Entire genres that only need one thread #1: "Jazz"

[Kevin Davis]

Meant to say thanks for that recommendation Trag, listened when you posted it and really dug it.

Today's listening -- not sure if this should go here or not, but Jarrett is certainly a jazz artist and I don't know enough to start a third stream thread.


This follows another fine piece with which I started my day today. I can't think of two tenors with better tones than Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins -- and here they are, playing together!

[96583UP]

i like it all but the last number the best

[doug rr]

pre-ordered this today..comes out again on sep 6

edit
really hate when neither you tube functions work

anyway

[tragabigzanda]

[contamination]

I stumbled upon this by chance after seeing someone mention it online and I'm really digging the whole album.

[doug rr]

so good..glad you like it..I have almost everything he's done..

[doug rr]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kind-of-b ... e?ref=home

[VinylGuy]

Damn Miles had such an amazing band for Sorcerer

[Kevin Davis]

Hey Doug, have you heard this one yet? Posthumous live album, out today I think. Fantastic stuff!

[contamination]

so good..glad you like it..I have almost everything he's done..

Interesting, I didn't consider you a free jazz guy. I mean I don't consider myself as one either, but I really like that album. I also tried some other stuff from him like Waves but it just doesn't click the way Contrasts does. For some reason it doesn't feel like an intellectual exercise like some other free jazz stuff I've tried does. I don't know if it makes any sense or maybe it sounds a cliche, but to me the album is like an abstract painting of New York.

Anyway I love discovering stuff like this. I think I know quite a bit about the early jazz scene up till the mid 60's, but what came between mid 60's and ~early 2000's is pretty much a black hole to me. Of course I know some Miles' albums, but I most definitely can't name the players or styles the way I can from those earlier decades. So it's strange to put on something like this and not to be able to place the album and the player into a certain context in jazz. But at the same time it's nice to know that there's still so much more to discover.

This album was another one from the 70's I discovered not too long ago. Not a free jazz album, but I really like it:

[tragabigzanda]

[Kevin Davis]

Love that - thank you for sharing!

[tragabigzanda]

Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

[kreng]

I kind of can't get into Jeff Parker's last few releases at all.

[Ello Sailor]

What a pleasant surprise.

[VinylGuy]

been enjoying a lot of iiyo iiyo iiyo, a live release from Sam Wilkes recorded in Japan.

Im listening to another 2024 release from him and its pretty spot on for a rainy day like today.

[doug rr]

I put Coltrane/doplhy on today...so good

[Kevin Davis]

I put Coltrane/doplhy on today...so good

[liebzz]

I have this goofy vision for my 2025 music listening of somewhat replicating what I did with the live albums but with studio classics. Having jazz, rock, soul, blues, and even a bit of classic hip hop melding with my prior understandings of what my favorite albums are and once again keeping track. I have been compiling lists and expect that I’m also crowdsourcing here for what I am missing for must hear classic jazz albums. I’ll go in rough chronology as before as a way to keep from one music getting too stale. Here’s what I got so far for jazz albums:

Louis Armstrong - The Complete Hot Five and Hot Sevens Recordings
Louis Armstrong - The Complete Hot Five and Hot Sevens Recordings, Vol. 2
Louis Armstrong - Jazz Moods
Dizzy Gillespie - Shaw Nuff
Lester Young - Lester Young/ Buddy Rich Trio
Thelonius Monk - The Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1
Charlie Parker - Bird: The Complete Original Master Takes
Louis Armstrong - Plays WC Handy
Sarah Vaughn with Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet - Clifford Brown and Max Roach
Frank Sinatra - In the Wee Small Hours
Frank Sinatra - Songs for Swingin’ Lovers
Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald - Ella & Louis
Louis Armstrong - Mack the Knife
Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool
Thelonius Monk - Brilliant Covers
Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald - Porgy & Bess
Miles Davis - Miles Ahead
John Coltrane - Blue Trane
Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus
Count Basie - The Atomic Mr. Basie
Miles Davis - Milestones
Dave Brubek Quartet - Time Out
Duke Ellington - Ellington Indigos
Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come
Art Blakely and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin’
Bill Evans - Everybody Digs
Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
Cannonball Adderly - Something Else
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
Etta James - At Last
Bill Evans Trio - Sunday at the Village Vanguard
Sonny Rollins - The Bridge
John Coltrane - Impressions
Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder
Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
John Coltrane Quartet - Crescent
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
John Coltrane - Ascension
Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage
Dr. John - Gris Gris
Miles Davis - Sorcerer
John Coltrane - Transitions
Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
John Coltrane - Sun Ship
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Dr. John - Dr. John’s Gumbo
Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Inner Mounting Flame
Dr. John - In the Right Place
Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters
Kamasi Washington - The Epic
Kamasi Washington - Harmony of Difference
Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth

I am sure there are many more but if I am missing straight up must hear classics, I can add them. This worked great at least for me last time.

[Kevin Davis]

That is an excellent list of recordings -- looking forward to following along with this part of the journey. I'll resist the urge to throw out a million titles but here are a few I feel like you need:

Duke Ellington "The Blanton Webster Band" 1940-42 -- This is commonly regarded as his artistic pinnacle. Some of the vocal numbers are a bit hokey by today's standards but IMO a lot of it is up there with the best music ever made.

Billie Holiday "Lady Day: The Best of Billie Holiday" - best of Columbia recordings from 1933-44 or thereabouts. No survey of jazz is complete without Billie and this is her best stuff.

Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto - "Getz/Gilberto" -- one of the bestselling jazz albums of all time and per Wikipedia, "the album that popularized bossa nova worldwide." A truly beautiful record, pure ear candy.


I'd also try to find at least a few things to represent 1980-present in addition to Kamasi. I'm glad to throw out some recommendations but there's way less consensus during this period so it would just be personal favorites. I do think you would really enjoy Brad Mehldau and Bill Frisell.

Good luck!