Jazz for the Neophyte

I got a library card today and noticed that the library appears to have a pretty good amount of jazz albums available. I am aware that jazz can be kind of an acquired taste so I'm looking for some basic, approachable stuff to get my feet wet. Recommendations?

I'd go with the usual:

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue/Sketches in Spain
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme



And a fairly new album I've been listening (a lot of) lately:

Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band - Season of Changes

(hint: download that^)

Get a Charlie Parker disc as well.

-Art Blakey
-Coltrane
-Monk
-Sonny Rollins
-Freddie Hubbard
-Bill Evans
-Oscar Peterson
-Stanley Turrentine
-Miles

Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus
60s era Blue Note stuff by Grant Green and Hank Mobley
John Coltrane's Blue Train instead of Love Supreme
Oliver Nelson - Blues and the Abstract Truth
Sun Ra - Jazz in Silhouette

-Jeff

• Louis Armstrong - any disc with the Hot 5 and Hot 7 recordings from the mid-/late-1920's (e.g. "The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"
  
• Charlie Parker - Anything containing the Savoy and/or Dial master recordings (e.g. "Ko-ko", "Ornithology", "Parker's Mood")
  
• Duke Ellington - "The Blanton-Webster Band" box set, "Ellington at Newport 1956" and "Far East Suite"
  
• Miles Davis - "Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet", "Kind of Blue", "Miles Smiles" and "Bitches Brew"
  
• Sonny Rollins - "Saxophone Colossus", "The Freedom Suite" and "Without A Song - the 9/11 Concert"
  
• John Coltrane - "Giant Steps", "John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman", "Live at Birdland", "A Love Supreme" and "John Coltrane Live In Japan "
  
• Ornette Coleman - "The Shape of Jazz to Come" and "Sound Grammar"

This will bring you up to 1969 (save for the last Rollins disc, a live recording from 2001)!

bit torrent.....you can hit paydirt...

two different torrents yielded 191 albums....101 miles davis, 91 bill evans

I think starting with some of the out there recommendations here is a good way to scare him away.

I always though and still think that starting with simpler easier to approach early jazz is the way to go. As you progress you can listen to the later more complex stuff and not be overwhelmed. On top of that you will develop a good historical perspective and get some of the allusions, jokes and references later on.


You can start with Dixieland, guys like Jelly Roll, etc.
Move on to Louis Armstrong and his contemporaries.
Listen to nothing but swing for a while.
Do bebop, post bop, etc.

Take out a Jazz history book and listen to the recommended album of each era.
I think it's the best way to go about it.

Blackpantano makes a good point. While I did put some "far out" stuff on my list of recommendations ("John Coltrane in Japan" and the Ornette stuff), it makes sense to take a historical view and work forward in time.

While I had disagreements with Ken Burns' historical documentary, the book that accompanied his Jazz series isn't a bad place to start. Other books would include Joachim-Ernst Berendt's The Jazz Book (http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Book-Ragt...4341012&sr=1-1) and two books on "pre-modern" jazz by the scholar/conductor/composer Gunther Schuller, Early Jazz (http://www.amazon.com/Early-Jazz-Mus...4341058&sr=1-1) and The Swing Era (http://www.amazon.com/Swing-Era-Deve...341058&sr=1-3).

Dizzy Gillespie- Afro Cuban Jazz

My first two jazz albums were Time Out by Dave Brubeck and the aforementioned Kind of Blue. I think that's as good a start as any. For Coltrane, I recommend My Favorite Things.

i think Kind of Blue is not a good rec for a neophyte i got that early in the game and it took me yeeeeears to "get" and longer to "like"----love it now, though the friendliest port of entry is Louis Armstrong's Singin' & Playin' still my favorite all time album of any genre from there... Coltrane's My Favorite Things and Miles Davis' Someday My Prince Will Come and Getz/Gilberto <- get this now

I like some of Murakami's recomendations, there (and in his works) and think that they're actually a good intro to the rookie jazz fancier... http://portraits-in-jazz.mylivepage.com/

Originally Posted by denimdestroyedmylife

Click to expand...

i think Kind of Blue is not a good rec for a neophyte
i got that early in the game and it took me yeeeeears to "get" and longer to "like"----love it now, though


the friendliest port of entry is Louis Armstrong's Singin' & Playin'
still my favorite all time album of any genre

from there...

Coltrane's My Favorite Things
and Miles Davis' Someday My Prince Will Come
and Getz/Gilberto <- get this now




I agree with most of your points. The stan Getz rec is very good.

I also started on Kind of Blue and it took me years to get it. I listened to it, thought it was over rated, put it down. Years later I heard it again with a better understanding and loved it.
I'm sure the same has happened to many others. I believe the reason is that with out a prior understanding of jazz, it's hard to understand or appreciate certain artists. Unfortunately, some of these artist are some of the most likely to be recommended.
Charlie Parker could easily sound like some guy with good technique playing as fast as he can to a Neophyte. A person who has mostly listened to pop music might not be used to active listening and won't "listen as fast."


I might get a little flack for this, but one should avoid later artist who approach from an intellectual perspective (Mingus, Ornatte, Booker Little, Eric Dolphy, etc)



Dizzy Gillespie
Charlie Parker
Miles
Coltrane

Are not ideal. They all start from an art music perspective that require a level of listening the average person is not accustomed to.



While I consider the approach I previously described to be ideal. If I had to pick one person then it would have to be pops. Louis Armstrong is by far the best person to listen to as a beginner. Not only because his music is the foundation of jazz, but because it's easily enjoyable to anybody but full of substance. It isn't jazz lite, in fact it's everything that's good about jazz.

The Smithsonian has a nice 'survey' set which leads you out of the historical swirling mists of the streets of New Orleans, through Dixieland, Swing, the Big Bands, Be-Bop and into the modern era. Your library might have it....