Your help requested. What are your jazz albums suggestions ?

I'm fairly new to this forum and I'm a 54 years old music lover. I love rock music above all and have been deep into prog rock this past year, rediscovering Gentle Giant and King Crimson in particular. My love of rock kind of kept me away from other genres, so I'm still kind of new to jazz. I've got all the classics, thanks to a good friend that helps me, but I would like to go beyond that. Apart from the usual jazz classics, I would really appreciate your help guiding me toward unknown pleasures.

Your suggestions please. If you can also give me the best sounding available version, that would be a plus. Thank you.

 

Maybe you could start by telling us all the classics you already have? That would save us the trouble of suggesting titles you already have.

 

Miles Davis: Birth of cool, Kind of blue, Bitches brew
John Coltrane: A love supreme , Blue train
All the jazz best selling albums (Brubeck, Adderley, Rollins) + some fusion albums like all Mahavishnu and Return to forever and Heavy weather by Weather report.

 

Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
Grant Green - Idle Moments
Kenny Burrell - Midnight Blue
Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus
Sonny Rollins - Way Out West
Oliver Nelson - Blues And The Abstract Truth

 

Check out some Pat Metheny Group records - the ECM ones are a good place to start.

 

Some other very important records from the same (50's/60's) era:

Charles Mingus - Pithecanthropus Erectus, Mingus Ah Um, Black Saint & The Sinner Lady
Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners, Monk's Dream
Ornette Coleman - The Shape Of Jazz To Come

 

Start with Kind of Blue and A Love Supreme.

Go from there.

There's lots of great jazz albums, but they never get better than those two, IMO.

 

^---Did not make it to post #3.

 

Anything by the Keith Jarrett Standards Trio on ECM Records will sound great - that's piano trio jazz. For guitarists, you've got Wes Montgomery (his live album FULL HOUSE is great). To hear three great instrumentalists playing together, try TRIO BEYOND's record SAUDADES, also on ECM and featuring Jack DeJohnette on drums, John Scofield on guitar and Larry Goldings on organ. That is a great 2 CD 'live' album which sounds amazing. I could go on, however I'm sure the many other forum members will hip you to some other groovy stuff.

 

http://www.hiromimusic.com/

 

Thelonious Monk - Monk's Music, Brilliant Corners, Live at the It Club
Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin'
Wes Montgomery & Milt Jackson - Bags Meets Wes
Charles Mingus - Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
Tina Brooks - True Blue

 

Absolutely this. Wonderful, indispensable album.

 

John Coltrane - Olé + My Favourite Things + Ballads
EVERY Duke Ellington meetings from the early 60's : Coltrane, Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Money Jungle (Mingus & Max Roach)
Archie Shepp + Horace Parlan - Goin' Home
Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder
any "standards" entry from the Keith Jarrett Trio, starting with "Standards vol.1" - the one that ends with God Bless The Child

 

U.K. self titled LP 1978

 

I'm going to leave aside all the Monk, Coltrane, and Mingus - all of that is gold. Here are some somewhat lesser-known (not to jazz fans, but likely to you) artists and recordings, all highly-recommended:

Art Pepper - Meets the Rhythm Section, Smack Up, Gettin' Together
Blue Mitchell - The Cup Bearers, Blue Soul, Big 6, Out of the Blue, A Sure Thing
Bobby Timmins - This Here is Bobby Timmons, Trio In Person
Chick Corea - Now He Sings, Now He Sobs
Cliff Jordan and John Gilmore - Blowing in from Chicago
Curtis Fuller - Blues-ette, With Red Garland, Images of, Jazz...it's Magic! (despite the cheesiest title ever conceived), New Trombone
Donald Byrd - Byrd's Word
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Big Band - Trane Whistle
Elmo Hope - Hope Meets Foster, The All Star Sessions
Elvin Jones - Very R.A.R.E.
Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch, Outward Bound, Out There
Hampton Hawes - For Real!
Hank Mobley - Soul Station
Harold Land - The Fox, Harold in the Land of Jazz
Jimmy Heath - Really Big, The Thumper
Johnny Griffin - Introducing JG, A Blowing Session, Way Out!
Junko Onishi Trio - At the Village Vanguard, Vol 1 and 2
Neils-Henning Orsted Pedersen Trio - Friends Forever, in Memory of Kenny Drew
Roland Kirk - We Free Kings
Red Garland - All Morning Long (Quintet), Bright and Breezy (Trio)< A Garland of Red (Trio)
Sam Jones - The Chant, Down Home, the Soul Society
Sarah Vaughan - At Mr. Kelly's, Sassy Swings the Tivoli
Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin', Dial "S" for Sonny, Leapin' and Lopin'
Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra - Angels and Demons at Play/The Nubians of Plutonia
Wynton Kelly - Kelly Blue

