Get me into jazz!

There's a lot more to jazz than just free jazz, bop and fusion. Although the tv series sucked, the companion CDs to Ken Burns' Jazz were great. It doesn't work to listen to jazz the way you listen to rock. It's a different animal. If it sounds like background music, you probably just don't understand it yet.

Unless it's smooth jazz and then it actually is background music...

I like red hot jazz myself, especially Harlem and early swing. Nothing soft about that. Trad jazz kicks ass too.

If you're into the bebop and hard bop sound, definitely check out any of the earlier material by Thelonious Monk or John Coltrane. I can't think of specific recommendations off the top of my head, but I will say to start with the earlier material of those guys - especially in Coltrane's case; his later material got pretty crazy.

 

 

Here are some essential albums and some of my personal favorites. I've only selected albums that I think are at least reasonably accessible on the essential albums list. Personal favorites list may contain some albums that are not as easily accessible, but are very rewarding if you are able to like them. I've left out all the albums you mentioned you had already heard. If there are many albums from the same artis in the list, I've arranged them in chronological order starting with the earlies recording (note: albums have been arranged according to their recording dates, not their release dates).

 

Albums I'd call essential (or almost essential) AND reasonably accessible:

 

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers (nowadays known as Moanin')

Bill Evans Trio: Waltz for Debby

Charles Mingus: Blues & Roots, Mingus Ah Um

The Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out

Hank Mobley: Soul Station

Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage

John Coltrane: Giant Steps, My Favorite Things, Crescent

Keith Jarrett: The Köln Concert

Miles Davis: 'Round About Midnight

Oliver Nelson: The Blues and the Abstract Truth

Stan Getz & João Gilberto: Getz/Gilberto

 

Some of my personal favorites (some of these could also be called essential):

 

Alice Coltrane: Ptah, the El Daoud

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Free for All

Charles Mingus: Tijuana Moods

Eric Dolphy: Out to Lunch!

Herbie Hancock: Takin' Off

Joe Henderson: Page One

John Coltrane: Coltrane live at Birdland, A Love Supreme, Interstellar Space

McCoy Tyner: Sahara

Miles Davis: Workin' with The Miles Davis Quintet, Milestones, Miles Smiles, A Tribute to Jack Johnson

Ornette Coleman: The Shape of Jazz to Come, Free Jazz

Patricia Barber: Modern Cool

Pekka Kuusisto & Iiro Rantala: Subterráneo

Thelonious Monk: Monk's Music

Trio Töykeät: Kudos, Wake

Wayne Shorter: JuJu

 

In case that feels like a lot, I'll name five albums that are in my opinion most essential on the list and five albums that I recommend based on my personal preference (from the personal favorites list).

5 most essential albums from my list: The Blues and the Abstract Truth, Crescent, The Köln Concert, Mingus Ah Um, Time Out

5 personal recommendations: Coltrane live at Birdland, Monk's Music, Ptah, the El Daoud, Subterráneo, Wake

 

If one could only hear 3 of the albums I've listed they should be: The Blues and the Abstract Truth, The Köln Concert, Time Out

Anything by the greats is gonna be a safe choice. Jazz is so diverse that you have to find your niche or you can take it all in. I'll just list off some of my favorites:

 

John Coltrane

Charlie Parker (his recordings are so old sometimes it is incredibly hard to enjoy)

Michael Brecker

Dave Brubeck

J.J. Johnson

Miles Davis

Kenny Garrett

Charles Mingus

Oscar Peterson

Pat Metheny

Sonny Rollins

Ahmad Jamal

Stanley Clarke

Chet Baker

 

And anyone who's played with them.

Mingus.

 

Black Saint & The Sinner Lady

Mingus Ah Um

Changes Two

 

Also try 60's Herbie Hancock.

 

TJ's list is an excellent primer. Try and sample things on YouTube/Last.fm/whatever and get an idea of who you like.

Edited by phanboy_iv - 5/23/10 at 6:38pm

Don't forget all the GREAT JAZZ GUITAR ARTIST......I cut/pasted this top 100 list....MY FAVORITES IN RED......My Father(Henry "Hank" Fecteau) was a killer guitar player..

