Who can help to find my way in j***?

Hi, I would try the following: Julian Aderley - Something Else, John Coltrane - Ballads, Standard Coltrane or Lush Life, Bill Evans - Everybody Digs, Miles Davis - Miles Ahead and Porgy & Bess. Also you need to try some Duke Ellington, start off with a best of and go from there. There are a number of good Jazz Guides (Jazz Hound is my favourite). Jazz is not always easy but it is very rewarding!

Sounds to me like cool jazz is your thing. Since you like KoB, try Miles's Steamin', Workin', Relaxin', and Cookin' albums, I suspect you'll like them. Bill Evans is also a good bet, the standard recommendation is Waltz for Debbie.

For groovy, try Lee Morgan's The Sidewinder.

If you think Blue Train is too much, Coltrane is probably not (yet) your thing, but try his Ballads album, it's lovely.

Jazz is a huge genre, with many different sub-species, there's hundreds of things to explore, but that lot's a start.

-- Ian

Second the Bill Evans recommendations -- you will recognise KoB on 'Everbody digs Bill Evans'. Walz for Debbie and Sunday at the Village Vanguard are very good albums. Davis's work with Gill Evans (Porgy, Sketches of Spain, Miles Ahead) might be too ochestrated for you, but Relaxin' may suit your tastes. Apart from that, check out the Modern Jazz Quartet or some of Milt Jacksons other work (e.g. Invitation).

cheers

Dan

Agree with all the above. I too got interested with KOB then was bought the penguin guide to jazz and pick through that for tips and hints, its not always to my taste but very worth while all the same
Martin

For more a more modern approach to the piano trio try E.S.T., the Eisborn Svennson Trio. It swings and it rocks from time to time. I'd hesitate to call it cool tho'. Jacky Terrason is another to explore.

Peter

Just while I think about, I’m playing this to death at the moment – I think its sublime. The more avant-garde solos by Eric Dolphy really balance the cooler mellow toons and rhythms.

Blues And The Abstract Truth – Eric Dolphy

With
Eric Dolphy Alto + Flute
Freddie Hubbard Trumpet
George Barlow Baritone
Bill Evans Piano
Paul Chambers Bass
Roy Haynes Drums
It’s a nicely packaged Impulse remaster IMP11542
Or see here
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000025MRT/pd_ka_0/202-9544733-8520630
Read the reviews on this page as well
Martin – Jazz Novice

I absolutely second the EST comment - superb, totally exciting and great modern jazz (particularly live).

Try the Good Morning Suzie Soho CD or Seven Days of Falling.

Other good things to mellow to are CD's from the ECM label - try a Keith Jarrett Standards trio such as Whisper Not (a favourite of mine as I was at the show). What about Tomasz Stanko - Suspended Night or Soul of Things, Enrico Rava - Easy Living, Kenny Wheeler - Angel Song or Jan Garbarek - Rites or Visible World - there are so many good ECM CD's if you like the ECM sound.

Try Brad Meldhau - Art of the Trio No 3 is great, but they are all good.

And of course Dave Douglas - The Infinite - outstanding.

Hope you like these.

JP

Your plea is sufficiently general as to make me think there is little point in a reply of the form ‘Please listen to my top 20 jazz albums of the last 50 years, which are these…’. Like many initiates I could rave for hours about the stuff I adore, but I strongly doubt that you would be served in the process.

For me personally, jazz has been a voyage of discovery for some 30 years now and at this point in my travels I have accumulated a collection of recorded music both significant in size and inevitably idiosyncratic in nature. Whilst acknowledging that a smallish number of recordings exist that seem to have an almost universal appeal and thus appear almost completely to transcend issues of individual taste (think ‘Kind Of Blue’), I am always suspicious of reviews and byliners that insist that ‘this record should be in every self-respecting collection’ or similar.

Q1: do I care whether my collection respects itself?
A1: No.

Q2: do I care whether my collection reflects my personal tastes?
A2: what do you think?

