jazz saved my life?

[tweeds]

bump for a old helluva post.

Miz. Why the fuck you always know whats what?.

Me personally, I have a limited appreciation of jazz. No one's fault but my own, or maybe the fact that I listened to so much of it growing up that I don't know what's what. Its just like one long session from end-to-end. That said, I'll reccount a little experience that one of your earlier quotes made me reminisce on. If there's one thing Jazz is good for, it's that.

Young Wolves is like 14 year old. Fresh into highschool, in the midst of a world of popularity, over excited drug and alcohol abuse, and what might of been the early semblance of Love. My Uncle on my Mom's side of the family has a knowledge of the music that borders on encyclopedic. But not in that corny-ass record collector way. He's just any Brooklyn Jew who was raised on it, and loves the music with all his heart. He decides that I need to get educated, and so he suggests that we go to the Village Vangaurd one weekend evening, to check out a young player by the name of Roy Hargrove. Outside of my routine, but I'm like, cool, lets handle it.

I show up at the spot on one of those brisk fall evenings where the city is breathing all crisp like, and my uncle is in the Pizza shop on the corner. he gives be a hearty hand clasp, and a hug, and after devouring the remainder of his slice is like "Yo...lets step around the corner real quick" . We hit the block...dont even know what street. West 4th, little west 12th, Jane st.? All gets confusing to me round there. He pulls the spliff out of his right pocket. Shit's all cobbled together, looks like an old man's gnarled wooden cane. "It's prolly not the good shit you're used to" he says "but it gets the job done". "Don't even worry about the cops, just relax, youre with me, man". So I do as told, and he sparks it up. It begins canoeing almost immediately. I put some spit on it as it's passed my way, and we make quick work of it between the two of us while he tells me about some girl he used to sleep with not far from here. I wonder to myself if my aunt at home knows about this. The weed, a possible affair...shit.

We pop some gum as he pays our way and we go down the steps. It's all a hazeof red, and women down there. Some waitress with a low neckline comes over and asks me "what would I like." "there's a two-drink minimum" she says. I get cokes, and lay back as Roy begins to play. He knows what he's doing, and accordingly, I pay attention. The type of attention that pays itself. We stay for two sets, and between them, I drop a quarter in the pay-phone and call the girl I'm mildly in love with, an Italian girl from deep-Queens, and leave a message talking about how I wish she could here this, this and that...etcetera, etcetera...But I don't. It's just me and my uncle, and the music, and its better that way.

I rode the train home that night all awash in feeling. You know those nights. When everything just falls into place, and despite the fact that Monday will bring a whole new week of bullshit...for that moment, everything is just allright.

[la-vvoc]

sorry to bump this old thread....

im a noob to jazz...basically zero experience, but i really wanna get into it...anyone got any specific albums they recommend i dl to ease into it?? i dled miles davis best of...enjoy it...but i feel like theres more out there...id prob also like stuff with vocals more...thanks!!

[jimmyc]

John Coltrane - Blue Train

Thelonious Monk - Criss Cross

Hank Mobley - High Voltage

Art Blakey / Jazz Messengers - Moanin'

Dave Brubeck - Time Out

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

That should get you started

[denimdestroyedmylife]

for jazz noobs:

Louis Armstrong: Singin' n' Playin'

^ very accessible live document; louis in fine form playing songs you know

John Coltrane: My Favorite Things and/or Giant Steps

Miles Davis: Kind of Blue

[tweeds]

+rep for diddy

anyone familiar with japanese jazz? soil and pimp sessions are coming to town for a music festival. should i go see them?

[Biff15]

For the noob:

What Jimmy/DDML said, plus:

Charlie Parker w/ Strings

Hank Mobley - Soul Station

Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin'

Horace Silver - Song For My Father

[Chicken]

definitely miles davis kind of blue, the whole album.

recommend the readjusted version where the speed of side A was corrected to what was originally intended. flamenco sketches is the most beautiful song i've heard at 6 in the morning after pulling an all-nighter.

john coltrane's love supreme is also a great album.

and some random songs i think are good intros:

dave brubeck quartet - take 5 (recommend the live version, too)

charlie parker - lover man

louis armstrong - body and soul

benny goodman - stardust

clifford brown - you'd be so nice to come home to

dizzy gillespie - a night in tunisia

mal waldron - left alone

thelonious monk - round midnight

and believe it or not, herbie hancock's version of round midnight from the round midnight soundtrack. and chan's song in the same album.

