Jazz Recommendations

I have a question...does anyone know of any cd's similar to the seledtions on Patricia Barbara's "Cafe Blue". I bought quite a few cd's recommended on best female vocalist list and I didn't particularily enjoy her vocals and almost threw it away until I decided to listen to it again. The jazz instrumentals blew me away (my new speakers broke in at about that time too)and I would like some more of the same if anyone can help.

After a year of listening to (and buying) many of those recommended above (much thanks to all), I would like to add a couple that I did not see: Blues and the Abstract Truth and Tatum Group Masterpieces.

Thanks Again

Greg

Charley Hayden's latest on Verve. "Nocturne" is a collection of Brazilian and other classics rearranged and played by heavyweights in a quartet setting. A couple of originals by Hayden in the same genre add to the compelling sound of this made-with-love CD. Excellent recording that bears repeated, and I do mean "repeated" listening. Try it.

You won't regret buying "Jazz at the Pawnshop", Benny Green's "Testifying" and Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington's "The Great Summit/Master Tapes." All three are recorded well and very analog sounding.

When I started out in Jazz, I got Miles Davis: Kind of Blue, Cannonball Adderley: Somethin' Else and The "After Hours" box set from CBC Radio. The box set gave me many different artists to look for, but the bulk of my jazz listening is done with my Tuner set to CBC radio everynight after 10pm with Ross Porter.

Ray Brown Trio: Soular Energy

Carmen Macrae: The Great American Songbook (Outstanding live recording!)

Bill Berry: For Duke

Monty Alexander: Reunion in Europe

I don't think I saw these two, one is Hank Mobley "Soul Station" and the other is Brad Mehldau "The Art of The Trio vol. three"

I don't think I saw these two, one is Hank Mobley "Soul Station" and the other is Brad Mehldau "The Art of The Trio vol. three"

Anything by the Dave Holland Quartet. 'Prime Directive (ECM 1698)', 'Points of View (ECM 1663)', 'Not For Nothin (ECM 1758)'
Steve Turre 'TNT (Telarc CD-83529)'
Nicholas Payton 'Paytons Place (Verve 3145573272)
Gary Burton 'Gary Burton and Friends (Concord Jazz CCD47492)

In general, I like these labels: ECM, Concord, Verve.

Eventhough it is not considered "classic" jazz, one of my favorite modern jazz albums is "Three-Way Mirror" with Airto Moreira, Flora Purim and Joe Farrell. It is an exceptional piece of work and is on the Reference Recordings label.

Hi id recommend the Crusaders Imadges,, Alex Bugnon love season, Sade Watnabe,

Considered by many to be one of the top jazz efforts of all time.

I think Jazz topic is way too big. Way too difficult to list a must have CD list. Best way is to get some book ie. Stereophile Good Jazz CD guide, or Penguine guide, or some others. Then listend to style that you like and expand it from there.

Say you like Monk... he plays bop, post bop .. you may want to try some other album by him. Here are some of his best work (my opinion) Brilliant Corners, Thelonious with John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins, Underground. Then you might pick those name who played with him such as John Coltrane or Sunny Rollins and goes from there ... we still in post bop, bop or hard bop ... well ..coltrane is pretty unique though.. then find something from Coltrane ie. A Love Supreme, Giant Steps, blue train. Rollins?? Saxophone Colossus. Then you may... try to see who is playing bop .. Dizzy Gillespee, Charlie Parker Now you get my point.

Once in a while you may want to jump to different style of jazz ... How about Cool, West coast, Free, Avantgarde??? Cool ... you may try Mile Davis "Kind of Blue" or Bill Evans "Sunday at village Vanguard"

In any case, you should have good book as reference. Another good book is All Music guide to Jazz. .. and one section of "Jazz Theory book"

Or www.nprjazz.org is a good site for sort of essential list.

You just have to be opened because jazz is really wide varieties of style.

These are some of my favorites that not mentioned too much in a list.

