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I have recently become interested in older jazz music, particularly Charlie Parker. To be honest, I'm a complete novice when it comes to jazz. I just know that I'm really intrigued by Charlie Parker's 1946 session for the Dial label. For those who don't know, Charlie apparently was going through severe withdrawals from heroin at the time, and compensated by drinking heavily. He supposedly had to be held up in order to record the songs. On this session Charlie recorded the songs "Max Is Making Wax", "Lover Man", "The Gypsy", and "Bebop". I find this session endlessly fascinating. I consider "Lover Man" to be one of the greatest recordings I've ever heard. But for some reason jazz enthusiasts point to this as Charlie Parker's lowest point and his worst playing. All I know is that I want more! I'd like to investigate his catalogue in further detail, but I have no idea where to start. I'm wondering if anybody here could maybe point out some particular cd's to look out for, or youtube videos to check out. I'd also like to seek out other jazz musician's like Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, etc.   

Sounds like a good start, Jay. I can't pretend to have been bitten by the jazz bug but I do like much of what I hear. The captain is far better informed in that area.

Part of the problem is I don't understand how jazz works. I was told it's built up in thirds but that was down the pub, where they say lots of things.

Of the stuff I know and like, this is my absolute favourite. I bought Coltrane's Live at Birdland album on the strength of hearing "Afro Blue" on French radio in '65:    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIH3fNUsbnA

Here are a couple more Smiley jazz topics that may help you:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,1050.0.html

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,10805

If you can spare a minute, I'd recommend you take a look through the first of the two smiley threads jk linked to. (It's not very long, maybe two pages.) That has most of my initial recommendations and thoughts. I'd be more than happy to expand on or launch from anything if or as you have any questions.

Don't forget Dave Brubeck:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmDDOFXSgAs

I've been primarily listening to jazz in the last year or so.... and even then I'm still scratching the surface  :lol

I'll give two recommendations, from two different eras of jazz:

Benny Goodman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cq8ZGnfUN4

Miles Davis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHk9Cgqa3yI

From these, I'll let you branch out and see where it all takes you

My dad had the "Time Out" album on cd. I think it kind of started my fascination with jazz a bit. I'm also interested in jazz drumming.

The great, if pretentious, pianist Cecil Taylor died (age 89). Brilliant player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htg810iqYLY

I've read that in the 1950s and part of the '60s, the real surfing music was West Coast jazz, specifically Bud Shank. Any recommendations there?

I can't speak to what was "real" surfing music, as I never knew or cared about surfing or the authenticity of its music. But I'd guess anyone who said that was talking at least in part about this album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg9L087bM2s&list=PLka9LyFbXm0gzf2Y2W_py2D8LafoQUXK8

https://www.allmusic.com/album/slippery-when-wet-original-motion-picture-soundtrack-mw0000902074

If you're interested in  Jazz history I highly recommend Ken Burn's Jazz series for  PBS.

I wouldn't use the word specifically in this case, because "West Coast Jazz" as a term had quite a few proponents of that style, or the sounds that got grouped into that label. I like the term "Cool Jazz" but if someone asks me what kind of jazz I like I'll say "West Coast" or Cool.

Start with Miles Davis' Birth Of The Cool. Even though it was primarily a "New York" album, some of the sounds and feels and players too ended up defining West Coast jazz a few years later when they moved to...the West Coast! Keep in mind too that there was no album of these sessions originally, they were scattered singles from a group of sessions Davis held with his nonet and other incarnations of those groups which Capitol wisely bundled together and in a stroke of marketing genius, called it "Birth Of The Cool", hence cool jazz.

Some of the big names and players who defined the West Coast sound:

Gerry Mulligan
Chet Baker
Art Pepper
Shorty Rogers
Shelly Manne
Stan Kenton
Dave Brubeck - Paul Desmond
June Christy
Bobby Troup
Julie London
Anita O'Day
Barney Kessel

And, my favorite...Henry Mancini, specifically his soundtrack albums "The Music from Peter Gunn" and "More Music From Peter Gunn".

