Jazz: the Odyssey

[gallax]

A couple of weeks ago, I rekindled my ambition to explore the world of jazz more in-depth.

With my previous attempts, I was overwhelmed by the vastness of it all: so much to listen to, so many good artists that recorded so much stuff.
But I always got stuck at a certain point; suffered from overkill and I ended up resorting to the same bunch of records (that I love).

I've included some of the albums I enjoy. I hope you guys can add on some personal favorites to the list and push me in the right direction. Even though I'm open for it, I'm not into hard-bop or other types of upbeat/experimental jazz. That could come in the future though, so please recommend whatever you like.
Right now, I'm mostly drawn to moody jazz (as you can see below). I searched the PF-archives, but could never come up with a comprehensive list.
Hope you can help me out!

Grant Green - Idle Moments (1963)

01. Idle Moments
02. Jean de Fleur
03. Jean de Fleur (alternate take)
04. Django
05. Django (alternate take)
06. Nomad

http://www.zona-musical.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12914

Stan Getz, Jimmie Rowles - Stan presents Jimmie Rowles - The Peacocks (1977) FLAC

01. I'll Never Be The Same (4:07)
02. Lester Left Town (5:53)
03. Body And Soul (5:51)
04. What Am I Here For? (4:57)
05. Serenade To Sweden (5:39)
06. The Chess Players (5:43)
07. The Peacocks (5:42)
08. My Buddy (4:26)
09. The Hour Of Parting (3:35)
10. Rose Marie (2:54)
11. This Is All I Ask (4:23)
12. Skylark (4:01)
13. Mosaic / Would You Like To Take A Walk (1:34)

http://turbobit.net/4jzjrnxn5tda.html

Cannonball Adderley with Bill Evans - Know What I Mean

01. Waltz for Debby
02. Goodbye
03. Who Cares? (Take 5)
04. Who Cares? (Take 4)
05. Venice
06. Toy
07. Elsa
08. Nancy (With the Laughing Face)
09. Know What I Mean? (Re-Take 7)
10. Know What I Mean? (Take 12)

http://rappamelo.com/2012/04/cannonball ... at-i-mean/

[fortuna]

Sounds familiar...
I've started watching Ken Burns' excellent

a few times, but encounter the same difficulties... the sheer volume of it all...

Here my favourites, you probably already know:

https://rapidshare.com/#!download|652p7 ... |96297|0|0

[EichTurner]

Know what i mean is a great pick.. used to listen to that all the time.

my favorite Coltrane Album is ..


my favorite dexter gordon is
with ernie's tune ..
idk i guess i don't to much rare stuff but i used to listen to a shit ton of be bop so this thread is much welcomed..

[EichTurner]

this is dopin.. one of my favorites..

[Huldrich Bullsh!t]

i also think the amount of different genres and recordings make this sheer impossible even for Jazz specialists. but you can always go to the classics and there will be an endless amount of possibilities. im by far no expert on the genre but i enjoy it and over the years have heard and seen quite a few records. if you like recording look up the players involved. think about what specific instruments you like in a recording and look for other stuff from the same player or for other players of that same instrument. look for labely you like and go from there.

eg if you like the Grant Green im sure there are a lot of records on blue note eg. Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, ... that you will enjoy. try the dont shy away form compilations even if some purists say its wack. its a great way to introduce yourself to new artists. im also pretty sure youll like some of Wes Montgomery's later recordings on Verve and A&M.
or the Howard Roberts Quartet all three have a similar guitar sound and timbre

if you dig that Adderley album i'm sure you'll like some of his other albums. he's one of my favorite Jazzmen. i really like everything ive heard from him from earlier than that album in maye 59, 60 to albums in 66. i dont know a lot of his work from the late 60s and 70s though.

one of my favorite bands in Jazz is the Original Charles Lloyd Quartet. they played beautiful and complex music that are easy to listen to nevertheless.

i have never heard the Stan Getz album you posted but i like his samba oriented stuff he recorded with Luis
Bonfa, Laurindo Almeida nad other brazilian artists a lot. and the drummer on that record Elvin Jones was incredible and played has great fusion recordings that don't wild out too much together with Jan Hammer

[RacquetballGangsta]

any and everything steve kuhn, but this one in particular.

