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Glaring Omissions

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By all accounts, I'm a certified jazz lover and fanatic.

However, there are several jazz greats that one should have in his collection, if one calls himself an aficionado. So, at the risk of being kicked out of this forum, I will list the greats that one might think essential to a jazz collection....that are missing from my collection. I have over 4,000 albums, the vast majority of which is jazz.

I was introduced to jazz while in college in 1971. I was dependent on my friends and the local jazz station for my exposure to new music. If the station didn't play it, I had no access. So, a lot of the guys on my list didn't get any airplay, consequently I wasn't exposed to them.

Nat King Cole.......(I do have several Freddy Cole albums)

Billie Holiday......(Her voice makes my skin crawl & too much melancholy in her music.)

*Stan Getz...........I just never got around to it.

Duke Ellington......I've just never heard any of his recordings that I cared to buy.

Louis Armstrong......Just not my cuppa tea.

*Chet Baker...........Just never got around to it.

Charlie Parker.......I couldn't get past the poor audio quality of the recordings that I've heard.

Charles Mingus... I've never heard a Mingus recording in my life.

*Lester Young.....They never played him on the radio.

*Coleman Hawkins...They never played him on the radio.

*Gerry Mulligan....Just never got around to it.

I do plan to make an effort to familiarize myself with those that have an asterisk (*) before their name above.

I already own more music than I have time to listen to. That, and an addiction to Pandora, doesn't leave much room for new stuff.

Do you have any glaring omissions?
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mitch4t

Showing 11 responses by mitch4t

mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,611 posts
 
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I don't have any Pepper Adams either.
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mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,611 posts
 
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Rok2id... Relax, it ain't that serious.
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mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,611 posts
 
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Casey...ouch! Stop busting my chops ;-)

Rok2id...I was into jazz eons before I became an audiophile. So no, I'm not limited to audiophile recordings...as a matter of fact every recording that I own, LP and cd is the off-the-shelf variety that any ordinary Joe bought from the record stores. I have no problem with the seminal figures go, I like what I like....and I just don't care for their music. Now this may really get me kicked off of this forum, but I like Diana Ross's interpretations of Billie Holiday's songs better than Billie's original version.

At 60 years of age, with a ton of existing recordings in my collection that I like...and the great stuff that I'm discovering on Pandora, I feel no obligation to own any records by the seminal figures in jazz if I don't like their music. I only have so much time to devote to listening to music, and when I do, you'd better kick ass and its got to be enjoyable. I'll be damned if I'm going to listen to Armstrong or Ellington when I prefer Freddie Hubbard or Kenny Barron. Historical significance be damned, I listen to what I like.

I'm still open to discovering music by jazz icons of the past. For a lot of them, I simply just have not gotten around to them. When I find a musician that I like, I tend to collect everything they ever did...and play it. Do that a few times over, and you simply run out of time to include every one. Someone's going to get left out.
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mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,611 posts
 
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Rok2id, ...Dexter Gordon, Miles, Monk, Betty Carter, Lee Morgan, Cannonball, Freddie Hubbard are jazz musicians too. They play great music. I love jazz. I just happen to like different ones that you do...and my love of jazz is as legitimate as yours. All of it is jazz. I prefer different musicians than you do. It's all ice cream, you like strawberry and I like rocky road.

In painters, I like Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Rubens, Peter Max, Norman Rockwell, Ernie Barnes and Roy Lichtenstein among many others. For the life of me I can't understand why anyone would pay $140 million for a Jackson Pollock painting, or $48 million for a Basquiat painting. I'm no art expert, but I know I love art...I just don't care for the work of those two guys. But, I do not begrudge the folk that do like those two guys' work.
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mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,611 posts
 
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Hey Charles...I don't dislike Lester Young, I just haven't heard any of his music....he's a glaring omission. I just might like him if I'd heard any of his music. I think the only time I ever heard any of his music was the little snippet that I heard on the Ken Burns Jazz documentary.

While listening to Pandora, I've just discovered Johnny Griffin. I'd never even heard of him until a month ago, the cat is monster! I've been soaking up a lot of his music over the last month. I've listened to jazz radio for decades...how could I have never heard of Johnny Griffin??
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mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,611 posts
 
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Charles....I used to see Teddy Edwards here in LA at least a couple of times a month back in the late 70's very early 80's. $5 admitted two people on Tuesday night's at the Parisian Room. Teddy was a regular. Red Holloway was a regular also. A lot of the clubs I saw Teddy play at couldn't have been paying him very much money. He was once playing in a restaurant where I was having dinner.

I don't own any of his records, but I saw him live a lot.
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mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,611 posts
 
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Czarivey, I am now 60 years old and grew up with the Beatles. I didn't care much for their music when I was a teenager and when they were hot. However, after I turned 30, and nearly 15 years after they broke up, everything became clear and I bought everything that they ever recorded.

I discovered the Beatles' genius through jazz. Since I was a jazz lover, a lot of jazz musicians included Beatle songs in their repertoire. I enjoyed the jazz interpretations, so I thought I'd go back to the original source....and became a huge Beatle fan. I completely missed out on the whole Bealtlemania thing.
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mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,611 posts
 
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Czarivey, never heard any of Sylvians' music. I just looked him up on Wikipedia. Can you recommend a couple of jazz-tinged albums by him. I'd like to check him out.
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mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,611 posts
 
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Cerrot, get Pandora, it's free and it's a treasure trove of great music of all types. I have discovered sooo much music. You are so correct in that a lot of us were limited to what we heard on the radio...and what the DJ liked. Congrats on your discovery of Credence....amazing how their music has held up over time....they rock.
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mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,611 posts
 
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There are no winners and losers here. We like what we like and that's the end of it. No one here is in a position to judge another's preference in music.
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mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,611 posts
 
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I don't look at music's historical significance or the year it was recorded in. I look at music for what it is when I put it on my stereo and how it sounds to me. If it is poorly recorded, I have no interest in listening to it. I have too many recordings by a great many great musicians that were well recorded,that is what I listen to. There is only so much time I can devote to listening to music. When I listen, it had better be a good quality recording...period.

I know some folk say that I'm missing out. Maybe. But I have more than enough great music to listen to and not enough time to listen to all of it. So, I listen to what and whom I like. So, if they didn't make good recordings before 1955, so be it, I'll pass. There's been enough great music recorded since then to listen to for 20 lifetimes.
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