All That Jazz ...

Nikhil

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There are a few jazz fans on the forum whom I have had the pleasure of meeting over the years. I have met a few forum members with outstanding music in this genre - be it 60's classics or modern European jazz. Jazz and audio seems to go hand in hand with even casual audio enthusiasts having a couple of albums in their collection. It would be nice if some of you could share your recommendations for jazz music.

Let's hope we can get a nice collection of Jazz recommendations on here.

** For those checking in late here is the Youtube playlist of all the music shared on this thread:
** https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKW91nNDh0sifjlwBq60T5X3BmOn2-EYu


Regards.


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Introducing some modern jazz to the thread:

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Its nice to see threads being started on music. Most of the time in this forum is spent discussing equipments which in itself is not bad but one should not forget the reason the equipment exists. Music and movies. The thread has managed to bring Mr. Moktan out of hibernation which in itself is a wonderful thing,

My understanding of music is even less than my understanding of equipment.

My contribution to the thread, those of you who have subscribed to Amazon Movies, do check out their music site. They have some great Jazz albums streaming.

Miles Davis
Nina Simone
John Coltrane
Louis Armstrong
Duke Ellington
Ella Fitzgerald
Dave Brubeck ...

Just to name a few of the musicians whose albums can be listened to.

Listening to Pat Metheny's Sound of silence from the album What's it all about as I am posting.
 
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Its nice to see threads being started on music. Most of the time in this forum is spent discussing equipments which in itself is not bad but one should not forget the reason the equipment exists. Music and movies. The thread has managed to bring Mr. Moktan out of hibernation which in itself is a wonderful thing,

My understanding of music is even less than my understanding of equipment.

My contribution to the thread, those of you who have subscribed to Amazon Movies, do check out their music site. They have some great Jazz albums streaming.

Miles Davis
Nina Simone
John Coltrane
Louis Armstrong
Duke Ellington
Ella Fitzgerald
Dave Brubeck ...

Just to name a few of the musicians whose albums can be listened to.

Listening to Pat Metheny's Sound of silence from the album What's it all about as I am posting.
Speaking of Jazz movies...Clint Eastwood has done some stellar work ...biopic Bird on Charlie Parker and the documentary Straight No Chaser on Thelonious Monk come to mind...
Besides the great stuff already mentioned...I think there is no better introduction to easy listening but real jazz than Bill Evans (piano) Live at the Village Vanguard with Paul Motian on drums and Scott La Farro on bass...Bill Evans is the guy almost equally responsible with Miles for the cool sound of Kind of Blue....another trip and perhaps you would like to check this punchy rendition of God Bless the Child by Keith Jarett ( piano ) with Jack D'Johnette on drums and Garry Peacock bass on YouTube...
 
Aside from lists which is a good starting point no doubt, (the one posted has indeed many surprises, but I have a friend who plays an album, inevitably saying "its rated one of the top 50 jazz albums", but to quote Rahsaan, "what does it mean?"), perhaps it makes sense to talk on a regular basis about albums one listened to.

Ahmad Jamal's "Marseille" is a recent listen of mine - now 87 years old, he has made an album that cooks (moktan, Miles was his fan). Including the sparse use of melody on Autumn Leaves (with an afro cuban beat), a rapper in one song (Marseille), a singer another (another version of Marseille) and an instrumental version of the title song as well. Its also really well recorded - I first read about it on Stereophile.

Autumn Leaves - a great standard.


Hear below Mina Agossi singing one version of Marseille in the album...I love the way her voice comes in at about 1 minute 20.


Talking of Clint Eastwood, also check out "Bridges of Madison County" that has a lovely soundtrack featuring Johnny Hartman. What a voice, what a singer. A whole Johnny Hartman album is available in 2 separate CDs of the Bridges of Madison County and is a worthy acquisition.

