I don't 'get' Miles Davis.
 

Or, really, any Jazz.
That plug has never found a socket, even though I've tried for years to find the opening. I've got albums by Satch, Bird, Chet Baker, Dizzy, Anita Baker...I own "Kind of Blue"

Nothing. The closest I've come is Ellington at Newport, which I really like, but I have a suspicion that that album skates dangerously close to 'Jazz for beginners' because of the way it swings.

I suppose, like Dylan, or Neil Young, you either get it or you don't.

I love Steely Dan, especially Aja, so I know that there is something in me that understands the precision and the arrangements of masterful works, but when I really need music, I'm heading straight for the blues, not to the jazz.....

I grew up with Jazz...my Father and Mother were into it.

As Lenny Bruce once said, to be cool in the 50's and early 60's, you had to listen to Jazz, drive a Jaguar and have a stereo system where the weakest link in the system was the human ear.

That was him.

So I'm pretty well versed in who was who from that era. I liked Monk and Lewis and Parker. Loved Sonny Rollins, Benny Goodman. Ella. So many others.

But I never got Miles Davis either. Nor Billie Holiday.

As an aside, Aja does have perhaps the greatest lyric ever: I crawl like a viper through these suburban streets...

Try "Down to The Bone" It's jazz, but leaning toward funk.

Supercharged

Down To The Bone - Supercharged - YouTube

Long Way from Brooklyn

Down To The Bone.. Long Way from Brooklyn - YouTube

I'm with you. I do like some jazz and had listened to Kind of Blue in my very early 20's. By this time I had already been listening to blues and seeing it live. Muddy "Mississippi" Water's live at age 16 was a favorite and had seen Buddy Guy at 18. Before I was 21, I was seeing Junior Wells and Lefty Dizz as well as others.

A friend recommended "Kind of Blue" who was more of a jazz guy. He was then hanging out with Kyle Eastwood and still does(i'm sure). That's just what they were into. I didn't get Kind of Blue then and have been meaning to give it a listen again, close to 30 years later.

Hardcore blues guy I am. I'm also quite fond of Rockabilly. Outlaw country flips my switch also. Give Dale Watson a listen.

Lately my Saturday nights have been working on my 02 with a killer blues radio program on(like 10 hours worth!), through my vintage Marantz w/ Klipsch speakers. I find it extremely satisfying.

Aja was listened to frequently in my youth and I still see way too much live music!

Dean

I get it, but can't listen to it unless I'm watching it live. I love jazz fusion, but again, I need to see it live and it's not the kind of stuff I throw on the stereo while driving or doing stuff around the house. I went to see Scott Henderson, Jeff Berlin and Dennis Chambers a few weeks ago and, honestly, it was just a little too far out there for me. I'd seen them all in other bands before and that was great. But this stuff was really abstract.

I was really excited to see Scott Henderson a couple years ago and like you, found it to be a bit much. Got lucky that night and stumbled onto Samantha Fish after we left the Henderson show. Not bad for a Sunday night.
Dean

First time I saw Scott was with Tribal Tech and, while it was out there, it wasn't too hard to follow. We ended up hanging out afterwards, he ran through his whole rig for me and we helped them load the truck. He is a monster player, but it seemed like in this last show they were all doing their own thing and not even trying to play with one another. But then they all come together a few times like it had to have been very well-rehearsed. Weird stuff.

I used to listen to these guys a lot!

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Now were talking!

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Wes Montgomery...Jimmy Smith...We're goin in the right direction now!

I'm not a huge a fan of Miles Davis or most modern jazz that doesn't "funkify" it up a little. I can't listen to Spiro Gyro, Kenny G, or any of that crap.

Some of these guys from the 50's and 60's could get down on a grove...

Compared To What - YouTube

I used to go to The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach in the late 60s and 70s. All the greats played there. Tiny place that really got one on one with the artists. I never missed Cal Tjader! My all time favorite.

To me jazz is like soccer, a blast to play but not a if your a spectator...

That said, jazz and (even blues) are typically favored by those with a serious music bent. The meter and harmonics can be complicated, the melody dramatic or obscure.

Jazz is Jazz. You like what you like and make no apologies for it. If its jazz for beginners so be it. Miles is an acquired taste imo, so your not alone.

Give some Brubeck a try. Particularly his live albums. "Jazz goes to College" is on frequent rotation in our house. Never tire of Paul Desmond's fluid sax.

