Rolling 2011 thread where I buy and listen to jazz albums for the first time ever

sorry - missed the word "duke" in your post, Tyler

but the thing is, the phrase "if yr not ready for big band stuff" just strikes me as weird, because that stuff is what pop music used to be, what dance music used to be, and now we have software and samples to replace all those instruments, but i have trouble understanding how ellington's big band music would be something that's hard to get into, that you have to get ready in some way to appreciate.

Keep in mind I'm approaching jazz from the standpoint of loving stuff like krautrock, psych rock, "weird" folky stuff that gets a bit drone-y at times.

this makes it really easy to understand how big band wouldnt be immediate...

yeah, but presumably ilxor has heard pop music and seen old movies?

man i just spotted this thread

hey dude

this thread shall be rad

i know you've already got a list of recs a mile long but if i can just toss some pennies in the hat

-Giant Steps: this is the first jazz record that really got me by the throat, and in retrospect I think it's because the music was so fast & complex that it kind of melted all the harmonic information into gibberish and I just heard these bright luminous noises like dude was blowing sparks out of his horn

-Meditations: Easily my favorite jazz record. iirc I'm in the minority for even noticing it, but McCoy Tyner's piano playing on this record totally opened up piano jazz for me.

-Complete Art Tatum: See Giant Steps

I see Mats & The Thing have already been mentioned, I just wanted to shout out "Fire!," a collabo Mats was involved with that is suuuuuuuuper krautrocky at points. One of my fave records of the last few years, have a feeling it's right up yr alley.

so this is sorta a ridiculous deal if you don't have this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBHCQO/ref=s9_simh_gw_p15_d1_i4?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-5&pf_rd_r=116E9TAM4WERR3FHKPMN&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470939291&pf_rd_i=507846
$3.99 for two CDs of monk/coltrane

man i just spotted this thread

hey dude

this thread shall be rad

― HOOS the master?? STEEN NUFF (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Saturday, January 22, 2011 2:16 AM (20 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah, man, i second that emotion.

Cheers everyone, I took a breather from this thread but I've been listening to lots of jazz, including several recommendations in this thread that I picked up yesterday (in exchange for, oh, $50 less in my wallet...).

HOOS, I picked up Giant Steps used for $4 -- definitely will play soon. I saw Meditations, I think the CD issue on Impulse but in a jewel case. Is there a new, remastered version I should watch for instead? I've seen a lot of Impulse stuff in digipaks...

Seriously thinking about picking up that $3.99 Amazon recommendation, I have an order to place there today regardless. Anyone else heard it?

Btw, the description of Coltrane blowing sparks out of his horn is the BEST possible recommendation ever. Sounds incredible!

the monk/coltrane 2 cd is a great deal - only real issue is that it's one of those things where multiple takes are sequenced together, which always kinda bugs me. but you could get it and sequence a playlist yourself so that it followed this album: http://www.amazon.com/Monks-Music-Thelonious-Monk/dp/B000000Y52/ref=pd_sim_m_35, which is great.

Well thanks for telling me after I placed the order. ;)

j/k

what tylerw said

you'd want to refer to the sequence on this album too: http://www.amazon.com/Thelonious-Monk-John-Coltrane/dp/B0038M61B4/ref=pd_sim_m_59

hard to beat getting both plus alternative takes for $3.99

ilxor, you need this. now!:

http://www.amazon.com/Journey-In-Satchidananda/dp/B000W06V6A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295733577&sr=8-1

I'm definitely keeping an eye out for Alice. Saw a used one the other day... not Journey, though; let me look up the name.

Ptah the El Daoud -- think it was on Impulse.

That one's great too-- as are Universal Consciousness & World Galaxy.

THat's a great one too plus awesome sleeve

ha xp

my recommendations:

in a silent way
get up with it
creator has a master plan
pangaea/agartha
let my children hear music

"he loved him madly" is an incredible piece of music

yeah so fucking good...crazily intense.

^^^yeah, "He Loved Him Madly" (from Get Up with It) is one of the saddest pieces of recorded music evah! and it slithers and morphs for more than 30 minutes, too. was a big influence on ambient Eno as well, apparently.

xps haw!

