Where to go from Kind of Blue? - Page 3

Can I get some love for Ramsey Lewis Trio? To me his TRIO work is crazy awesome! Appasionata, Time Flies, and Upendo Ni Pamoja all are staples for me, and though I can't remember where this appreciation came from it all started with Kind of Blue. That one album amazing in so many ways.

Ha ha! Yes, sometimes when one asks for music recommendations you get bombarded with loads of choices.

Back in the day, without the Internet, I relied on reading magazines, biographies of jazz musicians (read 2 books on Miles, including his autobiography), and listened to loads of radio. Now it is much easier with Wikipedia, YouTube, MySpace, etc.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by salannelson 

lol oh word, big mistake asking that question. you immediately get bombarded by albums and names. my suggestion is go on wikipedia, check out miles' discography, and see what else you like by him. go online and somehow listen to the songs without buying them, be it itunes or whatever. if you like something, get it. he tends to get more electronic and fusion like later, and who knows, maybe you'll like it. maybe not. that's what i did.

 

there, now you're in control.

Some great suggestions.

I would echo the suggestion you look into the solo albums by the other members on Kind of Blue. Also - if you don't have KOB in mono - I would highly recommend you try to find a copy. The best sounding stereo CD version of KOB is the new 2-CD Legacy Edition.

Bill Evans (piano player) has some great stuff out there. Look at "Sunday At The Village Vanguard", "Portrait In Jazz", "Waltz For Debby", "Everybody Digs Bill Evans" and "Explorations". IMHO, you can never go wrong with Bill Evans.

John Coltrane has many great recordings for many labels. Coming from KOB, I would recommend "Ballads", John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman", "Coltrane", "Standard Coltrane", "Blue Train", "Lush Life" and "Soultrane".

Cannonball also had some great releases, in particular I would recommend "Something Else", "Know What I Mean? feat Bill Evans" and "Live In San Francisco".

If you want to pursue Miles, I highly recommend "Cookin'", "Steamin'", "Walkin", "Workin'", "Miles Davis and The Modern Jazz Giants", "The New Miles Davis Quintet", "Bag's Groove", "Relaxin'", Miles Ahead (Both Mono & Stereo versions are essential). All of his work with Gil Evans is fantastic as well. There is a rare album called "Blue Haze" from 1953 which is also quite good yet many people have not heard it.

Other great jazz albums you may like coming from Kind of Blue are the following:

Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus

Sonny Rollins - Tenor Madness

Sonny Rollins - Plus 4

Sonny Rollins - Way Out West

Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners

Ben Webster - At The Renaissance

Chet Baker - Chet

Gene Ammons - Boss Tenor

Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane

Coleman Hawkins - Night Hawk

Kenny Burrell And John Coltrane - Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane

Kenny Dorham - Quiet Kenny

Johnny Griffin - The Little Giant

That should keep you busy and content for a long time.

Most of these can still be found cheaply. Buy the OJC versions mastered at Fantasy Studios and DO NOT BUY THE EUROPEAN RELEASES!!!!!!. Most can be had for under $10.

Yeah, Portrait In Jazz…that's what I'm talkin' about. It's reputedly the drummer Paul Motian's fave of the records he made with Bill Evans.

Charles Mingus - Ah Umm.  Part of my Top 10 Beginner's to Jazz Albums Playlist

Big thanks to LFF for pointing out which cd versions, in particular, to pursue.  Except for the wallet thing, maybe, though fortunately my entirel collection of OJC's are the "original" Fantasy masters. There was a time I was buying into all the new/improved/whatever marketing, but was just too broke to replace the older copies.  Now I'm glad I have what I have at least, even if still on the broke side.

And re: LFF's post, there's absolutely nothing to disagree with, but I will point out that re: Miles, it would be clearer to switch the placement of Walkin" and Relaxin', since Relaxin' was the same band, and the same sessions, as the other three "-in'" records. These were the last Prestige recordings; also from the same sessions is the first Columbia, "Round About Midnight". "Walkin'" is an altogether different kettle of fish, from an earlier period, and not with a consistent lineup.  I prefer the later five to "Walkin'", but there some particularly burning Miles trumpet playing on that one, for sure, and at that level it's preferences between beloveds.

I haven't re-read the entire thread carefully, so forgive me if I'm repeating what someone else has said already (again!), but I didn't see any mention of Clifford Brown.  The band with Max Roach (and either Sonny Rollins, or later Harold Land, on saxophone) was unbelievable. Get "Clifford Brown and Max Roach", would be my first recommendation. It's good to get trumpet player with a very different approach to timbre than Miles'. Brownie was magnificent, a joybringer.
 

^^^^ Good suggestion on Clifford Brown. I would highly recommend him as well.

One album that I forgot to mention was Cannonball Adderly's "Things Are Getting Better" featuring Milt Jackson. An awesome album. Get the original OJC version if you can. The 20 bit remaster is quite good too but you don't get any bonus tracks.

3x on Clifford Brown and Max Roach…also love Study In Brown, for "Sandu" and the versions of "Cherokee" and "Take The 'A' Train". That music kinda leads you into Kind Of Blue.

