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I like Tom Scott and David Sanborn. I don't have any titles to hand right now but both are snappy saxophonists.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Mar 2004
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There are loads of different kinds of jazz, so it's kind of hard to pin down exactly what you want. But I can start you out by listing a few classics.
Kind of Blue by Miles Davis (perhaps the most "classic" of all jazz albums, and truly one of the best discs you'll ever find in any genre.) Time Out by Dave Brubeck Giant Steps by John Coltrane Saxophone Colossus by Sonny Rollins
Those are some of the most obviously "jazz-sounding" albums, and if you're just exploring in the genre, they're a good place to start. If you want to branch into big band, you can't go wrong with any Benny Goodman albums (my personal favorite) or even some Louis Prima. Also, it may sound weird, but one of my all-time favorite jazz albums is A Charlie Brown Christmas by The Vince Guraldi Trio. It's so much fun you may just miss what a brilliant and influential jazz musician he really is.
Anyway, I could go on and on. Jazz is a diverse and evolving field just as deep and wide as rock music. I've got a fairly good sized collection, and I'm still a bit of a novice. And while I couldn't explore the depth and breadth of rock music, from Rush to Zappa to The Police to John Mayer, in one post, I can at least start you out with some Zeppelin and Beatles. So I'll just leave it here and let some other people recommend some of their favorite albums. But just remember one thing... if you get a few albums and find that you like jazz, and you want something that will blow your mind, come back and I'll recommend you some Pat Metheny albums. You won't be sorry. Posts: 127 | Registered: Aug 2004
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I adore songs like that... I had a lot of them on my HD before the Great Reformating of 2004.. I'll see if I can find you some, they play sweet jazz all the time on NPR and I'll write some down for you. Silver Hollow is a great song. There are several version of it. The Dave Holland Quintet seems very good. Especially Make Believe by them. The there's always sweet early prefusion Miles Davis. It doesn't get any sweeter than him, especially Moon Dreams.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Oh, one other thing... I've mentioned this before on this forum, but if you want to be convinced to buy the first two albums on my list, go here and listen to the entries under "Kind of Blue" and "Take Five" (from Time Out)--oh, and "sing, sing, sing" by Benny Goodman is on there too. They're in alphabetical order. Just click on "listen" under the entries. Oh, and there are some other great jazz works on the list as well, so that might help you too.
[ September 12, 2004, 09:29 AM: Message edited by: Speed 2: Cruise Control ]
Posts: 127 | Registered: Aug 2004
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I'm musically ignorant. I can't tell the difference between good jazz and bad jazz.
That said, I really love Diana Krall. Her All For You album (songs of the Nat King Cole trio) is one of those CDs I could listen to 714 times and never get sick of it.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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DH: I love Bill Evans. I've never heard that album, though. I'm going to go pick it up based upon your recommendation, and I'll tell you what I think. Thanks for the tip.
Phanto: If you end up ever hearing any of the stuff anyone mentions, I'd like to know what you think of it.
Posts: 127 | Registered: Aug 2004
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I don't know about saxophone jazz but I love jazz bassists. Jaco Pastorius is awesome for bass.
Posts: 853 | Registered: Feb 2004
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Speaking of bassists, we were just drooling over the skills of Victor Wooten, the bassist for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, in another thread.
Also, although he's more jazz fusion (or even a bit funk) than traditional jazz, I can never get enough of Stanley Clarke's bass. I just happen to have one of his albums playing in my car right now, and it's swell. In fact, if you ever want to hear some really, really good live ensemble fusion played by five people, each of whom could carry an amazing gig all by himself, check this one out. It'll blow your mind. Just hearing Stanley Clarke jam with guitarist Larry Carlton is enough, but you throw in the other three here and it's un-missable.
[ September 12, 2004, 10:42 PM: Message edited by: Speed 2: Cruise Control ]
Posts: 127 | Registered: Aug 2004
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On a related note, there's a jazzy song I just love, but I don't know the name of it. It's in Runaway Bride, in the scene where Julia Roberts gives Richard Gere her running shoes and they dance on the porch. It's saxophone, I believe, and it's all sparkly. Honestly, I have visions of dancing in the rain to that song. Does anybody know where I can find it, short of just buying the soundtrack (I don't like any other songs on it)?
I also like the upscale jazz in the new Sabrina. It sounds like chandeliers and champagne. Hmmm.
Posts: 1903 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Amazon is your friend. I could only find one jazz tune on the soundtrack. You can hear a sample here if you have windows media. Is that the one?
[edit: if it doesn't come up automatically with that link, it's the last track--the Miles Davis one.]
[ September 12, 2004, 11:19 PM: Message edited by: Speed 2: Cruise Control ]
Posts: 127 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Hey man. I got that Bill Evans album. Holy cow, you were right. It was really good.
I got a couple others while I was at it. I snagged some more John Coltrane. I got A Love Supreme and Blue Train, both of which are absolutely excellent. And I got The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady by Charlie Mingus, which was beyond excellent. It was totally freaking brilliant, a whole different level of genius. I've got to add that one to my list of recommendations. Oh, and he's a bassist, to tie it back to earlier posts.
By the way, I've found something that really helped me out. See, when you're getting into some really old jazz, many of these people got their reputation as live musicians. Sometimes instead of recording albums, they'd go in and do some sessions or some people would tape a concert, and now they have about 500 albums. Some of it's genius, and a lot of it is just some random crap someone found themselves with rights to. So it's really hard to just go into a record store and pick up some jazz, even if it's an album by someone you know is a legend, without some guidance. I myself, for example, got a couple of severely mediocre Duke Ellington albums that way. He's one of the greatest musical minds of the 20th century, and if you were to judge by the albums I got, you'd think he was a cheesy hack.
Enter Amazon. They've put together lists of essential albums, either by artist, if you know who you want to hear, but don't just want their random crap. Or they've got it organized by genre if you know what kind of thing you want to hear, but you don't know whose albums to start with. So if you go to the genre link and select "jazz", you'll get all the sub-genres and lists of really good albums within them, with a paragraph about why they're so good.
Of course, it's not a perfect list. I've found some albums in there that I don't think are quite as great, and they leave out some truly amazing stuff from some artists. Still, I haven't seen them put anything really bad in any of the lists, and it's fairly accurate for the most part. It's a heck of a lot better than having to go in blind, especially if you're exploring the confusing field of jazz.
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I can't believe no one's mentioned Stan Getz. As someone once said, there aren't enough o's in smooooooooooth. (Of course, they were describing Henry Weinhard's cream soda, but it applies here too.)
Posts: 1810 | Registered: Jan 1999
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sonny rollins is good, or canonball atterly (sp?) also Tower of Power is some of the best funk ever. If you like latin music, Tito Puente or Michel Camilo<--Pianist are really good.
Posts: 76 | Registered: Jan 2004
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