Keith Jarrette: Belonging, The Koln Concert
Don Pullen: New Beginnings or anything with George Adams
Patricia Barber: Nightclub
Rasann Kirk: Rip, Rig & Panic/Now please don't cry, beautiful Edith
Don Cherry: Art Deco

Um.. other than that ... more or less usual ... like other would probably recommend

I came up with the conclusion that Lounge Lizards band is one of the brightest pages in the world jazz history and current jazz and every jazz fan should get a grip on these guys. The recording quality is slightly better than average but everything has to be dedicated to music in their case.

Not possible to add to the incredible variety above, but since the Monk blew you away, Monk "Live At The IT Club Complete" on Columbia/Legacy is phenomenal and worth a listen. Didn't see it mentioned above, if it is and I missed it, sorry for the redundancy.

Here are two cd's I love Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Fransico (OJC) includes a great version of Straight No Chaser as a bonus track and 2)Live In Swing City/ Swinign With The Duke by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. I imagine it's what the great Duke bands would have sounded like if they exisited in the stereo era. I heard this on Wash DC premier jazz station WPFW which is listener supported. I love jazz but am not an expert even with a substantial record collection of Blue Notes and Prestige. The folks at WPFW are though and it's highly unlikely that any serious music lover won't find something of value on this cd. Doesn't contain the hits but does have some serious moments of swing.

Since historical recordings have been pretty well covered, here are some recent favorites, and I listen to a lot, so these are real standouts, IMHO ;-)

Pat Martino: "Live at Yoshi's" (smoking guitar/organ combo).

Marty Ehrlich: both "Song" and "Malinke's Dance" are excellent blends of straight ahead playing and more modern leanings.

Buster Williams Quartet: "Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival" has Mulgrew Miller on piano teamed w/ Steve Nelson on vibes - groovin'.

Eddie Henderson Quintet: "Reemergence" ( A mellow glow surrounds the group and keeps the mood steady.)

Dave Holland Quintet: "Points of View" is my favorite, but "Prime Directive" and "Not for Nuthin'" are also great.

Steve Slagle: "New New York" (start-to-finish fantastic, with varied moods, textures, instrumental mixes).

Greg Osby: "Invisible Hand" with grandmasters Jim Hall and Andrew Hill, sets a haunting mellow mood throughout.

Gene Harris: Best of the Concord Years (rollicking, swinging playing that makes me want to run out and buy everything he ever recorded. Undervalued piano master!)

Chick Corea and Origin: Change (Wow, what a group. Beats the first Origin disc by a mile, by the way).

I could go on, but these keep finding their way back into the player, so start here if you want to hear some of today's best. - Dave

Off the top of my quirky little head:

Charles Mingus: "Changes 1" and "Changes 2" - both wonderful
Oliver Nelson: "Blues and the Abstract Truth"
Art Pepper: "Landscape" "Art Pepper Today"
James Newton "The African Flower"
Abbey Lincoln "Wholly Earth"
Joe Venuti and George Barnes "Gems"

Go to xrcd.com. It's the site for JVC CDs. Buy ANYTHING by Bill Evans. Recently, I have "discovered" the passion, emotion, ability and overall interpretation of Bill Evan's. I am pure and simply blown away!

I just picked up a new CD that I want to mention. It's McCoy Tyner plays John Coltrane, featuring McCoy with Al Foster and George Mraz (is there a better rhythm section?), recorded live at the Village Vanguard in 1997. The recording was direct to two-track analog and is excellent.

I bought the CD after seeing this very same trio at Yoshi's in Oakland a few nights ago. The sonics are quite worthwhile, especially for a mainstream label (Impulse). In particular, Al Foster's cymbals are properly large. It's great to effectively have a recording of something you witnessed (not quite, I know, but close enough). Strangely, I attended a set or two of an earlier McCoy trio at Sweet Basil in 1989 or 1990, which was recorded and released on CD. The guy keeps following me around. :-)

Kadlec, there are some great suggestions here. I agree with everything that "the Professor" has posted. However some posts are out of place. This is just the tip of the iceburg, there are thousands more from great artists. For the most part every jazz recording prior to 1970 is fantastic, and there are many post 1970 recording that are great(but not as abundent). I know...there are a handful of crummy recordings, but the percentage of beautiful to crummy ones is unbelievable as compared to todays pop&jazz recordings. I could add many other, but I think you have enough recommendations here, so I'm not going to add...Oh I guess I will, but just one Ahmad Jamal's "Poinciana", I don't believe that anyone mentioned Ahmad Jamal. He may not be as seminal as Armstrong, Diz, Brubeck, Monk, or Miles, but he's still very important, and also has an easy style to follow. Another Booker Erving, any of the records titled with the word "book" in it. Eric Dolphy would be another, Johnny Griffin "Blowin Sessions". Desmod, Hank Mobley, Joe Henderson, Grant Green, you see it just goes on forever. Good luck!!
Kiwi
Also, I'm sure there are many great jazz radio stations throughout the country...KCSM out of San Mateo Community College is one of them. You can catch it through the internet.

"Jazz At the Pawnshop" (XRCD2) and Benny Green's "Testifyin" are two very good live recordings that you'll ever hear.

I was rereading the postings on this thread this morning, and really appreciate the thoughtful contributions made. I particularly thank the Professor (as he affectionately has become known).

Yesterday, I posted a list of some of my favorite jazz recordings, all of which I highly recommend to those newer to jazz as will as to others. My personal bias is that I like bop the best (defined broadly). My earlier list of favorites concentrated on bop.

I find interesting recordings of more traditional music by those labeled as avant-garde/free jazz artists. My favorites are:

Air, Air Lore
Alvin Batiste, Musique D’afrique Nouvell Orleans
Steve Lacy, Reflections: Plays Theloneous Monk
Steve Lacy, Soprano Sax
Amina Claudine Myers, Salutes Bessie Smith (voacls)
Archie Shepp/Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson, Looking at Bird
World Saxophone Quartet, Plays Duke Ellington

You may want to check these out, if you are not already familiar with them. I would be interested if anyone has any recommendations of other recordings of this type.

I also thought it would be interesting to compile a list of some of the recordings I have that may be of interest to those with some familiarity with the music looking for something you may not have heard. This list I compiled this morning, which is not suggested as recommendations to those beginning a jazz collection, is:

Big Band (not from the Swing era)
Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabakin Big Band, Tanuki’s Night Out
Clare Fischer, ‘Twas Only Yesterday
Supersax Plays Bird

Guitar
Django Reinhardt, Quintet of the Hot Club of France

Piano
Joanne Brackeen, Mythical Magic (solo)
Elmo Hope, High Hope
Dick Hyman, Live from Toronto’s Café des Copains (solo)
Peck Kelley, Jam
Marian McParland, Live at the Carlyle
Jay McShann, The Big Apple Bash
Mary Lou Williams, Solo Recital (solo)

Saxophone-tenor
Don Byas, In Paris
Ricky Ford, Flying Colors
Wardell Gray, Memorial Vols. I and II
Buck Hill, This is Buck Hill
Flip Phillips, Flipenstein

Saxophone- baritone
Serge Chaloff, Blue Serge

Trombone
Jimmy Cleveland, Introducing Jimmy Cleveland and His All Stars

Trumphet
Bill Hardman, Politely
Fats Navarro, The Fabulous Fats Navarro, Vols 1 and 2

Violin
Duke Ellington’s Jazz Violin Sessions
Stuff Smith, Singin’ Stuff

Vocals
Alice Babs, Simple Isn’t Easy
Mildred Bailey, Her Greatest Performances
Sathima Bea Benjamin, Morning in Paris
Earl Coleman, Returns
Meridith D’Ambrosia, Another Time
Blossom Dearie, From the Meticulous to the Sublime
Irene Kral, Where is Love
Janet Lawson Quintet
Betty Roche, Take the A Train

Happy listening.

Thank you all for your great insights. I have a large collection of recorded jazz, both on CD and vinyl.

