shagboy wrote:i love django. i want to be django.

Django on film here

Wes Montgomery - Incredible Jazz Guitar
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
John McLaughlin - Extrapolation
John Coltrane - My Favorite Things
Pat Metheny - Bright Sized Life

Beyond five:

Pat Martino - Consciousness
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Miles Davis - Tribute To Jack Johnson
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Miles Davis - "Four" and More
Miles Davis - Sketches Of Spain
Miles Davis - Relaxin', Workin', Steamin', Cookin' (4 separate CDs)
Thelonius Monk - Greatest Hits/Best of (whatever it's called)

Please do check out Gabor Szabo

My favorites are:

Spellbinder
Bacchanal
Gypsy '66
Dreams

Most people hate this guy and think he's super cheesy, but I think it's some great stuff... you can find this stuff pretty cheap on vinyl.

I would also say anything from Chet Baker......

I'm not going to mention any more albums because you are probably overwhelmed with what has been mentioned. However I'd like to add to something that cgarges touched upon.

Don't limit yourself to Jazz Guitarists. You will find some amazing results from learning from horn players too. Sit down with Kind of Blue and learn the horn parts on guitar. Take what you like and leave the rest. Also, in studying Jazz it's good to have a root with the back bone. Try learning different jazz beats and the fundamentals of jazz rhythms. Learning the beats will allow you to incorporate what it is you do melodically with different rhythms and allow you to work different rhythms around various times.

Make sense? Or incoherent rambling?

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Barney Kessel yet. He's not avant garde, or anything like that, but just good, fluid, sensitive playing. The stuff he did with Hampton Hawes is good. Same thing with the Poll Winners albums on Prestige.

I absolutly ADORE Eric Dolphy above all other wind players. When I first started with his stuff it was such a relief to hear great jazz being played on a Bass Clarinet or Flute (instead of the ubiquitous sax or trumpet). In fact, forget about Miles and just go pick up "Out There", "Out to Lunch" and "Mingus Presents Mingus".

Charlie Christian is good stuff on the Benny Goodman retrospective LPs I have. They are a "best of" his sides for Columbia in the 40's. One album is combos, the other is Orchestra. He plays on both. "BG in HiFi" is another great record, though Charlie was not on that one.

Django is the be-all-end-all. My favorite was a 2-disc set "Peche a'la Mouche" on Verve. It had his last session from 1952 or 53. He was playing a true electric at that point. Incredible stuff.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Les Paul. Incredible fucking guitarist. He did some really hot jazz stuff before doing pop with Mary Ford later on. You can find some of his earliest jazz recordings on the Lazerlight label. Up there with best Django, it's that good.

geiginni wrote:I'm surprised no one's mentioned Barney Kessel yet.

Or Freddie Green.

Man, what's better than jazz+guitar? Jazz+2 guitars. Especially if it's Scofield and Bill Frisell (ie- Mark Johnson's "Bass Desires" and Sco's "Grace Under Pressure").

Chris garges
Charlotte, NC

cgarges wrote:

geiginni wrote:I'm surprised no one's mentioned Barney Kessel yet.

Or Freddie Green.

Man, what's better than jazz+guitar? Jazz+2 guitars. Especially if it's Scofield and Bill Frisell (ie- Mark Johnson's "Bass Desires" and Sco's "Grace Under Pressure").

Chris garges
Charlotte, NC

I'm really surprised that nobody mentioned James "Blood" Ulmer. The first (only?) guitarist to incorporate Ornette's harmolodic approach to guitar playing. He's phenomenal on record, awesome (and funny as hell) live.

wow, thanks for all the replies, there's a lot of good info here.

I think one of my teachers actually made me buy kind of blue at one time, I should try listening to it again.
My brother had giant steps one time and I just couldn't get into it, but I'm a bit more mature musically now than when I listened to it before.

This is a wild generalization, but I'm going to guess that the teacher(s) at your jazz music school are in line with the Wynton Marsalis/Stanley Crouch belief that jazz is essentially a tomb, which one learns and appreciates by sucking the (non-existent) blood of dead guys who once teemed with life. Learning about jazz in such a manner is bound not to give you much enthusiasm for it.

My teachers are actually really good about it, and I do really enjoyy study, but I just only can get so far without really knowing jazz from a listener's perspective. I just never could get into it because I always needed a heavy rock beat or something ha. I want to get into it, but I don't want to listen to bad jazz and get really turned off.

Don't limit yourself to Jazz Guitarists. You will find some amazing results from learning from horn players too. Sit down with Kind of Blue and learn the horn parts on guitar. Take what you like and leave the rest. Also, in studying Jazz it's good to have a root with the back bone. Try learning different jazz beats and the fundamentals of jazz rhythms. Learning the beats will allow you to incorporate what it is you do melodically with different rhythms and allow you to work different rhythms around various times.

Make sense? Or incoherent rambling?

As far as the guitarists part, I definitely don't want to limit myself that way. As a guitarist, it will probably be easier for me to get into a lot of the guitarists, but I'll definitely try to wean as much from other players. Most of the charts I play are from horn players, anyways.




thanks for all the replies, keep 'em coming

Local jazz players can be the most condescending mo-fos on earth. I used to jam with a jazz tenor player who got on my case regularly for owning more than two guitars - f__ him anyway. I used to play weddings with one of the top jazz drummers in my medium-sized town. Although the guy was the first-call to accompany traveling jazz stars, he played rock with utter contempt, and sounded like s__ doing so.

I love to listen to good jazz, but why are there so many tired-ass local players?