 
My all time favorite jazz album would be Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to come...theorising aside this is music of great beauty ..the standout Lonely Woman is sparse and sad like a delicate watercolor ...i also like Monk ..the staccato and geometric precision of his angular choppy piano...Coltrane spiritual and relentless..A Love Supreme rises like a true invocation rivalled only by Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity album..Mingus is large and lumbering as if his physical size and larger than life living had to spill over into the sonic palette of his Black Saint and Sinner Lady...there are so many of them...remember watching a French movie with music by Miles...also Ellington as Pie Eye in the James Stewart classic Anatomy of Murder for which he composed the musical score too...
lastly the best jazz never feels dated ...Lennie Tristano was at the Confucius Restaurant what seems like aeons ago and yet his piano is as fresh contemporary and cerebral as they come..Charlie Parker's Savoy Sessions too was done years ago and yet songs like the playful Romance with Finance are a joy to listen...
 
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Aside from lists which is a good starting point no doubt, (the one posted has indeed many surprises, but I have a friend who plays an album, inevitably saying "its rated one of the top 50 jazz albums", but to quote Rahsaan, "what does it mean?"), perhaps it makes sense to talk on a regular basis about albums one listened to.

Good stuff Vivek! Thanks for sharing that Ahmad Jamal piece.
Definitely worth a listen. Perhaps along with a nice evening drink!

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My all time favorite jazz album would be Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to come...theorising aside this is music of great beauty ..the standout Lonely Woman is sparse and sad like a delicate watercolor ...i also like Monk ..the staccato and geometric precision of his angular choppy piano...Coltrane spiritual and relentless..A Love Supreme rises like a true invocation rivalled only by Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity album..Mingus is large and lumbering as if his physical size and larger than life living had to spill over into the sonic palette of his Black Saint and Sinner Lady...there are so many of them...remember watching a French movie with music by Miles...also Ellington as Pie Eye in the James Stewart classic Anatomy of Murder for which he composed the musical score too...
lastly the best jazz never feels dated ...Lennie Tristano was at the Confucius Restaurant what seems like aeons ago and yet his piano is as fresh contemporary and cerebral as they come..Charlie Parker's Savoy Sessions too was done years ago and yet songs like the playful Romance with Finance are a joy to listen...

Moktan,

Your posts are elevating this thread higher and higher! Serious stuff ...
Great to see such passion for the genre. Very tempted to add a trip to Kalimpong sometime in the future.

Regards.

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A Night in Tunisia by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, fantastic album. This Youtube video will give you a taster but it does not really do justice to the quality of the original recording. I've owned it both on Vinyl and CD both are outstanding recordings worth trying to get hold of if you can (Philips Recording version).

 
A Night in Tunisia by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, fantastic album. This Youtube video will give you a taster but it does not really do justice to the quality of the original recording. I've owned it both on Vinyl and CD both are outstanding recordings worth trying to get hold of if you can (Philips Recording version).

There is this interesting mention about Night in Tunisia...in Whoops by John Lancaster. The book itself is about the financial crisis. In his discussion about the apparent incomprehensibility of modern finance he invokes Night in Tunisia ....

“...like other forms of human behaviour, underwent a change in the twentieth century, a shift equivalent to the emergence of modernism in the arts –a break with common sense, a turn towards self-referentiality and abstraction and notions that couldn’t be explained in workaday English. In poetry, this moment took place with the publication of The Waste Land. In classical music, it was, perhaps, the premiere of The Rite of Spring. Dance, architecture, painting –all had comparable moments. (One of my favourites is in jazz: the moment in ‘A Night in Tunisia’ where Charlie Parker plays a saxophone break which is like the arrival of modernism, right there, in real time. It’s said that the first time he went off on
his solo, the other musicians simply put down their instruments and stared.)
 
I don't have a bucket list to share at this time but would like to gradually share some albums discovered/rediscovered/enjoyed recently.

Dave Grusin's Greatest Hits. He is a composer for films and TV shows, arranger, pianist, etc who favours contemporary jazz. All his tracks are very well produced and are a pleasure to listen to.

Here's the first track "Modaji" from the Greatest Hits album:

 
I first discovered a few years ago bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding through her 2010 album Chamber Music Society.

Recently I had the opportunity to borrow her 2012 follow up Radio Music Society. For those inclined, the entire album is available as audio on YouTube.
 
Not much into fusion ...but here it works.
Flamenco and Jazz..
Chano Dominguez with NFS ( New Flamenco Sound)

 
Art Pepper's phrasing with the Alto Sax is something else.
Here is an album that gets frequent rotation on my setup.

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Buy from India's official online dealer!
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