[coleslawyum]

Gotta rep for my current favorites:

Duke Ellington: New Orleans Suite

Wes Montgomery: Smokin' At The Half Note

John Coltrane: First Meditations, Crescent

Freddie Hubbard: Straight life

Sonny Rollins: The Freedom Suite

Charles Mingus: The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

That's only scratching the surface…

Here are some vocals:

Young Sinatra With Tommy Dorsey

Jimmy Rushing With Count Basie

Billie Holiday: Lady Sings The Blues

Anita O'Day With Roy Eldridge

Sarah Vaughan: anything by her

Again surface scratching…

You could spend your whole life listening to jazz and not get a chance to listen to all that good stuff out there.

[Chicken]

are you on last.fm or something?

maybe we could share some tunes.

[ioscan -fnk]

Easiest entry point into jazz is anything with Sinatra & Jobim:

Girl From Ipanema

Wave

Drinking Water

Change Partners

One Note Samba

etc. etc.

[2000dB]

Easiest entry point into jazz is anything with Sinatra & Jobim:

Girl From Ipanema

Wave

Drinking Water

Change Partners

One Note Samba

etc. etc.

I wouldn't even say that jazz. It's good to check it out anyway though.

[2000dB]

sorry to bump this old thread....

im a noob to jazz...basically zero experience, but i really wanna get into it...anyone got any specific albums they recommend i dl to ease into it?? i dled miles davis best of...enjoy it...but i feel like theres more out there...id prob also like stuff with vocals more...thanks!!

Good recommendations from everyone. What I did when I got serious about jazz was to go by period. Lets say you start from kind of blue and then check all the miles stuff slightly after that, then coltrane, cannonball, and so on and so on. I think it's nice because it gives you a better idea of the language which makes it easier to appreciated later more free works.

Not that you shouldn't listen to anything, but that is if you want to know and analyze things a bit more.

[ioscan -fnk]

It can get kind of schmaltzy at times with Sinatra singing and the thick arrangements but Jobim tunes are most defintely jazz, they are jazz standards that every jazz musician knows. Wave could be called on any gig.

[Chicken]

yeah, the field of jazz is pretty wide. from louis armstrong to billie holiday to glenn miller to pat metheny to sadao watanabe.

i say jobim counts, esp with stan getz.

[readytoignite]

it'd help if you told us what some of your favorite non-jazz bands / albums are. i mean, i got into jazz through albert ayler for crying out loud. people who are huge fans of r&b/funk will probably like different jazz than those into psychedelic rock, noise or showtunes.

coleslaw has some great recommendations (anita o' day!) but i don't agree with the comment about sarah vaughn, in particular the roulette years were fairly uneven. i would also add some dinah washington to the list. and probably nina simone, she's pretty popular with the npr / hbo credits set.

regarding the chairman, ...sings only the lonely is a stone cold classic.

[Chicken]

i personally love helen merrill's voice. hence one of my recommendations.

[coleslawyum]

i personally love helen merrill's voice. hence one of my recommendations.

Have to agree with you on that. It has a great fragility to it. Its sounds like she starts a phrase on the verge of cracking and then ends it with sweetness. I saw her in concert a few years ago and it seems like she lost some of that sweetness. Sounded more like she's been chain smoking for the past 40 years. But what the hell, shes still great.

readytoignite, I agree that not all Sarah Vaughan recordings are great, but rather she's great. I'm still floored by her voice, her command and her impeccable ear. Ultimately she' s a great musician.

More recommendations:

Dewey Redman: The Ear of the Behearer

Eric Dolphy: Out To Lunch

Clifford Brown Max Roach: Mercury Sessions

Joe Henderson: Power To The People

Oliver Nelson: The Blues and the Abstract Truth

[2000dB]

It can get kind of schmaltzy at times with Sinatra singing and the thick arrangements but Jobim tunes are most defintely jazz, they are jazz standards that every jazz musician knows. Wave could be called on any gig.