Now those Gunn albums came out in 58-59 when the Peter Gunn TV series was on TV, but Mancini's compositions and arrangements nailed the West Coast sound, and featured many big name players like Kessel, Bob Bain, Vic Feldman, Conte Candoli, and others who were all over the jazz scene of the mid to late 50's.

Watch old episodes of Peter Gunn - The house band at the jazz club "Mother's" on the show featured some of the top players in LA, some who would appear later on Beach Boys records and other familiar pop recordings in various roles. In early episodes you can see for example Tommy Tedesco miming along to Bob Bain's guitar parts while Shorty Rogers blows a mean fluegelhorn solo over "How High The Moon" with Lola Albright on vocals...and this kind of scene usually happened before some goons came to work over Peter Gunn, or some hapless guy tried to call Gunn at Mother's for his help before the local mobster boss had him rubbed out. You get the picture.

But the music was fantastic. And it was the first time jazz had been incorporated into a weekly TV soundtrack or score, and it happened to be West Coast jazz played by some of the best players in LA, so it caught on pretty big.

Interesting once you dig in that you'll see some of the same names of 50's West Coast jazz start popping up on rock/pop sessions, on TV bands like Carson's with Doc Severinson's big band after he moved the show to LA, and in several incarnations of "The Wrecking Crew", etc.  Good, steady Union Scale work.


Back to the original points: Jazz, Be-Bop, West Coast, Cool...whatever the label...yes, a lot of this music was indeed what various surfers, beatniks, etc were digging in the 50's. Watch any movie featuring beatniks, surfers, juvenile delinquents, etc...a lot of the soundtrack is jazz. "Blackboard Jungle" is a PRIME example. Bill Haley's Rock Around the Clock was only tagged onto the title credits...the actual music that the juvenile delinquent kids are rampaging to is be-bop and hard jazz throughout the film. Watch "The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis" and the beatnik Maynard G Krebs is always grooving to jazz. Not rock and roll. Watch 77 Sunset Strip - It's a ton of references to jazz, bop, and the beatnik lingo mostly spoken by "Kookie" on the show.

The list goes on and on.

Simple explanation, almost to basic but fitting:

The music was made in Hollywood. The musicians were living in and around LA. The TV shows and movies were for the most part being made in Hollywood. The jazz and bop clubs and cafes which the beach beatniks were attending were dotting the Southern California coast.

And a lot of the surfers in California in those same regions were digging jazz and bebop and cool and West Coast and whatever other labels can be applied.

Just another interesting comparison and related topic to check out: The cover art on those 50's West Coast albums (and jazz albums in general) is amazing. Both the photography and graphic design down to the lettering and fonts were perfect for the music and have garnered a cult following which led to having coffee-table sized book collections of the best examples of this cover art. But in this one case, check out the cover of a Chet Baker album from 1957 and compare it to a later cover which we are all very familiar with...and notice a lot of this stuff didn't happen in a vacuum or appear out of nowhere:

(http://www.birkajazz.com/graphics2/bakerChetCrew.jpg)

(https://img.discogs.com/P5iOcwyrtUj7Q285ZC2_2SMwgkU=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1188114-1327136275.jpeg.jpg)

Just a few more to check out:

This is the Peter Gunn TV show clip I described earlier, Lola Albright singing How High The Moon backed by Henry Mancini's studio band full of West Coast jazz players featuring Shorty Rogers on fleugelhorn, and Tommy Tedesco miming to the guitar part originally played by Bob Bain (who did the majority of Mancini's Peter Gunn sessions). Most of these clips were mimed to the studio recording and often players like Tommy would be booked as actors to mime these scenes where other musicians actually played them. But in this one, apart from Tommy, you can see the actual musicians who did the original sessions with Mancini.

