The Recommend Me Some Jazz Thread![merged]

ThOnda · 11-01-2008 12:37am

Well, I have found that most of the Big Bands and Swing music is quite close.
Take Five is excellent album.

Zumpel · 19-01-2008 11:11pm

Hi All ,

this is the third time I'm re-writing the post, but I still can't get it to be really
specific because I'm a total jazz/blues ignoramus.. so here goes.. bear with me:

I'm looking for instrumental bands/anthologies that play a slow, laid back type of sound
for which I don't really have the frame of reference to describe it properly..
examples from last.fm would be

Herbie Hancock - The Kiss
Stan Getz & Jimmie Rowles - The Peacocks
Chet Baker - My funny Valentine
Bill Evans Trio - My foolish heart
Bohren & der Club of Gore - Midnight Walker

Pure instrumental and the mood I'm looking for, really laid-back without slanting too much into "easy listening".

... hmmm probably still doesn't make much sense, does it ?

Would really appreciate if yous could point me into the right, slow, laid-back and relaxed, direction.

JacoStanley · 20-01-2008 4:24pm

You could try the following perhaps:

Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter 1+1 album (Instrumental)
Herbie Hancock - River , The Joni Letters (Vocal & Instrumental)
A selection of E.S.T stuff
A selection of the Kurt Elling stuff.........(Vocal)
Check out Recollections - Miles Davis (Very chilled instrumental)

Are you looking for specific tunes or whole albums? It would be easier to put together a collection of tunes.

Zumpel wrote: »

Hi All ,

this is the third time I'm re-writing the post, but I still can't get it to be really
specific because I'm a total jazz/blues ignoramus.. so here goes.. bear with me:

I'm looking for instrumental bands/anthologies that play a slow, laid back type of sound
for which I don't really have the frame of reference to describe it properly..
examples from last.fm would be

Herbie Hancock - The Kiss
Stan Getz & Jimmie Rowles - The Peacocks
Chet Baker - My funny Valentine
Bill Evans Trio - My foolish heart
Bohren & der Club of Gore - Midnight Walker

Pure instrumental and the mood I'm looking for, really laid-back without slanting too much into "easy listening".

... hmmm probably still doesn't make much sense, does it ?

Would really appreciate if yous could point me into the right, slow, laid-back and relaxed, direction.

Zumpel · 20-01-2008 10:07pm

Thanks a bunch for your answer. I think I'm probably looking for tunes, as albums tend to vary a bit in style. (Don't want to be kicked in the pyamas by an faster tune when I just started to relax..

)
I'll have a look into your suggestion tomorrow at work, should make the Monday much more palatable.

mike65 · 20-01-2008 11:34pm

If you want a quick preview of many tunes it might be worth puting those album titles
into amazon.com.

Mike.

gillyfromlyre · 21-01-2008 5:53pm

gabgab wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I know very little about Jazz, except that I like a miles Davis CD I got one christmas,thanks guys,

Herbie Hancock is a must, theres also a guy from Amsterdam, Willie Nebittsen, a recluse who is really hard to find both in record shops and in person, who is absolutely amazing. He plays 2 different pianos at the same time, left hand on 1 piano, right on the other, 2 different melodies going perfectly.Like I said hes nearly impossible to get, but do a bit of a search and you might get lucky. Myself and the hubby happened upon him in Paris 2 years ago, he was playing near the eiffel tower with 2 keyboards. He does a bit of everything, lounge, soft jazz, even acid jazz (he did this weird sound effect in one song, he opened a can of coca cola and fried an egg on a small gas burner, he then placed a mike beside them for background effect for his piano tunes, wacky)

mike65 · 21-01-2008 6:06pm

Zumpel the Finding Forrester soundtrack would be handy.

Mike.

JacoStanley · 21-01-2008 8:03pm

mike65 wrote: »

Zumpel the Finding Forrester soundtrack would be handy.

Mike.

Quite right. Where I first heard Recollections.

