Put a Pin on the Map View my Forum Guestmap
Free Guestmaps by Bravenet.com

The Old Acclaimed Music Forum

Go to the NEW FORUM

Music, music, music...
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
Favorite jazz recordings

While we're at it how about jazz?

1. Charles Mingus- Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
2. Bill Evans Trio- Sunday at the Village Vanguard
3. Dexter Gordon- Our Man in Paris
4. John Coltrane- A Love Supreme
5. The Quintet- Jazz at Massey Hall

Re: Favorite jazz recordings

Nice picks John. I enjoy Dexter Gordon, especially Go! Here's mine:

1. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (natch)

2. Herbie Hancock - Empyrean Isles (Bluenote 1964)

3. Jimmy Smith - The Sermon (1958)

4. John Coltrane - Blue Train (1957)

5. Grant Green - Idle Moments (1963)

Re: Favorite jazz recordings

Thanks for the tips - I've only got a few Miles Davis and John Coltrane albums

Re: Favorite jazz recordings

In general, New Orleans jazz (Bechet, Armstrong, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton)
Of course, Django (solo or with Stéphane Grapelli on violin)
Keith Jarret Koln concert
Coltrane My Favorite Things
Art Blakey Moanin'
Cannonball Aderley Gemini (song)
Big bands (Ellington, Basie, Hampton)
Recently : Brad Mehldau, Art of the trio, vol.3 &4

Re: Favorite jazz recordings

I've been trying to get into jazz but these people don't know when to stop, they go on for way too long. I know it's the whole experimenting thing, but it just doesn't do it for me. Ranking them is hard, but not impossible, I can do a top 3.

1. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
2. Miles Davis - Porgy & Bess
3. Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue

Re: Favorite jazz recordings

Damn, forgot Keith Jarrett, thanks for that Nicolas, he's great.. probably second place.

Re: Favorite jazz recordings

1. Miles Davis, KIND OF BLUE
2. John Coltrane, A LOVE SUPREME
3. Charles Mingus, MINGUS AH UM
4. Eric Dolphy, OUT TO LUNCH
5. Bill Evans, SUNDAY AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD/WALTZ FOR DEBBY (impossible to separate, since they were taken from the same performances)

My #1 and #2 are painfully predictable, I know, but there's a reason they're the two most acclaimed jazz albums ever. Mingus, though, is my favorite jazz artist, and the one to whom I would first steer someone just getting into the music (as I was just a few short years ago); he was a restless, often angry spirit, but practically everything he ever recorded just radiates with an incredible -joy- in performing and creating. AH UM is probably structured and sequenced more like a great rock album than any jazz LP I can think of - "Better Git It in Your Soul" and "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" rival any opening one-two punch on a Stones or Bowie record.

Dolphy (who worked frequently with Mingus) is another story. I'd be careful about steering novices toward him, unless they lean more toward the experimental side of rock. (To refer to another recent thread: if you don't like Beefheart, you won't like Eric Dolphy.) But there's just something about his creativity and protean multi-instrumental virtuosity (he played sax, flute, and bass clarinet) that speaks to me, especially when he played with Mingus or with the great bleating trumpeter Freddie Hubbard (the anti-Miles, in a sense, or the Coltrane of the trumpet). As for the great Evans live trio records, while they display the pianist's own cerebral gifts effectively they serve primarily as a showcase for the extraordinary bassist Scott LaFaro - who was killed at 25 in a car accident a mere ten days after these Vanguard shows and who, on the basis of these records, may well have been the finest jazz bassist who ever lived.

Re: Favorite jazz recordings

Unlike (almost) everybody, I don't like Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
My favourite jazz artist is Charles Mingus, especially his album "The black saint and the siner lady".

Re: Favorite jazz recordings

I agree with you on Miles Davis. The only album I've ever enjoyed was Sketches of Spain.

Re: Favorite jazz recordings

I've returned to my list of 250 songs for the AM Forum back in 2005 and these are my favourite jazz SONGS (not albums):
1. FRANK SINATRA & COUNT BASIE “Fly Me to the Moon” (1964).
2. STAN GETZ & JOAO GILBERTO “The Girl From Ipanema” (1963).
3. BILLIE HOLIDAY “You’ve Changed” (1958) (now I'll change it gladly for "Strange Fruit" (1939)).
4. HERBIE HANCOCK “Cantaloupe Island” (1964).
5. DJANGO REINHARDT “Nuages” (1946).
6. CHARLIE PARKER “A Night in Tunisia” (1946).
7. JOHN COLTRANE “My Favorite Things” (1960).
8. DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET “Take Five” (1959).
9. GLEN MILLER “Moonlight Serenade” (1939).
10. MILES DAVIS “Sanctuary” (1970).

Re: Favorite jazz recordings

These aren't necessarily my picks for the greatest jazz albums of all time, just some favorites that have served me well over the years. Most go back to when I first got into Jazz way back when (and only one title per artist, including a few compilations)

Cannonball Adderly – Somethin’ Else
Chet Baker – The Best of Chet Baker Sings
Art Blakey – Moanin’
Miles Davis – ‘Round About Midnight
Eric Dolphy – Out To Lunch
John Coltrane – Blue Train
Duke Ellington – Money Jungle
Gil Evans – The Individualism of Gil Evans
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong – Ella & Louis
Stan Getz & João Gilberto – Getz/Gilberto
Herbie Hancock – Maiden Voyage
Billie Holiday – The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Vols. 1-9 (Columbia)
Charles Mingus – Mingus Ah Um
Thelonious Monk – Brilliant Corners

My favorite two jazz artists are Mile Davis and Thelonious Monk. If I could have any single musical skill, it would be the ability to play Thelonious Monk on the piano. Ain't happening.

Re: Favorite jazz recordings

Kind of Blue - Miles Davis 1959
Everybody Digs Bill Evans - Bill Evans 1958
Emergency! - Tony Williams Lifetime 1969
Speak No Evil - Wayne Shorter 1964
The Awakening - Ahmad Jamal Trio 1970
The Prisoner - Herbie Hancock 1969
Concert By The Sea - Erroll Garner Trio 1956
Alive! - Grant Green 1970
Space Is The Place - Sun Ra 1973
Magic Band 2 - Howard Roberts 1968
The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady - Charles Mingus 1963
Apogee - Pete Christlieb & Warne Marsh 1978
Giant Steps - John Coltrane 1960

I don't like separating jazz from other jazz records that can be called fusion/funk, but then it would've been hard to stop making a list.
I think it's a shame that "A Love Supreme" gets a chance to be heard before so many other better albums.
I recommend Wayne Shorter's 60s records & Bill Evans' Riverside & Verve records.