Among my favorites available from Red Trumpet in better quality CD releases are:

Alto Sax
Art Pepper, Gettin Together (earlier period)

Big Band (avante garde)
Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus (if you like Au Um, listen to this)

Drums
Art Blakey, A Night at Birdland (with Clifford Brown) (timeless bop)

Piano
Bill Evans, Portrait in Jazz (great sound, one of his best)
Herbie Nichols, Blue Note recordings (see Spellman, Four Lives)

Tenor Sax
Johnny Griffin, A Blowing Session (wtih Coltrane and Hank Mobley) (terrific)
Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus; Way out West (classic bop)

Vocals
Armstrong and Ellington, Complete Sessions (also issued as Great Reunion) (if you have never heard this, you will be blown away)
Ella Fitzgerald, Ella in Berlin (includes famous rendition of Mack the Knife)
Sarah Vaughan, In the Land of Hi Fi (beautiful voice, great record)

Other terrific recordings that are among my favorites, which you may wish to consider, include

Alto sax:
Sidney Bichet, The Fabulous (New Orleans style)
Art Pepper, Straight Life (later period, incredible)
Sonny Stitt, Plays Bird (hard blowing bop)

Big Band
Count Basie, At Birdland
Charles Mingus, Au Um; Pethecanthropus Erectus
Oliver Nelson, Blues and the Abstract Truth (a classic)
Ella and Basie, On the Sunny Side of the Street (one of Ellas best)
Ellingotn, At Newport

Piano
Ellington, This One’s for Blanton (also the original Ellington/Blanton duets)
Bill Evans, Sunday at the Villiage Vanguard; Waltz for Debby
Jay McShann, Tribute to Fats Waller
Theloneous Monk, Solo Monk; At the Five Spot
Herb Nichols (see above-if you like Monk, listen to this)
Bud Powell, The Essen Jazz Festival Concert (inspired)
Horace Silver, Blowin the Blues Away
Ralph Sutton, At the Café des Copains (incredible stride piano)

Tenor Sax
John Coltrane, Coltrane and Hartman; Bags and Trane; with Ellington; A Love Supreme; My Favorite Things (soprano sax); Giant Steps
Stan Getz, Happy 50th
Dexter Gordon, Lullaby for a Monster; A Swingin Affair, Go, Stable Mable
Charlie Parker, Savoy Sessions

Trumphet:
Louis Armstrong, Hot Fives and Hot Sevens (New Orleans style, important timeless music)
Clifford Brown, At Basin Street; Clifford Brown and Max Roach; and Best of Clifford Brown and Max Roach in Concert (I love Clifford Brown)
Miles Davis, Kind of Blue; Someday My Prince Will Come; Box Set
Lee Morgan, Sidewinder

Vocals
Armstrong and Ellington (see above)
Bob Dorough, Yardbird Suite (sings Charlie Parker music, very interesting)
Ella Fitzgerald (see above: Ella and Basie; Ella in Berlin-two of her best)
Johnny Hartman, (see above: Coltrane and Hartman-a classic); Once in Every Life
Billie Holliday, All or Nothing at All
Helen Humes, 1947 (incredible); Songs I Like to Sing
Alberta Hunter, Amtrack Blues
Eddie Jefferson, The Jazz Singer
Helen Merrill with Clifford Brown (wonderful music)
Carmen McRae, Carmen Sings Monk; Lover Man and other Billie Holliday Classics
Anita O’Day, Anita Sings the Most; Pick Yourself Up
Maxine Sullivan, With Her Swedish All Stars Vols 1-3 (hard to find, but great)
Sarah Vaughn, with Clifford Brown (also, see above-In the Land of Hi Fi) (essential music)
Dinah Washington, Dinah Jams (contains one of the greatest trumpet solos); The Swigin’ Miss “D”

Believe it or not, I actually tried to keep this list as short as possible. It is not intended to be anything but a personal list of some of my favorite recordings.

to Professor Campbell et al, what an impressive thread! Having just stumbled upon it (my first real day off since the holidays), I've read each and every one of these posts, and must offer my own stamp of approval to nearly every recommendation that's been made here. I would add my own comments for Kaldec, only in that these were possibly overlooked by the many jazz enthusiasts who've posted here. There was no mention of Kenny Garrett's album, PURSUANCE: THE MUSIC OF JOHN COLTRANE, which is, perhaps, one of the finest releases by a new artist to appear in the past several years. As for noteworthy books, I'm sure that most of you would agree that Barry Kernfeld has contributed more than his fair share of good information on the music and musicians that make up this wonderful genre. Although his GROVE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JAZZ is probably indispensible to the ardent fan, I think his BLACKWELL GUIDE TO RECORDED JAZZ is equally important. I'm sorry that I can't recommend a single album that is my all-time favorite; there are just too many of them that I couldn't possibly live without, but if pressed, I might have to say that THELONIOUS MONK WITH JOHN COLTRANE ranks among my absolute favorites. Happy listening!