[marinville]

If you are looking for suggestions:

donald byrd - a new perspective
duke pearson - wahoo
ahmad jamal - but not for me
thad jones & mel lewis - consummation
rahsaan roland kirk - the case of the 3 sided dream in audio color
the mahavishnu orchcestra with john mclaughlin - the inner mounting flame
anything miles davis - (my personal favs are) kind of blue. sketches of spain, & in a silent way
lou donaldson - alligator bogaloo
gil evans - svengali
dexter gordan - go
herbie handcock - headhunters, sextant
freddie hubbard - ready for freddie
art blakey and the jazz messengers - indestructable
the dave brubeck quartet - time out
sonny rollins - the bridge
john coltrane - a love supreme
chick correa - return to forever
cal tjader - soul sauce
willie bobo - spanish grease
the thelonious monk quartet - monks dream
wes montgomery - the incredible jazz guitar of wes montgomery
jimmy smith with stanley turrentine - prayer meetin
gabor szabo - the sorcerer live at jazz workshop
weather report - mysterious traveler
dizzy gillespie - new wave
charles mingus - tijuana moods
ramsey lewes trio - the in crowd
yusef lateef - live at peps
herbie mann - at the village gate
eric dolphy - out to lunch
cannonball adderley - somethin else
lee morgan - the sidewinder

[siLLy KiD]

go absolutely batshit balls crazy <3

http://rappamelo.com/category/jazz/

I def recommend this cut:

http://www.mediafire.com/?lgffstd2kcaeahm

[Random Sample]

[ALASKA]

probably my favorite jazz album of all time. gorgeous and mellow. the way hutcherson's vibes work with hancock's piano are fucking stellar.

i also found this site (the link is sorted to jazz, but also has funk, soul, R&B, etc) which is a treasure trove.

page 3 alone was amazing

http://rappamelo.com/category/jazz/

[Radio Raheem]

[ALASKA]

downloading now.

[EichTurner]

almost forgot .. most recent jazz listening i've done..





annette peacock.. of the survival drum break fame.. she has a lot of jazz aspects to her though... my favorite cd's of hers to highly recommend are X-Dreams and Sky skating. sometimes she gets a little to out for my tastes but a lot of it is so beautiful.. amazing key changes.

[ALASKA]

any and everything steve kuhn, but this one in particular.

thank you!!!!!!

this is amazing

[fortuna]

http://rs274p6.rapidshare.com/cgi-bin/r ... B05368EB42

[fatboybrandon]

Nice albums hear so far. I still have yet to hear most of them.

A couple of weeks ago, I rekindled my ambition to explore the world of jazz more in-depth.

With my previous attempts, I was overwhelmed by the vastness of it all: so much to listen to, so many good artists that recorded so much stuff.
But I always got stuck at a certain point; suffered from overkill and I ended up resorting to the same bunch of records (that I love).

I think your best route is to take your time and enjoy the journey of finding Jazz you like however you choose to find it. I would spend more offline time searching to experience moments of life in the process, like going to record shows, stores, radio stations and people's personal collections to meet people. Those 5 places alone are worth a bunch of memories and experiences of life that the internet can't afford you.

[gallax]

I think your best route is to take your time and enjoy the journey of finding Jazz you like however you choose to find it. I would spend more offline time searching to experience moments of life in the process, like going to record shows, stores, radio stations and people's personal collections to meet people. Those 5 places alone are worth a bunch of memories and experiences of life that the internet can't afford you.

Totally get you on that. For example, just went on a business trip to Seoul for a couple of days and I decided to look out some local jazz clubs/record stores to find inspiration. Got some great leads from there, but some of the albums I downloaded from here really turned out to be a perfect soundtrack for the trip, especially the Eastern Sounds from Yusuf Lateef (thanks for that amazing tip, fortuna).

