides a listing of recommended albums for each, as well as listings of must have albums and box sets (most will be out of print now). It was very helpful to me when I started exploring Jazz.

(I know about this set as I worked for the company that produced it - as they were affiliated with MusicBlvd.com)

 

In April, 1976 I was a rock lover but really wanted to get into jazz. I had already heard the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the electric Return to Forever, and Weather Report. I wanted to get into the acoustic jazz, the "real jazz." I took $100 to Discount Records on State Street in Madison, Wisconsin, and asked them to pick out a jazz collection for me. I have always wanted to thank the guy who did it, as he started me on a lifelong love affair with jazz. Here is what he picked--they worked:

McCoy Tyner--Trident
Art Blakey--Free For All
Oliver Nelson--Blues and the Abstract Truth
Charles Mingus--Mingus Ah Um
Charles Mingus--Tijuana Moods
Thelonious Monk--Brilliant Corners
Thelonious Monk--Four By Five By Monk
Sonny Rollins--Saxophone Colossus
Cannonball Adderley--Something Else
Count Basie--Best of the Decca Years (it was a 2 LP set)
Duke Ellington--This Is Duke Ellington (2 LP set on RCA)
Louis Armstrong--Genius of Modern Music Vol. 1 (Columbia 2 LP set of 1920s and 1930s material)
Billie Holiday--God Bless the Child (2 LP set of Columbia recordings from the 1930s and early 1940s)
Miles Davis--Milestones
Ornette Coleman--At the Golden Circle, Vol. 1
John Coltrane--Best of the Atlantic Years (2 LP set)
John Coltrane--Best of the Impulse Years (2 LP set)

I listened first to McCoy Tyner's "Trident". A big door burst open in my mind. Before I put the album on, I didn't really "get" jazz. Before the end of Side 1, I "got" jazz. By the time Side 1 ended, it was just a question of how many jazz albums I could buy in the shortest possible time.

The rest of the choices were really great, too. I remember that the guy who picked out the collection told me, "the older the jazz is, the better it is. Be open to the 1920s and 1930s stuff."

I remember that this guy had moderately long dark brown/black hair and a black beard. If I could ever find him, I would really like to thank him.

 

Sir, Jazz is great, but there are so many different kinds that it is difficult to know what you would like. Either find someone with a good collection who will play different examples for you so you can get a feel for what you like, or an even better suggestion I think would be to sign up at lala.com where you can listen to whole songs and whole albums of many if not most of the recommendations that are being made here. That site has certainly helped me to hone in on albums I liked and wanted to buy and stuff I wouldn't give a second listen to. I have no financial connection to lala.com, in fact I used to trade CDs there, and then they sort of killed that service (or mortally wounded it), which made me mad. But the great thing about the site is that it is like a record store where you can ask the proprietor to put on any record, and you can have a listen.

Personally, I like stuff that is melodic, not to dissonant. Some of the old smooth jazz sounds like elevator music to people who like hard bop style of jazz. But I like the Getz/Gilberto album, Oscar Peterson's Night Train, Maynard Ferguson's MF Horn 2, Bobby Short's later records for Telarc, Paul Desmond's Live album and the one he made of the songs of Simon and Garfunkel (I think it is titled Bridge Over Troubled Water, but not sure), Carmen McRae's Carmen Sings Monk, Count Basie April In Paris. Wes Montgomery's Tequilla album probably sounds like Muzak to some, but it is one of my favorites. It is the highest class of Muzak one will ever find.

And I like Pat Metheny, too, when he's not trying to show his avante-garde side. His live album Travels is representative of his melodic Pat Metheny Group work, but honestly there are many free shows -- soundboard recordings too -- that are available on the web (Metheny does not apparently object to these shows floating around AFAIK) that are actually a bit more exciting and inspired than the Travels album, IMO.

You probably would not enjoy the style of jazz that sounds like a monkey blowing into a saxophone while being administered electroshock treatments. I do not. Yet some of these types of recordings are highly acclaimed. Let the buyer beware. Or maybe you will like it, and be able to get into what the artist was trying to put across. I can't.

I like a lot of jazz on the ECM label, too. For something really relaxing, try Keith Jarrett's The Melody At Night With You. This is not representative of Jarrett's more difficult material, but it shows Jarrett at his most thoughtful and tender.

 

Wow! You were lucky to find exactly the right record store guy. It's such a shame that younger listeners and newbies of all ages now have to rely on clueless clerks in places like Best Buy or the weird algorithms that govern the recommendations programs on sites like amazon. I learned so much from hanging out in good record stores as I was first listening and collecting music!

I often find myself offering unsolicited recommendations to people in the one real record store that still exists in Richmond. I'm in there all the time and often can't resist when I see someone pick up a particular disk from the used bin. So many people did that for me, and it turned me on to some great, great music.

L.

 

An interesting set, especially the first disk. The second disk, however, is a strange combination of the commercial, almost not jazz and the avant garde!

L.

 

I don't care for Kenny G.'s music either.

 

The 20's and 30's set the bar, but I like the way the language has been extended.

 

Just checking in, haven't read throughout. First thought was Kind of Blue and Time Out. Started out around there many years ago, now enjoy free jazz/improv.

 

Yes. The key phrase here is "be open," and that applies to a lot of the most important later stuff as it does for the earlier material. There were people who thought Louis Armstrong sounded like a monkey, too. And the metaphor, unfortunately still lives....

L.

 

Excellent intro to jazz!

 

well it all depends on your taste ,if you like Armstong you should also like Bix and
Sidney Bechet, jack Teagarden,Django,
If you Like Basie and Ellington chances are you will like Lester Young
Coleman Hawkins,Billie Holiday,and the Benny Goodman small Groups

If you feel this stuff is not you bag ,theres Bebop and Modern Jazz

If you like Bird and Dizzy,chances are you will like most Blue Note stuff
and you Might like some(or All) Cool Jazz artists like Chet Baker,Gerry
Mulligan,art Pepper ect

If that stuff is still not your bag ,Theres Miles Davis who started out in Bebop
then he does cool for a while with Gil Evans and Mulligan,Then he does
his classic Lp "Kind of Blue" if you still don't that or the excellent Brubeck
sure thing "Time Out" ,you still have more Jazz Styles to try out
Theres Stuff like the wonderful Stan Getz and of course Coltrane ,who
like Davis changes styles from Hard Bop type to what can only be called
John Coltrane style,the Impluse Lps start pretty straight foward and get
more Free and Free,Which you might think is too far out

Monk is another Original ,whos style is all his,If you don't like
any of these artists ,theres still more :Jazz Vocals Some music fans
only buy vocals

 

Maybe that's why I like 'em.

Evan

 

The Best Blue Note Album in the World Ever

I found this double disc set to be an affordable and appetizing collection of Blue Note artists.

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Blue-Note-Album-World/dp/B00000JB1W

 

Frank Zappa would be a good starting fusion point from a rock musician's perspective

 

How about Albert Ayler...just kidding

Sketches of Spain seemed very straightforward to my friends

 

Guys, thanks so much for all the recommendations. My Spanish wife really wanted to get into jazz all of a sudden and I turned her loose on this thread. Today Getz/Gilberto showed up and it is a huge hit with both of us. Can you recommend any others considering this?