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Favorite live jazz album

post #1 of 60
8/1/08 at 3:07pm
Thread Starter 
I honestly don't know my answer yet. This is an intriguing question.
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post #2 of 60
8/1/08 at 3:10pm
For some reason, nothing relaxes more than the Koln Concert. I don't know if I'd say it's my favorite live jazz album but it's the one I keep coming back to the most often
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post #3 of 60
8/1/08 at 3:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Connemara View Post
I honestly don't know my answer yet. This is an intriguing question.

Easy. Root Down: Live.
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post #4 of 60
8/1/08 at 3:15pm
Théatre Des Capucines, Serge Gainsbourg. I really have few live jazz albums and this is one I routinely come back to.
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post #5 of 60
8/1/08 at 3:24pm
These two are fantastic:

Stan Getz, Anniversary! (Live)
Joshua Redman, Spirit of the Moment (Live at the Village Vanguard)

I also like Diana Krall, Live in Paris (so shoot me )
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post #6 of 60
8/1/08 at 3:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RunningBeagle View Post
These two are fantastic:

Stan Getz, Anniversary! (Live)
Joshua Redman, Spirit of the Moment (Live at the Village Vanguard)

I also like Diana Krall, Live in Paris (so shoot me )

I love that album. "Case of You" brought the house down.
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post #7 of 60
8/1/08 at 3:36pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by RunningBeagle View Post
I also like Diana Krall, Live in Paris (so shoot me )
I like that album too. OK, after listening to it for a few minutes, I've come to the realization that the Oscar Peterson Trio's "The Trio Live from Chicago" is the best live jazz album ever. I cannot explain how great this disc is. If you buy it just for the rendition of "Chicago" they perform (the BEST version of this song ever, trust me) I will be happy.
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post #8 of 60
8/1/08 at 3:37pm
If anyone has a good suggestion for a live Coleman Hawkins album, feel free to let me know.
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post #9 of 60
8/1/08 at 3:42pm
Does Coltrane's "Live at Birdland" count even if only like half of album are technically live tracks? Just to throw one out there that no one else is probably going to mention: the Pat Metheny Trio's Trio Live. Metheny's studio stuff probably turns some people off just due to it's production alone, but his compositions are fantastic, and he really stretches out on this record. Worth the price for "Question and Answer" alone, and I cannot find a single misplaced note on "So May it Secretly Begin". I'd rank him as the greatest living jazz guitarist, IMO.
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post #10 of 60
8/1/08 at 4:04pm
Thread Starter 
"Trio Live from Chicago" is my favorite but if we're tlaking about "the best" the Bill Evans Trio has it hands down. Bill's final stand at the Keystone Korner in 1980 was captured on two eight-disc sets: the first is "The Last Waltz" and the second is "Consecration." Evans was almost literally falling apart due to his decades of cocaine and heroin addiction, but you would not know it from these discs. It is the most impassioned and emotional jazz I've ever heard. Out of this world. His final Village Vanguard concert is on disc, titled "Turn Out the Stars." It's equally moving.
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post #11 of 60
8/1/08 at 4:08pm
There are fortunately many great ones.

One of my favorites is called "Jazz at the Pawnshop". It is recorded at a well known Swedish jazz club back in the 80's. The music quality and technical quality is amazing and was used for ages to demo ultra high-end stereo equipment. You can hear change hitting the bar, and ice cubes clinking in the background between songs.
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post #12 of 60
8/1/08 at 4:09pm
All Jazz (and all other recordings) made before the mid 1950's are "live" in the sense that they are single takes with no editing. If you count the producer, engineers, and friends of the band hanging out, you have a small audience.

By the mid 1950's pop and jazz recordings began to be edited more and more, with vocals being overdubbed and different takes being spliced together. Pop music really exploited the editing techniques, and by the 1970's just about all pop recordings were composed of many different elements edited together, with loads of special effects. Many modern so-called "live" albums are just studio creations with audience ambience mixed in.

Jazz and Classical musicians held out longer, resisiting the temptation for sonic trickery in the studio. Actually, the tradition is still with us that jazz recordings are usually cut mostly live, with a minimum of editing. However, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that some of the recordings cited here are much less "live" than any jazz date from the 1920's-1950's. (which to me is the heyday of Jazz IMHO)
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post #13 of 60
8/1/08 at 4:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pocketsquareguy View Post
There are fortunately many great ones.

One of my favorites is called "Jazz at the Pawnshop".

The sound quality of that album is really impressive.
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post #14 of 60
8/1/08 at 4:17pm
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There's a great Shirley Horn album out there---I forget the name at the moment.
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post #15 of 60
8/1/08 at 4:17pm
There are simply too many great live jazz albums for me to pick one, or even a dozen. I suppose the heyday of jazz may have been the '20s to '50s, but, as much as I enjoy that music, I'm a devout post-bop guy.
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