Jazz

Lonnie Liston Smith's "Expansions", a classic jazz-funk milestone from '74:

Fantastically funky jazz guitar from Grant Green on these two epochal live LPs:

A good place to start is to look up the Blue Note web site. The Blue Note catalogue is extensive and there are many fine albums covering many Jazz genres. There is an app if you have Apple and you can listen to excerpts of tracks to give you a flavour of what's available. If you are a vinyl lover like me there are plenty of BN albums available at reasonable prices. 

Two of my favourite BN LPs are:

And

But there are many more....

Worth a listen, agreed. But it isn't jazz funk.

Jumbled Jazz. I think Miles Davis falls into this category,

What exactly is "jumbled jazz"? And which Miles Davis qualifies ... Kind Of Blue or Bitches Brew?

"Modern" meaning what, exactly? 1960s? 2000s? Miles Davis died over 20 years ago.

"Not real 'relax-to' music [such as] Miles Davis" ... what about Kind Of Blue from 1959? Or even better, what about his album Relaxin' from 1956, mostly ballads? How is that "modern," and how is that "not real 'relax-to' music"? If you can't relax to Relaxin' then you may need to consult a physician. (insert emoticon here)

Originally Posted by fatcat:

Jumbled Jazz. I think Miles Davis falls into this category,

 

What exactly is "jumbled jazz"? And which Miles Davis qualifies ... Kind Of Blue or Bitches Brew?

Simon.

The OP used the term "jumbled jazz". Whether music sounds jumbled is a personal thing, being a professional musician I suspect you don't recognize any jazz  as jumbled. At the other extreme, even a pop song with a hint of jazz sounds jumbled to my wife.

Although I don't dislike it, I would say Live Evil is jumbled. IMO, personally.

Bill Evans is definitely one of the most influential post-war jazz pianists, and absolutely a huge influencing factor on Kind Of Blue, but the "prime mover"? Miles' choice of Evans in the first place was the prime move ... he always knew whom to call.

And when you consider the list of musicians he called, all of whom are among the greatest jazz musicians of all time, and most of whom are influential innovators in their own right, no other bandleader in jazz history can claim as much influence as Miles ... here's a partial list: John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Ron Carter, Wynton Kelly, Red Garland, Philly Joe Jones, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette, Joe Zawinul, John Scofield, Dave Holland ... and the list goes on.

Originally Posted by fred simon:

Originally Posted by fatcat:

Jumbled Jazz. I think Miles Davis falls into this category,

 

What exactly is "jumbled jazz"? And which Miles Davis qualifies ... Kind Of Blue or Bitches Brew?

Simon.

 

The OP used the term "jumbled jazz". Whether music sounds jumbled is a personal thing, being a professional musician I suspect you don't recognize any jazz  as jumbled. At the other extreme, even a pop song with a hint of jazz sounds jumbled to my wife.

 

Although I don't dislike it, I would say Live Evil is jumbled. IMO, personally.

Oh, believe me ... there's plenty of jazz that sounds jumbled to me. And while Live Evil does not, I can definitely see how it might to others.

But, you see, that's exactly my point: there is a huge world of difference between Live Evil and Relaxin' ... one would be quite hard-pressed to make a case for the latter to be justifiably considered "jumbled." So to just paint Miles Davis ... all of his incredibly varied music ... as "jumbled" is undiscerning at best.

Picked up a a copy of Africa Brass LP at a charity shop a couple of months ago, played it a couple of times and re-donated it to the charity shop. To my ears definitely jumbled.

Your right. maybe I was unlucky with Live Evil, I'll have to get get a copy of Relaxin and kind of blue. I have a copy of sketches of spain somewhere, but I haven't listened to it yet

Same goes for Coltraine's Africa Brass.

Sketches Of Spain is a beautiful, non-jumbled masterpiece. And, yes, do get Relaxin' and Kind Of Blue, too.

Originally Posted by fatcat:

Originally Posted by fred simon:

Originally Posted by fatcat:

Jumbled Jazz. I think Miles Davis falls into this category,

 

What exactly is "jumbled jazz"? And which Miles Davis qualifies ... Kind Of Blue or Bitches Brew?

Simon.