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Originally Posted by tru blu 

3x on Clifford Brown and Max Roach…also love Study In Brown, for "Sandu" and the versions of "Cherokee" and "Take The 'A' Train". That music kinda leads you into Kind Of Blue.

... and it also kinda leads you to the Art Farmer/Benny Golson Jazztet, another amazing trumpet/sax front line -- alto sax in the case of Golson -- with another amazing pianist (McCoy Tyner, later of the classic Coltrane quartet), with amazing ensemble arrangements... also not to be missed!

And one more trumpeter (one you won't likely get to branching out from people who played on "Kind of Blue", but really worth following in the lineage of trumpeters) is Woody Shaw. 8 or so really great CDs from a very advanced player who also kept the groove always. "Little Red's Fantasy" is a good place to start.  There are lots of other great places to start.

And now that I'm there, going back very slightly, the young Woody Shaw played on Larry Young's "Unity", with a composing credit on one of the better-known tunes from that record -- a stone classic of a record from the guy about whom the cliche is "the Coltrane of the organ".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Choronzon 

And one more trumpeter (one you won't likely get to branching out from people who played on "Kind of Blue", but really worth following in the lineage of trumpeters) is Woody Shaw. 8 or so really great CDs from a very advanced player who also kept the groove always. "Little Red's Fantasy" is a good place to start.  There are lots of other great places to start.

 

Ahhh, Woody…the disc I'm really into is The Moontrane, which, as alluded to in the title, is inspired by none other than John Coltrane. He's also great on those 1969 recordings by Andrew Hill that only saw the light of day in the '00s as Passing Ships.

I should add that the real commercial tragedy of Woody, though, is that he was the trumpeter Columbia Records dropped to put their muscle behind a kid from New Orleans with a squeaky-clean image named Wynton Marsalis. For a little while, it seemed like Woody had been erased from history. His substance abuse problems didn't help matters.

If you like Coltrane listen to Giant Steps then Love Supreme and then Stellar regions.

Art Blakey - A Night at Birdland

Bobby Hutcherson - San Francisco

And for something different Placebo - Ball of Eyes.

I'm a newcomer to jazz. I do like Kind of Blue and have listened to it quite a few times. So I went ahead and picked up John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, and, well I guess it's not for me? I'm not here to bash the record but it sounded like a complete train wreck to me. Instruments all over the place, notes here, there, everywhere with no melody. This is what it sounded like and I'm just being honest. I mean, Kind of Blue and A Love Supreme seem worlds away from each other. Kind of Blue has style, mood, atmosphere, class.

I guess I'm looking for a kick in the right direction for this type of jazz (Kind of Blue). Does anybody of some recommendations for me?

^^Try Bill Evans' Waltz for Debbie and Cannonball Adderley's Something Else.  The latter features Miles Davis on trumpet, nominally as a side-man, but really it's his date.

Try Art Farmer/Benny Golson Meet the Jazztet. Try John Coltrane's Ballads.

How many recommendations do you want? Those are certainly safe, given your responses to KOB and ALS.  They're also really brilliant records, lest my use of the word "safe" sound like faint praise.  We can also steer you toward which Miles records to try and which to avoid; I just don't know if two or four recommendations is plenty for now or not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paganini Alfredo 

I'm a newcomer to jazz. I do like Kind of Blue and have listened to it quite a few times. So I went ahead and picked up John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, and, well I guess it's not for me? I'm not here to bash the record but it sounded like a complete train wreck to me. Instruments all over the place, notes here, there, everywhere with no melody. This is what it sounded like and I'm just being honest. I mean, Kind of Blue and A Love Supreme seem worlds away from each other. Kind of Blue has style, mood, atmosphere, class.

 

I guess I'm looking for a kick in the right direction for this type of jazz (Kind of Blue). Does anybody of some recommendations for me?

Is classical music more your thing? Your screen name is why I'm asking. You might wanna stick with Miles, but try his earlier records, like Bags' Groove or Relaxin' With… Of course, Bill Evans' trio records sort of fit that bill, too. I'm tempted to suggest the Modern Jazz Quartet, but some folks are finicky about vibraphone taking the lead on things. Milt "Bags" Jackson, the vibraphonist on Bags' Groove, was a key soloist in the Modern Jazz Quartet. He was also one of the greatest natural blues players to walk the planet, doubly amazing because the MJQ was noted for jazzing up classical structures.

One more suggestion…if you can find a copy of the tenor saxist Lucky Thompson's Tricotism, I'd say snap that up instantly. That music is also available as Lucky Thompson Meets Oscar Pettiford, Vols. 1 and 2, but the sequence was changed for Tricotism, and it makes a difference in terms of the mood of the record. It's the contrast between opening with a gorgeously smooth sax, guitar and bass trio (no drums), or starting off with a more robust quintet (drums included). Or, you can get the reissued Lucky Thompson Meets Oscar Pettiford and program this sequence: 9-11-8-10-2-4-1-3-12-15-14-13-16-5-6-7. It's kinda like having two records in one.