Make a Jazz Noise Here

[Mirror Image]

Any recommendations on Count Basie albums?  Two or three of the best with his big band (instrumental, not backing a singer), though I don't mind some small session stuff thrown in, too.  I also wouldn't object to a box set if the price was reasonable and it was a manageable quantity of discs (say, five or less).

My favorite Basie recordings:

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[jwinter]

My biggest musical discovery of the year so far, without a doubt, is Bill Evans.  I've never been much of a jazz fan, but something about his playing really grabbed me, and I have seen the light, as they say.  My library actually has the Complete Riverside Recordings, so I was able to really dive in and explore, and have since moved on to try out Monk, Davis, Coltrane, Mingus, and a few others.

My current favorite CD...

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[Mirror Image]

My biggest musical discovery of the year so far, without a doubt, is Bill Evans.  I've never been much of a jazz fan, but something about his playing really grabbed me, and I have seen the light, as they say.  My library actually has the Complete Riverside Recordings, so I was able to really dive in and explore, and have since moved on to try out Monk, Davis, Coltrane, Mingus, and a few others.

My current favorite CD...

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Evans was an early favorite of mine. He's still very much an influence on me. Just a bit of trivia: Evans favorite composers were Ravel and Debussy.

[Gold Knight]

Lately, I've really been getting into Return To Forever because of joints like this, short and packing a punch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lilYqzVxvBU

[Gold Knight]

Though maybe not "pure jazz", I believe this Traffic instrumental leading into Freedom Rider ably qualifies for the canon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=X84JnZ0vTi0

[Gold Knight]

From Newk's Time, my favorite cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mybleUuu13w&feature=player_detailpage

[DavidRoss]

One of my favorite jazz noises:

http://www.youtube.com/v/m35GeoBLPG4

[Leo K.]

My biggest musical discovery of the year so far, without a doubt, is Bill Evans.  I've never been much of a jazz fan, but something about his playing really grabbed me, and I have seen the light, as they say.  My library actually has the Complete Riverside Recordings, so I was able to really dive in and explore, and have since moved on to try out Monk, Davis, Coltrane, Mingus, and a few others.

My current favorite CD...

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Me too man, me too. I'm going through his albums one by one for the first time, and it's an incredible experience.

[Leo K.]

Listening to Bud Powell's Blue Note complete set. Amazing and glorious.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Listening to Bud Powell's Blue Note complete set. Amazing and glorious.

Yep. Very fine stuff, there.

[Mirror Image]

Listening to Bud Powell's Blue Note complete set. Amazing and glorious.

Yes, it is. You should hear his complete Verve set as well, but it might be OOP now:

[Leo K.]

Yes, it is. You should hear his complete Verve set as well, but it might be OOP now:

Thanks for the heads up, I will definitely seek this set!

[Mirror Image]

As is the case for the Verve boxes, this one is marred by including too much.  Unless you are a Bud Powell Completest,  my sense is that if you have the Blue Note recordings, the Verve is optional, at best.  But Disc One is excellent.

With your philosophy, everything could very well be optional. Anyway, a person can NEVER have enough Bud Powell in their collection and if you like his music, then this set is an essential acquisition. I've listened to this set on Verve from start to finish several times, in fact, twice when I first bought it and loved it. A must-buy for sure.

[Mirror Image]

Thanks for the heads up, I will definitely seek this set!

My pleasure.

[Mirror Image]

I generally don't clutter my collection with inconsistent recordings.  I am not a completest; at this point, I really only want to have what I consider the best sessions from the prime years of an artist.  This is especially true with a musician like Bud Powell or Lester Young whose decline in later years, while tragic, was real and in evident in the music.  For me, the inclusion of every available "alternate take" more often adds quantity and not quality.

But you obviously feel differently, and what I find inconsistent and mediocre for BP, and of lower quality than his Blue Note sides, you find indispensable.  I am not trying to challenge your opinion - it is just not my approach.

I'll take a Bud Powell in decline over any of the so-called jazz musicians working today. I don't view alternate takes the same way you do. In many cases, they sound like completely different tunes altogether because of the improvisations and the feeling the musicians were going for at that moment. Jazz is very much an 'in the moment' art. It happens immediately and spontaneously. A record in jazz is nothing more than a glimpse of that musician at that time in their life. Many critics have said the same thing about Monk during his Columbia years that you did about Powell post-Blue Note. I don't think either musician ever lost their magic. They have on/off days just like any musician. I don't think the entire set of The Complete Bud Powell On Verve is solid, because it's not, that would indicate that he's some kind of superhuman musician. No, what I'm saying is as a whole I thought the box set was good and anyone into Powell will want this set in their collection.

[Leo K.]

I go through phases where all I listen to is classical music but then I enter a phase of mostly listening to jazz.  That's where I'm at right now.  For the last few years I've focused on classical music, mostly period instrument recordings, but then all of a sudden I put in a Miles CD and I was off into the jazz thing.

No matter how I get there, my jazz noise always includes these CDs:

Miles Davis: All the recordings from 1955-1967, but what is in steady rotation are Kind of Blue, 'Round About Midnight, Milestones and the four LPs from the  2nd quintet, E.S.P., Miles Smiles, Sorcerer and Nefertiti.

Wayne Shorter: Those great Blue Note records, Adam's Apple, Night Dreamer, Juju and Speak No Evil.  I also really like Schizophrenia and The Soothsayer.

Andrew Hill: The Blue Note sessions, mainly Point of Departure, Judgement, Black Fire and Combustion.  But his entire catalog is great imo, and the records he made near the end of his life include some of his best stuff.

Joe Henderson: Mode for Joe, Inner Urge, In 'n Out - also the later stuff like Porgy & Bess, Double Rainbow, State of the the Tenor (!), So Near, So Far (tribute to Miles).