 

The OP used the term "jumbled jazz". Whether music sounds jumbled is a personal thing, being a professional musician I suspect you don't recognize any jazz  as jumbled. At the other extreme, even a pop song with a hint of jazz sounds jumbled to my wife.

 

Although I don't dislike it, I would say Live Evil is jumbled. IMO, personally.

 

Oh, believe me ... there's plenty of jazz that sounds jumbled to me. And while Live Evil does not, I can definitely see how it might to others.

 

But, you see, that's exactly my point: there is a huge world of difference between Live Evil and Relaxin' ... one would be quite hard-pressed to make a case for the latter to be justifiably considered "jumbled." So to just paint Miles Davis ... all of his incredibly varied music ... as "jumbled" is undiscerning at best.

It's good to see the passion on such a subject. No wonder Stu was/is a great fan of yours, Fred.

Tony

Wow just looked at my post, thank you all so much, loads for me to check out, a true wealth of knowledge out there, looking forward to listening to suggestions.

Please keep posting

Many Thanks

A really decent sampler of nearly all types of jazz is the mammoth box set "The Blue Note Years".

http://www.allmusic.com/album/...39-1999-mw0000045805

" You have all that you now need."

No, I would say you have a damn good start...

Thanks for the kind words, Tony!

Try 'Money Jungle' and 'The Queens Suite' - Ellington (et al).

Hi David,

thanks for opening this thread. It interests me enormously. I had a similar question as you 5 years ago, starting an interest in Jazz music, and did not know where to Start. The BlueNote bundles helped me defining what kind of Jazz I liked, and which type a liked less. Next step was more or less to find the jazz artists that played the style of jazz I like ... That takes a litlle longer with a lot of "trial and error" but isn't that the fun part of our common hobby ...... I can't resist of recommending one of the first Jazz albums I bought and I still play one every few weeks .... Itvis an all time classic: Jazz At The Pawnshop from Arne Domnerus e.o. .... Just brilliant especially in Hi-Res and not "jumbled" at all !! :-) iver

A lot of info here, and my input might seem trivial in this light, but I can't let this go by without a mention of Ken Burn's 'Jazz' documentary. Wife gifted me with this for Christmas a couple years back. Turned out to be a gift that 'just keeps on giving'.

Admit, Burns stuff (to me, in general) can often be a bit too much and sometimes too slow paced for all but the truest of aficionado of whatever the subject matter is at hand, but the overall depth and presentation of the material is nothing but good. If you really want experience the development of American jazz music and it's endless incarnations, I can think of no better place to go. Whether you find yourself drawn to jazz or not, I doubt anyone who loves music would consider this a waste of time.

Todd

Well once again thank you all, I have so much to work on and to listen to, Iver van de Zand, i will try and hear Itvis an all time classic: Jazz At The Pawnshop from Arne Domnerus e.o. BlueNote bundles also a good starting point along with Miles, and Ellington and some great Jazz Funk suggestions, cant wait to get started and broaden my enjoyment of discovering some new Music.

I am grateful to the wealth of knowledge on this forum many thanks again and still please post suggestions, I will follow up on 

Kind Regards

David

Excellent point about the Ken Burns documentary. The history of the subject is done very well with terrific use of historic footage and stils. You're bound to find something to pique your interest and put it in an historical context. The soundtrack is very good.

There is one serious drawback - the expert "talking heads" are hardly unbiased. They're not hard to spot - one is perhaps the best known jazz critic and the other is one of the greatest living jazz musicians! Also, more modern jazz is not covered in so much detail.

It's nearly as hard to make recommendations to more inexperienced jazz listeners as it is to do the same about classical music. IMHO, some of the recommendations above may pitch you in too deep. Rather like recommending Bartok to a classical newbie!

As with anything that grabs your interest, it can be the start of a life-long pleasure. Try the free resources others have pointed about above and plunge in!

Vlad

Good points Vlad. Its almost if jazz mysteriously stopped progressing around 1970 in the Burns documentary. That being said I saw him give a talk a few months ago and I am looking forward to his Roosevelt documentary. Apparently it will be 14 hours in all. Teddy, FDR and Eleanor are all featured.

if I may suggest this album as being very accessible jazz  :-