Music Direction Change - Jazz

Sansui77

Khosaku Kikuchi's Grandson
Hi All, I've been collecting music for over 20 years. I mainly listen to Rock, Alternative, Pop, Dance, Acoustic, Live performances from the 60's to current. I'm really into band type music as being a musician myself but I want a to listen to something totally different.

I've always been thinking about other areas like Jazz.

Anyone recommend from classic to new aged Jazz?? What albums or their favorite songs??
 
Well, that's a big rabbit hole, my friend...a good place to start is the "what jazz album are you listening to now" thread on here. There are good top 20, top 50 and top 100 lists to look through. Start with Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" (1961) and go from there...you can't go wrong with almost any Blue Note album recorded By Rudy Van Gelder...and I am sure others are gonna chime in here. Enjoy!
 
You could also think of it in contextual terms, as in the transition from big band to jazz quintets, sextets, quartets and trios. The development of bop, hard bop, post bop, etc. I find tenor sax to be more "mainstream" to my ear than trumpet. I'm also partial to Piano Trios. Bill Evans is stellar. It probably couldn't hurt to stream one or two Jazz Radio stations on Pandora and use your Shazam app on your smart phone to identify artists and songs that catch your ear.

Happy listening, like you I started collecting 60s and 70s and 80s rock and popular music LPs before i stumbled upon Stan Getz and Joa Gilberto's album that contains Girl from Impemena, and Dave Brubek Quartets's Take Five. I've been all about that Jazz ever since.
 
What instrument(s) do you play, including voice? Knowing that may help us give some suggestions. Besides the genres listed, what kind of music do you tend to favor? Bluesy, intense, complicated, chaotic, mellow? Because jazz has all that and more. Miles Davis's Kind of Blue seems the starting point for many people.

To list something, here are three of my more accessible favorites.

- Horace Silver, Song for My Father. This quintet recording seriously grooves.
- Count Basie, The Atomic Basie. Especially if you want to hear a swingin' big band.
- Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus. This also grooves. "Blue 7" is also a great example of how to take a simple motif, embellish and expand it in a solo.
 
Wow...agree with above...lots of surface to scratch there. Blue Note for sure. CTI, ECM, Verve too.
Impulse - Freddie Hubbard's The Body and The Soul is a fav.
Yah....Basie. Rollins. Dexter Gordon. Don Cherry (BrownRice, MultiKulti), Eddie Harris, Grachan Moncur (New Africa), Hank Mobley, Getz/Gilberto...alto alto...uh, Paul Desmond. McCoy Tyner.
Hm...Wayne Shorter's blue note stuff...Night Dreamer, SuperNova.
Mingus, Don't Forget Mingus (Ah Um) (I have a live tape of him from the Changes era, somewhere....)
Chet Baker. Charlie Haden. Brubeck....oh man, the list is endless....Jan Garbarek Witchi-Tai-To (better like 'power sax'!). Gah.
I'm getting older, and liking less 'wild' stuff more and more...but still gotta kick the dust out sometimes.
My 1000+ LP (mostly jazz) collection was stolen from my house a while back, and I've slooowly but surely been trying to replace them with with digital/CDs when I can...interesting challenge.
My favorite multichannel Bluray audio disk now is the 2L Quiet Winter Night...nothing like sitting in with the group...but, yah, I'm gettin' old, and mellowing, I guess. Stunning recording, tho.
I noticed that Amazon prime streaming has some really pretty decent jazz playlists...might start with that?
Enjoy!!
 
What instrument(s) do you play, including voice? Knowing that may help us give some suggestions. Besides the genres listed, what kind of music do you tend to favor? Bluesy, intense, complicated, chaotic, mellow? Because jazz has all that and more. Miles Davis's Kind of Blue seems the starting point for many people.

To list something, here are three of my more accessible favorites.

- Horace Silver, Song for My Father. This quintet recording seriously grooves.
- Count Basie, The Atomic Basie. Especially if you want to hear a swingin' big band.
- Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus. This also grooves. "Blue 7" is also a great example of how to take a simple motif, embellish and expand it in a solo.