This is a prime example of West Coast jazz that went mainstream, it's the laid-back feel of the swing as well as the way the players soloed over the chord changes, incorporating be-bop lines while staying more linear and playing with a more relaxed tone and feel. Just listen to Shorty's solo and Lola's lead vocal, that's what characterized the West Coast sound as heard in those parts. Very chilled out yet not "straight ahead" in what they're playing. Very interesting blend.

How High The Moon from season 1 of Peter Gunn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XhjXMlY3dU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XhjXMlY3dU)

To play more 6 Degrees Of Separation with the Beach Boys...

Shorty Rogers in the 60's took on a lot of work as an arranger. Among his biggest hits was "Daydream Believer" b/w "Goin Down" by the Monkees. A smash hit record...not the only time Shorty would write for The Monkees, as he did other Monkees arrangements featuring a larger band sound, and also worked with Mike Nesmith on his solo "Wichita Train Whistle..." project. There is a photo of Shorty and a bearded Mike Nesmith in the studio during the early '67 Headquarters sessions working on a track.

The interesting point to note is how Shorty nicked Brian Wilson's musical phrase that leads into the chorus of "Help Me Rhonda", and used the exact same phrase to lead into the chorus of "Daydream Believer".

Give both songs a listen and check out what happens just as the songs build into their respective choruses...  :)

And there is another direct connection between a giant of West Coast jazz and Brian Wilson/Beach Boys a lot of listeners may not have noticed.

Well, I'm happy I asked the question. Thank you for all the great suggestions to check out. I've listened to a little jazz here and there, but I've always felt like I'm on the outside looking in. I like jazz, but I don't anything about it.

Thank you, Guitarfool, for opening my eyes to all of this. Just listened to "Help Me Rhonda" and "Daydream Believer" and you are so right! I'm also amazed at album covers.

Another West Coast Jazz musician was Vince Guaraldi, best known for his work with the Peanuts specials.
A favorite of mine is his Cast Your Fate to the Wind, played a lot in the early/mid 60s, and became an Easy Listening hit with the British ensemble Sounds Orchestral in 1965.

I was just actually talking with Billy about Vince Guaraldi not to long ago. I found a video on youtube of him with a guitar player by the same of Bola Sete that I quite enjoyed. I had never heard of either when Billy brought up Vince Guaraldi as a big influence.

I also like Vince's version of "CYFTTW", not least because I heard it first. And he's a wonderful pianist...   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADPgTmca6Zs

I've been a big big jazz fan for about 18 years now. As with so many, I started with Mike's Davis' Kind of Blue.

The tenor saxophone is my favorite jazz instrument and John Coltrane and Lester Young are my favorite players. Coltrane's My Favorite Things is one of my top 5 favorite jazz albums. It's beautiful.

From My Favorite Things, here's my favorite track, with Trane playing soprano sax:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B8cjojmC8sE

I think my favorite Pres (Billie Holiday's nickname for Lester) album is Pres & Teddy, with the Teddy Wilson Quartet.
Teddy is one of the best jazz pianists, but my favorite is Bill Evans, who, like Coltrane, I first heard on Kind of Blue. He has this lyrical, gorgeous and sensitive touch on the keys. Nobody like him. His trio albums Everybody Digs Bill Evans, Portrait in Jazz, Explotations, Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Waltz For Debby, Moon Beams, among others, are all outstanding.

Here's some Bill:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xiRRfKoNl50

I don't have much to contribute...just a reminder that we all should play this a few times a year...
every year for life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfGZB78R7uw

when Louis explodes after that little banjo vamp...he sort of defines a best psychology for
a couple of centuries of America.



