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I've been getting into Jazz lately, and I was wondering what jazz records some of you all like...

This thread may go nowhere, but I'm hoping there are some jazz fans on SmileySmile that can help me with my quest for finding amazing jazz albums.

So, anyone here have any favorite albums?

(I've been really liking Coltrane, Miles Davis, and just bought 'Bird and Diz' and am loving it).

miles davis-- Bitches Brew

I don't have much of a jazz collection, and i'm sure there's people on here far more knowledgeble on the subject than me, but here's some of the jazz records I own and enjoy..


Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (pretty much the essential jazz album)
Miles Davis - In A Silent Way (I actually prefer this to Bitches Brew)
Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out
Billie Holiday - Lady In Satin
John Coltrane - My Favourite Things

Black Saint and the sinner lady and Epitaph by Charles Mingus and of course the essential A Kind of blue by Miles Davis and practically anything you can get from Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington.
Also I've been listening lately this wonderful singer and bassist Esperanza Spalding:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am-jcWcgeI8&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am-jcWcgeI8&feature=related)

The Music From Peter Gunn - Henry Mancini
Time Out - Dave Brubeck Quartet
Birth Of The Cool - Miles Davis
Anything by Charlie Parker on Dial
Stan Kenton In Hi-Fi
Ellington Live At Newport
Back At The Chicken Shack - Jimmy Smith
anything with Charlie Christian
Ken Burns' Jazz soundtrack
Jazz Winds From A New Direction - Hank Garland
HR Is A Dirty Guitar Player - Howard Roberts
Giant Steps - John Coltrane
any Poll Winners with Barney Kessel
Glen Miller - all the hits
Songs For Swingin' Lovers - Frank Sinatra

Kind Of Blue trumps them all!

John Coltrane - Blue Trane.

Seriously, check this out. Even better than Kind of Blue.

Also, off the top of my head:
Thelonious Monk - Solo Monk
Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners
Miles Davis - Milestones
Charles Mingus - Us, Ah, Um.

I've been listening to quite a lot of live 70's Miles - The Cellar Door Sessions in particular make me feel weak. Such powerful, insane music.

On The Corner is my personal favourite of his electric period in the studio - such groove. The Jack Johnson Sessions are also great. But exhausting to listen to, you know?

On the nicer side of the spectrum, there's Duke Ellington - try and find the version of Black, Brown and Beige with him and Mahalia Jackson on the cover, as there are a few differing versions of the suite iirc. I also have a 20 minute condensed version, but what that makes up for with being played by a full orchestra is lost with losing the sprawling nature of the whole suite.

His early sides are also essential, but i need to dig further into the 50's/60's suites he kept churning out.

Bill Evans' 'Waltz For Debby' is also lovely.

Without a doubt, my favorite jazz collections are the Ken Burns box, and the Mile Davis/Bill Evans Box.

Thanks for the responses everybody (keep em coming!)

I'll definitely check some of these out

I've owned Blue Train for quite some time - and it has to be my favorite jazz album thus far....I like it better than 'Kind of Blue' myself...but alas there are so many albums to listen to yet...can't wait to delve in!

I really like Kenny Dorham's Afro-Cuban since it sounds like it says on the cover, and that's a wicked groove to have, but I'm not much of a jazz fan so what do I know!

"A Love Supreme"..."A Love Supreme"..."A Love Supreme"..."A Love Supreme"..."A Love Supreme"....

For me, this is the album, this is the track. Still astonishing to my ears even after nearly half a century (gulp):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r6T4lvYxaA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r6T4lvYxaA)

Time Out - Dave Brubeck Quartet also gets my vote, friggin' awesome stuff!

 Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet.  8)

No question about it, Return To Forever - Light as a Feather

Detroit-- Yusef Lateef 
with the Killer version of "That Lucky Old Sun"

In A Silent Way: Miles Davis
Get Up With It: Miles Davis
Big Fun: Miles Davis
Bitches Brew: Miles Davis
Sketches Of Spain: Miles Davis
Waves: Charles Lloyd
A Love Supreme: John Coltrane
Science Fiction: Ornette Coleman

Jazz is every bit as diverse a term as, say, "rock n roll." So I wouldn't expect you to agree right off. The ones you named would lean toward some bop (with the bird and diz) and its next generation (miles and coltrane). But of courser, those latter guys really went a million directions, especially miles. My favorites, not that you would necessarily like them, are Miles' second great quintet (the Shorter-Williams-Hancock-Carter group), any and everything by Thelonious Monk, the Monk-Sonny Rollins collaborations, a lot of Art Blakey's stuff, Andrew Hill's work (genius), and if you get out there structurally, Cecil Taylor is a brilliant mind-f***. Duke Ellington is America's most brilliant composer of all time and you can't go wrong with Count Basie. If you go into vocal jazz, Billie Holiday is unmatched to these ears.

Thanks Luther! I just bought an Art Blakey album, and a Thelonious Monk album. (I'd tell you what albums, but I'm not anywhere near my home or computer and I can't remember the names)...and now i'm waiting for a boxset album of Miles Davis and Jack Johnson to come in the mail.

Let me know what you start to like most, I'd be happy to point you toward more of what seems to be a natural progression from it.

Whenever i get bored I dig out an old topic and hope it catches on (again)...

As someone who has not been bitten by the jazz bug, I tend to like individual pieces rather than entire albums. Examples include Coltrane's "Afro Blue",  Jimmy Guiffre's "The Train And The River" and Shelly Manne's "A Bluish Bag"----that arco bass!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4Y9x6_7h4k 

I'm of the same mind, john k. Actually that's true for me across musical genres. (I think the pressure/expectation of a full 35-70 minute set of good and coherent music is usually unrealistic, actually.)

Possibly my favorite jazz piece: "Isfahan," by Duke Ellington and featuring one of the greatest alto saxophonists, Johnny Hodges. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQKAR8x-p5s

Eric Dolphy - Out There
Andrew Hill - Point Of Departure
Miles Davis - Nefertiti
The Fourth Way - The Fourth Way
Pharoah Sanders - Jewels Of Thought
John Handy Concert Ensemble - Projections

Absolutely. Hill is one of the most under-appreciated greats, not only of the '60s but of all time. If I'm not mistaken, I had just discovered him back when I posted my first response in this thread (several years ago), and I still remember how excited I was about him. I think Point of Departure was the first thing of his I bought, with several other great albums shortly behind. He's a really good composer, but increasingly I am wowed by his piano playing. He's a great soloist, but I love particularly his comping for other soloists. He's percussive to the point of incision, great timing in that respect almost like Monk. So imaginative with voicings too. His work behind Henderson on "New Monastery" is so interesting, melodic.

This one and John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things".

Herbie Hancock....... " Dis is da Drum" or " Man Child "
Weather Report....... "The Very Best of Weather Report "
Pat Metheny....... " Offramp "
Jean Pierre Rampal and Claude Bolling.... " Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano"

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue and  L'ascenseur Pour L'echafaud
John Coltrane - My Favorite Things, Blue Train and A Love Supreme
Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out
Bill Evans Trio - Waltz for Debby
Billie Holiday - Lady in Satin
Sarah Vaughan - At Mister Kelly's

Queen - Jazz

 ;D

S_D, back in the '60s I heard a Miles Davis track that he'd recorded for a French film, where apparently a loose piece of skin on his lip got mixed up with the trumpet mouthpiece. It certainly sounded different! I've looked all over but until now haven't found a single source that mentions this curious incident. Does it ring a bell with you, or with anyone else?     

Great listings so far.

My personal fav add to the pot is Horace Silver's 'Song For My Father'. The man has a beautiful energy to his music.

Kind of Blue

Stan Gets. - The Dolphin

The soundtrack to "Sideways"

Ella Fitzgerald - "On, Lady Be Good! The Best of the Gershwin Songbook"

Jazz is a genre that I'm extremely keen to explore further. I've recently checked out Kind Of Blue, and A Love Supreme. I didn't mind the former, though the latter may have been a little out there for me to fully get into upon first listen. One thing I have noticed is that I seem to prefer earlier Jazz, from the 30's and all that. I love what I've heard from Duke Ellington for instance. It'd be great if you guys could reccomend a few Jazz albums from the earlier years.

Try Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool, for starters. Not quite '30s, but it's song-oriented, ensemble instrumental music. Very tuneful.