A nice approachable recent release that I found easy to warm up to, is Terence Blanchard's "Let's Get Lost". It features a variety of popular female vocalist singing Jimmy McHugh standards. Blanchard's playing is nice and tight and it's sonically well produced and recorded. Have fun.
Paul.

It's a difficult matter to recommend favorite recordings. Besides what has already been mentioned, I can suggest two sources for further exploration. And exploration is the best way to find out what one likes as well as to understand why fans/critics appreciate particular artists/albums. They are: the Penguin Jazz CD guide and Downbeat magazine. The year end issue of Downbeat has a listing of the years best cd's. All I can say is keep on listening, take chances on that next purchase, go to jazz clubs and keep an open mind!

Jazz: From It's Origins to the Present by Lewis Porter and Michael Ullman is an excellent introduction to jazz. It's a paperback text book. Very clear and easy to read. It explains why certain people or music are "important" and puts them into their historical context. You get a good sense of what the good artists and pieces are.

The book accompanies/tracks a jazz collection put out by the Smithsonian, as they sometimes go into specific pieces on that set. Try to pick one up cheap on half.com.

I use the Penguin Guide to Jazz and www.allmusic.com to learn more about artists and pick albums. They're choices are pretty straight ahead and obvious to the more seasoned jazz fan, but you won't be lead astray with any critic's unusual tastes.

If you can find it, Norris Turney - Big, Sweet, & Blue. It is somewhat obscure from the label "Mapleshade", but excellent jazz. He was an altoist and flutist for Ellington towards the end of Duke's life. This was his first and only release under his name. Great jazz and a great recording!
Lester Young with Oscar Peterson
John Coltrane My Favorite Things
Dave Brubeck Jazz at Oberlin
Dexter Gordon Live At Carnegie Hall
Ben Webster with Oscar Peterson
Miles Davis so much great music but as a beginner it all starts with Kind of Blue-my all time favorite- all genre

Wow this thread is a classic. I will mention two books that I have with info on jazz: All that jazz-the illustrated story of jazz music. This book contains great pics and I recommend it for someone who is just starting out. The other is Jazz by John Fordham and has a forward by Sonny Rollins. Both are informitive and a must for your jazz library. Good listening!

Combining your knowledge with a very pleasant writing style should yield a best seller.

Thanks for the education.

I guess the original post asked about "mainstream", but some of the most interesting and best recorded stuff put out in the last 20-30 years can be found on the ECM, Soul note, CMP, Enja, and JMT labels. It's a great time to be a music consumer. Try Max Roach- Pictures in a Frame, David Murray- Ballads for Bass Clarinet, or Lucky Four,John Zorn Masada or his Sonny Clark Mem.Quart. titled Voodoo, Jerry Granelli-Another Place, Ed Blackwell- What It Is, Francois Bourassa trio- Echo. None of these are real outside avant brain fry recordings, but they are beautifully played and amazingly well recorded. This is just a tiny sample, there is an incredible amount of GREAT stuff out there. We are a bunch of lucky dogs.

Charles Fambrough's The Charmer, Keeper of the Spirit and Upright Citizen are very good. Michael Wolff's - self titled and Impure Thoughts. Also, Steve Allee's - The Magic Hour and Mirage. These are artist who get little attention or respect but put out great music. They may be a little hard to find but go to half.com and you might get lucky. Remember - if music be the food of life .... Jazz is one of its delicacies.

Maybe it's my German heritage, but what about Passport? The "Talk Back" (hard to find but might have some luck used -- e.g., smoothsounds.com) and "Infinity Machine" albums are, IMHO, great. Many mention Chick Corea -- I'd like to recommend the "My Spanish Heart" album in particular. The other posts are great and mention some fantastic music. Thanks.

visit www.nyjg.de and order some of their albums. you can also read about them in Jazz Thing issues that described at that link.

keith jarret - my personal favorite.

man great performances (and great recordings on emc!)

