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Recommend some Jazz albums for me

TrailerTrailer Posts: 1,431
edited August 2008 in Other Music
I'm into the "cool" jazz rather than the ragtime and early stuff... but if it's good let me know.


As of now I own:
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew, Milestones, Newport '58
John Coltrane: A Love Supreme
Whoa, chill bro... you know you can't raise your voice like that when the lion's here.
Post edited by Unknown User on

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  • LukinFanLukinFan Florida Posts: 29,072
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  • NewDamageNewDamage Posts: 1,913
    "Time Out" by Dave Brubeck

    Try some Weather Report as well.

    Also there are some brilliant Zappa records (Waka Jawaka, The Grand Wazoo). Not pure jazz but very jazz heavy. Other than Miles and Coltrane, that's about the extent of my jazz knowledge
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  • suns22suns22 Posts: 94
    anything by Brad Mehldau.
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  • jackrabbit slimjackrabbit slim Posts: 564
    ella fitzgerald and duke ellington are good starters
    edit: might not be your taste but check em out you should like. new jazz - how bout harry connick?
  • lephtylephty Posts: 770
    Herbie Hancock has some great jazz albums. i don't have much in my jazz collection, but if i could only choose one artist to have, it would have to be Herbie.
  • intodeepintodeep Posts: 7,240
    Miles Davis- Sketches of Spain
    John Coltrane- Blue Train
    Herbie Hancock Empyrian Isles
    Dave Brubeck- Time Out
    Kenny Burrell- Midnight Blue

    5 artist with the 5 albums i think you would dig the most by them.

    Looking into other miles davis stuff is a no brainer. Sketches of Spain was either the follow up or the album before Kind of Blue and has the same cast of charectors and a similar feel. as it's name infers it does have a spanish feel to it but some GREAT music. Miles has many other great albums to look into but Sketches is one of my favs. If you really liked bitches brew you need to get A tribute to Jack Johnson. some great early fusion work on that one.

    Coltraine's blue train is awesome! I love the feel of the song blue train it sounds like a woody allen movie to me. Another to consider is Giant Steps. Can't go wrong with Trane though!

    Herbie Hancock has a couple go two albums for me Maiden voyage and Emperian Isles. I picked Isles because it is more unique i think. I think the playing is a little more innovative and refreshing to my ears

    Dave Brubeck as mentioned already is a great guy to check out. Particularly Time Out. For me i always recomend kind of blue and time out to people getting into jazz. they are easy going and very very Cool :) you will like it a lot i think.

    Kenny Burell's Midnight Blue is a great jazz guitar album. It was hard for me to choose between him and Wes Montogomery's albums but i picked kenny because i feel he has a little more of that cool feel to him. Mind you there is some blues in his playing as well. Kenny is a very good guitar player.

    hope you have fun getting into jazz. I got into it and built a small collection and when i'm in the mood for it i love it. Best of luck
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  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    A good live Charles Mingus album will prepare you for all kinds of jazz, from Ellington through hard bop and beyond (such was the scope of his compositional and performative vision). I would get an album called Mingus at Antibes, recorded live in 1960.
  • Strangest TribeStrangest Tribe Posts: 2,502
    Nina Simone
    the Minions
  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    Some of these might not be to your taste, since they range from bop to totally free jazz and everything in between but each of these is a masterpiece. The ones in bold are ones you should definitely like. The others are more challenging for a jazz beginner but definitely worth a shot:


    Albert Ayler - Spiritual Unity
    Anthony Braxton - For Alto
    Art Ensemble of Chicago - Les Stances a Sophie
    Art Tatum - Piano Starts Here
    Cannonball Adderley - Somethin' Else
    Cecil Taylor - Silent Tongues
    Charles Mingus - The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady (utterly ESSENTIAL)
    Charlie Parker - Yardbird Suite
    Duke Ellington - Money Jungle
    Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch (Incredible but unusual. An Acquired taste.)
    Hank Mobley - Soul Station
    John Coltrane - Africa/Brass, Ballads, Blue Train, Giant Steps, Live at Birdland, My Favourite Things, Olé Coltrane, The Olatunji Concert (very challenging)
    Krzysztof Komeda - Astigmatic
    Moacir Santos - Coisas
    Pharoah Sanders - Karma
    Rahsaan Roland Kirk - The Inflated Tear
    Sonny Sharrock - Ask The Ages
    Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus
    Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners
    Yusef Lateef - Eastern Sounds
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  • hendrix78hendrix78 Posts: 507
    Coltrane - Live at the Village Vanguard - one of the greatest live albums of all time, in any genre in my opinion

    Charles Mingus - I only have an anthology, but I see Mingus Ah Um referenced a lot, so maybe start there. It doesn't have my favorite tune by him though. Find something with Haitian Fight Song on it. That is an awsesome piece of music.

    Thelonious Monk - again, I just have a greatest hits and a live album with Coltrane, but you should definitley check his stuff out. He has a really cool, off kilter sense of rhythm. Straight, No Chaser is one of his classic tunes.

    anything with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie playing together.

