Recommend me Jazz

Allen Toussaint- The Bright Mississippi

Pick up the Ken Burns Jazz CD set. The documentary sucked, but the CDs are very well chosen and will expose you to a wide range of music.

If you are interested in theory, this short program featuring Bill Evans is chock full of ideas.
http://animationresources.org/?p=1413
Edited by bigshot - 7/15/12 at 1:24am

The things you're looking for in jazz are in there, whether it's a Louis Armstong trumpet solo from 1928 or modern jazz. Just start with the grammar and vocabulary of the music and the structure and syntax will reveal itself.

Best to avoid free jazz and some fusion though. Those genres tend to not be as structured.

Personally, when it comes to structure, my favorite is Duke Ellington in the 20s and 30s. He did things that no one else could do, and it flowed out of him so naturally, you don't even notice it at first.

I'm a big fan of 60's-ish jazz myself. Some albums you'll see get recommended a lot:

 

• Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
• John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
• Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus (my current avatar)
• Bill Evans Trio - Waltz for Debby
• Dave Brubeck - Time Out

 

The early-era stuff is great too, but I actually think that the 60's era is a better place to start for a beginner. A bit more energy and instrumentation (akin to modern music), and the recording quality is a major step above the older stuff. With jazz music, there's so much out there that you'll always be discovering new bands, styles, and sub-genres. It really is a great ride.

Going to come at this from a little bit different perspective. 

 

I strongly recommend all the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack CDs. Most of them have beautiful layering as well as some fantastically recorded live stuff. Unfortunately they're a bit tough to find lately. 

 

For the most part it's high energy Jazz, but there's a few more relaxing pieces that I love.

What musical background are you approaching this from? I suspect someone who listens to a lot of rock might like different things than someone whose listening is primarily classical. I listened mostly to classical when i took an interest in jazz and I found Dave Brubeck to be the most accessible to start with. Jazz at the Pawnshop was also very good. It's a set of a lot of jazz standards but the instrumentation reminds me of Gershwin, featuring a lot of clarinet and xylophone.

He's a Bach fan and is looking for structure. Brubeck's Time albums are a good suggestion.

i like Fourplay...

http://www.israbox.com/1146317928-fourplay-the-best-of-fourplay-1997.html

 

Ditto on the Ken Burns series.

One good way to sample various eras, idioms and exemplars of jazz is to sign up to www.accujazz.com and/or www.jazzradio.com.  Each offers a wide variety of jazz streams and basic membership is free.

Among my favorites: Davis, Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, Ellington, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus

Those mentioned above like Miles Davis, Bill Evans and Coltrane... you can't go wrong with those. If you're up for a little more modern jazz I'd check out Pat Methany and Keith Jarrett. The Koln Concert by Keith Jarrett is probably one of the most popular jazz albums of all time and surprised it wasn't mentioned. It's solo piano, pure improvisation but has a very organized structure to it. Check out Bright Size Life by Pat Methany. Probably one of my favorite jazz albums. I would say when listening to them to try to listen to it visually, as Keith Jarrett once said about his music. 

The fella said he was looking for structure. Coletrane used less and less formal structure as time went by, and when he did, it wasn't always readily apparent. The same is true of Miles Davis. Earlier albums would be better than the post fusion ones.
Edited by bigshot - 7/23/12 at 10:16am

sorry wrong thread

Edited by scjarrett87 - 7/24/12 at 5:12pm

 

You hear jazz? Sounds more like Top 40 pop R & B and hip-hop to me.