Me again, Didn't see any mention of Oscar Peterson in there. He is a giant. Oscar Peterson in Russia on Pablo with Niels Pedersen and Jake Hanna is one old piece of vinyl I still go back to once in a while. I like Sonny Stitt also, I remember one Sunday night, over thirty years ago, going alone to a small club here in Montreal run by Doudou Boicel and hearing Mr. Stitt live. There wasn't more than fifteen people in that place and Mr. Stitt appeared to be in a foul mood, but the playing was fine by me and the immediacy of it all still makes me think he was playing just for me. I am sure I am not the only one out there who has fond memories of Sonny Stitt's playing. Geez, I guess I'll go to my purveyor of fine (and not so fine, believe me it takes all kinds) music tonight and check out what recordings of Sonny Stitt are available.

Read quickly through the various posts. Seems no one mentioned big bands. I like the Toshiko Akioshi/Lew Tabackin Big Band, Tales of a Courtesan and Long Yellow Road. Rob McConnell & the Boss Brass (I know the name sounds lame) Big Band Volume 1 on PAUSA and The Brass is Back on Concord. Merely suggestions. Not exhaustive for sure and not necesarily winners of desert island sweepstakes either. They just sound good to my ears and they certainly swing, each in their own way.

Miles Davis: Porgy and Bess, Sketches of Spain. Frank Morgan, Mood Indigo. Horace Silver, Song for my Father. Charlie Haden, Quartets West Series. Mose Allison. Duke Ellington. Chick Corea, Cannonball Adderly...

Some incredible trombone jazz artists are J.J.Johnson, Kai Winding, Conrad Herwig, Steve Turre, Curtis Fuller, Bill Watrous, Jiggs Wigham. Keith Jarrett has been mentioned but check out his six sessions at the Blue Note in 1994. Have fun.

Thanks to Audiogon's redefinition of the threadbank, I stumbled upon this treasure trove! While vacationing last summer in Bordeaux I wandered into a book/music store and heard Didier Lockwood's"Tribute to Stephane Grappelli" playing. WOW! This guy swings!...AND is superbly backed by N. H. Orsted Pedersen (bass) and B. Lagrene (gtr). Well-recorded by SONY-FRANCE, just released in the US on Dreyfus. It won 5 jazz awards in Europe last year......... (As much as I like Grappelli's work, I've always been disappointed by the recorded quality of his efforts: I attended a concert of his (with the Pizzarellis) at the fine-sounding Sanders Theatre at Harvard a few years ago, and asked the sound guy (who had EQ's the room very carefully) why Grappelli's violin sounded so bright and hard. He said it was due to Grappelli's insistence upon using his old favorite mike, with a decidedly bright lower treble, allowing Grappelli to monitor himself despite his hearing loss! So this tribute by Lockwood et al is doubly rewarding in that the upper partials and harmonics of the violin are so well-recorded. It'll REALLY test your upper crossover and tweeter, as well as keep your toe tapping.) Hope you enjoy it. Ernie. (PS Yeah, Charles Lloyd's Water is Wide is great, and getting a lot of airplay in Boston.) Cheers.

diana krall

Check out the new c. lloyd 'water is wide'

Kiwi made a good point earlier about how lots of these good suggestions may not be that accessible to those just starting out (but also that if you like Monk, you're not starting at the start line). I agree Erroll Garner's Concert by the Sea suggested by Scott is terrific, and very accessible. To me, Ellington is a must. The Great Paris Concert is a very good display of the Duke's compositional gifts (esp. the couple of extended pieces) and has a lot of his great players still in the orchestra. Since it was recorded in '63, it has decent sound so may be more impressive place to start than with his older stuff. ..... Now, might I add that sure, Kind of Blue is a great desert island choice. But I can only read so many mentions of KoB before I think Birth of the Cool (Miles' first collaboration with Gil Evans, recorded about a decade? earlier than KoB) must get its rightful mention as a seminal work. I only have the original LP; how's the remaster sound?

