The only jazz we ever discuss on here seems to be Miles and Coltrane. What are your favorite styles and what instruments do you prefer to be highlighted? Any other questions to throw in the mix are welcome.

I'm very picky with my jazz. I tend to like it moody and dark, and although I'm a fan of hard bop I don't like a whole lot of the uptempo stuff. I've never really been a fan of cool jazz either. Actually, I probably have about 100-150 jazz albums I enjoy, but it was a hard task to find them because they sweep across all genres and visit different places around the world. I think what I've found is that I don't enjoy American jazz all that much. Usually my favorite albums are latin artists, African artists or American artists trying those styles out. There are exceptions. I'm also a big fan of vibraphones and I don't think I've ever heard a fusion album I've liked although I am open for suggestions.

I think Mingus is the third most popular jazz artist around here. He's got a good variety of stuff.

Yeah, Mingus gets talked about a little bit too and I'll agree with the opinion that he put out the greatest jazz album ever in Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. I think that style of jazz is what a person who normally listens to jazz would like. Someone should write a book or write an article titled "Jazz Music For Rock Lovers". Unfortunately, I wouldn't buy it because it would be filled with fusion recommendations like Bitches Brew.

I've always had trouble determining whether jazz is good or not - it's a completely different animal to rock music. Personally,it's a waste of time for me to get anything other than the best

But that's the thing Midaso, for normal rock fans the best jazz isn't really interesting if you aren't a jazz fan. I took the time to really find the jazz that suited my taste and like I said I found about a hundred albums I liked. I'm sure there are a ton more out that I'd appreciate but that was hard work. The jazz that is considered essential (for the most part) isn't that interesting to me but obviously I don't hate jazz if I could find that many albums to like. I'll list them someday but I want to wait because I'm still discovering.

I really don't know why but as many pop/rock lovers the only jazz album I like is "The black saint and the sinner lady" by Charles Mingus. Every other jazz record I've listened to bored me as hell (Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington & many others).
I would like to find jazz records I could like but it's very hard

I think the most accessible and enjoyable jazz for non-jazz/rock fans is Lee Morgan. I would recommend the single-disc Blue Note best of Lee Morgan as a starting place.

Another jazz track that is not fusion that rock fans would probably love is "Cristo Redentor" on A New Perspective.

Finally, I would recommend both Maiden Voyage by Herbie Hancock, which both Anthony and I had in our top 100 (but which is similar to the Miles/Coltrane stuff), and Mingus Ah Um, which is very different than Black Saint, more accessible, and more upbeat.

You can't go wrong with these.

I'll recommend a few:

Alice Coltrane: Ptah the El Daoud
Donald Byrd: A New Perspective
Fela Kuti (Not really jazz I suppose but close): Zombie
John Zorn: Naked City
Larry Coryell/Emily Remler: Together
Miles Davis + Gil Evans: Sketches of Spain

You know, I enjoy Miles Davis, but I needed to read a whole book to really appreciate Kind of Blue. I'm not educated enough about post-bebop jazz to really understand or appreciate it fully. Maybe some day.

To be honest, when I listen to jazz, it's generally the varieties that had an influence on R&B, and, eventually, rock and roll (genres I do know something about). I'm talking about a band playing in front of a dancing crowd. That means a line of influence running from Dixieland through "hot" jazz (Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Jelly Roll Morton) to swing.

After swing, the tradition kind of splits. On one side, there's the artier, sit-down-and-listen-to-it-in-the-dark stuff--bebop in the forties, cool jazz in the fifties, modal jazz in the sixties...the jazz most highly acclaimed on this site.

The other major successor to swing kept swing's danceability and hooked up with the blues, producing jump blues and eventually R&B--a tradition that goes through Wynonnie Harris, Louis Jordan, and Big Joe Turner. We know how that one turned out.

I'm no expert, and this is more my general impression of how things went than a real history; I'd welcome any corrections from people who actually know what they're talking about (nicolas? Paul?).

schleuse - I think you would really like Cristo Redentor by Donald Byrd. It's not in the swing/R&B branch, but it borrows a lot from the blues tradition (melodically and the just the feel of the music). It's appeal is in the excellent use of a choir, but it can't really be explained until you hear it. It was one of the first songs that really got me into jazz.

Oh, and I agree with your take on the history.

Zappa has messed around with avant- jazz. I have heard that style on jazz stations. It's interesting actually but I don't think it's better than rock music. Sun Ra is ok.