John Coltrane: All the Prestige sides, and then the early classic quartet Impulse things, up to A Love Supreme.  He lost me with the later stuff.

There are hundreds of other things I love, like Hank Mobley, Grant Green, Lee Morgan, Bobby Hutcherson, that I am inconstantly listening to  - but these are the cream of the crop for me.  There's also a lot of great jazz being recorded TODAY.  I might start a New Jazz thread for only those things newly released since it is easy to come to believe that all the good stuff has already been done.  That's simply not true and all one needs to do is investigate and there are hidden treasures out there for the hearing.

I appreciate your favorites list, thanks! Now listening to Andrew Hill's Point of Departure for the first time, and I love it!

[Leo K.]

Ever Since I first heard Eric Dolphy play the bass clarinet, I’ve fallen in love with the sound of the instrument. I’ve known his Conversations LP for awhile now, and recently have started to explore Out To Lunch, which is a powerhouse. The bass clarinet is majestic and mysterious, it blows my mind.

Besides Out to Lunch, what other Dolphy album features the bass clarinet?

[Mirror Image]

I go through phases where all I listen to is classical music but then I enter a phase of mostly listening to jazz.  That's where I'm at right now.  For the last few years I've focused on classical music, mostly period instrument recordings, but then all of a sudden I put in a Miles CD and I was off into the jazz thing.

No matter how I get there, my jazz noise always includes these CDs:

Miles Davis: All the recordings from 1955-1967, but what is in steady rotation are Kind of Blue, 'Round About Midnight, Milestones and the four LPs from the  2nd quintet, E.S.P., Miles Smiles, Sorcerer and Nefertiti.

Wayne Shorter: Those great Blue Note records, Adam's Apple, Night Dreamer, Juju and Speak No Evil.  I also really like Schizophrenia and The Soothsayer.

Andrew Hill: The Blue Note sessions, mainly Point of Departure, Judgment, and Black Fire .  But his entire catalog is great imo, and the records he made near the end of his life include some of his best stuff.

Joe Henderson: Mode for Joe, Inner Urge, In 'n Out - also the later stuff like Porgy & Bess, Double Rainbow, State of the the Tenor (!), So Near, So Far (tribute to Miles).

John Coltrane: All the Prestige sides, and then the early classic quartet Impulse things, up to A Love Supreme.  He lost me with the later stuff.

There are hundreds of other things I love, like Hank Mobley, Grant Green, Lee Morgan, Bobby Hutcherson, that I am inconstantly listening to  - but these are the cream of the crop for me.  There's also a lot of great jazz being recorded TODAY.  I might start a New Jazz thread for only those things newly released since it is easy to come to believe that all the good stuff has already been done.  That's simply not true and all one needs to do is investigate and there are hidden treasures out there for the hearing.

You and I are a lot of like it's scary. Not so much with the choices in jazz, although I always make room for Miles, but with how we both go off on long tangents. I've listened to classical for a straight three years and now it seems I'm getting back to my roots a lot more. Jazz really is my first musical love.

Here are some of my own 'jazz essentials' that I listen to a lot:

Bill Evans Trio: I'm a HUGE Evans fan. Portrait In Jazz, Explorations, Waltz For Debby, Moon Beams, I Will Say Goodbye, Live at the Village Vanguard (Complete), You Must Believe In Spring

Miles Davis: All of the Gil Evans collaborations, Kind of Blue, most of the Prestige albums (Relaxin, Steamin, Workin, Cookin, Miles), recently the Second Quintet recordings, Seven Steps To Heaven, Milestones

Oscar Peterson: All of his albums with Ed Thigpen and Ray Brown

Thelonious Monk: Like Evans and Miles one of my absolute favorites. Give me any of his Riverside, Prestige, or Columbia recordings and I'm a happy man.

Sonny Clark: Leapin and Lopin, Dial 'S' For Sonny, Sonny's Crib

Gigi Gryce: When Farmer Meets Gryce, Saying Somethin, With the Jazz Lab Quintet, Rat Race Blues, The Hap'nins'

Clifford Brown: All his albums with Max Roach

Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage, Empyrean Isles

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: A Night in Tunisia, Free For All, The Big Beat, Moanin, Ugetsu

Paul Desmond: All his solo albums and his work as a sideman with Dave Brubeck

I think this is enough for now.

[Mirror Image]

I almost edited my post to include Bill Evans since I would rank him among my core group of artists that I listen to more than most - but left it as it was since there are many others, some of which are among your other choices. 

All great choices, and interesting that you included Gigi Gryce and Sonny Clark - both great players who are not usually included in these kinds of lists.

I could never leave Evans off the list. It should be noted that I own the complete discographies of all the jazz musicians I listed. Gigi Gryce and Sonny Clark are both outstanding jazz musicians who never get enough attention the same goes for Art Farmer and Horace Silver who happen to be two other favorites. It's interesting you have Andrew Hill in your list. I never could get into him. I guess I just don't like that avant-garde type of stuff, although there is still one Andrew Hill tune that I find myself humming every now and then and it's called Yellow Violet from the album Dance with Death. I had a lot Hill albums but sold them all. Like I said, I just couldn't get into his music and I tried to for years and years.

Here's that tune I mentioned by Hill:

http://www.youtube.com/v/OtuPnaDx1Qg

Listening to this again and I don't like it too much now. The drum work isn't direct, which is kind of off-putting.

[Bogey]

I go back and forth where I post my jazz listening, but I believe it would help if we all started posting here as much as possible.  That way the jazz is not woven, but highlighted....including your Big Band thread, MI.

Thread duty with a light touch of crooning:



There is a set of nine cds that I may look into, but each cd set is pricey: