Tell me about Jazz
 

I grew up with rock and classic rock. I've also listened to a lot of blues. Blues led me into some of the New Orleans style Jazz. I've got some Miles Davis and some Coltrane. I like the NO style and I like the MD and JC stuff that I have, but I don't know much about jazz, who performs it, what kinds there are, etc....

So, who's into jazz, what kind do you like, who do you listen to?

Since I like what I've heard, who else do you think I should try?

I'm off to read Wikipedia and look at the related stuff on Amazon.

Thanks

I'm no expert but I do have a good jazz radio station.


I really good 2 CD set is "Jazz at the Pawn Shop" for jazz heads.

I'll give you my humble take on jazz:

The genre itself spans many different styles, personalities, formats. Some I like, most I don't.

The big names in jazz, I found, are not my favorites. Mingus, Monk, Miles, Coletrain... a lot of that stuff ventures off into obscurity that I don't enjoy. Big band and swing is too sugar-sweet, experimental stuff leaves me feeling like I don't get it.

My favorite style is "hard bop", its got lots of soul and hooks and doesn't become too experimental. Im a rocker at heart, hard-bop just seems to fit with me. If I could recommend a few artists/albums, not necessarily hard-bop guys, they would be:

- Horace Silver
- Art Blakey
- Keith Jarrett
- Wayne Shorters latest stuff
- Bill Evans
- Miles Davis's Porgy and Bess
- The Bad Plus
- Charlie Hunter

Wikipedia has a pretty extensive list of the many different styles, take a look.

you should be able to stream WWOZ off of the computer. that is the new orleans public station. give them a few hours of your time and see what you think. they have a pretty good range of stuff as well as live shows.

"Jazz" is like saying "Rock" - lots of ground to cover.

I like different styles for different reasons. I've also played different styles for different reasons. I started out with guitarists like Wes Montgomery and Charlie Christian, then spread from there. I like modern/fusion in small doses, preferring swing and bop. Some big band stuff is just sick as well. There are a few "must have" albums, but getting a good compilation albums ("Best of.." or "Jazz Masters..." is a great way to start:

Giant Steps - Coltrane
Kind of Blue - Miles
Sketches of Spain - Miles with Gil Evans (one of my favorite albums of all time)
Ah Um - Charles Mingus

Find compilations for:

Herbie Hancock (earlier stuff)
Wayne Shorter
Charlie Parker
Theolonius Monk
Art Tatum
Django Reinhardt
Horace Silver
AC Jobim
Count Basie
Dizzy Gillespie
Duke Ellington
Dave Brubeck
Bud Powell
Jimmy Smith
Clifford Brown

and it goes on and on. I think you need to listen to the "heart" of jazz (40's-50's) so that you can see where other things come from. The earlier stuff can be interesting as well (going back to ragtime).

Great list. I totally agree with suggesting Django, Herbie, and Charlie Parker.

Im surprised about your enthusiasm for Sketches though, that album never really caught with me. The themes are spot on, but it seems like a movie soundtrack in some ways. Thinking about it, I guess my complaint is that its not pop enough for me, I can't think of a setting that I would put that record on...

Now "Porgy and Bess", another Gil collaboration, has my favorite 2 notes in all of music in it. Miles breaks my heart everytime I hear "I loves you Porgy". 2 notes is all it takes, changed my ideas about music forever with that song.

as above -- and yeh WWOZ!

but to start, why don't you find a copy of that PBS documentary by Ken Burns on Jazz -- listen to that and they have a web page too

The big band stuff is great, but a lot of people really get into it because of the newer age bop style jazz, i.e. Buddy Rich. Find Buddy Rich - West Side Story played by him or others and you'll get an entire spectrum of jazz. (one of those recordings may have even been one I played on... I played for a band on a CD that was cut which included the real version of West Side Story, as played by myself on drums..)

Maynard Ferguson took bebop and mixed it with disco and scream trumpets to create what a lot of people think of when they think Jazz in the late 70s.

the late 80's and 90s saw fusion jazz and some crazy stuff come into play- Dave Weckl Band, Joshua Redman's Elastic Band, and recently the Christian McBride band..


best way to experience Jazz is to go find a live show at a university and just mingle. You can go see a show for usually under $20-25 in a small auditorium and just really be blown away by the talent in the room. I saw Maynard Ferguson before he died in a real private gig auditorium of less than 300 people.. just real good memories and you will learn alot if you stick around and talk to the people..

http://www.kcsm.org/jazz91/listen.php


Both Mat and Todd's lists are "can't fails".

A very interesting 'little big' band is 'Super Sax'.
Some of the most outstanding horn lines you will EVER hear.

Frank Rosolino
Carl Fontana
J.J. Johnson
Kai Winding
Bill Watrous...
( if you like trombone )


Here's a little something:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2kotK9FNEYU&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2kotK9FNEYU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>


KT

I like that... its really cool thanks.

