|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
In Reply to: Please recommend a jazz and blue album posted by drw50 on December 02, 2002 at 05:30:57:
not knowing whether you have any knowledge at all concerning the two genres.What types of music do you enjoy?
If you enjoy chamber music, for instance, that gives us an indication you would like some of the more laid back jazz and blues.I would start with more melodic jazz, rather than the later, what I call, "eek-onk" jazz. One needs to learn what artists are trying to achieve within the jazz tradition before they can learn to like and appreciate the more...for lack of a better term for one who is not knowledgeable, "bizarre" forms of jazz.
So...with those few caveats, I'll give some suggestions:
Modern Jazz Quartet is great laid back jazz.
Ornette Coleman is more what (a musician friend actually coined the term) I'd call "eek-onk." Not easy listening in many of his albums, but phenomenal once you've learned something about jazz.
My own introduction to jazz was through fusion...a good choice there would be Chick Corea; and big band...a choice there might be Benny Goodman or (if you're a bit more adventurous) Lionel Hampton.
Modern artists would include the Marsalis brothers, most of their stuff is quite approachable...a piano music nut (if you are one of those) might choose Cyrus Chestnut)
This is an endless task! I would bet if you asked anyone here how they began listening they would answer that they merely held their nose shut and jumped into the cold water! Listen to everything you can get ahold of. Borrow from friends, borrow from the library.
BUT, listing your present music preferences may help us direct you better!
Good luck...it is a wondrous form of music that can make you laugh...or cry uncontrollably.
Follow Ups:
By the way, I am crazy about Cyrus Chestnut. He strikes me as being that rare musician (like Oscar Peterson) with both amazing technical ability and great musical taste.Agree with you about Ornette "eek-oink" Coleman, except I've never been able to get the "phenomenal" part. (Branford Marsalis on "free" jazz--"self indulgent bullshit". On the other hand, Leonard Bernstein proclaimed Coleman to be a "genius". Both those guys are qualified to make that kind of statement. I can only say, sounds like "eek-oink" to me...)
Uh...Mike. No Ellington? No Kind of Blue? No Basie? No Coltrane? No....yep, you're right (or, as we like to say, your right) the question is impossible. But for what it's worth, my brother asked me a similar question a couple years ago, and I gave him Kind of Blue. He is a SERIOUS jazz nut these days...
Kind of Blue was my introduction to jazz. I was in the army and sick of my country-western roomies' music choices. A jazz lover from L.A. took me in and told me that if I didn't like Miles, there was no hope. It was the beginning of a wonderful trip that's lasted for over forty years.
I didn't list Kind of Blue...there isn't a single person that I've given a copy to that hasn't investigated "jass" further. I'll bet, when I had the Tandberg** in the system, I must have made over 25 copies of Kind of Blue for people!**'Tis a shame to own a $1000 deck and not use it, but it may just be the most non-ergonomic deck of all times...I bought it for $100 bucks from some rich guy who owned it for a week, hated that you had to push 6,240 buttons to do a recording, and bought a Dragon (To all...ignore this, comment on the jazz question, please...I have a problem with the stream of conciousness thing, as if you never noticed!).
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: