So, I've agreed to make an introduction to jazz ad blues for someone...

Any help welcomed. Please.

is she hawt? i mean, thanks SHOP OWNER.

Um, she's alright. Foreign student, but first year, and looks it. So no, not for me. Also, I probably need this by tomorrow.

i think the stuff you listed is good.

put some june tyson on!!!!!!

ascension would be bad.

also: are you drunk?

No, unfortunately I was a bit at the time - no sleep for a week and a few pints at lunch made me agree to this undertaking.

I used to listen to Ascension when getting ready for school in the morning. It used to fire me up for the day.

Yeah, it's a great album - might be a little overwhelming though. It's the sort of stuff I was never allowed to play outside my room at universtiy, or people would throw things and yell.

yes. maybe i am undervaluing the desire for extremety in some young folk?

had you any background marcello...or was it YES!!! straight in at the deep end.

'blase' - archie shepp.

(xpost)

My dad was a big improv/contemporary classical fan/buff, so when I was a nipper, (a) I heard Stockhausen and Ornette before I heard the Beatles and (b) the first Beatles track I remember hearing was "Revolution #9." So it's kind of in my blood.

I always like putting the same song by different artists for this sort of thing. A blues would be great, or have Body & Soul done by Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday, Sonny Rollins, etc. Just to show some of the different approaches and evolution.

For Coltrane, maybe John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman?

Yeah, that's a good album, but I only have it on vinyl - I'll look for a torrent of it maybe. All of my Billie Holiday is on vinyl, so I'm cobbling together some of my favourites from soulseek

Ascension's one of my favourite Coltrane pieces - but for someone whose exposure to jazz to date has been "listening to a couple of.... numbers on the radio" I suspect this is probably just going to blow her mind. Why not start with something a bit easier e.g. Blue Train / Giant Steps / My Favourite Things?

(x-post while I was writing this) As she's a singer, maybe John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman is worth considering too?

Kind Of Blue is an obvious but an obviously good suggestion. I'd also suggest Mingus Ah Um.

If she gets on with those, then you can start thinking about things like Ascension, A Love Supreme, Bitches Brew, The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady, The Shape Of Jazz To Come and some of that Sun Ra collection!

yeah, I was thinking along the same lines as Stewart, and also I alwsy remember Gary Giddins saying his students didn't care anything about avant 'til he played Henry Threadgill's album of Jelly Roll Morton; they immediately picked up on that and all subsequent (Trane's "My Favorite Things," Shepp's "Mama Too Tight). Got any Bad Plus, (especially GIVE), Osby's ST. LOUIS SHOES, James Carter's CONVERSIN' WITH THE ELDERS, the Skatalites' HIP-BOP-SKA (with Lester bowie, David Murray, others--even my friends who think they don't like jazz *or* ska get all shook up when I play this). Sun Ra does have his mellower/immediately accessible moments; wouldn't hurt. You said she said looking more for instrumentals, right? If she's a singer may already know about Billie, Sarah, Cassandra, but might not hurt ask when you deliver these instros (unless you want this to be a one-shot; hometpaing good deeds can get way out of control we know).

Start with John Coltrane's "My favorite things", from the album with the same name.

For someone not familiar with jazz, it's the best start.

Oh, you'd want to do some early Armstrong. Jack Teagarden from late '20s/early '30s. Definitely Hawkins doing "Body and Soul." Ben Webster: an amazing track called "Linger Awhile" from '44 w/ Sid Catlett on drums. '30s Billie H. A couple of Parker tunes. Ellington's "Jack the Bear" and "Cotton Tail" from the early '40s.

Thelonious Monk--something off "Brilliant Corners" and "With Coltrane" would be good. Davis from the era w/ Adderley. Adderley's "Somethin' Else" from LP of same name. Earl Hines for piano-playing--he was a monster. 'Trane from "Giant Steps." Something by Betty Carter, Sarah Vaughn, Ella F. That'd be a great start--but it's a vast field, obviously...

Actually, a '60 track by 'Trane, "Exotica," is even better than the similar "My Favorite Things."

I'd go with "My Favorite Things", too (or, more likely, the whole album). On the vocalist side, I'd make sure to throw in some Sarah Vaughn.

I'd also add Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man," one of the tracks that first got me interested in jazz.

Defintitely some Chet Baker...

How come everyone always namechecks Sarah VaughAn and Ella, but never Dinah? Well, anyway, tape something from Dinah Jams. Oh wait, you said instrumental? Then something from Clifford Brown/Max Roach At Basin Street. And the whole Art Farmer / Benny Golson Meet the Jazztet record. Many future jazz standards debut there. Great record.

You're forgetting Duke Ellington!

... and don't forget some brazilian jazz (bossa nova).

As she is a singer, I recomend Astrud Gilberto or Maíra. She will probably learn a few tricks with them...

Art Blakey's "Moanin'" always seems to hit big with jazz newbies

I'd be tempted to avoid fusion, sun ra, etc. for the time being. Don't overwhelm the girl. The earlier Ornette (pre-Free Jazz) stuff is suprisingly listenable though (when I didn't know any better, I was listening to this stuff alongside more straight ahead jazz and had no idea there was anything "out there" about it.)

Louis Armstrong's "Lazy River" is a great tune and a great intro to jazz singing, including scatting.

Coleman Hawkins is good (I liked the "Body and Soul" multiple approaches idea).

I also knew a lot of people who got into jazz because of Coltrane's "In a Sentimental Mood" with Duke Ellington. Great also because it's an intro to a well known standard and a collaboration by two of the big names she should know. And chicks dig it.

Let us know what you came up with, when you finish (and what she said, if you see her later)!

another one for 'my favorite things' but also add 'coltrane's sound'

thelonious, gotta be 'monk's music' no question

a good charlie parker comp

miles davis - i'd say milestones coz not only do you have great trad shit like billy boy you also have The First Modal Tune (miles ahead i think its caled)

Yeah, well I finished. I've burned about 20 CDR's, so um. But shit! I did forget Duke Ellington. Part of the problem is most of my stuff is on vinyl - and I really don't know enough about computers to transfer it. Some of it is just best of's. Which sucks, I know, but what are you gonna do?

Charles Mingus, At Antibes. Which I like, and is also the only Mingus I had on CD.

Ornette Coleman, just a bunch of stuff off the Beauty is a Rare Thing box.

Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers, A Night In Tunisia. I wanted to include some Blakey, and again, this is all I have on CD.

Leadbelly, I just made a mix of some of my favourite tracks off compilations.

Billie Holiday, nothing on CD, so I downloaded most of the best stuff and burned that.

Charlie Parker, just a 2-disk best of.

Same with Nina Simone

Miles Davis, In a Silent Way and Kind of Blue.

Thelonius Monk, Brilliant Corners and a best of.

Muddy Waters, Best of.

John Coltrane, Blue Train ad Ballads - I thought Coltrane doing some standards might be good.

Ella Fitzgerald, a best of.

Cannonball Aderly and John Coltrane

Louis Armstrong, a 2-disk best of. Which isn't all that good, but if she's interested in singing it at least lets her hear St. James Infirmary.

And I did burn some Sun-Ra, but I've suggested that she leaves that till she has listened to the rest for a while.

I burned these last night so some of your suggestions i didn't take. Argh, I don't have Favourite Things on CD - that would have been good. I've missed so much. Baker, Ellington, Rollins, I quite wanted to burn Ball, Barber and Bilk, which I dig, but I couldn't find it. No latin jazz! Which is a travesty. I never should have agreed to this, it's going to bug me. I would have liked to give her at least 10 Monk albums, Coltrane albums, Davis etc. but...

I don't know what she thinks - when I offered to do this, I was kind of self-conscious in case she thought I was hitting on her, so I didn't want to ask for her number. I said I would leave them with the store owner. (Speaking of which, he just got this 1920s gramophone, and it's so cool! Winding it up, letting it run. We listened to some Billie Holliday and Big Mama Thornton, which was good.)

Oh, and I gave her a Howling Wolf CD too. Should I have put some Robert Johnson in there? I'm not that keen on him, but maybe I should. Part of the problem is that I don't know much about Jazz or Blues. I mean, I love Jazz, and I like Blues, but I don't know very much about them at all.

you're a good man. my god i wish i could walk into my local cd shop, profess interest but ignorance of a genre coupled with being broke and have the shop owner point out someone who would burn me 20 of the best!

solid suggestions so far. some of the more adventurous Blue Note LPs are still quite accessible.