If you have Direct TV, the Ovation channel 274 is showing bios on jazz artists all day today.

I got in to jazz back in college, and I played guitar in the jazz combo in school. Later, I hosted an overnight jazz show on national public radio. it was pretty cool...they let me pick the records I would spin, and I would go on with a little something about each artist. It was a great way to get deep in to jazz.

Probably my favorites are musicians who actually composed tunes, with heads as opposed to just straight jam sessions which get boring after a while.

Bill Evans is my favorite pianist, I also like McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and Joe Sample, Chick Corea, ... I also like Wes Montgomery, Lenny Breau and Grant Green on guitar...Trane, Dexter Gordon, Miles...pretty mainstream jazz stuff actually....and too many to list.

here is something that may help figure jazz out... Bill Evans the Universal Mind Of video.
All the parts are on YouTube, but I will only put 2 here you can get the rest there:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Jm6V7bWnVpw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Jm6V7bWnVpw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XvDxOpyHono&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XvDxOpyHono&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/I_n-gRS_wdI&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/I_n-gRS_wdI&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

funny you mention Bill- I played with him on two different occasions a few years back when he was playing gigs in the St. Louis area. I played with the house band at two shows he played a year apart or so. Really really nice man, amazingly talented, and funny. One of the most amazing things I remember about him is his amazing health. He is nearly 70 years old but doesn't look a day over 50. It's amazing. I played a lot of Tom Kubis charts on both occasions we played. I believe one of those concerts was recorded and may be available on CD but I just cannot remember the name of the small record label that did it. It's a shame I don't even have a copy of a CD I am on...

As mentioned, lots of different genres in the jazz world.

Personally, I prefer the straight-ahead jazz of Miles, Coltrane and Evans and some contemporary stuff from Pat Metheny.

As for big band jazz, one of my recently discovered favorites is the GRP All Star Band, made up of contemporary jazz heavyweights under contract to GRP Records (Dave Grusin). They had a brief tour in the 80's. Here's a couple on the tube (Chick Corea's "Spain") and Gillespie's "Manteca":

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kJ7nVTwxGWw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kJ7nVTwxGWw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gKrxrnYWrdU&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gKrxrnYWrdU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

I thought this North Sea Jazz Festival concert w/Metheny was great:
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_87OHmULKs8&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_87OHmULKs8&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

I couldn't resist. Another one, Metheny w/the Brad Meldau Trio:
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7_SQqXXZE2w&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7_SQqXXZE2w&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Sherwood

I've been a jazz fan my entire life. Many, many different types of jazz. Listen to a wide variety to start and filter out the stuff you don't care for until you find the jazz that works for you!

I made a Dexter Gordon station on my pandora account. I listen to jazz primarily as I study so it Dexter Gordon is nice coffee shop background style music. I'd like it out in the barn too for when I work on the car, but I get no internet out there:(

Two websites where you can put in an artist and they will playback similiar music:
www.pandora.com
www.last.fm

As a side note what is it with jazz radio hosts and those fake voices.

Yeah, you guys seem to be echoing what I read last night and I guess a bit of what I've heard. Lots of different stuff.

I guess I've got a bit more than I thought, besides Coltrane and Davis, I've also got some Louis Armstrong, Dizzie Gillespie and Duke Ellington and probably some other stuff (Oscar Peterson and Charlie Parker I think). Thanks for the advice. I've got a lot of stuff to check out. I suspect it'll take me a couple of weeks to sort through all of this stuff.

My head's spinning, ragtime, dixieland, swing, bebop, hard bop, cool, modal, free, etc.... I wouldn't know the difference if I was beat over the head with a horn.

Thanks all!

Here you go - Chris Botti

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/M51UqyWpYko&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/M51UqyWpYko&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Besides what's been mentioned, some others to check out are Chet Baker, Charles Brown, Vince Giuraldi, Ramsey Lewis and some of the Latin stuff Cal Tjader, Cachao, Tito Puente, Gato Barbieri even the new stuff by Los Hombres Calientes. Also there's Weather Report, Jazz Crusaders, the list goes on. We have a great station here in L.A. 88.1 KJAZZ out of Long Beach, you can catch it on the web.

Check out Bill Frizell, jazz guitarist.
Want something "jazzy", esoteric, and eccentric, check out pianist Glenn Gould.

That's cool. Are you a drummer?


Back when I in high school in the mid 80's, Bill came to our school and conducted a week long jazz clinic with our band.
We played his charts and performed a concert on the weekend.

I play trombone. I even played the tuba in one of his tunes.

He has this technique that he has mastered called 'circular breathing'.
Allows you to blow a note indefinitely without stopping to take a breath like normal.


Bill also did this thing where he would sing notes through his trombone while playing. Very unusual and interesting sound. The trombone and the voice combined would create an 'overtone' third note and create a chord tone.
Really strange.



KT