By which musican (band or solo) and by which song would you introduce jazz to someone ?
What was your own path to discover this magic music ?
Fucking coughing up my wine
Hmmmmarrrrtrwaghhjhjj
I’m almost afraid to ask….do these…..exist?
They should!
The reason I can’t listen to Jarrett.
Too much piano??
Ima be honest solo would be Leo P’s morning bari solo and for song it would be the original song and the cover by Leo at the BBC Proms
Obligatory “this is the way”
That’s some funny shit. 😂
Like anything the fastest path to your destination depends ENTIRELY upon your starting point.
For me it was the late 70s, I was a kid listening to mostly 60s/early 70s rock, went from Yardbirds to late 60s Jeff Beck to mid-70s Jeff Beck to Stanley Clarke, Return to Forever, Pat Metheny, Miles and just never stopped! But ultimately it was the rock-to-fusion path.
Damn man that's what we call a "path"
It would all depend on what they are into at the time. Long story short a guy saw I like prog rock. He asked if I liked King Crimson. I said yes of course. He gave me a cassette of Ornette Coleman the shape of jazz to come. I was floored and listened to it every day multiple times a day. It’s not like I never heard jazz before. I was already into fusion but pure acoustic jazz? That recording kicked the door open for me.
That was me too - coming from Hendrix, Beefheart, avant rock...I 'got' Kind Of Blue years after Live-Evil and On The Corner.
Yeah that was a gateway recording for me too. I was into some way out stuff back in the day like Gong, national Health and bands like that who were very jazzy. Zappa was one that employed a lot of jazz in his music. So it wasn’t a huge leap to mainstream jazz. It actually took some maturity to get jazz as it wasn’t as flashy and in your face which kids like. All the fusion back then. Mahavishnu Return to Forever etc. . Then started listening to Al Dimeola. When I heard Coleman it was out there in a weird way to my ears. Kind of like Beefheart in that it was off kilter to me. Then Monk and his intentional off key type style. I liked aberration. Then came the time I discovered the radio show Jazz with Bob Parlocha. He played the best straight ahead jazz. Eventually I started liking jazz standards and those singers and even big band. Jazz isn’t my entire world musically but I’m in pretty deep at this point. I like to think I’m pretty open minded musically and there are very few genres I can’t find something to like. So even with jazz I go from Dixieland to avant garde.
Moanin' - jazz messengers
What is an sb? I do not know this word.
Somebody
Too long to type, or is this a common abbreviation?
Art blakey’s moanin is the best introduction to jazz imo. Maybe Charles Mingus’s too. I would never recommend Kind Of Blue though, but maybe that’s just me.
Just curious, why wouldn’t you recommend KOB? IMO Get/Gilberto and KOB might be the two most accessible jazz albums that I would recommend before anything else.
Thanks mate
This right here is the definitive Moanin’ imo
Honestly I would go with Leo P moanin at the proms for some people too, because it is so high energy that someone coming from a more energetic type of music will appreciate that aspect.
People seem to like swing music
I love swing too, but I don't know any specific swing singers (maybe just Frank Sinatra)
Try Count Basie Swings/ Joe Williams Sings
Names to look up would include Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet.
If they like more straighforward music in other genres, swing would be a good starting point. But if they prefer more experimental things like math rock, suggestions like Charles Mingus could be relevant.
Bobby Darin OG for me.
Chet baker > miles Davis..
Any specific albums ?
Not really with Baker..Kind of blue for miles..
Just put on Chet Baker Sings and enjoy
Chet
more like Chet Baker >>> Miles Davis. That one bebop line in i'll remember April... Chefs kiss
Af all the genres Jazz has to be one of the loosest.
I think of it more like the london underground map. Get on wherever is the most convenient for you.
My route was very circuitous through dance music, via Giles Peterson.
Peterson is like the heroin dealer of UK jazz, he gives you a nice little latin fusion number to tap your foot along to, some Ramsey Lewis too,then he hits you with 15 minutes of Sun Ra and you wonder if you are ODing.
I'll tell you what I told the audience once on stage.
"Go out and buy Hank Mobley's Soul Station. Then take the rest of your music collection and toss it in the river, because you will not need them anymore."
Charlie Brown Christmas
Brubeck - Time Out
It's an interesting question assuming that the person has never heard any jazz like music before...... I probably go with Billy Holiday.
I was born listening to this stuff so I can’t answer this. 😂
How-EVER…the reason I was born into it was because my mom got my dad into jazz when they were dating 60+ years ago. I’ll ask them to see if they remember.
