Jazz Recommendations

Stan Getz - Getz/Gilberto
Abbey Lincoln - You Gotta Pay the Band
Phineas Newborn - The Great Jazz Piano of Phineas Newborn
Rahsaan Roland Kirk - The Inflated Tear
Horace Silver - Song For My Father
Abdullah Ibrahim - Ekaya
Jimmy Scott - All The Way
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
Sarah Vaughn - No Count Sarah
The Bad Plus - Here Are The Vistas
Betty Carter - The Audience With Betty Carter
World Saxophone Quartet - Revue
David Murray - Ming
The Modern Jazz Quartet - Farewell Concert
Joe Pass - Virtuoso
Thelonius Monk - Alone, In San Franscisco
Clifford Brown and Max Roach - Vol.1
Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool
Hampton Hawes - Hampton Hawes Trio, Vol. 1
Terry Gibbs - Latin Connection
Art Ensemble of Chicago - Les Stances A Sophie
Buddy Rich - The Roar of 74
Wes Montgomery - Live at Tsubos's
Mongo Santamaria - Sabroso
Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage
Woody Shaw - Stepping Stones
John Zorn - Masada 8
Wynton Marsalis - Black Codes Form the Underground
Branford Marsalis - Trio Jeepy
Jimmy Smith - Organ Grinder Swing
Larry Young - Unity
Oscar Peterson - West Side Story
George Benson - Bad Benson
The Crusaders - Free As the Wind
Count Basie - Atomic Basie
Duke Ellington - Money Jungle
Coleman Hawkins - Hawk Flies High
---outta time, but the list is endless...really

Hi Dok,

There is nothing contentious about acknowledging the essentially modern outlook of Jazz. You are absolutely correct about that, and I think many, if not most people in the music would see it that way. Certainly many of its most important contributors (i.e. Coleman Hawkins, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, etc.) were fierce modernists that strived to remain part of the creative flow. However, I would never say that Thelonius Monk's music is dated, nor much of Miles Davis' oeuvre, nor that of many others. Their art is essentially timeless, perhaps the only useful definition of the word "classic" as it applies to Jazz.

According to an old book on Jazz by Marshall Stearns, the word Jazz is derived from the word Jass, which was a slang word in the New Orleans red light district that meant screwing.