It’s a personal thing! Personally I’m not currently very fond of the piano, except in the most unconventional of hands. So for example, I don’t possess any recordings by Oscar Peterson, and I went off Keith Jarrett about 20 years ago and haven’t bought any of his stuff since (Cecil Taylor however is a different story). But, hey, that could change…

So where do you start? You start from your beachhead - what you know you like. Ask yourself why you like it. Is it the tunes/modes/melodies, the arrangements, the instrumentation, the sound of a particular instrument, the way the rhythm section supports the leaders, the way a particular soloist plays what he plays….?

And then you follow your nose - or rather your ears. I understand that it can be incredibly daunting, but that feeling of potential overwhelm can I believe be transmuted into something much more empowering. I remember when I was just getting into jazz, sitting back on the odd occasion and contemplating the sheer quantity of music ‘out there’ waiting for my appreciation. For me that thought was never less than utterly exciting – and I still feel that way (because, let’s face it, even now I’ve only heard a fraction of the corpus).

Not being part of an immediate community of like-minded souls bent on making a complementary journey could obviously be seen as a handicap, not least because it’s rare that a pleasure shared is not a pleasure magnified. However ultimately you have one pair of ears and irreducibly the endorphins released when music enters those portals are yours and yours alone to savour. It just means you have to support your endeavour in other ways & by making the best use of the resources you do have at your disposal.

So I would encourage you to read everything you can get your hands on – about the music, the artists, the recordings that most appeal to you and beyond (especially beyond!). And obviously max out on Internet usage. The development of your taste is just one of life’s exquisite little mysteries but you can rest assured that it will happen naturally if you give it the chance. A music which you currently find unlistenable/incomprehensible/boring/overwhelming should be filed for a rainy day – a day which may or may not dawn in this lifetime. The important thing is to nourish yourself with the stuff that currently floats your boat and just to keep moving, keep inquiring, keep expecting to find treasure.

I have recently discovered Thomas Chapin and so far have 2 CDs (3 counting a Mario Pavone session). The exhilaration of experiencing a major talent for the first time!

BTW don’t get hung up on ‘is it jazz or not?’. ‘Jazz’, like any term or signifier, is useful to the extent that it facilitates discussion and the exchange of ideas. But at the end of the song it’s just a word – a word used to signify a concept which undoubtedly varies from head to head, there being enough in common between the versions to make it useful. Therefore the important questions do not include ‘is it jazz?’, but rather ‘do I like it?’, ‘If so, why?’ and ‘what else that’s in some way related might I like as much or even more?’. Etc.

So, anyway, I encourage you to invest your time and energy in the project. And if not in this project, then in another. The rewards I predict will more than justify the outlay.

HTH Jim

Nice post Jim!

I would suggest, however, the 'Round Midnight' soundtrack featuring Dexter Gordon.

Peter

Isn't 'Blues and the abstract truth' by Oliver Nelson. Good album that is almost completely spoilt by that horrible 'ho down' track which is almost enough to put you off Jazz for life!

Woodface: You are right. "Blues and the Abstract Truth" is an Oliver Nelson record (with Dolphy on board).

JP: Given where you're coming from, you might consider an American group - a power trio - that's been perking up the ears of jazz and rock fans alike: The Bad Plus. They play an aggressive, energetic form of jazz, and they cover rock tunes (like Smells Like Teen Spirit). Their last two recordings are worth checking out and they tour Europe, so you can check them out live if you want.

Robert

Hey JP, I'm no expert (yet strangely I'm still trying to answer your question!) but from what you say I think you would love 'The Melody at Night With You' by Keith Jarrett, a very quiet and contemplative album of jazz standards played on solo piano. You should try the famous 'Koln Concert' by Jarrett also. Another jazz album I really enjoy is 'Gershwin's World' by Herbie Hancock and guests, but I'm not sure you'd like this as much. Just my 2 pennys...

O

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