 

Indeed, Louis Armstrong is to jazz as Elvis or The Beatles are to rock and roll. He may well be the most influential musician of the last 100 years, no hyperbole. Every jazz musician or singer that followed in his massive wake was influenced by him... EVERYBODY. He was the guy that was turned jazz into a soloist's art. There have been only a few all out geniuses in music since Mozart, Beethoven, etc. Brian Wilson is one. Louis Armstrong is another.
His 1920s Hot Five and Hot Seven records are the Magna Carta of American music. Or maybe the Dead Sea scrolls. Something like that. He and Duke Ellington are the first important, nay, essential figures in jazz.

Louis' 1928 record 'West End Blues' has always astounded me ever since I first heard it in Ken Burns Jazz documentary. Perhaps the greatest pre-swing era jazz recording.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4WPCBieSESI

Yes! West End Blues is absolute perfection. In my top 5 all time favorite non classical songs.

What's the 4 others?

My top five for a long time has included the following:

West End Blues- Louis Armstrong
How High the Moon - Les Paul/Mary Ford

The others change. As of today they are:

Crazy - Patsy Cline
Jump Jive and Wail - Louis Prima
All I Wanna Do - Beach Boys

Nice idea, E. My jazz choice would be John Coltrane's "Afro Blue". "All I Wanna Do", "The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" and The Flamingos' "I Only Have Eyes For You" will almost certainly always be in there. And this would be today's fifth choice. Chills-down-the-spinesville:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lk-acekQGs

I'd post my all time top 5 favorite songs but I'd stray way off topic since there are no jazz songs in it. My favorite jazz recordings are:

'Flamenco Sketches' by Miles Davis (Kind of Blue again, with most valuable player Bill Evans floating serenely over the piano keys. Like a cloud. So beautiful.)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F3W_alUuFkA

'Solitude' by Billie Holiday (If you asked me, gun to my head, who is the greatest ever female singer, despite my deep love for Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Judy Garland, Aretha Franklin, and many more, I'd say Lady Day)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6d4KCZwUxRU

'Rose Room' by Benny Goodman Sextet (I love big band swing, but I love Benny's small band swing here even more)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nM0JCNmUlX0

The other two would be Coltrane's 'Every Time We Say Goodbye' and Louis' 'West End Blues', both of which I linked in my above posts.

I'd include Duke Ellington's unbelievably beautiful 'Single Petal of a Rose' but it's not really jazz but here it is for your considerable listening pleasure:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4_R_ey0sUjI

I disagree that "Single Petal of a Rose" isn't jazz: its vocabulary is jazz, anyway. But jazz, like rock was later, is subject to a lot of debate over the borders.

Top five jazz tunes is a tough assignment.

Ellington's Isfahan, from the Far East Suite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2U1MGX8SLU

Monk's Just a Gigolo, in this case from Misterioso: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j07z-42cxPI

Miles Davis Quintet's Footprints, from Miles Smiles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62p-CXrYmf4

Coltrane's My Favorite Things, from the album of the same name: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWG2dsXV5HI

And then how about a tie between:

Blue Mitchell, The Way You Look Tonight, from Blue Soul: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAjgoaH2-dQ
Dexter Gordon, I'm a Fool To Want You, from Clubhouse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytl9kcMVaYs

Picking top 5 in jazz? Oh my, quite impossible.

These are at the very top of my favorites for this morning:

West End Blues - Louis Armstrong
Ain't no Use - Sarah Vaughan
'Round Midnight - Thelonius Monk
Blue Rondo a la Turk - Dave Brubeck Quartet
Black Bottom Stomp - Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers

Sarah's magnificent, big favorite with June Christy & Ella.

Nobody will bite you. Post 5 favorite songs. Who cares if it's off-topic? Nobody.

All right RangeRover.