I didn't mean it's not jazz in a disrespectful way. I like jobim and like you said lots of his tunes are standards and I've played them at gigs many times too. I just wouldn't throw it if someone asked me where to start with jazz but it's bound to get some play along the road anyway...

[destructodisk]

Everyone should check out the song Ugetsu (aka Fantasy in D) by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

One of my favorite tracks of all time.

[tweeds]

2000, what do you play?

i think jobim provides a good introductory to a different sort of sound that still could be placed, quite arbitrarily, in the genre of jazz. from jobim you can move into chick corea's samba stuff without feeling too lost; you could also turn towards a more pop-influenced sound and explore sergio mendes.

recently i've been listening more to big band swing music, cos i've been learning to lindy hop. been loads of fun, and as a musician you really learn what "swing" means from its physical impulse.

[Kesnel]

Pharoah Sanders was in Edinburgh last night so I went along to check him out; I have to say, he and his band were terrific. If you get a chance to go and see him I'd highly recommend you take it up.

[readytoignite]

Have to agree with you on that. It has a great fragility to it. Its sounds like she starts a phrase on the verge of cracking and then ends it with sweetness. I saw her in concert a few years ago and it seems like she lost some of that sweetness. Sounded more like she's been chain smoking for the past 40 years. But what the hell, shes still great.

readytoignite, I agree that not all Sarah Vaughan recordings are great, but rather she's great. I'm still floored by her voice, her command and her impeccable ear. Ultimately she' s a great musician.

More recommendations:

Dewey Redman: The Ear of the Behearer

Eric Dolphy: Out To Lunch

Clifford Brown Max Roach: Mercury Sessions

Joe Henderson: Power To The People

Oliver Nelson: The Blues and the Abstract Truth

eh, no doubt we are in agreeance about sarah vaughn. but i'd hate for someone to feel put out because they didn't get the best of the best.

surprised to see money jungle missing from a list like that. definitely not one to start out on though. and personally i prefer joe henderson's elements but fair play.

not a huge pharoah sanders fan so i'll keep out of that one.

[thelion1856]

anyone know who sings the intro to RZA the birth album? the song is Feeling Good, a Nina Simone cover, but what version does rza use cuz that singer is definatly not nina simone? that shit is dope but i have yet to find out.

thanks.

[napoleon]

I hope I don't ruin this thread but I'm quite fond of acid jazz. I somehow stumbled into acid jazz in a twisted way comming from techno through breaks then funk then acid jazz and finally ended up enjoying the whole thing. The only time I visited NY I made sure to visit the blue note even though I arrived late and was dying of jetlag.

Oh, and since this board is pretty heavily japanocetric I'll mention United Future Organisation and Monday Michiru as a couple of acid jazz acts I quite like.

[tweeds]

i've only heard one UFO album [back when i was working at a store they had one of their records] but i'm a sucker for St. Germain.

has anyone heard blusirkut? recently came across them on youtube.

[sal paradise]

I love jazz. my favourite album right now is miles davis-milestones.

yeah man, Tony Williams (the child prodigy), Miles' later drummer in the second 5tet said that milestones was the best jazz record ever made.

[sal paradise]

It gets tired hearing everyone say Miles is the best but:

Kind of blue - best studio album ever

My funny valentine (the complete concert) - best live album ever

other suggestions?

[readytoignite]

milestones is a stone cold classic. i'm also very partial to the 2nd quartet with wayne shorter - e.s.p, nefertiti, etc. as an overall body of work by a group, it's probably my favorite of his periods

[doczein]

i can't listen to anything miles after e.s.p

coltrane's ascension, anyone?

[readytoignite]

ascension is ok but highly overrated. i could get drawing a line in the sand after e.s.p. if you did the same after sun ship but for me miles' post 2nd quartet output was a lot more consistent than trane's post quartet stuff (interstellar space excepted).

speaking of tony williams - how about some heavy fusion... weather report - sweetnighter, tony williams - emergency, love cry want, john mclaughlin - devotion and....?