Your help requested. What are your jazz albums suggestions ?

Cool, thanks ......... I like your John Coltrane category 3 ...... "outer space"

 

Tell that to Bill Bruford!

 

Chet Baker on Pacific Jazz or Riverside or Anita O'Day on Verve will never disappoint.

 

This is not a bad place to start:
http://tomhull.com/ocston/nm/notes/pjazz-core.php

 

Art Pepper with strings - Winter Moon
Dexter Gordon - Go!
Bill Evans - just about anything
Duke Ellington - The Great Paris Concert
Frank Sinatra and Count Basie - At The Sands
Julie London - Julie Is Her Name

 

I would also recommend these collections as essential foundational items that swing like crazy:

Duke Ellington -- The Duke's Men: Small Groups Vols. 1 and 2
Louis Armstrong -- Hot Fives and Sevens (JSP box)
Jelly Roll Morton -- 1926-1930 (JSP box)

 

Thank you, exactly what I need.

 

This is pretty much How You Get Into Jazz 101, or at least how it's worked for me over the past year or two that I've been getting into jazz. You like this album by So-and-so? Cool. —— Oh, this album has the pianist from that album I liked by So-and-so? I'll check it out... —— Man, I really like the trumpet on this one that I got 'cause the pianist was on that other album I like. —— Oh, hey! It's a record with that trumpeter I liked from that record I got 'cause I liked the pianist who I'd heard on that other album!

Eventually you'll just have a roster of names that make you willing to take a gamble when you see them.

 

The Jazz Samba Encore is a gem (both vinyl and CD)

 

My pleasure, but do yourself a favor and check out some of this stuff on youtube to get a sense of whether you dig it or not. You may hate everything I love and vice versa.

Oh, and one other thing: I know you were looking for less common suggestions like I gave you, but if you find you really like middle period Coltrane, the 4-CD box from the Village Vanguard is killer. Many of the tracks are otherwise unavailable, but many are also scattered across 5 or 6 other CDs (including two devoted to that series of dates). 'Trane, Dolphy, some guests, and the classic rhythm section really tear it up.

 

This is my other recommendation! Incredible and magical. Very elegant ... If you like the Bluessy - Jazz this is an excellent acquisition.

 

If you like Prog Rock and want to get into the vibe of Jazz maybe you can explore some of "Return To Forever". I would recommend, if you know them get started with the Anthology...



or this: Romantic Warrior.

 

{albums already owned}

If you like Kind Of Blue, you could consider In A Silent Way (Miles Davis) which could be viewed as an electric KoB.

If you like Bitches Brew (or maybe only even parts of it), then consider Jack Johnson (Miles Davis), which is his most out-and-out rock album, especially the first piece called Right Off. If both appeal, consider the rest of Miles' `69-`75 albums, some of which have been expanded into box form (as have In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew and Jack Johnson!).

These have been re-mastered numerous times on CD, vinyl and SACD!!

If 70s Miles floats your boat, then consider John Zorn/Electric Masada - At The Mountains Of Madness (2 CD). There is only one CD edition of this (being a 2005 release). It is, in a word, intense!

Have to agree with the suggestion of John Abercrombie's Timeless on ECM.

Given your rock background, you could consider The Grand Wazoo or Waka/Jawaka by Frank Zappa, both stunning in their new 2012 re-mastered versions.


I'll leave it there for now, as you are likely to get hundreds of different titles suggested, even ones you already have!

 

Right on - for fusion, I prefer rock musicians playing it to jazz musicians playing it. Grand Wazoo is phenomenal and Waka/Jawaka is excellent. But I bought older masters on CD and I'm not going to buy into new Zappa unless I don't have it.

Wait; Waka and Wazoo might be worth it...they're that good.

 

If you like progressive rock, I would recommend first of all:

• The Atlantic albums by John Coltrane (especially Giant Steps, My Favorite Things, Ole Coltrane and Coltrane Plays The Blues)
• The Impulse albums by John Coltrane (especially Africa/Brass, Coltrane, Crescent, A Love Supreme and The John Coltrane Quartet Plays)
• The Blue Note albums by Wayne Shorter (especially Night Dreamer, Juju, Speak No Evil, The All Seeing Eye and Adam's Apple)

 

Charles Mingus - Mingus Uh Um

Mercurial bassist and bandleader Charles Mingus was signed to Columbia Records for the briefest of time during 1959. His Columbia recordings, however, remain some of the most inspired, mood-jumping jazz in history. The flowing sadness of "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" (unedited here for the first time on CD!) rings like a funeral chorus that pitches headlong into a celebration of Lester Young's life and improvising flexibility, rather than his death. And there's the funky furnace blast of "Boogie Stop Shuffle" (also unedited!), which reaches its glory with Booker Ervin's Texas tenor sax, wrapped tight in bluesy tone. With the index of emotions captured, these songs nail why Mingus is possibly the most relevant jazzer for the '90s generation. He swings and shouts and hollers and somersaults. His tunes either induce foot-stomping with their intensity or reach for poignant yearning with their lyrical tapestry of orchestral colors. --Andrew Bartlett

 

After you have conquered the classics, consider trying some Dixieland Jazz. Its not for everyone, but it can be a whole heckuva lotta fun.

I really enjoy Louis Armstrong and the Dukes of Dixieland. That album introduced me to Dixieland Jazz. It was a complete (and happy) accident, as it was included in a lot of reel tapes.

 

If you like Weather Report, check out their earlier material - especially the first self titled album, Sweetnighter, Mysterious Traveler and Black Market.

 

It is interesting how often Blues And The Abstract Truth comes up on these type of lists. Although I think the song Stolen Moments is a classic, I can not listen to the second song Hoe-Down. It seems out of place and contrived, just ruins the recording for me. I find myself listening to Screamin the Blues much more often.

 

Indeed, lists like this are handy. But you need to know what type of Jazz you like/don't like. As an example: I like most of the top 20, but dislike Bitches Brew and Out To Lunch. And they are both in the top 10 according to the critics. But they're both a style of jazz that I don't appreciate.

The "classic" albums by Herbie Hancock are already mentioned, and I like to list some others:
- Man-child
- Mr. Hands
- River, The Joni Letters

I also love Music Evolution by Buckshot Lefonque, it's a mix of Jazz, hip hop and funk. And the Blue Note remix album by Madlib, Shades Of Blue. And the pop-jazz of Jamie Cullum.

More traditional jazz I love:
- Twelve's It by Ellis Marsalis Trio
- All Gregory Porter albums
- Return To Forever by Chick Corea

 

For Metheny I'd also strongly suggest 'Question & Answer', a trio date with Roy Haynes & Dave Holland & the somewhat avant-garde 'Song X' with Ornette Coleman.
If you're vinyl only with jazz you're quite limited and a whole swath of great music will never be heard by you as many releases are CD only.

 

'Live in Tokyo' is excellent also.

 

Everything. Because thats what will eventually be suggested in this thread.

 

Larry Young - Unity