1. Wes Montgomery   2. Django Reinhardt   3. Pat Metheny   4. Joe Pass   5. Charlie Christian   6. John McLaughlin   7. Allan Holdsworth   8. Grant Green   9. John Scofield 10. Jim Hall 11. Larry Coryell 12. Kenny Burrell 13. Bill Frisell 14. Larry Carlton 15. Pat Martino 16. Mike Stern 17. Al Di Meola 18. Lenny Breau 19. Herb Ellis 20. John Abercrombie 21. George Benson(His Early STUFF) 22. Lee Ritenour 23. Tal Farlow 24. Lonnie Johnson 25. Eddie Lang 26. Robert Conti 27. Johnny Smith 28. Bill Connors 29. George Van Eps 30. Jimmy Bruno 31. Jimmy Raney 32. Hank Garland 33. Joe Diorio 34. Barney Kessel 35. Sonny Sharrock 36. Oscar Moore 37. Les Paul 38. Jeff Golub 39. Ralph Towner 40. Russ Freeman 41. Derek Bailey 42. Ted Greene 43. Martin Taylor 44. Howard Roberts 45. Charley Byrd 46. Ed Bickert 47. Chet Atkins 48. Scott Henderson 49. George Barnes 50. Gabor Szabo

51. Robben Ford 52. Charlie Hunter 53. John Pizzarelli 54. Kurt Rosenwinkel 55. Thom Rotella 56. Billy Bauer 57. Henry Johnson 58. Billy Bean 59. Sonny Greenwich 60. Dean Parks 61. Steve Khan 62. Frank Gambale 63. Mark Stefani 64. Stanley Jordan 65. Ronny Jordan 66. Bireli Lagrene 67. Earl Klugh 68. Grant Geissman 69. Ken Navarro 70. Harry Volpe 71. Paul Bollenback 72. Lorne Lofsky 73. Nguyen Le 74. Russell Malone 75. Daryl Stuermer 76. Phil Upchurch 77. Ulf Wakenius 78. Hiram Bullock 79. Andy Summers 80. Nick Webb 81. Tony Mottola 82. Bucky Pizzarelli 83. Norman Brown 84. Tiny Grimes 85. Tommy Tedesco 86. Mark Whitfield 87. Julio Fernandez 88. Marc Ribot 89. Greg Carmichael 90. John Pisano 91. Emily Remler 92. Brian Hughes 93. Fitzroy Coleman 94. Mick Goodrick 95. Kevin Eubanks 96. Carl Kress 97. Wolfgang Muthspiel 98. Tuck Andress 99. Robert Normann

My suggestion:  Go to Amazon.  Go to Music.  Type in blue note jazz.  Listen away.

John Coltrane

-Crescent (Absolutely stunning)

-A Love Supreme

 

Dave Brubeck

-Time Out

-Live at Carnegie Hall

 

Miles Davis

If you want to get into fusion

-A Tribute to Jack Johnson

-In A Silent Way

-Bithces Brew

 

for new stuff check out "The Bad Plus". Really weird/interesting. They like to do covers of popular songs. They do a mean Tom Sawyer cover. i hjave...

-These Are the Vistas

-Prog

 

Hebrie Hancock

-Head Hunters (can't go wrong with this. really funky)

 

Weather Report. Really funky as well

-Heavy Weather

-Black Market

 

enjoy

I agree with most of the suggestions above.  Since not many jazz singers were mentioned, here's a little starter list:

 

Kurt Elling - Nightmoves, The Messenger, Dedicated to You

Patricia Barber - Modern Cool, A Fortnight in France, Nightclub

Tierny Sutton - On the Other Side

Karin Allyson - Remember John Coltrane, In Blue

Sophie Milman - Take Love Easy

Sarah Vaughan - Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown

Dianne Reeves - The Calling, Goodnight and Goodluck

Madeleine Peyroux - Careless Love

 

That's all that's coming to me right now.  I tried to make a list of good sounding albums, and outside of the Sarah Vaughan disc most of them are fairly recent.  Of course you can't go too wrong with many of the classic singers too.

You forgot the two best jazz singers, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington.

Jazz and I have a love hate relationship. Most of the time I like laid back melodic jazz, soundtracks tend to be great for this stuff, and funnily enough, one of my favorite jazz artists is Roswell Rudd, a trombonist known for his avant garde snappy jazz-- But if you find some recording of his newer quartet (The Roswell Rudd Quartet) there's some great music in there with a lovely crew he put together and a talented vocalist.

 

Yoko Kanno composed a lot of good bebop and jazz for the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack-- one hell of a talented lady!

 

Other than those particular artists, I have a large jazz collection for parties with only a few slower tracks that I listen to on my own. One of my favorites being John Coltrane's "Say it (Over and over again)" and Sinatra is always great for some big band jazz.

 

But hey, while we're at the recommendation point, I wouldn't object if someone noted some good bands / musicians for some slower melodic jazz (vocal or no). ;)