My all time top 5 favorite songs:

1. Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Beach Boys
2. Against the Wind - Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
3. Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles
4. Where The Streets Have No Name - U2
5. Rhapsody in Blue - George Gershwin (my favorite version is by Leonard Bernstein with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra from 1959)

Couple of honorable mentions, both in contention for the number 5 slot till I remembered Rhapsody:
Your Precious Love - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
Knocks Me Off My Feet - Stevie Wonder

Five favorites and their composers:

Nefertiti - Wayne Shorter
Volunteered Slavery - Roland Kirk
Compared To What - Eugene McDaniels
Stolen Moments - Oliver Nelson
Like Young - Andre Previn

Another five that could be faves:

Goodbye Porkpie Hat - Charles Mingus
Thembi - Pharoah Sanders
Girl Talk - Neal Hefti
In A Mist - Bix Beiderbecke
The Duke - Dave Brubeck

Glad to see Oliver Nelson mentioned. He's phenomenal and criminally unknown to general jazz audiences. Blues and the Abstract Truth is a canonical work, I think.

Wayne Shorter gets serious kudos, too. Obviously he's well known, but seemingly mostly for having played alongside Miles in the second great quintet. What nobody seems to mention on a regular basis is how many of those tunes he wrote. Phenomenal player, really good writer.

I just recently discovered the song "Brilliant Corners" by Thelonious Monk. What an exceedingly strange, yet wonderful and mesmerizing song. Supposedly the song is so complex and difficult to play that it had to be recorded in sections and then pieced back together to create the completed track. Sounds like somebody we all know and love...

I highly recommend Monk. He’s a giant of American music, I’d say a month the 10 greatest of any genre.

And I agree Brilliant Corners is amazing. But I don’t recall hearing that story before and honestly find it hard to believe. There was some takes-splicing going on in those days in jazz, but “too difficult to play” strikes me initially as likely mythology. I’ll have to dig into that. Thanks for passing it along.

I oughtn't have doubted you: having dug into it, sure enough it does seem the final version used on the album was a composite of takes.

That said--and this might be trying to make a distinction in terminology that isn't really effective or necessary--I think it's not quite accurate to say it was "so complex ... that it had to be recorded in sections and then pieced back together." While the first version--the one on the album of the same name--was indeed a product of splicing, it was recorded and released numerous times by Monk (and others) afterward. I would guess it was more a product of trying to get a certain number of tunes done on a schedule (usually a day or two in those days for a jazz LP) and, once they began breaking down and getting angry--which I've read was indeed the case--they just quit rather than keep spitting into the wind.

No doubt it didn't help that the form is 8 bars, 7 bars, 7 bars, and that (per typical Monk) the accents and changes were odd. I just peeked at the chart and it's pretty odd. I have no doubt they could pretty easily play the head just fine, but soloing over those changes might have been an issue, especially if they didn't know the song well prior to the session.

This has long been a favourite of mine. Steps Ahead's version of "In A Sentimental Mood" can move me to tears, if the occasion is right:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R3IbCgx9pU

I like some Jazz very much. But I don't know very much about it. As some of you might know I'm more into old blues and country (early Jimmie Rodgers' recordings do feature some Dixieland including Louis Armstrong on trumpet). But from time to time I listen to some Dixieland, some Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, Boogie Woogie (which I'd count more as blues, though, but who cares). I really, really like that stuff.
Also there's a great late-night Jazz album by Dean Martin (it features Dino's first recording of "Everybody love somebody, recorded just before his hit version). Very good stuff:


(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91MQOa%2B6J3L._SL1500_.jpg)

It's on youtube, although not in best quality:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyV7s1Fr6p4

A very interesting documentary will be shown on the PBS network, in most areas of the U.S. on Friday, May 4. Since I saw an advert on PBS International it might be showing in some areas Across The Pond as well.
UPDATE: Just read that it will be shown on BBC4 4 May at 9:00pm.

The documentary is about the Jazz Ambassadors. These were top shelf musicians such as Louis Armstrong who took goodwill tours throughout the world.
The tours were to let everyone know about how wonderful the U.S. was. However, the controversy was that it was anything but wonderful for African Americans during this time (late 50s-early 60s).

Here's an article from Time Magazine about this. Unfortunately I couldn't get the link to work. It would be under "cold war jazz ambassadors"