Jazz includes such a broad spectrum of music that it's not hard to find something you like and something you don't. Oscar Peterson is one of my favorites. I like Miles too.

This is my kind of jazz.

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I love Jazz. But its a language that came about to describe the city. Its like urban avant garde art. Its not going to appeal to everyone, and if its not your thing, I certainly don't think its a negative. Its just doesn't speak to you.

I like Miles. His work with Gil Evans, backed by an orchestra, is some of his more approachable work. Even though its a studio creation, I love *****es Brew.

Don't get jazz? Me three!

I came to the conclusion many years ago that I am not a good enough musician to 'get' jazz. When they start messing with the harmonics of the harmonies it just starts sounding like a mess to me.
Keep it simple for me, please.:(

Best
Les

I'm an old guy that grew up with the Beatles and the Stones. Some of the best Rock n Roll I have ever heard started around 1966 and ended around 1971. I hated Disco, New Wave and by about 1980, Rock n Roll didn't do it for me anymore. It is monotonous, not creative and with the advent of MTV, mediocre music made it, if your video was good.

I switched to Jazz and Blues. Just better music and the musicianship is great.

The Aja album had some of the best studio and non studio musicians:

Donald Fagen – synthesizer, keyboards, vocals, background vocals, whistle
Walter Becker – bass, guitar
Chuck Rainey – bass
Timothy B. Schmit – background vocals
Paul Griffin – keyboards, electric piano, vocals, background vocals
Don Grolnick – keyboards, clavinet
Michael Omartian – piano, keyboards
Joe Sample – keyboards, electric piano, clavinet
Victor Feldman – percussion, piano, keyboards, electric piano, vibraphone
Larry Carlton – guitar
Denny Dias – guitar
Jay Graydon – guitar
Steve Khan – guitar
Dean Parks – guitar
Lee Ritenour – guitar
Pete Christlieb – flute, tenor saxophone
Chuck Findley – horn, brass
Jim Horn – flute, saxophone
Richard "Slyde" Hyde – trombone
Plas Johnson – flute, saxophone
Jackie Kelso – flute, horn, saxophone
Lou McCreary – brass
Bill Perkins – flute, horn, saxophone
Tom Scott – conductor, flute, tenor saxophone, lyricon
Wayne Shorter – flute, tenor saxophone
Bernard Purdie – drums ("Home at Last", "Deacon Blues")
Steve Gadd – drums ("Aja")
Ed Greene – drums ("I Got the News")
Paul Humphrey – drums ("Black Cow")
Jim Keltner – percussion, drums ("Josie")
Rick Marotta – drums ("Peg")
Gary Coleman – percussion
Venetta Fields – background vocals
Clydie King – background vocals
Rebecca Louis – background vocals
Sherlie Matthews – background vocals

Some of these musicians are accomplished jazz musicians - they played with the Jazz greats.

I have several albums by Lee Rintenour, Joe Sample, Wayne Shorter and Tom Scott. BTW, Sample and Shorter played with Miles.

Take a listen to Shorter's latest album " Without a Net" This guy can still play.


Aja is a great album not only for the band members but it's production. I have this album on a direct to disk vinyl album: it is pure listening pleasure.

Being from Chicago, the Blues is part of the city. There are great Blues clubs and some of the greats have played and still play here. This weekend is Blues fest, probably the largest free concert in the US.

City of Chicago :: Chicago Blues Festival

Short of going to a blues club, it doesn't get much better than this.

I started listening to Smooth Jazz or as I call it Jazz Light.
Rippingtons, Bela Fleck, Spiro Gyra, Yellowjackets, Craig Chaquico, Acoustic Alchemy, The Crusaders...
I can listen to artists like Miles or Chick Corea but I really have to be in the mood for it. Its kind of like a Grateful Dead jam. You have to get into the atmosphere they create more than the individual notes.

I think some types of jazz are an acquired taste. In the end though you either like or don't like - same as for everything creative in life.

If I want to hear horns my preference is more for Herb....or Chicago....but Brubeck ain't too shabby either!

