Jazz Recommendations

Remove all ads!

Lately, I've developed a curiosity towards Jazz - influenced primarily by, of all things, the Sam and Max soundtrack (google up "The Office" or "Jurgen Lair Suite"). But a glance at the relevant Wiki page showed that there were endless styles and varieties of the genre, each with its maestros and masterpieces, and I haven't the faintest idea where to start my journey into the realms of slinky sax.

So, yes - could anyone give me some recommendations? I think I'm less interested in punk jazz and jazz rap (as described by Wikipedia, anyway), but anything is appreciated. Thanks!

 

Check out Miles Davis' A kind of Blue, it's one of my favorite albums.

Here's a sample:

 

Wow, great topic. Here are my recommendations.

It's always a good idea to start with the classics. Morgoth's suggestion tops my list, as well as:

John Coltrane - Coltrane's Sound
Charlie Parker - The Essential Charlie Parker
Thelonious Monk - The Bluenote Years
Horace Silver - Song for my Father
Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um

Avoid "smooth jazz" whenever possible. Smooth jazz is just awful. Think Kenny G and the adult-contempo crap you heard in the dentist's office in much of the 80's and 90's. Stick with cool jazz (Miles Davis, Coltrane), Bop (Mingus, Parker, Monk) and Fusion (Herbie Hancock, Frank Zappa).

Of course there's also my personal favorite genre - war-era big-band Swing. Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, George & Ira Gershwin, and their derivatives, like Frank Sinatra and the rest of the Rat Pack.

 

Well, you do ask a difficult question because there's a LOT of jazz music worth listening to!

I personally like jazz from the old days (yes, including dixieland) and jazz by trumpeters the most (am a trumpeter myself). Louis Armstrong being my favorite artist.

Other great trumpet jazz artists:

Dizzy Gillespie
Freddie Hubbard
Clifford Brown
Miles Davis
Lee Morgan
Chet Baker

From the newer generation:
Wynton Marsalis
Chris Botti

Have fun!

Mark

 

I don't know -- I rather like smooth jazz. Think Sade, Anita Baker, Candy Dulfer, Ramsey Lewis, Boney James, Alicia Keys, Eric Darius, Norman Brown, ....

The classics have been hit pretty good (although I'm astounded no one mentioned Ella Fitzgerald), but it depends on what you like. If you want sax a couple of good modern sax players are Candy Dulfer and Eric Darius.

 

Ouch, I should've mentioned her as I've some of her albums

 

Charlie Parker is a good starting point for jazz sax. Also, John Coltrane has been mentioned, and I wanted to add "Blue Train" as a good starting point for his solo work. But sax and trumpet are already pretty well represented here. There are some fine guitar players in jazz, and you may want to check-out a few of them:

John Scofield: "Blue Matter," "Still Warm," and "A Go Go."
Pat Metheny: "Pat Metheny Group," Letter From Home," and "Frist Circle."
Norman Brown: "After the Storm," and "Celebration."
Greg Howe: "Introspection." (which is more Jazz/Rock Fusion)
Larry Carlton" "Last Night," "Sapphire Blue" and "Fingerprints."
Mike Stern" "Play" and "Upside Downside."

Along the lines of Jazz Fusion, you may want to consider Weather Report: "Heavy Weather" or "Night Passage" would be good starting points.

I really like Be-Bop and Cool Jazz from the 50s and 60s, as many have mentioned:

Miles Davis: "The Birth of Cool" and "'Round Midnight." ("Kind of Blue" has already been mentioned).
Dave Brubeck: "Time Out."
Bill Evans: "Everybody Digs Bill Evans."

Like T2, I also like smooth jazz, which is often disparaged by some jazz aficionados:

Brian Culbertson: "Nice and Slow"
The Rippingtons: "Curves Ahead" and "Kilimanjaro"
Yellowjackets: "Four Corners"

The Rippingtons:



Pat Metheny:



John Scofield:



Brian Culbertson:



Yellowjackets - Wildlife (from Four Corners)



DM - I was not familiar with Sam and Max, so I googled it to check-out what you were looking for. I think you might like Sonny Rollins. This is some jammin' stuff:



A stumbled onto this one with Cannonball Adderly, who also played on Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. It also covers a little jazz history from the 60s. There's a lot of name dropping goin on:



...And we haven't even started talking drums yet. "Take Five" (the drummer is Joe Morello).

 

I'm with T2B about Smooth Jazz. There are some great artist in that genre as well. I may not know that many but I sure got more than a dozen Keiko Matsui CDs.

Other artists that I enjoy (not necessarily smooth jazz, some may cover pop jazz and other kinds of jazz)
Sade
Aretha Franklin
Anita Baker
Bill Withers
Grover Washington, Jr.
Dave's True Story
Everything But the Girl (more pop than jazz)
Chuck Mangione
George Benson
Norah Jones
Dianne Reeves
Louis Armstrong
some Eva Cassidy's jazz covers
Workshy

 

If you're interested in electronic jazz I'd really recommend anything by Koop but especially their "Koop Island Blues" album as well as United Future Organization's "3rd Perspective" and "No Sound Is Too Taboo"

 

Recommending jazz is like recommending a religion. There are almost as many personal choices in jazz as in religion. You just start any where and follow what sounds you like. Find an artist of your choice and listen again and again to understand where their music is going. Then find a similar artistic style and listen . You'll eventually find an artist and style that melts your butter and then you'll expand your listening horizons. All that said you will have favorites discovered along your journey that you'll never forget. Its a life long enjoyable trip.