Great Jazz albums – Please list your fav 10

Jazz At The Pawnshop-I CD-1

Rating 5 *****

But I guess Everyone knows that !

Gary Karr: King of Bass. beautiful music..fantastic recording
http://www.japanimprov.com/indies/king/teion.html

Some of my favorites:

Miles Davis – Kind of blue
Miles Davis – Someday my prince will come
John Coltrane – Soultrane
Ella and Louis on Verve
Nina Simone – the finest hour ( recording – rated at 3)
Ray brown – Some of my best friends are saxophone players
Ray brown – Some of my best friends are trumpet players
Ray Charles – Genius loves company
Ray Sings Basie swings
Time Out by Dave Brubeck Quartet
The Köln Concert by Keith Jarrett
Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
Stan Getz - Bossas and Ballads: The Lost Sessions

1) Mjq - pyramid
2) Lionel hampton all stars - stardust
3)Bags and trane
4)Sarah vaughan sings gershwin vol1 and 2
5)Sarah vaughan at mr kellys
6)Ella - mack the knife
7)Oscar peterson - night train
8)Kenny burrel - 75th bday bash
9)June christy - big band specials
10) West side story - andre previn and friends


There you have it. None of them would be the standard must haves but they all have soul and they are in my opinion one of the finest performances as a group rather than one single performer.

Manek

Hi...

My list goes as under...

1) Dexter Gordon - One Flight Up
2) Dexter Gordon - Go!
3) Bill Evans - Live at Montreux Jazz Festival
4) Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
5) The Gene Harris Trio plus One
6) Dave Brubeck - Live at the Berlin Philharmonie
7) Ray Brown Trio - Live at Starbucks
8) The Ray Brown Trio - Soular Energy
9) Scott Hamilton - At Last
10)Art Pepper meets the Rhythm Section

Truly, lovely.

Some lesser known names - but great musicians all:

Kenny Barron - The Only One
Sangoma Everett - Fresh Air
Hamiet Bluiett - Bluiett's Barbeque band
Don Cherry - Art Deco
George Coleman - At Yoshi's
European Jazz Trio - Norwegian Wood
Nnenna Freelon - Nnenna Freelon
Scott Hamilton - Groovin High
Abdullah Ibrahim - African River
Clifford Jordan - The Mellow Side of Clifford Jordan

Jazz is too vast to pin down to a few albums.

Viren

Hey.
Big thanks to all of you I wanted to spread my Jazz horizons. I am looking at some very interesting artists in the lists so far.
I was looking to find artists I have not checked out yet and that is what I am seeing now.
Now comes the headache of finding these cds. The Jazz section in most music stores are dwindling these days
Do you guys import most of your cd’s ?
Viren, I checked your “Jazz and blues cd section” on the site and couldn’t find any of your favorite cds there.

In many places the jazz section is non existant :-)

Btw, viren has cd's to sell, list on his website.

Oceanic sound in pune has an excel sheet listing of cd's they carry. He keeps good jazz stuff. I have yet to go out that shop empty handed once I enter.

Write to both of them. I am sure they will sell you a few.

Manek

Great Manek.
Can you please send me oceanic's email? I want that excel sheet

Hi Folks,
Not sure if I have a list of Jazz favourites having heard not a great deal, but I do know that certain albums played a crucial role in getting me into Jazz and then taking me forward.
Well the first Jazz record I heard at length and enjoyed was Dave Brubeck Take Five. Prior to this I had never taken to Jazz seriously, and was listening to either rock (Doors, Led ZEP etc) with my friends or classical western by myself. This was when I was eighteen or twenty, after which there is a long gap whenI listened mostly to classial Indian and western music. Through my late twenties and thirthies I started to hear the old favorites like, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Stephan Grapelli, Art Blakie, Wynton Marsalis, Coltrane etc over a ten year period. It was good music but not great, nothing to touch Beethoven Or Brahms. So jazz remained a form of light music for me, I enjoyed it but never blew my mind. It was only much later when I hit upon charles Mingus Pithecanthropus erectus that the incredible importance of Jazz as a breakthough in alternative musicality hit me. For me two albums The above and another called the Black Saint and the Sinner Lady were revelatory musical expeiences. Subsequently I started to listen to Jazz with new respect. Apart from Mingus, I like the Guitarist django Reinhardt, and the pianist Theolnious Monk.

So while I cannot make a list of ten great favorites, I do know that Brubeck was very important for getting me started, and Mingus for taking me beyond the standards. However as far as Jazz is concerned I am still very much wet behind the years, if that is the correct phrase.

So in a nut shell my suggestion is that perhaps along with a list of favourites it mught be useful to identify what performances have been important points in your growth as a lover of Jazz.