"Rated X" is pretty intense too. nearly blew the head off me when i first heard it.

xxxpost re: Ascension. like or loathe, it's the greatest example of a classic 1960's Free Jazz session if ever there was one. Don Cherry - complete communion being my #2 pick over Ornette - Free Jazz.

count me in the small group that doesn't really get the bitches brew and on the corner popularity (except on the corner has that killer cover; and i guess they were both well marketed in the day). Especially if you compare those to the godheadlikeness that are Jack Johnson and Agharta

that whole album is crazy eclectic, too; "inconsistent" in the best way possible.

xp

Might be interesting to set up a Listening Room where ILXors can play a bunch of these recommendations for ilxor so he can take a taste before he purchases.

i like big fun a lot as well though it is a bit inconsistent, listened to that on a bus through spain in roasting hot weather at night before, amazing.

count me in the small group that doesn't really get the bitches brew and on the corner popularity

yeah they still havent clicked with me either. maybe some day....

Might be interesting to set up a Listening Room where ILXors can play a bunch of these recommendations for ilxor so he can take a taste before he purchases.

Listening Room wasn't working for me when I tried it a week or so ago.

Anyway, I prefer the idea of diving headlong into albums I've never heard and committing myself to them. Jazz doesn't strike me as a "hear one song once, know if you'll enjoy the album long-term" type of genre.

my recommendations:

.....
let my children hear music

Good one.

i love adagio ma non troppo from that record. is such a big hearted song...

other problem w/ the listening room is that jazz tracks can be really damn long

Yeah, Listening Room works best when people are bouncing different things off each other, it's a different thing to concentrating on a single album.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Y6MNQP9BL.jpg

http://qblog.ws/images/uploads/tmgmm-cover2.jpg

http://selectism.com/columns/benjaminferencz/files/2009/10/miles-davis-workin-with-the-miles-davis-quintet.jpg

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm276/El-Flippo/Thumbs%202/SteaminWithTheMilesDavisQuintet1956front.jpg

http://merlinsnewrags.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/miles_davis-relaxin_.jpg

http://img.maniadb.com/images/album/122/122889_1_f.jpg

Sonny Rollins & Dexter Gordon were my gateway drugs to saxophone addiction. both project enveloping warmth & audible sense of humor

i've no idea about ilxor's preferences, but all six of those records are absolutely essential stuff m coleman.
the bonus tracks on the Monk reissues are like the best bonus tracks ever...
and on the Rollins tip Clifford Brown & Max Roach (with Sonny) is another one i'd highly recommend. CB is the greatest trumpet player ever(imho)

has anyone recommended coltrane's blue train yet?

http://www.amiright.com/album-covers/images/album-John-Coltrane-Blue-Train.jpg

following what worked for a columnist, this was one of the first pieces of music i listed to after 09.11.01. the clean horns sound so strong, optimistic, and full-of-life.

Sun Ra - The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One

I would not have recommended this as a starting point. I prefer Other Planes of There, which seems to be working around some of the same material or ideas, but isn't so modern classical stiff about it. Anyway, there are lots of worse entry points.

Oh, I missed the Sun Ra overkill that already happened. Never mind.

Just read the Sun Ra thread where everyone disagrees with everyone else about what the best albums are.

Quick question: Am I the only one who prefers Thelonious Monk's Columbia albums to everything that came before? I know the compositions were frequently rehashes of stuff he'd written and/or recorded in the 1950s and even the '40s, but there's something about the organicness of the band, especially his rapport with saxophonist Charlie Rouse, that really gives me more pure pleasure than any of his earlier recordings, even the ones with "all-star" personnel like the stuff with Coltrane or Rollins.

yeah i kinda feel like the columbia stuff gets a bad rap -- some people really seem to hate Rouse for some reason. But there are some great records during that era, no doubt about it, and it's nice to hear Monk in a really good studio, too -- the early blue note/riverside recordings are obviously classic, but I like the higher fi sound of the columbia stuff, his piano just sounds magical on those records.

i've always dug his Prestige work best myself. can't really say why; that stuff seemed to capture everything about his work i like best as he moved into the "album" era, i guess. plus, having Sonny Rollins and Max Roach play on his shit certainly didn't hurt.

I know everyone always talks about Herbie Hancock's 70s albums, but please dont dismiss his excellent 60s hard bop albums. Infact dont dismiss hard bop at all. There's shitloads of awesome hard bop/ hard bop-avant garde albums on Blue Note in the 60s that you got to hear.

re: monk's columbia stuff, this one is classic
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JMY4JvVgL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

^ my fave of his

& yeah, my favorite herbie stuff is probably his 60s blue note records. love the electric records, too, but ...

There's shitloads of awesome hard bop/ hard bop-avant garde albums on Blue Note in the 60s that you got to hear.

This is absolutely true. Blue Note was pretty much unimpeachable from about '62-66.

that era is really interesting for blue note -- a nice mix of the classic hard bop sound, but edging towards more "out" ideas. check wayne shorter's records from that period.