[bigshot]

Hansel and Gretel laid down breadcrumbs to find their way through the forest. Streaming services require you to enter some names of artists for them to follow with suggestions. I'm going to assemble in this thread a list of musicians in a few major genres of Jazz. Some of these genres may not be familiar to you if you only know modern jazz. But I hope you will explore and add them to your streaming cue and see what you like. Feel free to discuss and suggest additions. I'll update the list as I get a chance.
 
I've just slugged a few names in. I'll add more soon. Best to keep it to the major players and let the streaming service go beyond that to the rest.
 
----------------------
 

RAGTIME (1890-1920)

Scott Joplin
Joseph Lamb
James Scott
 
----------------------
 


DANCE BANDS (1910-1930s)
 
Paul Whiteman
Nat Shilkret
Isham Jones
Guy Lombardo
Ambrose and his Orchestra
 
----------------------
 
TRAD JAZZ & EARLY JAZZ (1920-1930, 1950s)
 
Louis Armstrong and his Hot Fives & Hot Sevens
Sidney Bechet
Bix Beiderbecke
Jelly Roll Morton
Joe "King" Oliver
Edward "Kid" Ory
Acker Bilk
Pete Fountain
 
----------------------
 

HARLEM JAZZ (1930-1940)
 
Duke Ellington
Cab Calloway
Fats Waller
Don Redman
Fletcher Henderson
Benny Carter
The Mills Brothers
Chick Webb
Willie "The Lion" Smith
Earl "Fatha" Hines
Noble Sissle & Eubie Blake
James P. Johnson
McKinney's Cotton Pickers
Ma Rainey
 
----------------------
 

SWING / BIG BAND (1940-1950s)
 
Benny Goodman
Count Basie
Jimmy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey
Artie Shaw
Ben Webster
Coleman Hawkins
Roy Eldridge
Art Tatum
Oscar Peterson
Lester Young
Django Reinhart / Stephane Grappelli
Joe Venuti / Eddie Lang
 
----------------------
 
WESTERN SWING
 
Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys
Spade Cooley
Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies
Hank Thompson and his Brazos Valley Boys
Asleep At The Wheel
 
----------------------
 
LATIN JAZZ
 
Tito Puente
Machito
Chano Pozo
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Mongo Santamaria
Prez Prado
Lecuona Cuban Boys
 
----------------------
 





MODERN JAZZ (late 1940s-1960s)
 
John Coltrane
Dizzy Gillespie
Thelonious Monk
Dave Brubeck
Gerry Mulligan
Bill Evans
Charlie Parker
Sonny Rollins
Cannonball Adderley
Stan Getz
Eric Dolphy
Charles Mingus
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Johnny Griffin
Roy Haynes
Lennie Tristano
Mal Waldron
Chet Baker
Freddie Hubbard
Grant Green
Joe Henderson
 
----------------------
 
JUMP BLUES (late 1940s-1950s)
 
Louis Jordan
Lionel Hampton
Lucky Millander
Big Jay McNeely
Roy Milton
Slim Gaillard
Louis Prima
 
----------------------
 
JAZZ VOCALISTS
 
Billie Holiday
Ella Fitzgerald
Dinah Washington
Frank Sinatra
Kay Starr
Peggy Lee
Sarah Vaughn
 
----------------------
 



FUSION (1960s-1970s)
 
Miles Davis (post Bitches Brew)
Weather Report
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Joe Zawinul
Pat Metheny
Chic Corea
Herbie Hancock
Wayne Shorter
 
----------------------
 

AVANT GARDE (1960s-present)
 
Sun Ra
Archie Shepp
Pharaoh Sanders
John Zorn
Ornette Coleman
Sam Rivers
Anthony Braxton
Cecil Taylor
The Art Ensemble of Chicago
Steve Lacy
David Murray

 

[Wildcatsare1]

Subbed, looking forward to learning more about the roots of Jazz!!!! Thanks BigShot, much appreciated!

 

[Velomane]

More thanks to you, bigshot. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.

 

[fatcat28037]

OK, so now I have way too much stuff to find & listen to.

 

[ralphp@optonline]

Great idea and (for the most part) an excellent list for beginners. Plus I had no idea that you were such a big jazz fan Bigshot since you so rarely post in any threads about jazz.
 
A few names and sub-genres that didn't make it onto you list.
 
Genres with a few names:
 
Bebop - Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk
 
Blue Note Jazz (yes Blue Note should have it's own listing since it remains so popular) - Herbie Hancock, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey
 
Present Day Jazz - Dave Douglas, Brad Mehldau, The Bad Plus,
 
West Coast Jazz - Shelly Manne, Art Pepper
 
ECM Jazz - Keith Jarrett, Jan Gabarek, Ralph Towner
 
And some giants that were not mentioned and that would make good breadcrumbs:
 
Lennie Tristano
Sonny Rollins
Cecil Taylor
The Art Ensemble of Chicago
Freddie Hubbard
Eric Dolphy
Charles Mingus
Sarah Vaughn
Chick Corea
 
And a few more:
 
Benny Carter
Ben Webster
Coleman Hawkins
Roy Eldridge
Art Tatum
Oscar Peterson
Lester Young
Sam Rivers
Anthony Braxton
Cannonball Adderley
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Johnny Griffin
Roy Haynes

 

[Wildcatsare1]

Big Shot andRalprp@optonline, thank you for the extensive lists.

A couple of questions, I will use Mingus since I am presently listening to his marvelous "Live at Antibes"! Is he not BeBop, or because he spanned several styles, in play and through a long playing life?

