What jazz do you like?

Redlester

Genuine query- list you favourite artists, albums, tunes, performances etc. 

For those who don't like jazz I have set up a separate thread just for you. 

drofluf

I don’t claim to be an expert but some of my favourite jazz includes Miles Davis, Jan Garbarek, Stan Tracy, John Coltrane etc.

Hattigol

Just the magazines really...

thecolourbox

I like Miles Davis Kind Of Blue but also the later stuff he did with the band that kind of sounded quite Hendrix-esque.

Generally though I like jazz bands that are just drums, double bass piano and vocals, I think that covers a lot of ground and the only real style of modern piano playing I enjoy listening to or playing.

There is a lot of snobbery and noses turned up at Jamie Cullum but he's done some terrific tracks and albums, his vocals may not be for everybody but his piano playing and the arrangements he and his bands put together are brilliant at times

horse

Sonny Rollins "Plus 4"
Keith Jarrett - Koln

David Murray - ballads for bass clarinet

Bill Evans - anything really

Abdullah Ibrahim - water from an ancient well

Are some that spring to mind for me

Teetonetal

I only really like Duke Ellington and George Gershwin

Roland

Most things, apart from bebop

VimFuego

I mostly like what I guess is called trad, things like the New Orleans stuff, stuff from the speakeasies etc. Think Tuba Skinny or Boardwalk Empire.
I do also like some of the ballads and so on. Whilst I get the expertise and skill behind bebop and the like, musically it leaves me cold.

Winny_Pooh

Classic swing is nice, sweet clarinet solos

Most 50's & 60's stuff is great
Jimmy Smith, Grant Green, Ahmed Jamal, Miles Davis etc etc

Not a Coltrane fan

70's and on Keith Jarrett (at the deer head Inn is a nice standards album)

80's: Pat Metheny Group - esp still life talking and Travels

Modern Stuff:
European jazz like EST & ADHD
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Avishai Cohen

Brian Blade Fellowship- Landmarks (standout)
Kamasutra Washinton's Harmony of Difference (nice)

Nice dinner party Grooves: Ernest Ranglin - Below the bassline 

hollywoodrox

Modern jazz quartet 
  Are we allowed stuff like John schofield, return to forever etc

  Bob James 
  Herbie Hancock 
  Quincy Jones and Bill Cosby 

Toms_Dad

Love trad and swing. Really can’t get on with bebop (I do like the improv to reference the melody in some way) but do like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Chet Baker. I’m also a sucker for some Latin rhythm and love a bit of bossa nova.
Favourites would include:
The Verve Big Band Sessions by Dizzy Gillespie
Ellington Live at the 56 Newport Jazz Festival
Atomic Swing by Count Basie
The Fabulous Sydney Bechet
Saxophone Colossus by Sonny Rollins
Ella Fitzgerald sings the Cole Porter songbook
Jazz Samba by Stan Getz with Charlie Byrd

Jimbro66

King Oliver with Louis and Johnny Dodds - unbeatable

thecolourbox

To be honest I had to Google search what bebop actually was, but having listened to a few bits on a "best of bebop" playlist on Spotify, I've found that I do indeed like that kind of music already, I just didn't know that's what it was called.

But given that they don't even play the same thing once, it's more of a background music for me, or if it was played live in a bar kind of thing. 

I used to play solo jazz piano in a Rat Pack themed cocktail bar in Vienna, and a lot of my improv sections between songs were inadvertantly bebop esque which is fun to find out now

MagicPigDetective

I dip in an out of jazz, like all the usual Miles, Coltrane, Bill Evans etc

A song I truly love is Body and Soul by Coleman Hawkins..... so smooth, so much character and feel jumps out of this recording, on which apparently he just turned up with no rehearsal and was recorded in one take. 



As for modern jazz, just last week I stumbled across a jazz pianist from Brazil, Amaro Freitas his new album is superb and I highly recommend you all listen to it, great live performance of the opening tune here:

duotone

I don’t listen to much jazz but when I do it’s usually Bill Evans. On his documentary one of the guys mentioned that in all the years, he never heard Bill play a wrong note.

EricTheWeary

https://youtu.be/jks0N05l4OY


https://youtu.be/PcFHeJ9SGkM

https://youtu.be/eNWDwOsQqlw

https://youtu.be/OzVeoTYXps8

https://youtu.be/h3_nJMvXLM0

I like jazz live more than as a recorded music on the whole but I certainly like some even if it’s maybe more peripheral artists than the big name bebop ones. I’m not a big fan of the guitar widdlers who suck the life out of it (YMMV) although I appreciate that some of my choices will just be noise to some people. Mentioning no names…

VimFuego

not sure if this qualifies as jazz, but I am quite keen on stuff like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DL8SGEyhZE

Limehouse_Blues

Some of my favourite guitar oriented jazz records include:

Charlie Christian / Dizzie Gilespie - After Hours

Grant Green - Blue Breakbeats

Wes Montgomery - Smokin at the Half Note

Joe Pass - Virtuoso

Django Reinhardt - any compilation

thecolourbox

VimFuego said:

not sure if this qualifies as jazz, but I am quite keen on stuff like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DL8SGEyhZE

That always reminds me of Soccer AM on Sky Sports way back when they used to have a feature called "Taxi for...." Which was the biggest cock up of the week in the football world

richman6100

The two I play most are probably Art Pepper's Winter Moon and Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. For some Tele-Jazz, anything by Ed Bickert. And for something more modern, Matthew Halsall, probably When The World Was One.

smigeon

Limehouse_Blues said:

Some of my favourite guitar oriented jazz records include:

Charlie Christian / Dizzie Gilespie - After Hours

Grant Green - Blue Breakbeats

Wes Montgomery - Smokin at the Half Note

Joe Pass - Virtuoso

Django Reinhardt - any compilation

Yep - I'm sure a lot of guitar folks who think they hate jazz couldn't fail to like Wes Montqomery. I like Smoking at the Half Note too, but my fave live album of his is Full House. Love Django too. My first exposure to his stuff was the stuff he recorded just before he died where he was playing electric guitar. Love the Charlie Christian stuff with the Goodman band and most things by Grant Green. Not that wild about Joe Pass although he's obviously stellar in terms of both technique and musicality. Just doesn't quite do it for me. My fave of his is the duets with Ella Fitzgerald.

Surprised nobody has mentioned George Benson. My fave there is the early stuff like It's Uptown, the George Benson Cookbook (especially this one!), Giblet Gravy.

Other jazz guitarists I like include Herb Ellis, Oscar Moore, Barney Kessel, Kenny Burrell, and, more currently, Bill Frisell and Julian Lage.

But "jazz" is so huge and diverse. How can anyone who loves music say they don't like jazz? Well, I know the answer to that because it used to be me :-). It's a great listening (and playing) journey to take - and the guitar players are only the tiniest part of it.