Jazz Recommendations

rskarvan

Hi all,

I want to expand my listening from mostly pop and rock to include some good jazz. Can people make a few recommendations of some jazz favorites? What I'm looking for is more/less a top twenty all time jazz favorites list.

Thanks.

Ron

bobman1235

My Top 3 :

Dave Brubeck - Take Five
Charlie Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
Miles Davis - Complete Birth of the Cool

Other great names :
Vince Guaraldi
Herbie Hancock
Thelonius Monk
Duke Ellington
Louis Armstrong

Frank Z

We just did this recently....
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/search.php?searchid=618795

Demiurge

New stuff by Pepsi is okay.

aaharvel

Bob how does "Complete Birth' compare to Kind of Blue? I've never listened to it, and well, Kind Of Blue, even non-jazz listeners like myself are familiar with.

SACD maybe?

candyliquor35m

After 1 listen, Dave Koz - The Dance has become my favorite

aaharvel

David Koz is good stuff. My mom got me into his stuff. Albeit she is a huge (cough Kenny G cough Yanni cough) fan.

Refefer

Wynton Marsalis is amazing. He's also still alive.

Honestly, one of the best trumpet players I've ever heard.

candyliquor35m

aaharvel wrote:

David Koz is good stuff. My mom got me into his stuff. Albeit she is a huge (cough Kenny G cough Yanni cough) fan.

I can finally say I've moved away from listening to Kenny G but Pat Metheny - Letter From Home is still probably the CD I've listened to the most my whole life. A nice mix of piano and guitar. He plays the guitar so fast and accurate, it's hard to tell whether it's a piano or guitar playing.

bobman1235

aaharvel wrote:

Bob how does "Complete Birth' compare to Kind of Blue? I've never listened to it, and well, Kind Of Blue, even non-jazz listeners like myself are familiar with.

SACD maybe?

Not sure if it's available in SACD format. I don't personally have it on SACD.

I would say it's almost as well-known as Kind of Blue. It's quite a bit earlier (10 years or so), so a little less.... refined, i guess, than Kind of Blue.

Early B.

candyliquor35m wrote:

I can finally say I've moved away from listening to Kenny G

I never thought in a million years I'd own a Kenny G CD. Then one day I was listening to the radio and there was a beautiful rendition of "Summertime" being played. When I found out it was Kenny G, I was like, "Dammit!"

Long story short -- I recently bought one of his CDs of classic remakes and a couple of songs on there are excellent.

billbillw

When I started getting into jazz, I used NPRJazz's "Basic Library" as a starting point. The website used to have more detail, but you can still find quite a bit of info here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4565717

dane_peterson

I'm a big fan of Arturo Sandoval - Hot House. More of Latin Groove, but it has great brass. Rhythm of Our World is actually what I'm currently listening to.

jkn

This is kind of interesting from allaboutjazz.com - columns about building a jazz collection from many different era's and styles. It's hit and miss... http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article_center.php?in_type=72

My personal favorites are 60's era Blue Note records, a lot of Herbie Hancock, and it's hard not to like Miles. We toss on the traditional jazz channel on XM a lot.