    Jimmy Smith - Root Down - killer B3 organ led jazz/funk.
  • LedZepFanLedZepFan Posts: 1,009
    FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:
    A good live Charles Mingus album will prepare you for all kinds of jazz, from Ellington through hard bop and beyond (such was the scope of his compositional and performative vision). I would get an album called Mingus at Antibes, recorded live in 1960.

    I'm just starting to get into him...picked up Mingus Ah Um recently but haven't listened to it extensively yet.


    If you like A Love Supreme, Giant Steps is Coltrane's other very acclaimed, very famous album.
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  • hendrix78hendrix78 Posts: 507
    LedZepFan wrote:
    I'm just starting to get into him...picked up Mingus Ah Um recently but haven't listened to it extensively yet.


    If you like A Love Supreme, Giant Steps is Coltrane's other very acclaimed, very famous album.


    Just thought I'd point out that Giant Steps is great, but very different from A Love Supreme. It's more straight jazz - more like what Coltrane did with Miles Davis. A Love Supreme was recorded with what is considered the "classic" Coltane Quartet - McCoy Tyner on Piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and the awesome Elvin Jones on drums. You really can't go wrong with anything that lineup recorded. Actually I think you really can't go wrong with anything by Coltrane, but that lineup is my favorite.
  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    LedZepFan wrote:
    I'm just starting to get into him...picked up Mingus Ah Um recently but haven't listened to it extensively yet.


    If you like A Love Supreme, Giant Steps is Coltrane's other very acclaimed, very famous album.
    I would argue that Giant Steps isn't the best next move for someone who only knows ALS though. Giant Steps has little of the spiritual expressiveness of A Love Supreme. It's a super-technical hard-bop album. I personally find it a more challenging listen than Trane's later, post-ALS, free-jazz material. It's BRILLIANT of course but I'd recommend something like Ole Coltrane or a live album with Elvin Jones, Jimmy Garrison and McCoy Tyner first.

    Having said that, Giant Steps IS cool as fuck, which is seemingly what the OP is going for. Also, Naima is certainly beautiful.
    "I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"
  • intodeepintodeep Posts: 7,240
    Jeremy1012 wrote:


    Cannonball Adderley - Somethin' Else
    Charles Mingus - The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady (utterly ESSENTIAL)
    John Coltrane - Blue Train, Giant Steps,
    Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus
    Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners


    I have these and love them all !
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  • transplanttransplant Posts: 1,088
    Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder
    Larry Young - Unity
    Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage
  • boroff89boroff89 Posts: 786
    Jeremy1012 wrote:
    Art Tatum - Piano Starts Here

    Let me second this suggestion. Art Tatum was a ridiculously good jazz piano player. After Kind of Blue, this is my second favorite jazz album.
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  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    boroff89 wrote:
    Let me second this suggestion. Art Tatum was a ridiculously good jazz piano player. After Kind of Blue, this is my second favorite jazz album.
    Tiger Rag is absolutely absurd. How a man who was too blind to see a piano properly could master the keys to that extent is beyond me. The best thing is, the playing seems to be made more beautiful by the ridiculous level of technique instead of stunted.
    "I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"
  • TrailerTrailer Posts: 1,431
    thanks guys:cool:
    Whoa, chill bro... you know you can't raise your voice like that when the lion's here.
  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    Just listened to Let My Children Hear Music by Charles Mingus for the first time. Brilliant, as usual. Mingus' stuff is barely even jazz. It's too meticulously composed... just perfect.
    "I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"
  • jeffwmartinjeffwmartin Posts: 71
    John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
    Wes Montgomery - Incredible Jazz Guitar (it's a compilation, but excellent)
  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    ooh, I forgot to mention Stellar Regions by John Coltrane. One of a number of posthumously released sessions that his wife Alice kept for years. It's from his later, free, spiritual phase but it's much more mellow than stuff like Interstellar Space and Meditations because it doesn't have Pharoah Sanders skronking away happily on it.

    Seraphic Light is absolutely beautiful. Jimmy Garrison's bowed bass sounds so unusual for jazz, and really cool.
    "I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"
  • GardenpartyGardenparty Posts: 1,910
    If you want something chill check out

    & Yet & Yet by Do Make Say Think.

    It's not straight ahead jazz but the elements are there and it is pretty f'n cool
    “I know this song so well, I can smoke a cigarette, have a drink, brush my teeth, take a shit, and mow the lawn while singing it. But I'll only be doing a couple of those things during this version.”
  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    Gardenparty wrote:
    If you want something chill check out

    & Yet & Yet by Do Make Say Think.

    It's not straight ahead jazz but the elements are there and it is pretty f'n cool
    I wouldn't really call DMSY jazz at all, even if I know what you're getting at about the jazzy elements. The instrumentation might be there but structurally and compositionally it's a different thing altogether.
    "I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"
  • GardenpartyGardenparty Posts: 1,910
    Jeremy1012 wrote:
    I wouldn't really call DMSY jazz at all, even if I know what you're getting at about the jazzy elements. The instrumentation might be there but structurally and compositionally it's a different thing altogether.

    I'm speaking specifically about this album and think you basically restated what I did.
    “I know this song so well, I can smoke a cigarette, have a drink, brush my teeth, take a shit, and mow the lawn while singing it. But I'll only be doing a couple of those things during this version.”
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