Jay P · 08-02-2008 5:25pm

Aaron Goldberg. The only jazz Ive heard, but its just amazing

funky penguin · 17-02-2008 4:21pm

Right, I'm looking for something along the lines of later E.S.T. stuff, like 'Seven Days of Falling' onwards, specifically 'Viaticum'.

I'm terrible at describing the music, so I don't what it is. Melodic minimalism? Relaxing atmospheric? Whatever it is, its the jazz I like and I wants more! Love Avashai Cohen as well, if that helps.

Cheers in advance.

Shooter_McGavin · 20-02-2008 4:52pm

I recommend...
Grant Green (sessionswith Sonny Clark or Idle Moments)
Art Blakey (Ugetsu!)

gernon · 22-02-2008 9:13pm

Anyone looking for smooth jazz need look no further than the excellent group 'Fourplay' , great musicians and easy listen tunes.

buck65 · 25-02-2008 1:34pm

Bought John Zorn's The Gift album yesterday really chilled guitar jazz mixed with surf!? music , real cool and smooth. Different to his other stuff I believe.

buck65 · 27-02-2008 12:40pm

some suggestions here!!
http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/jazz100/top100.html

ec18 · 08-03-2008 8:56pm

I picked up miles Davis...Some kind of blue (based on recommendations from here)....and it's brillant...anything else along those lines?

Setun · 09-03-2008 11:46pm

funky penguin wrote: »

Right, I'm looking for something along the lines of later E.S.T. stuff, like 'Seven Days of Falling' onwards, specifically 'Viaticum'.

I'm terrible at describing the music, so I don't what it is. Melodic minimalism? Relaxing atmospheric? Whatever it is, its the jazz I like and I wants more! Love Avashai Cohen as well, if that helps.

Cheers in advance.

Check out The Bad Plus maybe? Some interesting piano trio stuff there. Also check out some Bill Evans with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian - classic jazz trio interplay.

Jay P · 19-03-2008 5:33pm

Dave Brubeck is class

tradman · 09-04-2008 12:49pm

Blue Train by John Coltrane is pure genius. Its by far my favourite album. Its also better thana love supreme. If you like guitar jazz, wes montgomery is real nice..

JacoStanley · 10-04-2008 12:25pm

Jaco at his best!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKCwH3amLaU

Tzetze · 10-04-2008 4:01pm

JacoStanley wrote: »

Jaco at his best!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKCwH3amLaU

That vid won't load for some reason.
How about this one? Check out how he finally resolves the piece at the end. Legend!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0SPttqD2JE

RobY · 09-05-2008 9:22pm

There are few more albums/collections I would add to this thread:

Louis Armstrong - Ken Burns Jazz Collection
Best of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
Blues & Roots - Charles Mingus
Chet Baker Sings
Giant Steps - John Coltrane
Ballads - John Coltrane
Coltrane's Sound - John Coltrane
Ole Coltrane

Once you get into those, try:

First Meditations - John Coltrane
Stellar Regions - John Coltrane
Ptah, the El Daoud - Alice Coltrane
Hot, Cool & Latin - Eric Dolphy
The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings - Louis Armstrong

Setun · 10-05-2008 11:55pm

RobY wrote: »

There are few more albums/collections I would add to this thread:

Louis Armstrong - Ken Burns Jazz Collection
Best of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
Blues & Roots - Charles Mingus
Chet Baker Sings
Giant Steps - John Coltrane
Ballads - John Coltrane
Coltrane's Sound - John Coltrane
Ole Coltrane

Once you get into those, try:

First Meditations - John Coltrane
Stellar Regions - John Coltrane
Ptah, the El Daoud - Alice Coltrane
Hot, Cool & Latin - Eric Dolphy
The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings - Louis Armstrong

What's that Dolphy album like?

RobY · 15-05-2008 9:44pm

It's pretty cool(!).

15 tracks, consisting of two sessions. Hollywood 1959 and NYC 1960.