Purnendu

Purnendu,

For me it wasn't a few turning moments....I was probably concieved with jazz playing in the background ;-)......the fist note of music I ever heard was probably jazz, there was jazz playing 3 hours at home daily, weekends were party time to some more jazz at home with friends, as far as I can remember I would always be scared of "in a sentimental mood" played by chico hamilton as a child, but loved to hear the same by MJQ. I took to it like fish to water. The same records I used to choose as a child so than my dad could play them for me, are the same records I go for even today, went thru school listening to jazz, post which I had my initiation into western classical. Have never stopped listening to both genres ever since. Flirted with rock for a while only to make sure I say the right things in the college canteen, but my heart belonged to jazz and classical. Very lucky to find a friend who had the same musical interest as I all thru college.

Tried to appreciate other forms of music but I kept coming back to my first love, jazz.

And I have my father to blame for all of the above :-)

Classical on the other hand I started with a catherina valante record with werner mueller orchestra where she sang a small classical piece in a popular style with lyrics in english and then the next track was the orchestra playing the same piece the way it was meant to be. That record was probably one of the best pressings I have ever heard from rca. Then to tchaikovsky, chopin, liszt, beethoven, brahms, etc in that order. British council library, jai ho !

By 18 I was a confirmed jazz and classical lunatic. I was also lucky to have heard many a classical artist live at the ncpa during those years though not all of them top notch. Some were quite unforgetable.

Manek

Manek,
That was a nice note. But what about those who were not born with Jazz in the background. Like you, I get my love of music from my dad, but it was quawwalis, thumris and ballroom dance music which is somewhat close to jazz. I do feel at times that music which you discover on your own - like classical western for me - is what you explore most - not what you were born with. Thus I enjoy quawwalis and the odd gazal but hardly listen to them. Perry Como and Percy Faith almost never! Music is exploration. I can listen to Mongolian music and be capable of appreciating at least some aspects of it. To be honest I dont really want to listen to the music of my childhood except once in a while. Its no longer interesting, much like I dont want to read Biggles or phantom anymore. What I meant by 'turning points', and I am sure you and every music lover has been through these, is when one breaks out of a mould to enter a new aesthetic culture or experience. However there are also some boundaries one fails to cross, like Wagner for me. I bought the bloody ring cycle twenty years ago (Solti Chicago)and have yet to hear it out and cannot pretend to like it!
Cheers
Purnendu

You don't like percy faith ? Shame on you :-) perhaps your dad and I should hook up for musical soiree.

Well, I happen to like the music of percy faith, victor young, nelson riddle, etc...I think they are fabulous. Did I not mention that earlier ?

Very few around who still appreciate them.

Manek

Used to like Perry Como and Percy Faith....but cannot listen to them any longer. (Magic Moments is my daughter's current fav)

However, I'm not tired of Miles Davis or even Ben Webster...still enjoy my Jazz.

New to Classical....still getting in...and at the moment stuck somewhere near Mahler. But i really - do not prefer one (jazz) over another (classical)....just different music for differnt moods/time !!

For me

Beethoven = musical perfection, complex, beautific !!

Miles = Style (as in Rajini Kanth) and sophistication !!

I like both ..

Hey, I like Percy Faith, Fausto Papetti, Anthony Ventura, Paul Mauriat, Roger Williams..was initiated into instrumentals by my dad too along with a daily dose of Elvis and some Sinatra...Dean martin came later during my teenage years....But guys like Nelson Riddle, Don Costa gave singers like Sinatra a whole new lease of life with their gorgeous arrangements....

Hi Guys,
It looks like my old man should have been on this forum! Too bad they dont have an internet connection 'up there' not as yet any way.
Cheers or 'Yo' as my teenage daughter would say
Purnendu

Panditr

Nelson riddle and don costa were definately part of the sinatra magic. If he played any other orchestra he would very often play the arrangements by these two.

Riddle and costa, both geniuses in their own right I say.

Manek

Manek, I agree completely....I love Sinatra's music from the 60s onwards both for the wonderful arrangements in his songs as well as his voice. Ah, the voice of the century changed completely from the 30s-50s era to a more mature, mellow, smooth, deep voice backed with the wonderful arrangements of the 2 gentlemen mentioned. That hooked me to Sinatra's music in my teens though it's now that I have started understanding what he was trying to convey with his songs....

Panditr

That just shows you werent listening to him....were you !
Heh heh....maybe nelson riddle got you all captivated by his arrangements :-)

He sings like he is telling you a story with music and rhyme. Man, was he a communicator.