I like Brubeck's Time Out best. To me it shows all the really interesting parts about instrumental jazz.

I love Jazz

I'd start with Miles i your new (Kind of Blue, In a Silent way) thn work yourself into Sketches of spain. When you finally feel ready BICTHES BREW will stun you, whip you, smack you, and then kill you.

Mingus is great

Thalonious Monk has some decent stuff, but you really gotta choose carefully. I would sample before a pruchase.

Feli Kuti is quite interesting, but even he can be sketchy if you dont know what your getting into.

Coltrane isnt one of my fav's but the dude can play. His highlight MILES DAVIS Kind of Blue...lol. Love Supreme is highly regarded, but not in my mind.

Start there, read the liner notes. Fill up your shelves that way.

The Miles Davis I like is that middle stuff like Bag's Groove, Workin', Cookin'... The only Coltrane album I like with his name on is Love Supreme. I like Alice's albums a lot more. Ptah the El Daoud rivals Black Saint and the Sinner Lady and Art Blakely's Moanin' for my favorite jazz recording.

I don't think anyone's mentioned Blue Trane here. Though it's not often noted as one of Coltrane's best, I think it's a moody classic, and would probably be more accessible to a rock or R&B fan than a lot of Coltrane's albums.

A great jazz pianist active now is Brad Mehldau, who has very interesting--to my ear--versions of some Radiohead and Beatles songs. His version of Martha My Dear is an astonishing deconstruction, amazingly rich rhythmically and harmonically. His album Largo is quite atypical for him, but one that might appeal to a more adventurous, avant guardist rock fan.

Finally, I want to throw in a gem that I think is way too unheralded, Joe Henderson's 1963 album, Our Thing. It's not really all that relevant to the discussion we've been having here, but I want to mention it just because I adore it and it almost never gets noted (although several Henderson albums show up in the 3000, this one doesn't even "bubble under," though I think it rivals the ones on the list). Andrew Hill made his recording debut here, and Kenny Dorham contributes some touching, moody tunes, with a bit of a Latin feel, and Henderson and Dorham were always great together.

Ya Mike Kelly, Blue Train (not Trane) was the first Coltrane album I ever picked up and it's probably my favorite jazz album now.

Third vote for Blue Train. I would add that I think it is considered one of his best. Not as highly acclaimed as Love Supreme, but the high point of his early period. Probably one of my top 10 jazz albums, rating somewhere just after Kind Of Blue, Maiden Voyage, and Mingus Ah Um.

Y'know, Paul... we don't agree on much when it comes to rock, but when the subject turns to jazz, our tastes are pretty much spot-on.

I haven't listened to a large amount of jazz but what I find enjoyable are Mingus Ah Um, Giant Steps, The Blues and the Abstract Truth(probably my favourite), Songs for My Father, The Sidewinder.
I haven't gotten around to listening to The Black Saint. I guess I should pick that one up based on your comments.

Keith, If you like Mingus Ah Um I suspect that you would also love Blues and Roots. Its quite similar, but maybe a little more bluesy and rootsy. Black Saint is coming from a different place altogether.

What about Mose Allison? I guess he's vocal Jazz, and I've never heard him, but I know Van Morrison did an album of covers of his songs and the Pixies have a song about him, so I'm guessing he's at least somewhat accessible to rock fans. And I would also vote for Mingus as an artist I like. "Better get hit in your soul" is a great piece.

Ah yes, Blue Train, not Trane. I knew that looked wrong when I typed it. I must have been thinking about all the albums with bad puns on his name--Traneing In, Soultrane, The Last Trane. And I'm happy to stand corrected on the issue of whether it's considered one of Coltrane's best. I guess if I'd bothered to look at the accliamedmusic.com list, I would have seen that it's his fourth most acclaimed album.

I'd second the mention of The Blues and the Abstract Truth.

An album that I don't think isn't quite in the league of most mentioned here, but a very popular one whose one indisputable classic ("Take Five") might be a good intro to jazz for a rock fan, is the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out.

And in addition to Lee Morgan's already mentioned Sidewinder, a good introduction to jazz for an R&B fan might be Morgan's Cornbread. The title track is a terrific cooker (as they used to say), and "Ceora" is a stunningly beautiful ballad.

Finally, for something way out there, very funky, very experimental, and I think probably quite influential on later funk, Talking Heads, Eno and Byrne, and maybe some electronica as well, is Miles Davis's On the Corner. A lot of people might not consider it jazz, but whatever the hell it is, I love it.