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[Idle Will Kill]

I'm listening to Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" right now. So good.

I don't have many other jazz records, but what I do have is:

-The Essential Miles Davis
-Dave Brubeck "Time Out"
-Vince Guaraldi "The Charlie Brown Suite"

What are some other good jazz records I should get? I'd rather not buy more collections like the Essential Miles Davis, but actual albums like Kind of Blue.

 

[Ill Saint]

Davis' "Bitches Brew". Astonishing.

 

[Triumph]

Miles Davis' "Sketches of Spain" and "Bitches' Brew" are also both masterpieces. You're listening to the best Jazz album ever recorded in "Kind of Blue" right now tho, so don't expect anything to trump that.

I also recommend John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" and "Blue Train" are both good listening. Other artists to check out would be Charles Mingus, Louis Armstrong and Cannonball Adderly. Those are my personal faves, anyhow.

 

[sc0la]

Miles Davis Round about Midnight and Canonball Adderly's Somethin' Else (which features miles) are both good places to continue consuming Miles. If you feel like branching out into his electronic stuff hit up bitches brew or On the Corner.

If you like the Charlie Brown album you should pick up Joe Cool's Blues which features Wynton Marsalis and a quintet on songs inspired by Peanuts and with Ellis Marsalis (his father) in a piano trio on covers of the original Peanuts songs by Guaraldi.

I think Kenny Garret Songbook is the shit (sideman with Miles in the later years) it is modern and heated but the emotion always feels real. He is one of the few modern players who I think are really keeping the genre alive (not that jazz will die, but I think it is a shell of itself today)

And of course Charlie Parker stuff is always hot.

Any other players or periods you were looking at specifically?

 

[Ill Saint]

Also, if you're feeling a bit adventurous, check out Sun-Ra. "Lanquidity", "Sound of Joy". Brilliant stuff. The man was a genius.

 

[sc0la]

Miles Davis' "Sketches of Spain" and "Bitches' Brew" are also both masterpieces. You're listening to the best Jazz album ever recorded in "Kind of Blue" right now tho, so don't expect anything to trump that.

I also recommend John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" and "Blue Train" are both good listening. Other artists to check out would be Charles Mingus, Louis Armstrong and Cannonball Adderly. Those are my personal faves, anyhow.

I agree that Kind of Blue is tops. And I will disagree with people who claim its value is overstated, the album sums up what jazz is, in a way. But even if it is a perfect recording, you may just find something out there you like more

All the other stuff Roal mentions here is aces (especially the coltrane stuff). I forget the Album name, but the Mingus disc with Goodbye PorkPie Hat and Fables of Faubus is aces.

EDIT:

Also, if you're feeling a bit adventurous, check out Sun-Ra. "Lanquidity", "Sound of Joy". Brilliant stuff. The man was a genius.

HAHA my Girlfriend was trying on new eyeglasses today and she tried on these fat ass white and silver monstrosities and I told her she looked like Sun Ra knowing full well she had no fucking clue who he was. "Who???"

 

[Idle Will Kill]

Wow, I think I may have found a good reason to buy songs off of iTunes.

Bitches Brew costs $22 on Amazon.com, or I can buy the whole album on iTunes for $7.

I still don't know if I can get over the fact of owning an album, but not actually physically owning anything.

 

[Triumph]

Oh, I just remembered: Check out this crazy fucker, Ludovic Navarre aka St. Germain. His "Boulevard" and "Tourist" albums are great modern Jazz albums, IMHO. Some feel they are too "dancy", but they're recorded using all live instrumentation and Navarre writes all the music and conducts the musicians. One of the best concerts I've ever been to.

 

[nitewulf]

anything by django reinhardt...unfortunately his albums are rare, but you can buy his "collections" pretty easily. i bought the greatest hits off amazon for instance.

stan getz - the artistry of stan getz, volume 1:

this is the perfect album to get used to stan getz, you get his pre bossa nova stuff and the godly bossa nova music that he made later on in collaboration with astrud gilberto and joao gilberto.

anything you can get your hands on by louis armstrong, ella fitzerald, billy holiday and nina simone. i cant really recommend albums as i dont listen to music album wise anymore.