One classic example is "my way". I don't know why but it always brings up a lump in my throat when I hear him sing it. It probably sums up his life story. I do relate to it a lot as well. I just love the sheer attitude with which its sung....and the message it conveys.
Another song that probably captivates me as much or probably more is "smile" by sir charles chaplin. Has anyone heard natalie cole sing it ? Awesome !

"Angel eyes" another super duper song that I am sure nobody can sing better.

"Put your dreams away" his signature signoff for many a concert.

Panditr, there will never be another....so pick up as much music of him as you can.

Manek

I actually was'nt listening to the words earlier Manek...The arrangements coupled with that voice took me into another world and also I was'nt old enough to understand what he was singing about.....I do like his rendition of Smile but some of my favourite songs of his have been catchy like 'This time I'm gonna make it', Summer Wind, What now my Love, Gentle on my Mind (rare cover by him), You will be my music....I can go on and on...

I have almost all of his music on CD post 1965 and my dad has almost all of it on tapes....But I wish there were more music from him....

....And I have a lot of his music pre 1965 too.
:-)

Words and Music,
I have had this discussion with friends and inevitably you will find that there are some who listen to the words and some who scarcely pay any attention to them. I fall in the latter category. The mood of a song or the feelings it arouses have very little to do with its words for me. Mack the Knife for instance is grim in its words but the song is not in the least doleful. While I do enjoy and appreciate the way a singer brings out a phrase its not the contents of the words that usually strike me. Ofcourse there are exceptions and some songs are memorable for the words, a lot of Dylan for instance. But then Dylan is a balladeer commenting on his life and times. Howeverwhen I listen to African music of some kind lets say from Mali its not the words that matter to me since I cant understand them. Opera also is mostly nonsense verse. Even serious poetry like Ghalib sung by Akhtari bai I enjoy because of her voice and singing, unlike some who wah wah over the poetry. I wonder what results we would get if we took a vote here on words and music. If music is a universal language -which I think it is - then words are a secondary part of it, one that ties it down to local cultures and emotions rather than universal ones.

Apologies If I have thrown some kind of spanner in the discussion. It would be nice to know how others feel. Especially since this thread is about Jazz which I think is a universal music even if its origins lie in black american culture.
Purnendu

To me sir...lyrics matter and hence singers who have good clear phrasing, so my involvement is that much higher.

On opera, on the other hand I can't do much about because I don't intend to learn the languages so they will just be pieces of music to me. I do love the music mind you.

Manek

Dave brubeck quartet
Time out - 50th anniversary addition which has the original time out cd + a cd of their previously unreleased newport festival live performances and a dvd of the making of time out featuring dave brubeck himself.

Fantastic, especially the newport performances ! Got this from oceanic in pune.

Manek

I picked up this cd.

Mjq - pyramid
Milt Jackson's Vibraphone takes a while to get used to. First listen I did not like the music
My kind of Jazz is "horns" and "piano" as the lead instrument. But after couple of listens, it started to grow on me.Great stuff there.

Herbie Hancock - The joni letters

Great music

I still have not opened the following cds.

Al Stewart - Spark of ancient lights

Maria Callas - La Divina

All this on a pair of low-fi acoustic energy bookshelf speakers I have sold my speakers. Lookign to upgrade.
Havng sold my speakers and listening to the crappy AE speakers for the last 3 months, I realised that the music lover in me is still kickin and alive
But I shudder to think of Maria Callas on the AE's....

square_wave schrieb:

Maria Callas - La Divina All this on a pair of low-fi acoustic energy bookshelf speakers I have sold my speakers. Lookign to upgrade. Havng sold my speakers and listening to the crappy AE speakers for the last 3 months, I realised that the music lover in me is still kickin and alive But I shudder to think of Maria Callas on the AE's....

Bring Maria along (on disc I mean ) and listen to her on the Blumenhofers

Regards,
Jochen

Square

Mjq is different but ever so relaxing and smooth. Did you know they were the longest surviving jazz group in the world ? Some 40+ yrs they existed and to full houses.
They were the only group why were great individual musicians but were better as a group.


Milt jaction is always on the forefront but pay attention to john lewis and conney kay(drums). He is said to be the god of symbals. Absolutely awesome.
Percy heath, the unsung hero.

Check out mjq with laurindo almieda(guitar). Btw jazz is just not piano and horn in the lead. It could be any instrument if one can improvise on it ans make it sing.
Milt jackson did just that and look at the results.

Btw....you have not heard milt jackson and conniw kay if you haven't heard them on electrostats or maggies.

Maria will do fine on the AE's, would do better at jochen's :-) so grab hold of maria and take here there before the offer runs out !
:-)

Regards