Thad Jones

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Thanks for the suggestions frogman...I'll check them out.

I'm particularly interested in his playing in a quintet or sextet setting.
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Charles1dad, I work from home and have jazz in the background all day.  I've listened to jazz all my adult life...a lot.  I've heard a LOT of jazz.  In the beginning my only exposure to jazz was jazz radio.  If the DJ's didn't play it, I didn't hear it.  No one played Thad Jones.  My other exposure is from music recommended by friends.  No one recommended Thad Jones.  In the mean time I own over 4,000 albums (vinyl & cd combined), I listen to a paid subscription of Napster and Pandora.  I have access to more music than I can ever listen to in a lifetime.  There is SO MUCH great jazz out there and only so many hours in a day.  There are still many great jazz artists's music that I've never heard.  Thanks to Pandora, and the bottomless reservoir of jazz that's been recorded throughout history, I'll still be discovering new jazz recordings for the rest of my life.

Charles1dad, my current trumpet faves are Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Blue Mitchell, early 60's Donald Byrd and of course Miles.  The catalogs of just this handful of guys as leaders and as sidemen is exhaustive.

I've heard of Kenny Dorham and Fats Navarro...but never listened to any of their music.  Their music is easily available on my paid subscription service, but I've just never gotten around to giving them a try.  I've listened to Chet Baker a few times over the years..but he's not in my regular trumpet rotation.

My current project is to find EVERYTHING I can by Randy Brecker as a jazz sideman.  As a leader, I'm not that thrilled, but the few times I've heard him as a sideman...he REALLY sparkles.