Even though I agree that the real world is better for building up a personal preference, I also feel at the same time that Rubin could be an excellent reference point for many people struggling with the same problem as mine. You gotta start somewhere, and this thread could be it....especially now it's getting harder and harder to find good jazz blogs with live links.

Anyway, some more albums I really enjoyed lately......add on!

1. Such Sweet Thunder (Cleo)
2. Sonnet For Caesar
3. Sonnet To Hank Cinq
4. Lady Mac
5. Sonnet In Search Of A Moor
6. The Telecasters
7. Up And Down, Up And Down (I Will Lead Them Up And Down) (Puck)
8. Sonnet For Sister Kate
9. The Star-Crossed Lovers (AKA Pretty Girl)
10. Madness In Great Ones (Hamlet)
11. Half The Fun (AKA Lately)
12. Circle Of Fourths
13. The Star-Crossed Lovers (AKA Pretty Girl) (Stereo LP Master)
14. Circle Of Fourths (Stereo LP Master)
15. Suburban Beauty (Master Take)
16. A Flat Minor (Preferred Take)
17. Cafe Au Lait (Preferred Take)
18. Half The Fun (AKA Lately) (Alternate Take)
19. Suburban Beauty (Alternate Take)
20. A Flat Minor (Outtakes)
21. Cafe Au Lait (Outtakes)
22. Pretty Girl (AKA The Star-Crossed Lovers) (First Recording)

http://www.mediafire.com/?8436jtewd9tel4z

http://rappamelo.com/2012/01/piero-umil ... e-di-luna/

[perfectprism]

to thread, jazz shit helps me write better than anything else, turns my mind to a loose association chaosphere

suck on this one:

Marc Moulin - Placebo Sessions:



01. Aria http://soundcloud.com/twodogsfighting2/mm
02. Humpty Dumpty
03. Planes
04. Showbiz Suite
05. Balek
06. Only Nineteen
07. Phalene
08. Temse
09. Stomp
10. Polk
11. N. W.
12. Dag Madam Merci
13. S.U.S.
14. Plotselling
15. Bosso

http://www.mediafire.com/?354vs2oaxn6rrj0

[gallax]

Just a quick update, as I haven't stop listening. Thanks for the Moulin. Will play it next.

@sillykid: Catalyst's dope!
@Huldrich: To prove your statement on compilations, I found this trilogy with Tribe samples (Tribe Vibes Vol 1 to 3). I think this originally appeared in T.R.O.Y. and it's not all jazz, but there is some amazing stuff in there. Found a re-up of the comps on this site:

http://holdthethrone.wordpress.com/2009 ... l-samples/

Also Found this little jewel:

Sonny Red - Out of the blue

Tracklist
01. Bluesville
02. Stay As Sweet As You Are
03. I’ve Been In Love Before
04. Nadia
05. Blues In The Pocket
06. Alone Too Long
07. The Lope
08. Stairway To The Stars
09. Crystal
10. Lost April
11. You’re Sensational
12. Blues For Kokee
13. You’re Driving Me Crazy

https://rapidshare.com/files/3043711710 ... e_Blue.rar

OR

http://www.mediafire.com/?s4trgs5g54uuxbe

Source:

http://rappamelo.com/2012/03/sonny-red-out-of-the-blue/

Back later with/for more....

