Looking for jazz music suggestions to grow my collection.

I am looking for your suggestions about jazz artists and specific CD's/ LP's to start making my jazz selection much better. I have pretty much stopped buying jazz mostly because I regularly get the styles I don't care for by accident. I am not very well versed in the lingo so I won't even try to speak it. The style I really don't like is (fusion?). To me all the musicians are playing their own song while being together in the same room. I do not wish to knock anyone for liking this, I simply don't want anymore of this and don't buy now because I don't know what to get. I also don't listen to the local jazz stations because they play so much of the style I don't like and the banter between songs makes me mental that I have no real basis to go from. The jazz I really enjoy is much more structured, usually has a bouncy beat and a big horn sound. This does not mean a three piece trio can't make the grade though, so don't leave any good ones out. Instrumentals are my favorite but if the vocals fit the music they are hard to beat. Please feel free to point me in a direction and know that I will purchase suggested items. Thanks and have a great day.

 

Dave Brubek Time Out
Billie Holiday Lady In Satin, Original Decca Masters
Coltrane Giant Steps, My Favorite Things, Love Supreme
Miles Davis- Kind Of Blue, Porgy & Bess

 

Some DCC Golds-
Sonny Rollins- Saxophone Colussus
Miles davis- Workin', Steamin' Relaxin, Cookin'
Vince Guraldi- Jazz Impressions of a Black Orpheus

DCC Jazz gold discs are cheap and the sound is great

 

cannonball adderley - something else

 

For what you're looking for I will recommend Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers.

The years between 1954 to 1965 are usually considered his best era, when he recorded for Columbia, Blue Note, EmArcy, Impulse, Riverside (and others). But Blakey made great records and had great bands right up to his death in 1990.

Art Blakey albums will also introduce you to many other important jazz artists who started their careers in his band. For instance;

- trumpeters Clifford Brown, Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard - just for starters

 

Dexter Gordon is another great saxophonist, try Go! or Our Man In Paris, from his 1960's Blue Note catalog.

--MK

 

The Best of Chet Baker Sings
Ornette Coleman-The Shape of Jazz to Come
John Coltrane-The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings

 

Count Basie and His Orchestra- April In Paris
Sarah Vaughn- Sarah Vaughn
Sony Rollins- Tenor Madness
Oscar Peterson Trio- On the Town


and soooo many more..

 

I got burned out on fusion once, too. I still like some of the cream of it, but it's not my mainstay.

The Art Blakey suggestion was spot on. I haven't heard a bad one yet: A Night in Tunisia, Moanin', Caravan, Indestructible, any of the countless live ones, etc.

Hank Mobley would probably be right up your alley, too. No Room For Squares and Soul Station are great.

Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan... all of these are considered "hard-bop" or "post-bop" and I think is what you're looking for.

 

Anything by Dave Brubeck.

 

This sounds more like "free jazz". Fusion was, in simpler terms, a fusion of jazz and rock, or jazz and R&B. A lot of it was good, others just didn't work. Yeah, Bitches Brew (Miles Davis) was a landmark fusion recording, but I never have grown to like it all that much even after having lived with it for all these years. (And it is very disorganized to the untrained ear...much like you described fusion.)

So I would not advise you get something like Pat Metheny's Song X, which features Ornette Coleman. As big of a Metheny fan as I am, I've never played that album more than three times, if that.

 

Sheffield Labs had a bunch of good Jazz CDs and LPs.
My favorite is the "Sheffield Jazz Experience" CD.
I am not really into Jazz, yet I love this CD and will use it if I ever go listening for new speakers.
IMO the Sheffield CDs and LPs sound better than the MFSL.

 

charles mingus

 

Really can't go wrong with Miles Davis. If you don't like the stuff where everyone's playing there own song look for his early stuff with John Coltrane. Kind of Blue is essentially to collection.

 

Here are a few more that I personally find indispensible.

Roy Haynes: Out of the Afternoon (Impulse)
Bill Berry: Shortcake (Concord Jazz)
Gene Ammons Story - Organ Combos (Prestige)
Louis Armstrong: Satch Plays King Oliver (Varese)
Charlie Byrd: Bossa Nova Pelos Passaros (Riverside)
Charlie Byrd: Live At Blues Alley (Blues Alley)
Ray Charles: Genius + Soul = Jazz (DCC)
Ray Charles and Milt Jackson: Soul Brothers (Atlantic)
Miles Davis: The Complete Concert 1964 (Sony/Columbia)
Paul Desmond Live (Verve)
Kenny Dorham & Hank Mobley: Whistle Stop (Blue Note)
Various Artists: Duke Ellington 1969 All-Star White House Tribute (Blue Note)
Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington The Great Summit (Roulette)
Kenny Garrett: Pursuance: The Music of John Coltrane (WEA)
Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker & Roy Hargrove: Directions in Music (Verve)
Barney Kessel: Jelly Beans (Concord Jazz)
Lee Konitz & Warne Marsh: Live at the Montmartre Jazz Club Vol 2 (Storyville)
Gerry Mulligan: Night Lights (Philips)
The Amazing Bud Powell Vol. 1 (Blue Note)