Jazz CD suggestions for evening ambience

Paul Desmond is usually good. Maybe Art Pepper. Joe Henderson would have something that fits the bill since he's such a wide-ranging player.

No. I think they intended it to be music. Coltrane for one didn't care where he played. He was known to spend hours playing after the concert had long been finished. Jazz isn't background music. It's music, whether you're criticaly listening to it or just having it in the background. There are places where you go to listen to music and there are places where you go to have live jazz in the background. That's the listener's choice. Of course most musicians would prefer a crowd that really wants to listen. But you think many of these jazz greats cared whether they played in a prestigious club or out in the streets? At least in the beginning, most of these guys just love to play. And that's what it's all about. It's about expressing yourself through the instrument or music whether you're happy or sad. And if you can communicate your feelings to someone else, then that's even better.

Jazz is such a wide genre now that one really shouldn't classify as one thing and not the other and restrict it.

Kind of Blue is such a frequently played album that it is good for all kind of moods. It doesn't stop being a reference for students, good music for the casual listener, and an album worth listening to for professional musicians.

Mehldau is always cool but not always mellow. If you bought one album of Mehldau's you won't necessarily like his other ones. If anything Mehldau stuff tends to be way out there and not always something you can relax to.