Hi, I've just got into some jazz (I love the album Time Out by Dave Brubeck) and was wondering what are the best jazz albums to start listening to for jazz. I love jazz in general, I'm in my school jazz band lol, but I don't know any albums. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated, my most listened to artists right now are Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Prince and Kendrick Lamar, if that explains what I'm currently loving.
Thank you so much!
Herbie Hancock - Headhunters
Headhunters was my gateway to jazz. Still learning.
Peter Brötzmann machine gun
Jokes aside, bad bad not good, kamasi Washington.
Yussef Dayes has some incredible recordings on Spotify if you want a modern artist
If you're a Kendrick Lamar fan, check out Kamasi Washington. He played sax on two of Kendrick Lamar's albums - "To Pimp a Butterfly" and "Damn."
Kamasi's solo stuff is really excellent.
Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus;
Jackie McLean Swing Swang Swinging;
Art Blakey & Jazz Messengers Cafe Bohemia;
Horace Silver Songs for my Father;
Miles Davis Birth of the Cool;
Charlie Parker, anything, throw a dart at a Spotify playlist.
Everybody Digs Bill Evans.
Search for the new land - Lee Morgan, Africa - Pharoah Sanders
If you like Kendrick you’ll probably like Mingus. Very politically-charged and conceptual works.
I’d recommend Pithecanthropus Erectus, Mingus Ah Um, and The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady.
For something a bit more straight-ahead, Miles Davis’ Milestones, Wayne Shorter’s Night Dreamer, and Joe Henderson’s Power To The People.
Be sure to check out Time In from the Dave Brubeck Quartet, too.
I mean, where to begin. Kind of blue, Moanin, Giant Steps, Our Man in Paris, Bill Evans Trio at the Vanguard.
Chick corea - piano improvisations vol. 1
Avishai Cohen - shifting sands
oscar peterson trio - night train
also anything by clark terry or lester young
Listen to the Smithsonian Collection. Much of what is sited above is represented there. Drop in on Sidney Bechet’s Blue Horizon. Astonishing.
Cecil Taylor- Conquistador
Armstrong, Ellington, Basie, Tatum, Eldridge, Teddy Wilson, Bird, Diz, Blakey, Miles, Monk, Mingus, Coltrane.
Kenny Burrell------Midnight Blue. Tina Brooks------Back to the Tracks. Charlie Rouse-----Bossa Nova Bacchanal. Sonny Clark---Cool Struttin. Art Taylor---A.T's Delight. Bill Crow----From Birdland to Broadway. Thad Jones---- The Magnificent Thad Jones. Mel Brown----Chicken Fat. Charles Kynard--Afrodesiac.
Kenny G - classica n key of g
"Jazz for Dummies" is $20 on Amazon or free at your public library
Monks Dream
It sounds like you like soul and r&b so you’d probably like hard bop. Check out Horace Silver “Song for my Father” and Lee Morgan “The Sidewinder.”
Jaga Jazzist :)
"Born to be blue", de Chet Baker...
Workout - Hank Mobley
The Hardbop Grandpop - Horace Silver
A Song for my father - Horace silver
"And His Mother Called Him Bill . . ." Amazing tribute by Duke Ellington to his often collaborator Billy Strayhorn, who died way too young.
"Blood Count" is particularly beautiful/haunting.
There's a version out there with bonus tracks. See if you can find. Includes a random Duke piano solo when he was just playing for himself and didn't know the mics were on.
There are great recommendations here. I will add some for more stylistic diversity somewhat:
- Victor Wooten - Live in America
- Grover Washington - Live at the Bijou
- Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra - Live at MCG
- Emmet Cohen - Dirty in Detroit
I’m being genuine - if you feel like you could stretch out a bit on your current perception, listen to “The Shape of Jazz to Come” by Ornette Coleman. Some really fantastic compositions in general, but also a really good entry into Free Jazz if you’ve never listened to it before.
edit: The Ornette album is also a good tie in to you enjoying Kendrick, as the vibe of Free Jazz comparatively to “To Pimp a Butterfly” is very similar, and they’re both similarly related to times of political unrest and turmoil within the black american population - musically you can hear it in the shape of, and of course Kendrick is saying a lot of it, but also expressing it through the tone of the music itself. If you wanna get deep.
Some other recommendations that are probably a little more tame would be: - “The Music of Pat Metheny and Lyle May” by Bob Curnow’s LA Big Band, which is a great big band album with more modern compositions - “The Atomic Basie” by the Count Basie Big Band, an iconic Big Band album with an even more iconic track list filled with burner’s and beautiful solos, great drumming as well from Sonny Payne - “Moanin’” by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. This one is just fucking awesome.
I’m sure there’s more but there’s heaps of other comments already suggesting good stuff, from Miles, Coltrane, etc. Enjoy!
Lookup playlist for albums on the blue note label, prestige or impulse. You’ll get years of music to sort through just from those labels alone.
As an aside to the more straight up jazz recommendations, have you listened to much jazzy hip hop?
A tribe called quest, anything produced by DJ premier (many Nas songs, Gang Starr) and lots of Japanese artists (Nujabes) do great jazz samples.
Also give Sons of Kemet a listen for a modern jazz/hip hop crossover (Hustle is killer), as well as other London jazz like Kokoroko. Best jazz scene in the world rn
Here are 3 albums that got me into jazz.
Bags Groove / Miles Davis + Milt Jackson
Mingus Ah Um / Charles Mingus
Moanin' / Art Blakey
Also, if you're into Dave Brubeck, check out some more 'cool jazz' players (the sub -genre that Brubeck falls under) — Gerry Mulligan and Stan Getz are two standouts.
Many good recs here! The album that turned me onto jazz was “Play” by Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea.
John Coltrane - Giant Steps.
Older stuff
Kind of blue - miles Davis
Blue train - John Coltrane
Plus four - Sonny Rollins
Guitar on the go - west Montgomery trio
New stuff
Black focus - yussef kamal
Modern flows V2 - Marquis hill
King maker - Joel Ross.
Fearless movement - Kamasi Washington.
Getz/Gilberto
Modal Soul by Nujabes is perfect if you want to listen to something hip-hop-based. It also gives you an exploration into the origins of the lo-fi genre that is now dominating the internet airwaves.
Modern Jazz quartet - Concorde
Chet Baker in Tokyo.
Peter Brotzmann - The Catch of a Ghost
Affinity by bill evans
Kinda blue… miles Davis. 5 by monk-thelonius monk, art pepper meets the rhythm section- art pepper, something else- cannonball adderley, speak no evil-Wayne shorter, Sunday at village vanguard- bill evans trio, soul station- hank Mobley, quiet Kenny- Kenny Dorman. That should get you started….