Two completely different sets of musicians; Dolphy is the only link between the sessions.

First session has guitar and no piano; Dolphy plays Alto and Flute.

Second session is with the Latin Jazz Sextet; he plays mostly flute and bass clarinet and one track on alto.

All in all it's pretty interesting - cuban tinge with some beautiful flute and bass clarinet.

As far as I can recall, I picked it up on CD about 7 or 8 years ago in Tower Records. It's on the Blue Moon label - not something I had ever heard of before buying.

Hermy · 16-05-2008 2:22pm

Tzetze wrote: »

That vid won't load for some reason.
How about this one? Check out how he finally resolves the piece at the end. Legend!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0SPttqD2JE

That's a great post Tzetze. It's from Young and Fine Live, recorded in 1978, if anyone doesn't know. I have a rough copy but would love to get my hands on the DVD which is available from HMV Japan.

duffman90210 · 20-05-2008 10:38pm

Some Ibrahim Ferrer or Buena Vista Social Club can be a nice change of style in Jazz. It maintains that laid back feeling, but with a cuban vibe.

Buena Vista Social Club - Buena Vista Social Club

Ibrahim Ferrer - Buena Vista Social Club Prensents Ibrahim Ferrer

markesmith · 28-05-2008 12:32pm

Some recommendations I'd give are:

- Mingus: Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Mingus Ah Um, Blues & Roots
- Coltrane: Love Supreme (obviously), Giant Steps, My Favourite Things
- Davis: Kind of Blue, Birth of the Cool, Sketches of Spain

You can't go wrong with any of those. I'd say, start with 'Kind of Blue', it's a real classic of the 'cool jazz' genre.

Interestingly, just wrote a blog post today about 'So What', the first song on Kind of Blue. Here's a link. </plug> There's a link at the end of it to a barnstorming version of 'So What', complete with Fast Show-style jazz announcer.

shatners basoon · 29-05-2008 5:42pm

^Hope to god that you've got Miles' Birth of the Cool as well then, gotta be his quintessential album (well besides all the others), filled to the brim with excellent melodies.

Surprised so few ppl have recommended any Bill Evans. Everyone should own a copy of the complete live at the village vanguard recordings (his trio featuring the late Scott LeFaro in all his brilliance on bass and Paul Motion on drums). Its an accessible album but contains loads of depth and works perfectly as background music too.
(edit just saw daddio's post above, so scrap the first few words of this paragraph!)

Tzetze · 29-05-2008 5:56pm

How about some jazz-funk... fusion.

Weather Report (Jaco Pastorius)
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (Victor Wooten)
Marcus Miller
Stanley Clarke

(Heavily bass-biased

)

Herbie Hancock (Check out Chameleon on the Head Hunters album)
Gil Scott-Heron

And, definitely not fusion, but well worth a listen to...
Lee Morgan
Charles Mingus (Theme from Charlie Brown!)
John Pattituci (more bass bias)

Edit: Hermy - thanks for the link above - looking forward to getting myself a copy!

shatners basoon · 29-05-2008 6:05pm

The Flecktones are a band i've yet to hear actually, where should i start?

Also i agree that everyone should listen to Lee Morgan (newcomers should start with 'the sidewinder' or 'the gigolo'); damn all those stupidly talented young musicians that were about back in the day.

Ever listen to Medeski, Martin & Wood? Some damn good funk/jazz, their new album with Scofield is particularily good, otherwise try combustification (sp?).
Elsewhere the Tito Lopez Combo are about the funkiest thing going!

Setun · 31-05-2008 10:39am

Checked out Tito, he's a damn fine player. Recommend an album?

I'd nearly go as far as saying some of Lee Morgan's best playing was on other people's records (but having said that, the Sidewinder is a classic). Lee Morgan on Blue Train/ most of the Messenger's records = Wow! Firecracker trumpet playing.

The Recommend Me Some Jazz Thread![merged]

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