Also, I love live Jazz. When I moved to NYC for a couple of years, going to the Blue Note was a pilgrimage! Could you both recommend some live performances that are artistic and sonic gems, outside of the "The Usual Suspects"?

 

[ralphp@optonline]

Big Shot andRalprp@optonline, thank you for the extensive lists.

A couple of questions, I will use Mingus since I am presently listening to his marvelous "Live at Antibes"! Is he not BeBop, or because he spanned several styles, in play and through a long playing life?

Also, I love live Jazz. When I moved to NYC for a couple of years, going to the Blue Note was a pilgrimage! Could you both recommend some live performances that are artistic and sonic gems, outside of the "The Usual Suspects"?

Thanks!
 
Some live "gems":
 
The Art Ensemble of Chicago - Baptizum: Live at the Ann Arbor Jazz Festival 1972
 
Gary Bartz Ntu Troop - I've Known Rivers and Other Bodies (1973)
 
David Murray Trio - Live '93 Acoustic Octfunk
 
Don Pullen / George Adams Quartet with John Scofield - Live at Montmarte (1985)
 
Joe Henderson - The State of the Tenor (1985)
 
Duke Ellington - All Star Road Band Volume 1 (1957)
 
Hal Russell NRG Ensemble - The Finnish/Swiss Tour (1990)
 
Alexander von Schlippenbach Quintet - Monk's Casino (2004)
 
Tito Puente's Golden Latin Jazz All Stars - Live at the Village Gate (1992)
 
Jaki Byard Quartet with Joe Farrell - The Jaki Byard Quartet Live! & The Last from Lennie's (1965)
 
Sun Ra Arkestra - Sunrise in Different Dimensions (1980)
 
Jewels and Binoculars - The Music of Bob Dylan (2001)
 
The Carla Bley Band - European Tour 1977
 
Some of these will be very hard to find but they are all worth hunting for.

 

[bigshot]

When you make suggestions of names to add, it would help if you group them under the categories, so I can just cut and paste them in. Thanks!
 

  I had no idea that you were such a big jazz fan Bigshot since you so rarely post in any threads about jazz.

 
Most discussions about Jazz on HeadFi center on the stereo era, which was very late in the game for Jazz. My interest in Jazz covers the entire history, not just the last couple of stages. Also, I take an interdisciplinary approach to it, including dance bands, jump blues, pop vocals and western swing. I'm not into building walls around it to keep other styles of music out. Jazz informed all kinds of music. It was the music of America, and eventually the entire world.

 

[kilkil]

It is interesting to see the categories i'm not too familiar, RagTime, Dance Bands, Latin Jazz.   I need to explore those more

 

[bigshot]

  It is interesting to see the categories i'm not too familiar, RagTime, Dance Bands, Latin Jazz.   I need to explore those more

I recommend Alan Lowe's book, "That Devilin' Tune". It's the only book on jazz that I have found that doesn't build walls around what jazz is and isn't, and doesn't stick to the party line about where jazz came from. Unfortunately, it is out of print, but you can still get the four 9 CD supplements to the book, and there is a great PDF excerpt here... http://www.allenlowe.com/books/that-devilin-tune/

 

[ralphp@optonline]

  When you make suggestions of names to add, it would help if you group them under the categories, so I can just cut and paste them in. Thanks!
 
 
Most discussions about Jazz on HeadFi center on the stereo era, which was very late in the game for Jazz. My interest in Jazz covers the entire history, not just the last couple of stages. Also, I take an interdisciplinary approach to it, including dance bands, jump blues, pop vocals and western swing. I'm not into building walls around it to keep other styles of music out. Jazz informed all kinds of music. It was the music of America, and eventually the entire world.

Will do!
 
By the way the second paragraph above states thing rather nicely. Well done bigshot!
 
I also agree that there seems to be an overall lack of concern for the history of jazz, which is why so many listeners get blown away by the next "new" thing when a little knowledge about the history of jazz would go a long way in showing them how that "new" thing is often just a new twist on some "old" thing. A good example of this is the group Mostly Other People Do The Killing, who are often called groundbreaking when in fact they owe their "new" sound to many of the great musicians who came before them. I should also note that the members of MOPDTK are fully aware of jazz history and its influence on their music, it's the listeners and critics who fail to understand jazz history.

 

[ralphp@optonline]

As per your request (and with few more names added):
 
WESTERN SWING
Asleep at the Wheel
 
MODERN JAZZ (late 1940s-1960s)
Stan Getz
Eric Dolphy
Charles Mingus
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Johnny Griffin
Roy Haynes
Lennie Tristano
Mal Waldron
 
AVANT GARDE (1960s-present)
Ornette Coleman
Sam Rivers
Anthony Braxton
Cecil Taylor
The Art Ensemble of Chicago
Steve Lacy
David Murray
 
BLUE NOTE JAZZ (1950s-1960s)
Freddie Hubbard
Grant Green
Joe Henderson
Herbie Hancock
Wayne Shorter
 
WEST COAST JAZZ (1950s-1960s)
Chet Baker
 
I didn't put the items from my list of live recordings into sub-genres since that post was really kind of off topic.

 

[Armaegis]

I need to come back to this and toss names in later when I have some time. I'm all about early swing era stuff.

 

[magiccabbage]

What a great thread. 
 
I will add some suggestions soon I just need to get my bearings

 

[wink]

Dixieland
 
Acker Bilk
Pete Fountain
 
 
Modern
 
Michael Kaeshammer