The Recommend Me Some Jazz Thread![merged]

shatners basoon

To be honest I've found the albums are pretty hard to get so i'd grab what you can really. All of the combo's stuff is good solid acid jazz that you can't help but strut to if you're listening with headphones.

To be honest i can rarely keep track of who plays on all the records i have though i admit that Morgan's playing on Blue Train and Hard Bop are both exceptional, that being said i don't think i've much Morgan where he's been anything other than great - not fond of digging deep to find albums where my favourite musicians play badly!

Elsewhere I got the new Brad Mehldau Trio album recently enough and i must say its brilliant! Great place to start if one's never heard him plus its about 150 minutes long! Bought the album in the Hague which had the best record store in the world - Called the jazz centre and it was HUGE!!!! Too many albums, too little time and definately too little money!!!

Setun

shatners basoon wrote: »

Elsewhere I got the new Brad Mehldau Trio album recently enough and i must say its brilliant! Great place to start if one's never heard him plus its about 150 minutes long! Bought the album in the Hague which had the best record store in the world - Called the jazz centre and it was HUGE!!!! Too many albums, too little time and definately too little money!!!

I was in that last summer actually, fantastic place.

Who would win in a trumpet fight though, freddie hubbard or lee morgan?

shatners basoon

Thats a pretty damn tough question, actually its a horrible question as there's really nothing between them. Morgan would possibly shade it as Hubbard went a bit crap for a while (relatively anyway) whilst Morgan was fairly consistent and at such a young age too, maybe if he'd lived longer he would have diminished but tragedy is a bitch huh?
Persobally though i feel that Hubbard in his prime (Hubtones especially) displayed possible the finest trumpet playing i've ever heard so i'd have to say i prefer Hubbard's playing.

/off topic though i'd recommend the whole line up
Been pondering over the idea of going to the north sea jazz festival with a mate. Tickets are pretty expensive but the lineup is awesome. Anyone been to one previously? Is it ultra commercial and pretentious?

cavedave

I was in Cuba recently and ended up on the beer with a Cuban pianist. I promised him I would send him some music. I am looking for around seven albums of jazz piano with a world music leaning. Make no assumptions about having heard someone already (Marvin Gaye "whats going on" brought looks of unknowing then of delight). I have four albums i am already sending

1. Christopher O'Riley
2. Jerry Lee Lewis
3. Kila
4 Goldberg variations by Gould
5...10?

Albums with sheet music available would be better. So what jazz piano albums would you recommend?

Hermy

First thing that comes to mind is Keith Jarret - Koln Concert.
There's some great playing from McCoy Tyner on Coltrane's A Love Supreme.
For a World Music leaning try Bheki Mseleku - Timelessness.

Setun

Look for a Jobim record, he's a brazilian pianist who wrote a lot of really nice jazz-samba standards.

Also purchase some Horace Silver maybe? He was influenced by the music of Cape Verde, I think his father was from there.

cavedave

Thanks Daddio and Hermy for the advice. Just to push my luck could you recommend some jazz drummers as well? I'm going for konono no 1 and the bad plus. Who do you like (for a Cuban drummer as well)?

Hermy

Jazz drummers...where do you begin?
Tony Williams
Billy Cobham
Art Blakey
Krupa and Rich
Elvin Jones
Another World Music leaning...Trilok Gurtu
And his Indian compatriot Zakir Hussain

dasdog

cavedave wrote: »

Albums with sheet music available would be better. So what jazz piano albums would you recommend?

Try Lennie Tristano maybe?

dasdog

shatners basoon wrote: »

/off topic though i'd recommend the whole line up
Been pondering over the idea of going to the north sea jazz festival with a mate. Tickets are pretty expensive but the lineup is awesome. Anyone been to one previously? Is it ultra commercial and pretentious?

Missed this yesterday - sorry. I went 12 years ago while living in Holland. Lots of people in nice suits carrying instrument flightcases floating about the place. We actually went down primarily to see George Clinton/Parliament Funkadelic and after much begging and blagging the door staff gave us free tickets (we were pretty poor working on a tulip farm south of Amsterdam planting bulbs for a living!). Not pretentious or overly commercial and from personal experience I would recommend it.

Ellechim

Hi guys

Curious to see that no-one yet has mentioned Count Basie! I would rate him above Ellington (even though Ellington won more grammies). Ellington is more polished, mainstream, Basie somewhat rawer.

Also, Ray Charles started out doing blues numbers - his early albums are really gospel/blues. Well worth exploring. I really struggle to see Glenn Miller as a jazz musician - sorry - but there is nothing improvisational or soulful about his music - and that to me sums up Jazz - Miller was really (sorry to offend anyone with this) the James Last of his era - bringing the orchestra to the populace - however the 'big bands' like those of Basie and Ellington did frequently see Basie & Ellington improvise at the piano and their musicians also improvised - the texture of their singing and playing is so heavily linked to gospel, which Miller's is clearly not......real Jazz focuses on that improvisation - and the joy of seeing/hearing a band play around that and come together is what makes it so exciting for so many.