 

I am also a Gentle Giant fan like you, and, going a bit back in time, I was deeply impressed by vibraphonist Red Norvo's recordings with his trio featuring Charlie Mingus on bass and Tal Farlow on guitar. The arrangements and playing are quirky as hell (for the prog fan in us) and a great way of getting introduced to some fun old jazz standards and show tunes.

And Eric Dolphy and Thelonious Monk are also popular with proggers who are into (more modern) jazz.

 

Love this since it came out, but I always thought it would be filed under prog.

 

Everybody Digs Bill Evans

 

There are many good suggestions above. I'll add

John Coltrane - Giant Steps
Herbie Hancock - Headhunters

 

The staggering amount of great Jazz records is pretty daunting as I've found since starting to build a Jazz collection over the last decade.

This is pretty handy ..... http://jazz100.sffjazz.com/index.html

And there's just as many gems not on the "essential Jazz" lists, such as .......

 

<-----this record (John Abercrombie - Timeless which is my avatar)...its amazing. On EMC vinyl is the only way to hear it too...if you like Prog Rock then this is right up your ally.

 

Gotta agree with this recommendation for the OP, especially since he's coming from a rock background. Pat Metheny Group (1978) and Travels (1983) would be good places to start.

I'd also recommend Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters (1973), as rockin' a jazz record that has ever been made.

From there, if you like these guys, I'd go back to Empyrean Isles (1964) or Maiden Voyage (1965) for Herbie. They're more standard jazz and yet anything but standards. Herbie Hancock was/is so creative.

For Metheny, you can't go wrong with almost anything early from him, including American Garage and As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls, both by the Pat Metheny Group in 1980, and Pat's 1981's solo adventure with Charlie Haden, 80/81.

 

No doubt. I own about 1,000 jazz recordings, some on LP and most on CD. I've found more than my share of clunkers, but most of the time, I made good choices. There are a few ways to improve your odds:

1. Front man/woman - this is a no-brainer, but it bears mentioning. Although many players change styles over the years, (see Blue Mitchell going from Hard Bop to Soul and Funk), many stay within the same style. If you like one Monk album, you'll probably like them all. Same with Mingus. Coltrane is divided into three phases: 1) growth as sideman; 2) leader of classic quartet with some dabbling in the avant garde, 3) outer space.
2. Side men/women - this is a key element; if you dig hard bop and find a record by someone you don't know and the rhythm section is Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Roy Haynes, or Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones, then you can pretty much bank on a strong record. So, check out the players you like and look for them in other situations.
3. Favorite compositions - I don't know why, but someone could release a recording of Moon River on tin whistle and bassoon and I'd probably like it. So, take note of the compositions (many are from the standards pool) you like too.
4. Instrumentation - check out youtube for various instrumentation formats. You may find that you really like tenor, trombone and rhythm section, but not so much guitar, vibes and rhythm section.

 

I've spent the last couple of years exploring jazz titles from the mid fifties to the mid sixties. Here's some jems that stand out in my mind plus some fusion titles you may or may not own.

1) Sonny Rollins - The Bridge
2) Oliver Nelson Sextet - The Blues And The Abstract Truth
3) Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder
4) Hank Mobley - No Room For Squares
5) Miles Davis - Sketches Of Spain
6) Art Taylor - A.T.'s Delight
7) Dexter Gordon - Go!
8) Dave Weckl - Master Plan (fusion)
9) Jean Luc Ponty - Cosmic Messenger (fusion)
10) Al Di Meola - Kiss My Axe (fusion)