[ric]

the problem with jazz moreso than most any other music is that if you dig deep enough you are going to run into shit that is just going to straight up turn you off or that youll get really 'ehhh' about. and part of that is just that some of these guys are so fucking prolific

examples
i like duke ellington but my tolerance level for just listening to his basic shit is pretty low in general. im not a huge fan of his big band stuff. i like it and it has its place, but its not really the juice for me. the collaboration albums are really where its at because hes so fucking sophisticated like a perfectly aged wine but so fucking good that he just fits anybody into a framework which is basically perfect for what it is. moneyjungle and the coltrane collab are like the epitome of that to me.

the chet baker stuff i feel like i have to sift through it to find the real gems that make you go . the miles gil evans stuff was out of control awesome but im not crazy about the bird-miles stuff or fusion stuff. i like it, but again, i give it a place and then move on.

i like the bird-dizzy stuff a lot, and its fucking great stuff, but my favorite of dizzys work is his stuff after hes left bird behind as nutty as that may sound

i love monk though. every monk opus has its own character to it which really only builds on his authorship but even then, monk is a mood and its not easy to just kind of throw it on and chill, or throw it on for company. i love sonny rollins in the same way but i dont get into the 'vanguard' style too much (not village vanguard) i stick with the solid sonny rollins and his work with monk

trane is someone who i have a decent amount of material but i really am withholding judgment on his career as a whole because i am really hesitant to seek out the very late albums where he supposed to get spacey as fuck. love supreme and favorite things are probably the most addicting albums ever recorded ever. that shit is like crack. the intensity in those albums is fucking insane. but i dont really want to hear the later work. i heard that at the end of his career he was playing to audiences of 3 and just squeeking it out for 2 hours. i dont want to hear that.

branford marsalis describes some of these guys like autistics. like thats all they want to do is play their instrument like they want to and occasionally come home. they literally dont know how to talk to people, they barely know how to get around. i think thats a harsher reality than the average fan is willing to accept in terms of musical quality. these guys have been built up like heroes and shit. and i include myself in this, as hardcore of a fan that i am, i am forcing myself to listen to late career trane and i havent even done it yet. its been years. havent done it.

branford told this story in the ken burn jazz interviews but it doesnt make the film and its like this; branfords playing a gig at some jazz club. during the break the bartender goes 'hey sonny rollins swung by and wants to talk to you' branford looks around like where? the bartender is like 'in the other room' - well theres the door to the closet and then nothing and branford is like 'in there?' and the guy is like 'yeah in there' so he walks into this dim closet and sonny rollins is there in the dark and branford walks in and sonny doesnt say shit for a while they are just standing in the dark. and then sonny says like 'say hi to guy xyz' and sonny had brought this other guy with him into this closet to just hang out and stand around. in a closet. and then nothing is really said and branford goes back out to play the rest of the set. that is fucking nuts. as much as i LOVE sonny rollins music, that is just fucking insane. havent even read the monk bio yet but im sure its just wild as fuck. in the later years i heard that literally all trane wanted to do was play music all day. literally did nothing else. what the fuck is that about? i dont want to listen to spacey squeekey non-music.

[fortuna]

cosign...
that's why I love this thread

[Huldrich Bullsh!t]

@Ric funny things are told about Keith Jarrett aswell. supposedly he's a straight up asshole to his audiences, on some bow down you should be grateful that im playing for you shit. leaving the stage because of a cough and stuff like that. also his extreme anti elctronic amplification stance in jazz music is not only troubling because it is stupid on itself alone but more stupid considering the long time he played with Miles.
but he's still a hell of a piano player.

i dont know i guess you shouldn't look to musicians as some spiritual guidance person or hero. you should also take into consideration that many of them have been heroine addicts at one point in their life or died of drug abuse. of course that leaves a mark on any person. do you know any drug addicts or post-rehab drug addicts? Sonny Rollins still holds the throne as the greatest living Saxophone player since Coletrane's dead.

I remember in an Interview with Joe Zawinul, who played Piano first with Cannonball and later with Miles and then in Weather Report and is one of the most important musical figures of 20th century music from where im from, where he told about meeting Sun Ra. i think Sun Ra was watching them play or they were watching someone else play and Sun Ra went up to Joe looked him dead in the eye and said: "I've seen you before, at a concert in the fourteenth row. on the planet Sirius" according to Zawinul the guy was dead serious when he said that stuff

just enjoy the music. and if you enjoy what you liek and not what others tell you to (eg in your case later Coltrane or Ellington Big Band) thats perfect as it is.