Porgy & Bess is not jazz & blues! It is one of just two black operas. P&B by the Gerschwin brothers - and if you go see it live or get a recording with Willard White as Porgy you will really see the true P&B. (It's hard to see live as the Gerschwin foundation control rigidly who performs it, it must be performed by a completely black cast). Of course, P&B has given rise to many many jazz numbers - Summertime, it ain't necessarily so, etc however when performed as intended only really 'it ain't necessarily' could class as a popular piece of music. I've been lucky enough to see it live twice - once in the Royal Opera House in covent Garden with Willard White playing Porgy and Maria Ewing playing Bess and then the official Gerschwin foundation tour a few years ago in the helix - standard of performance at the ROH was light years better.

The other black opera is Tremonisha - by Scott Joplin - never performed any more and no 'famous' songs from it unfortunately - but very definitely a classical piece.

By the way, not many people know that many of the famed Jazz musicians played here in the late forties and fifties - Count Basie, the Duke, Ella Fitzgerald, etc. At the time they could not play in the UK as the UK had strict rules after WW2 that only performers with equity cards could play there. My dad saw them all in Dublin theatres - God, can you imagine those people playing here now! If you talk to people in their late sixties/seventies who were music fans you may well find some who saw these greats in person......

Anyway, having been brought up on Basie and Charles I had to throw those two guys into the mix - would be interested to hear other people's opinions. Personally, while a huge jazz fan I would not put on Glen Miller in a month of sundays!

Setun

Ellechim wrote: »

Hi guys

Curious to see that no-one yet has mentioned Count Basie! I would rate him above Ellington (even though Ellington won more grammies). Ellington is more polished, mainstream, Basie somewhat rawer.

Also, Ray Charles started out doing blues numbers - his early albums are really gospel/blues. Well worth exploring. I really struggle to see Glenn Miller as a jazz musician - sorry - but there is nothing improvisational or soulful about his music - and that to me sums up Jazz - Miller was really (sorry to offend anyone with this) the James Last of his era - bringing the orchestra to the populace - however the 'big bands' like those of Basie and Ellington did frequently see Basie & Ellington improvise at the piano and their musicians also improvised - the texture of their singing and playing is so heavily linked to gospel, which Miller's is clearly not......real Jazz focuses on that improvisation - and the joy of seeing/hearing a band play around that and come together is what makes it so exciting for so many.

Porgy & Bess is not jazz & blues! It is one of just two black operas. P&B by the Gerschwin brothers - and if you go see it live or get a recording with Willard White as Porgy you will really see the true P&B. (It's hard to see live as the Gerschwin foundation control rigidly who performs it, it must be performed by a completely black cast). Of course, P&B has given rise to many many jazz numbers - Summertime, it ain't necessarily so, etc however when performed as intended only really 'it ain't necessarily' could class as a popular piece of music. I've been lucky enough to see it live twice - once in the Royal Opera House in covent Garden with Willard White playing Porgy and Maria Ewing playing Bess and then the official Gerschwin foundation tour a few years ago in the helix - standard of performance at the ROH was light years better.

The other black opera is Tremonisha - by Scott Joplin - never performed any more and no 'famous' songs from it unfortunately - but very definitely a classical piece.

By the way, not many people know that many of the famed Jazz musicians played here in the late forties and fifties - Count Basie, the Duke, Ella Fitzgerald, etc. At the time they could not play in the UK as the UK had strict rules after WW2 that only performers with equity cards could play there. My dad saw them all in Dublin theatres - God, can you imagine those people playing here now! If you talk to people in their late sixties/seventies who were music fans you may well find some who saw these greats in person......

Anyway, having been brought up on Basie and Charles I had to throw those two guys into the mix - would be interested to hear other people's opinions. Personally, while a huge jazz fan I would not put on Glen Miller in a month of sundays!

Well the Miles Davis/Gil Evans arrangements of the Porgy and Bess book is, in my opinion, jazz but in that inimitable Evans style: an intermingling of classical, swing, big band, and modal improvisation.

I'd agree with what you say about Glen Miller. His music is very polished, to the point of having written 'solos', and for this reason he doesn't rate as a jazz musician for me. Having said that, he used a lot of swing and jazz ideas in his songwriting, and his band leading and arranging abilities were fantastic. Not a great jazz band, but a fantastic swing band perhaps.

Maybe start a seperate thread if you want to discuss this further though

Ellechim

Sorry, my misreading - I have the Davis version of P&B and it is deffo jazz and a classic.

Curious about the lack of comments on Count Basie - maybe I will start another thread.

Hermy

Hi Ellechim,
Interesting post from you above.
I got to see Progy and Bess in the Helix and really enjoyed it.
I have a Decca recording of the opera featuring Williard White - great stuff altogether.
Regarding Count Basie what would you recommend?

Ellechim

Hermy, it does depends what you're into - there are umpteen collections from different periods - I do like his earlier stuff - any recording from the 30s or 40s. I'm less keen on some of the more polished recordings in the late 60s or 70s.

My favourite ever CBasie track is 'Money is Honey' with Jimmy Rushing on vocals - you will find it on 'The indispensible Count Basie' one of the Jazz Tribune series on RCA - my version is from 1992, not sure if it's still available. its a 2 cd collection from 1947-50. I would also recommend 'The Complete Original American Victor Recordings' on Definitive Records.