Shelton, your post is so true. There are few greater gifts I have received than recommendations that have allowed me to discover great music.

Glad someone included Ben Webster in this discussion. I didn't neglect him deliberately - just had to put some limits on my discussion. Ben, of course, was one the great tenor players who were part of the Coleman Hawkins stylistic legacy. Some of the recordings he did for Verve in the 1950's were very good, such as his recording with Gerry Mulligan. There is also a recent re-release of Ben and Art Tatum (Pablo label) as part of JVC's XRCD series. By the 1950's, Ben was playing very few notes, particularly on ballads, and his breathy intonation became a major part of his style. He sure could say a lot with less. That, infact, is one of the characteristics I've noted about a lot of jazz greats -- they seem to distill their style as they grow older, and while they play fewer notes they manage to convey great content and depth of feeling. Clark Terry (trumpet) is one of jazz's "living treasures", and his recent album on Chesky (duets with some 14 great jazz pianists) is a great example of distilled expression. Perhaps one of the traits I find lacking in many of the young jazz musicians is that personal sense of style, of individual voice, that many of the jazz greats had. Louis Armstrong's phrasing, for example, was almost identical to the way he sang; Coltrane's phrasing, particularly during his "sheets of sound" phase, was unmistakable; I can pick out Art Pepper's sound and phrasing in an instant -- and the same with Phil Woods. Until the young players begin to develop a distinct, individual identity, they won't be true jazz artists.

I could not agree more, Redkiwi. Sometimes I yearn to hear the slow, mournful burn of Ben Webster. Other times I want to hear the power and energy of Clifford Brown. Kadlec is the envious position of discovering the music that we have loved and enjoyed for years. That is why this thread has taken off. Not only are we eager and excited about helping out, we are very envious. It's like a helping a friend put together his/her first "high-end" system. No matter how great a system you may have, you always wish that it were you that was starting to put together a system for the first time. It's fun, exciting, and hopefuly rewarding. Jazz, or any other music is no different. I will never forget the first time I heard, and understood, Miles, Coltrane, Monk, Bud, etc....Kadlec, we know what you are about to experience and we envy you!

You are right Shelton, I think Ben was one of my first loves in Jazz. I still enjoy listening to Ben, but I guess feel the need for more demanding material more and more, and the need for the lyricism and emotion of Ben less and less. But there is still a special place in my collection for him.

Out of all the great artist listed, there is one glaring omission. Ben Webster!! The sonics of his recordings are not the best, but no one phrases like he does. Sometimes when I'm listening to him play, I swear that his sax is going to sing!! His early recordings are good, but his later works seem to drip with emotion. I hate to keep using the term "emotion", but that's what it's all about for me. Please, check out Ben Webster, you won't be sorry.

I have been meaning to post here as Jazz is an area of great passion for me, but when I read the posts the "essential" recordings are all listed I think. Anyone not into jazz yet and wanting to get a small collection together ought to take note of the list compiled by Sdcampbell above. These are the cream of the crop and must-haves for any respectable jazz collection. That said, however, many of these may not be the easiest places to start. I feel that for many coming to jazz for the first time, that vocal jazz is easier to approach than purely instrumental (such as Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae and Shirley Horn - but if these are difficult, then Ella Fitzgerald or Diana Krall will do as starting points). But I note that Kadlec has clearly passed that stage being able to get into Monk. I reckon there is some essential stuff by Count Basie on piano and organ in small groups - eg. some fine stuff together with Oscar Peterson and small groups such as the "Kansas City #..." sets, or his album "For The First Time". The swing that is in this jazz is easily enjoyable for a jazz newcomer, but is of an enduring high quality. Similar small group stuff by Duke Ellington is also a good starting point, such as "For Blanton". I concur with the comments concerning Joshua Redman standing out amongst the current boring (comparatively) lot. Charlie Haden, Courtenay Pine and James Carter are at least putting out some interesting stuff too. Another good one for the newcomer is "Jessica's Blues" by Jessica Williams - a difficult album to dislike, regardless of your musical tastes.