I play drums and guitar plus backup vocals. My favorite instrument is the B3 organ with the Lesley speaker. I like listening to eg,
Popular bands, The Beatles, Stones, Zep, Pink Floyd, The Who, British invasion to Pearl Jam, Fleetwood Mac, The Police, Dire straits. I do however listen to more rarer bands from the 60s to new as well. I tend to favour music feeling in a song than ryrics if that makes sense.

I'll check out what other members have said.

Than you to all have responded.
 
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Wow! There are a lot of excellent suggestions so far. I am going to give many of them a listen myself. I would suggest firing up Pandora, Tidal or any of the other streaming services and just explore, One of my favorite groups is Fourplay. Elixir by Fourplay is outstanding!
 
I play drums and guitar plus backup vocals. My favorite instrument is the B3 organ with the Lesley speaker. I like listening to eg,
Popular bands, The Beatles, Stones, Zep, Pink Floyd, The Who, British invasion to Pearl Jam, Fleetwood Mac, The Police, Dire straits. I do however listen to more rarer bands from the 60s to new as well. I tend to favour music feeling in a song than ryrics if that makes sense.

I'll check out what other members have said.

Than you to all have responded.

Since you like organ and play guitar. check out Pat Martino, Live at Yoshi's. It's a trio of guitar, organ and drums. It's fairly mainstream jazz.

In another direction is Tony Williams Lifetime, Emergency! That is a fusion-oriented album which contains some intense guitar, organ and drum playing.

If you're interested in jazz drumming, there are a lot of greats, but I'd make sure to check out Max Roach's Drums Unlimited and We Insist!
 
Jimmy Smith was one of the best jazz B3 players. His work with Kenny Burrell was classic. They did 2 live disc recorded in Japan, at I think the Blue Note. Good stuff. Back at the Chicken Shack, and The Master also good. Good start on bluesy jazz, jazz guitar and organ.
 
Check out the Ken Burns CD or DVD set or even the book on Jazz; it covers all eras, which is what you need to hear to appreciate what Jazz is and how it got that way.
 
As far as jazz drummers go, in addition to Max Roach, who's already been mentioned, Art Blakey and Elvin Jones are two more very well known drummers. There are a lot of Blakey records, and they almost always feature excellent musicians.
 
Add Jimmy McGriff to your list, The starting Five, is a great album. Anything by the Crusaders. Weather report can be a cross between your rock and jazz,
 
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This was my first Jazz CD and as good as a starting point as any .
 
Try Scofield's Überjam, it has a lot of '60's elements, along with a lot of funk and acid jazz.

Recorded jazz goes back around 100 years, but you'll find most recommendations will lean towards the hard bop of the 50's. Basically, look up cool jazz and hard bop, then just start listening. That'll put you square in the middle of jazz, then you can move forward and back to see where things came from or where it went.
 
This can be the penultimate rabbit's hole. I mean Miles Davis covered all the extremes in his career. Went fom ' Kind of Blue' to 'On the Corner' and everywhere in between.
Just don't forget to backwards from KoB, too.
I'd take pre-KoB Miles to post any day.
And I love the non fusion post KoB a lot.
 
This can be the penultimate rabbit's hole. I mean Miles Davis covered all the extremes in his career. Went fom ' Kind of Blue' to 'On the Corner' and everywhere in between.

And before "Kind of Blue" there was "Birth of the Cool". Miles was certainly on the forefront of every change in Jazz. Jazz is so varied it is a rabbit hole indeed. As Freds.Bands suggested I think this is a good starting point to see what floats your boat:

https://www.amazon.com/Ken-Burns-Jazz-Story-Americas/dp/B000050HVG

Don't miss the chance to see his documentary

-Dave.
 
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Guitar and organ.....Wes Montgomery and Mel Rhyne, or with Jimmy Smith, any Wes from the Riverside days. Jimmy McGriff, Jck McDuff, Jimmy Ponder, Shirley Scott, Chris Flory Trio, Early George Benson on CBS. That should get you going.
 
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