His band are still going and touring - at the end of 2006 I think a heap of Ray Charles songs were found and the Count Basie band recorded the backing to them and it was released and is called 'Ray Sings Basie Swings'. It is great fun, although more of a feature of Ray charles than Count Basie.

There are some reasonable clips on Youtube - see if you like this kind of thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUGwqRg0PBQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYiDlOP4q1A&feature=related

Enjoy!

DexterDarkly

These are only some personal likings of my own but everyone should check them out.

Wes Montgomery
Thelonious Monk
Kenny Burrell
Wynton Marsalis
Herbie Hancock
Gerry Mulligan
Dizzy Gillespie
Charlie Parker
Chick Corea
Stanley Jordan
Charles Mingus
Django Reinhardt
Stephane Grappelli

Vunderground

Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives And Sevens
Louis Armstrong plays W.C. Handy


Couldn't live without them!

stevejazzx

Daddio wrote: »

Look for a Jobim record, he's a brazilian pianist who wrote a lot of really nice jazz-samba standards.

Also purchase some Horace Silver maybe? He was influenced by the music of Cape Verde, I think his father was from there.

.

and a guitarist..he was big into villa lobos (a classical guitarist who grew up on the streets of brazil) apparently and you can see this in his songs. His compositions are wonderful, a great musical mind there. Even the cheesy girl from ipanema contains a fantstic bridge (hard to play over that bridge, changes key 4!! times...my favorite song of is how insenstive, theres a metheny version here that'll blow your socks off...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itF1OMeeCuQ

and theres an even better version on one of his dvds

Desmo

Stevejazzx: that is a fantastic song!! It is so melancholy and gentle with most of the melody just alternating sadly between 2 notes at a time. I have also heard a nice version of it on a fairly recent Tommy Halferty CD. That Metheny version is the dogs scrotum alright.

buck65

Got this album on I Tunes yesterday and I would seriously recommend it, not sure if it's Jazz more folky feel, something different but excellent - Erik Friedlander - Block Ice and Propane

http://www.blockiceandpropane.com/

Downbeat review
http://www.blockiceandpropane.com/pdf/downbeat.pdf

buck65

bought Pharoah Sander's Karma the other day
great stuff - certainly reminiscent of Coltrane and Bitches Brew

HalloweenJack

Just got around to this...

I'd recommend Sun Ra, especially Futuristic Sounds and Space Is The Place. Two very different albums but both very good.

Futuristic Sounds is clearly influenced by the kind of classical jazz of the 40's and 50's (it was recorded in 1961) but it also has a bit of Sun Ra's own innovation and expansion of his own jazz sound.

Space Is The Place is totally different. It's a completely new approach to jazz and sounds more like Fela Kuti than old Sun Ra, although some of the songs seem to be development of themes he started on Futuristic Sounds.

buck65

Any chance of an album of the month here?
I guess a weely one would be a waste as there is very little traffic here.

herbieflowers

buck65 wrote: »

bought Pharoah Sander's Karma the other day
great stuff - certainly reminiscent of Coltrane and Bitches Brew

yeah, he played the tripod there not long ago, great player but the band didn't seem too fussed. Oh, and there were plenty of Trane covers!

Setun

buck65 wrote: »

Any chance of an album of the month here?
I guess a weely one would be a waste as there is very little traffic here.

I think that's a good idea, have been thinking about doing it for a while. But what album to start with? /strokes chin

By the way Marcin Wasilewski's new-ish ECM recording is fantastic if you like ambient piano jazz with a bit of drive.

Zumpel

Thanks to all you guys posting in this thread.

Found this session recording one to be very relaxing:
John Coltrane - "Stardust"

Amazing how it works on me when I get in the car after a bad day at work.

anti-venom

buck65 wrote: »

can I ask if anyone can recommend any "smooth jazz" (something for the wee hours that isn't -We have all the time in the world etc)?

Tomasz Stanko from Poland. Velvety. If you want to really fire up your blood after that then try some Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Inner Mounting Flame album especially.

anti-venom

HalloweenJack wrote: »

Just got around to this...

I'd recommend Sun Ra, especially Futuristic Sounds and Space Is The Place. Two very different albums but both very good.

Futuristic Sounds is clearly influenced by the kind of classical jazz of the 40's and 50's (it was recorded in 1961) but it also has a bit of Sun Ra's own innovation and expansion of his own jazz sound.

Space Is The Place is totally different. It's a completely new approach to jazz and sounds more like Fela Kuti than old Sun Ra, although some of the songs seem to be development of themes he started on Futuristic Sounds.

Have you ever listened to Brother Ah? He was with Sun Ra for ages and his music is quite similar. Really interesting take on Jazz imo.

funky penguin

anti-venom wrote: »

Tomasz Stanko from Poland. Velvety. If you want to really fire up your blood after that then try some Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Inner Mounting Flame album especially.

+ 1 on Stanko. Music to get lost in.

I'm also going to add Tord Gustavsen to that.

brosps

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=7sei-eEjy4g

this is good jazz, trust me i am profeser