 

[DjangoReinhardt]

Right now, you'll do well to investigate some John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus and Dizzy Gillespie - they're logical extensions of what you already enjoy. Go back and check out some Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt if you like jazz guitar; some Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman if you enjoy swing; Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton if you are interested in pre-jazz/ragtime; then hit up the latter-day records of Miles (Bitches' Brew, On the Corner, Jack Johnson, Pangea, In a Silent Way) and Weather Report if you are curious about fusion. Finally, if you want hear self-indulgent, unstructured, amelodic experimentation, give Sun Ra a whirl. It's interesting, if nothing else.

 

[ourumov]

Charlie Parker is the man when talking about Jazz. I have to hear Stan Getz stuff...every jazz freak I know (well it's just my father) recommends it.

 

[Bizarro Sun Yat-sen]

I especially like In a Silent Way because it's right on the cusp between the fusion style and the earlier more typical jazz style, which seems to be my sweet spot.

 

[FnordChan]

It's been wall-to-wall sound advice so far. I'll just throw in a few specific favorites:

Oliver Nelson: Blues and the Abstract Truth
Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto: Getz/Gilberto, The Best of Two Worlds
Ornette Coleman: Complete Science Fiction Sessions

FnordChan

 

[Prospero]

For people who are still performing live today, check out Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, and Medeski, Martin and Wood. Jason Moran is promising as well, if a little difficult--watch out for him.

Miles Davis's complete output is more significant than Herbie Hancock's, but as far as Best Jazz Album Ever, Herbie Hancock's Headhunters trumps Kind of Blue IMO. (Blasphemy, I know. But it's true.)

For me, the best Miles to listen to is the Plugged Nickel sessions from 1965. He'd stopped practicing by then, so his sound was starting to go, but at that point he was more significant for his bandleading skills, not his playing (and bandleading skills are the real reason to listen to Miles). The band on those sessions is Miles, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams--it's godly. The band is clearly heading in the direction of the craziness of Bitches Brew, but the sound is still accessible to casual listeners--meanwhile, they breathe new life into tracks from Kind of Blue, and other jazz standards.

 

[FnordChan]

Jason Moran is promising as well, if a little difficult--watch out for him.

Shit, forgot to mention Jason Moran, who is freakin' awesome. I'm also rather fond of the latest album by the Bad Plus, if only for the notion of "Velouria" becoming a jazz standard.

FnordChan

 

[wandering goat]

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

And I recently bought my first Charlie Parker CD. It's a collection called "Bird's Best Bop on Verve" and it's very good. You can probably get this really cheap just about anywhere.

 

[Prospero]

Oh--for earlier stuff, no one's yet mentioned Dexter Gordon. "Dexter Calling...": get that one.

 

[reggieandTFE]

One option for you is to just buy as much Miles Davis as you can from all periods of his career (bebop, cool, hard bop, pure modal, fusion) and then just pick and choose from his sidemen because he played with (almost) anybody who matters from any particular period (though anything from 1946 to the early 1960s usually hits me especially well). The Bird, Coltrane, Cannonball, Max Roach, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, etc.

 

[human5892]

I also recommend John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" and "Blue Train" are both good listening.

So true, especially "Blue Train". Excellent stuff.

 

[olimario]

Vince Guaraldi Trio rocks all things.
Their Charlie Brown Christmas CD is amazing.

This sounds like The Vince Guaraldi Trio, but I cant tell if it is for sure or not.
Go here and have a listen. Its the Background music on this site.
http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=friedpie

takes awhile to get to the piano

 

[thomaser]

I mostly listen to "Kind Of Blue" and Coltrane's "Blue Train". The former at least once a day!

But in order to contribute to the thread, I have to recommend something new. And the best thing I can possibly recommend is Come Shine. They take evergreens like "Over The Rainbow", "Swing It", "I Like To Hear It Sometime", "My Favourite Things" and so on, and make incredible jazz-versions of them. It may sound a bit goofy on paper, but it's really, really, VERY GOOD.

The band consists of four people. A singer, Live Maria Roggen, a pianist, a bass-player and a drummer. All of them are excellent, but the pianist (who also arranges the songs) and the vocalist are a step above most.

They've released three albums so far. The first is called simply "Come Shine", the second is called "Do Do That Voodoo" and the third, a live concert together with an orchestra, is called "Come Shine With The Norwegian Radio Orchestra In Concert". All three are must-haves.

Their site is at www.comeshine.com. Their albums might be difficult to find outside Scandinavia, but you can buy and download their songs at www.curlinglegs.no

 

[sonatinas]

Buy everything Art Tatum

Greatest Jazz pianist ever; there is no argument

get some weather report

 

[Jacobi]

Don't forget Ray Charles