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alright, I'm a guitar player who is mostly into things of the rock persuasion. I do study jazz guitar at school, but with limited results. I don't really listen to Jazz, or necessarily like it very much. There are however, elements of Jazz that I would love to incorporate into my creative being, and guitar playing, especially considering I do study jazz guitar at music school.

here is where the fine viewers of this thread come in. I can't get the feel of jazz or really understand the idiom if I don't listen to it.

Suggest to me say about 5 essential Jazz albums you think I need to know.

then list a few of your personal favorites(if you feel they differ)

and list some good albums/artists that would be good for someone just getting into jazz.
The last one probably would be the most useful to me. Alright, thank you very much for your help.
They don't have to be guitarists, just something I can get into, and something that is quality.

hey, i don't have 5, but i do have 2 that i highly recommend - anything from Grant Green and anything Wes Montgomery. Wes Montgomery has a very unique style and has his signature octaves, and Grant Green is really good with phrasing and great with dynamics. hope this helps some-

Hey, I have about a hundred:

http://www.electrical.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3246

-noah

if its guitar, i'd go for a spectrum.
try these

sonny sharrock - ask the ages
jim hall/bill evans - undercurrent
john mclaughlin - extrapulation
grant green - any blue note, but the smaller the ensemble the better
django reinhardt - any will do, just make sure its well recorded and not some crappy boot/re-issue
joe morris - any will do, but a trio would probably be best

if you want to go way the fuck out there try
hans reichel
derek bailey

for jazz in general you will have to be more specific as to what you are after. i love early louis armstrong and late coltrane, but they really don't have much to do with each other, and your tastes may lean your own way.

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.

Most great jazz music, like most great rock music, is suffused with a life-affirming spirit and energy. Rock hasn't been institutionalized to the extent that jazz has (yet). The key is to go to the source (the recordings) and to key on this spirit/energy.

Here are the names of the guitarists I like best who did their thing in a broadly defined arena of "jazz":

-Django Reinhardt (the greatest, remains untouched, created a beautifully complex, highly idiosyncratic and unique self-portrait through incredible virtuosity, an utterly great musical artist)

-Charlie Christian (the first great electric guitarist, still sounds fresh as "better" players bore, rhythmically perfect)

-Wes Montgomery (A unique player whose influence has been huge and negative; his neutered tone and successful pop ambitions begat George Benson and a million others like them, which you could hysterically say was jazz guitar's death knell, I guess it wasn't really your fault, Wes, but fuck you anyway)

-Sonny Sharrock (He pretty much had to exist- there had to be a guitarist who would synthesize the noise energy of free jazz with the expansion of the electric guitar's possibilities post-Hendrix- I don't like his playing that much, and his 80's records suck, Last Exit notwithstanding)

-John McLaughlin ("He can spit out single-note runs faster than his guru can sniff out record royalties." -Joe Carducci...Check out "Extrapolation")

-Jim Hall (Exquisite player, a master of ballads, he strains to keep up with Sonny Rollins on "The Bridge" LP which is cool to hear, a great artist)

-Joe Morris (Extremely dense cluster-y soloist with an obscure internal logic that is fascinating to try and follow, tremendous musician)

-Derek Bailey (Created a sound that is his, much respect to him)

-Pete Cosey (I feel that he is in reality what people mistakenly think Sharrock is as a player, weirdly unheralded and forgotten, a wild tornado mother)

A vs B wrote:Suggest to me say about 5 essential Jazz albums you think I need to know.

Miles Davis- "Kind Of Blue"- You just need to know this. You need to know all these tunes and be able to play over the changes to all these tunes. If you can quote the solos from the record, that's even better.

John Coltrane- "Giant Steps"- A great study in turn-arounds. All jazz players should know how to play "Giant Steps" changes. And if you can play them faster than the tempos on the record, that's cool, too. As long as you know you're doing it.

Miles Davis- "Four And More/My Funny Valentine"- The '64 Concert. This is what happens when the greatest innovator in jazz puts together another monster group of (mostly) young guys and does a benefit concert where a few of them find out backstage that some of them are getting paid and some of them aren't. Mayhem ensues onstage and it's a beautiful thing. A teacher of mine once referred to Tony Williams' playing on this as "fuck-you drumming." Apt. Very apt.

Clifford Brown- "Study In Brown"- Another good one with a bunch of tunes every player should know and essential bebop playing.

John Coltrane- "A Love Supreme"- Deep. A big departure in the development of one of the greatest jazz innovators out there. This album largely dictated a new direction in jazz for a lot of people.

A vs B wrote:then list a few of your personal favorites(if you feel they differ)

Well, any self-respecting jazz guitar player should own some Wes Montgomery and Charlie Christian.

I also really love Pat Metheney's "Bright Size Life." It features a very young Jaco Pastorius and is pretty indicative of the ECM style. Nice tunes and nice trio arrangements. Tasteful playing from everybody.

Keith Jarrett's "Standards" albums are cool because they're really great arrangements and terrific reharms of tunes that all jazz players should know. Plus, it's Keith Jarrett.

Wynton Marsalis did a couple of albums called "Standard Time" (vols. 1 and 2) that feature really, really terrific arrangements of more standards that everyone should know.

Checking out some Thelonius Monk might get you into some of the quirkier stuff. I think he was a brilliant dude.

And to really get into the out stuff, check out "Playing" by Old And New Dreams. It was the first free jaz album I really got into.

A vs B wrote:and list some good albums/artists that would be good for someone just getting into jazz.

Kind Of Blue fits this list perfectly.

Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage" would be a good one because there are some tunes on there with a straight-eighth feel and although the changes are fairly sophistocated, the playing isn't that far out.

John Coltrane's "Cooltrane Plays The Blues" is a big personal favorite. It's some of Coltrane's best playing over blues changes, so the harmony is rooted in a way that more people can appreciate. It a good album for people who really want to like jazz but maybe don't quite get the out stuff yet.

John Coltrane's "Blue Train" is a good early Coltrane album with nice arrangements and fairly accessible tunes, too.

Dave Brubeck's "Time Out" could be a really hokey album, but it isn't. It's like jazz for prog rockers. Most of the tunes (if not all of them) are in odd time signatures, but it's safe because it's a white guy playing piano in the fifties. (I'm kidding, of course.)

Hope this helps.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

I know this is more Bossanova than Jazz, but that Stan Getz/Joao Gilberto record is one of my favourites of all time and has some beautiful moments. Jazz through a brazilian pop lens? Yes, please.




Faiz

jazz and guitar DONT MIX!

justinc wrote:jazz and guitar DONT MIX!

I couldn't possibly agree.

Check out Wes Montgomery's 'Solitude' and Miles' 'In a Silent Way' ...the latter's not really that cohesive, but some nice guitar playing nonetheless.

For other, less guitar-orientated jazz, here are another three off the top of my head:

Coltrane - Live at The Village Vangard Again ...for the huge 'Favourite Things', might want to check out the original first on the LP of the same name if you're not a big jazz fan, the Village version goes a fair way further out.

Miles - Kind of Blue ...just because everybody should own this record.

Weather Report - Eight-Thirty ...really helpful with the understanding of group dynamics and space within music, and some awesome rhythms ...if you don't like live records so much, then check out Heavy Weather instead.

And always remember - any Coltrane will do you good.

i love django. i want to be django.