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

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.

its what I like about it. classic hard bop then HB with some avant garde then avant garde albums with the hard bop influence which equals so many wonderful albums.

Ken Vandermark needs to get mentioned in this thread. Heir to (and combiner/synthesizer of) 60s hard bop and the European free improv crowd (Parker, Brotzmann, Bennink, Kowald, etc).

oh yesh!! love KV (Target or Flag would be my entry point rec. there)

those Columbia monk releases are all wonderful, but Johnny Griffin, who replaced Trane (and plays on Misterio and a couple other Monk/Riverside releases) is the most underrated sax player i know of

xpost

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.

― tylerw, Sunday, 23 January 2011 21:11 (11 minutes ago)

The Columbia stuff with Frankie Dunlop on drums is great (Monk's Dream, etc.). The stuff where Ben Riley takes over is a little bit lackluster imo.

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

― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, January 23, 2011 3:28 PM Bookmark

It's hard to agree on which one of a bunch of not very impressive albums riding primarily on mystique is the best.

ilxor make sure you check out the likes of Lee Morgan,Andrew Hill,Donald Byrd, Wayne Shorter,Lou Donaldson, McCoy Tyner,Hank Mobley, Grant Green, Cecil Taylor, Bobby Hutcherson, Big John Patton, Don Wilkerson, Jimmy Smith and that's all i can think of off the top of my head.

oh and Eric Dolphy.
And please do check out Archie Shepp. FIRE MUSIC!!

ilxor make sure you check out the likes of Lee Morgan,Andrew Hill,Donald Byrd, Wayne Shorter,Lou Donaldson, McCoy Tyner,Hank Mobley, Grant Green, Cecil Taylor, Bobby Hutcherson, Big John Patton, Don Wilkerson, Jimmy Smith and that's all i can think of off the top of my head.

― Algerian Goalkeeper, Sunday, January 23, 2011 4:27 PM Bookmark

Seconded.

It's hard to agree on which one of a bunch of not very impressive albums riding primarily on mystique is the best.

One thing deej forgot to account for is the fact that so many jazz heads fail to appreciate Sun Ra.

without taking genre names into account, i was a big Ra fan 15 years ago, before i knew much Ornette or Monk. tried Ra again the other day just to confirm and i think he's kind of phony and he definitely bores me these days

i'd look to pre-60s stuff if i were you, ilxor.

I like some Sun_Ra ok, e.g. Solar Myth Approach, but I don't really see him as a way into jazz.

^^^

and dance bands too. fletcher henderson, tommy dorsey, benny goodman, artie shaw, and glenn miller of course.

benny goodman's sextet, with charlie christian on guitar.