*edited because i found the Sun Ra quote

[donald goines]

Jazz can be a tough genre. There are heralded albums that I am now just beginning to understand. Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch used to sound like noise but now whenever I listen to it I am struck by Bobby Hutcherson's ability to complement Dolphy's dissonance. That said I still find a lot of the looser stuff baffling. Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler still make very little sense to me. I've recognized that I do like dissonance and atonality but only when its tempered by a little melody or harmony. All out free jazz is poison to my ears. Shit like this is right up my alley.

[gallax]

the chet baker stuff i feel like i have to sift through it to find the real gems that make you go

Keep the good stories coming, but just wanted to underline that this is exactly why I started this thread.

I imagine y'all been sifting through the catalogs for years. Some of the albums stuck with you, some didn't. I want to hear about the albums that did

Taste in jazz is arbitrary, but I'm sure there is a common denominator of overall great albums we can agree on.

Newest pick, and this one is for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Ahmad Jamal Trio - The Awakening

1. The Awakening
2. I Love Music
3. Patterns
4. Dolphin Dance
5. You're My Everything
6. Stolen Moments
7. Wave
No elaborate solos, no highs and lows, just positive vibes. This album has been sampled to death, as you can see in the link below:

http://www.thetroyblog.com/2008/10/06/a ... l-samples/

Go get it here:

http://svitoljazz.blogspot.be/2012/04/a ... -1970.html

[ric]

@everybody
yeah just kind of ranting. HA. that was a late post. thread is fire. lets keep this one going.

i just picked up a rerelease of jobims Black Orpheus/Orfeo Negro soundtrack/score. pretty pumped. will post.

@ huldrich
funny re jarrett
yeah i get they are former/addicts but it does come out in the music and its just hard to find the good shit that isnt over-sold and super hyped. like that stan getz jimmie rowles album above. that shit is fucking fire. i have been trying to find that album for like 15 years. have not downloaded. will do so asap. shit technology situation right now.
but the thing is is that the music is just so fucking fire its like personal and the fact that really only guys who are that skilled can be that awesome, i mean its like they are music olympians and they are all winning gold like every year of their prime and they continually manage to raise the gold standard with every other album and shit. makes you realize just how garbage pop music has always been and still is (i still like pop though dont get me wrong)

[gallax]

Following up on the discussion, I found this dope Playboy article from the sixties where influential artists comment on the relationship between jazz musicians and drug abuse. Featured: brothers Adderley, Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie. Quite a long read, so I didn't copy/paste.
Enjoy....
http://www.cannonball-adderley.com/article/lapin01.htm

[Huldrich Bullsh!t]

dope. im gonna check this out when i find time

[Versive]

Emphatic co-sign.

Thanks for the uploads yall. This thread is dope.

[RacquetballGangsta]

Ahmad Jamal is the shit. Lucky enough to have seen him live a few years back. Idris Muhammad was on drums.
Im hugely into piano these days. Bill Evans is my Jesus.

[gallax]

Bill Evans is my Jesus.

Then do tell which of his albums you like most, at least for the moment. Sheesh!
Don't mean to push, but I mean business about making this odyssey a productive one....

Now for something a bit newer...
Ever since a friend of mine made me discover this around ten years ago I haven't been able to get this out my head. I have my favourites, but this is one of the few jazz albums I know that gets consistent play and never gets on my nerves. Similar vibe as the Ahmad Jamal album I mentioned earlier, but this is one of this albums that should have been released on vinyl.
Enjoy

Avishai Cohen Trio - At Home (2005)

01 Feediop
02 Madrid
03 Leah-Lah
04 Remembering
05 Renouf's Last Tooth
06 Gershon Beat
07 No Words
08 Punk (DJN)
09 Mediterranean Sun
10 Saba
11 Toledo

http://rapidshare.com/files/205596872/ACOHEN_Home.rar

Taken from: http://barabbovich.multiply.com/links/i ... nks%2Fitem