So apparently Mom was that 1950s high school weirdo who listened to jazz instead of rock-and-roll like everybody else. 😂 Dad had never dated a girl who wasn’t into rock-and-roll so if they were going to date, he had to take her to jazz clubs. That’s how he became converted.
I asked how he’d get someone into jazz today and he was like oh please 🙄 you youngsters have all the jazz in the world available literally at your fingertips. Pick some playlists and see what sticks.
Birdland by Weather Report, and the rest of the Heavy Weather album
That’s what I’m talking about! I used to make mix cds, and at one point just about every one of them would have palladium and havona on it. One of the best albums of all time.
Monks Dream…worked for me.
For myself, and I think these albums are very digestible for novices: Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil, Horace Silver - Song For My Father, Dexter Gordon - Dexter Calling, Hank Mobley - Soul Station, Lee Morgan - The Gigolo, Freddie Hubbard - Here To Stay, Sonny Clark - Leapin' and Lopin'.
All Blue Note 1960s releases. I heard a song from each while listening to WBGO 88.3 and subsequently went out and bought the compact discs. On a whim I tuned to that station and have been jazz hooked ever since.
Kenny G
I came to jazz more from an alternative rock/ guitar music background. Charles Mingus was my gateway drug into jazz because he has such a big underbelly/ rock 'n roll attitude.
Haitian Fight Song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7CoJEyiSfE
Devil Blues:
I don’t know why but I always liked jazz when I was a kid. Once I got access to the internet in the early 2000s I looked up “jazz” and the first thing I remember listening to was “Reefer Man.” Wasn’t really the sound I wanted but it did the trick. Then one night I finally found the sound I was looking for which was Giant steps and the rest is history as they say.
I got in through early Jamiroquai and a singer based out of St. Louis named Erin Bode. From there, I discovered Blue Mitchell and the rest was history.
Find out what kind of music the person likes and find some kind of bridge between that and jazz. People suggesting 60 year old bebop records are the reason jazz has become irrelevant in the mainstream
It's a different type of listening. It's not linear, doesn't tell a story.
It helps you to live with ambiguity and mystery.
Big Band, initially, but I’ve mostly moved on except for Duke, Basie and Gil Evans.
Wayne Shorter's first 9 Blue Note Albums
From Night Dreamer to Supernova.
I’ve thought all my life i wouldn’t be able to get into it and two things changed it: bossa nova - super easy to get into for anyone (and great) & quality live gigs especially jams, made me fall in love with jazz and continuously explore it
I was a record store clerk and getting into jazz wasn’t thru the store. I was driving home, hot August night thru the wheat fields of E.Wa state listening to the WSU college station and they played what I found later was Drunk On God by Julius Hemphill Big Band. After a few minutes I had to pull over to the side of the road, turn up the radio and get out of the car to listen to all eighteen minutes of this track. It was thrilling. I got to work the next day and started trying to backtrack in his history which lead me to Lester Bowie, Mingus, Coltrane, Miles and more. Jazz is the sound of surprise. That’s why I love it.
I wouldn’t, people like to feel they are their own light in the darkness.
Giant Steps
I hated Jazz. One late night, I told a trumpet player in a bar that I wanted to understand the music. I asked him where I should start and he said Kind of Blue. He was right. It worked for me.
Like for modern jazz I'd say Snarky..
Spain by Chick Corea or anything Art Pepper really
I needed to see live jazz in a club. Then I got it.
Mahavishnu Orchestra- Vision of an Emerald Beyond. More fusion than jazz! But for me it started there. Then off to Chick Corea, Return to Forever, Weather Report, Uzeb, Herbie and on and on
Ive been inteoducing jazz to all my friends during younger ages,most of them are listening it till today,it was mostly Miles,Louis,Coltrane
Erykah Badu’s Rimshot Live performance then introduce them to So What by Miles Davis
Depends on the person’s previous experience
Depends on the history. For me, I went backwards. I got into free stuff before I began exploring straightahead. I was a punk/noise musician then fell deep enough into jazz that I went to school for music. Going this way had the added advantage of helping explore classical music as well
Chet by Chet baker & the melody at night with you Keith Jarrett
Live concert. Just a good live concert, of any style. :)
If it comes to recordings, I would go with the contemporary ones: Camille Bertault, Lars Danielsson, Michael Wollny, Jacob Collier, Chris Potter, Monk'estra, Monica Roscher big band, etc. - someone fresh and cool. Classics are, surely, great, but if I needed to introduce jazz to a new listener, I would start with people alive and flourishing.
Keith Jarrett isolated vocal tracks