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Pat Metheny, specifically the Pat Metheny Group with Lyle Mays on keyboard, is probably my favorite band/group of all time. I listen to a lot of music but I listen to a lot of Pat Metheny over and over again. I think you can argue that Miles Davis was the beginning of the jazz fusion era that really hit its peak in the '70's (maybe somewhat into the '80's) by his influence on musician's such as Metheny, Jaco Pastorious and Weather Report, Return to Forever, etc. As much of a fan as I am of Metheny and Weather Report, I've never really gotten into Davis... I feel like I need to listen to more to try and understand it better.

I've seen Spyro Gyra live and they are great but to me are more of the Smooth Jazz genre, which has some good musicians such as Spyro but in recent years has morphed into monotonous elevator crap... a remake of Dave Brubeck's Take Five in 4/4 time by a no name I can't remember really turned me off of Smooth Jazz.

On a similar token, Steely Dan has always appealed to me for their jazz-like structures on albums such as Aja as well as their extensive use of very talented studio musicians, some of whom have come to the forefront of their craft... e.g. Michael McDonald.

You listed off some really good groups of what I consider to be the "real" smooth jazz genre... interesting you included Bela Fleck. I'm a fan of the Flecktones and have recently started exploring Bela's prior music... he has some really good pre-Flecktones tunes that boarder on the definition of traditional Bluegrass... the album "Drive" is a really great one.

As an aside, I got to see Corea and Fleck in concert together last year... It was an interesting pairing.

My ex liked him, but she liked heroin too. I like a lot of seriously complicated music, but some things are too painful to my brain or my ears. I'm not wired for it, nor have I altered the circuits.

http://youtu.be/yZO3uVu2qNk

Don't get Miles?
This scene from the Tom Cruise movie "Collateral" shows why Miles wouldn't care.

I am not a fan of jazz... or maybe I should say, I haven't heard a jazz album I liked since:

http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=1054189

Don't go there.

Me four.

To all those who don't understand what has been described as one of only a handful of "true" American art forms. I have one 13 letter word IMPROVISATION...

I can appreciate Jazz but I an not a big fan.

What I totally don't get is the blues. I just don't get the blues. I guess I am a happy go lucky guy and don't get depression and singing about it. Life hands out some lemons. Make some lemonade and move on.

When I talk about blues...
 

This is what I mean.... From the Crossroads Blues festival, 2012, I think...
Powerful stuff!

Fast forward to 2:55

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Or this! Simple songs of broken lives, but with the promise of a better world - and fun to listen to:

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I like a lot of stuff. Jazz was my main listening for a decade or so. I like Miles, Coltrane, Parker, Eric Dolphy, Sweets Edison, Ben Webster, Keith Jarrett, Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, just to name a few.

Some of these artists were "searchers". They were always trying to invent something new, to change and push the boundaries. Some of the results are acquired tastes and some can't be acquired by me. For example Ornette Coleman. It's not for lack of instrumental skill; these men were incredibly skilled.

I think it is kind of like a period of modern art, where artists constantly tried to invent new things, and some of the prototypes are puzzling or half baked or simply beyond many viewers. I recall visiting the small Picasso museum in, I forget which Spanish city, it had almost none of his mature works (those having been done in Paris) but instead had his early work, including sketches drawn when he was just a boy and then a teen. His command of figures and lines as a child was so masterful, I felt like I understood why he was so relentlessly experimental in his career. How could he spend his whole life drawing and painting in styles that he had already mastered as a young man? John Coltrane and Miles seem to me much of that mold.

Then there are musicians and artists who I think of as "perfecters". They do one thing their whole career, brilliantly. A lot of blues musicians seem this way to me. One blues song sounds rather like another, to me, and one Muddy Waters song sounds very much like another. That was his groove and he stayed in it, and the music is accessible to many listeners.

A song like Blue In Green from Kind of Blue is about as simple and approachable as a jazz song can get. Nothing complicated or hard to understand... if you just listen to it...

JR

Just saw them at SPACE in Evanston. Truly the best show of theirs I've seen. Also have seen Gary Clark Jr there.

SPACE is simply the best sounding venue I've ever been at. Even the performers comment about the sound. Recently saw Jimmie Vaughan at SPACE. After the show I had told Lou Ann Barton she sounded great. Her response "your so lucky to be able to listen in a place like this".

If you ever get to Chicago check this place out. In matter fact check their schedule out.

Dean

Dad was into several vocal jazz groups.
They weren't 'real jazz' by any means, but made good sounds throughout the atmosphere.
He played at the http://www.detroitjazzfest.com, and the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.