Maiden Voyage -- Herbie Hancock
Genius of Modern Music -- Theolonious Monk
Mosaic -- Art Blakey (or Moanin')
Go! -- Dexter Gordon
Let Freedom Ring -- Jackie McLean
Destination Out -- Jackie McLean
A Blowing Session -- Johnnie Griffin
Blowin' the Blues Away -- Horace Silver
Song for my Father -- Horace Silver
Free Form -- Donald Byrd
Evolution -- Grachan Moncour II
Point of Departure -- Andrew Hill
Cornbread -- Lee Morgan
Cool Strutin' -- Sonny Clark
Unit Structures -- Cecil Taylor (not the first thing, though)

IMO the IDEAL intro to jazz would be four classic Miles Davis LPs:
Workin' w/ the Miles Davis Quintet
Steamin...
Relaxin...
Cookin...
w/the young Coltrane just coming into his own.

and as noted jazz fan Leslie Bangs once wrote in a Rolling Stone review of Blood Sweat & Tears/Chicago: "in the meantime, there's always Duke Ellington." Try Jazz Party on Columbia or The Blanton/Webster Band box on BMG.

another one for 'my favorite things' but also add 'coltrane's sound'
thelonious, gotta be 'monk's music' no question

a good charlie parker comp

miles davis - i'd say milestones coz not only do you have great trad shit like billy boy you also have The First Modal Tune (miles ahead i think its caled)

-- jake b.

Holy shit, these are pretty much the exact same CDs I got when I first started listening to jazz. (My Favorite Things, Monk's Music, Coltrane's Sound, Milestones) I think I also picked up The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery pretty early on.

Solid picks.

and don't forget some brazilian jazz (bossa nova).

As she is a singer, I recomend Astrud Gilberto or Maíra. She will probably learn a few tricks with them...

Bossa nova is not "Brazilian jazz," no matter how much Stan Getz fucked up those recordings with his fruity sax playing. As for Braziian singers, forget that rank amateur (sexy, sure) Astrud Gilberto. ELIS REGINA is the one to listen to--why on earth do not people realize this??!!

"Braziian"--ha.

For blues, you got to go to the so-called "classic" blues singers first--Bessie Smith would be a good choice. Then Skip James, Charley Patton. Then Robert Johnson. A lot of the Basie stuff is blues too. In the '40s, Saunders King is quite overlooked. T-Bone Walker, who is essential for coming up with those cool substitute chords in things like "Stormy Monday." For the '50s, obviously early Howlin' Wolf (aficianados regard his '50/'51 West Memphis/Memphis recordings as his best--I think they are right up there); Little Walter with Jimmy Rogers; Otis Rush; J.B. Lenoir is quite good. Elmore James, Buddy Guy, Sonny Boy (Rice Miller) Williamson for the later '50s/early '60s. "B.B. King at the Regal" is essential as well. Early Snooks Eaglin. Earl King is another really essential guitar innovator, took that jazz circle-o'-fifths thing and turned it into rock and roll.

Bossa nova is at least American jazz musicians incorporating some Brazilian rhythms, yeah? Anyway, I've come to really like Getz's playing, his tone is lovely.

Another thing I've done on jazz intro comps: put a recording of 'Back Home in Indiana' (Lester Young's is good) on there followed by 'Donna Lee' (which is the same song with a bebopped-up melody, dontchaknow).

Getz is an amazing musician. Don't see how anybody couldn't hear that. His tone is a thing of wonder, and his improvisations are always engaging. Check out The Steamer if you need proof that he could swing as hard as anybody.

Glad to see eddie hurt recommend B.B. King's Live at the Regal. SOme joker was dissing King on a blues thread last week; thought that might have been eddie but i guess not.

Airto said that in Brazil, musicians loved Stan, except for consideirng his bossa nova attempts as "comedy records"! I dunno, I like 'em alright, and more than like JAZZ SAMBA ENCORE, with guitarist Luis Bonfa. Later, he did a bunch of good 'uns that combimed American and Brazilian themes, like GENTLE RAIN, or the ones with Kenny Barron. (Also check his Miles-with-Gil equivalent, the Eddie Sauter-arranged FOCUS). BELIZE TROPICAL is a good intro to Brazil; all the Brazil Classics series really. Also the guitarist baden Powell. And she might really dig NOCTURNE and LAND OF THE SUN,the melodic-as-hell-but-with-a-pulse albums Charlie Haden's done with Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba. For blues, I'd say Mississippi John Hurt's AVALON BLUES, and can't go too wrong with anything on Yazzo Records or Alligator; the latter's got lots of good affordable (in the US, anyway) multidisc compilations. If you can get the audio on Beale Street Caravan's website, they record sets at festivals allover the US. One of the most creative blues albums I've heard in years is the soundtrack of THE SOUL OF A MAN (Wim Wenders's documentary, part of the Public TV series MARTIN SCORCESE PRESENTS THE BLUES; DVD worth renting for sure). These are original recordings of Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson, J.B. Lenoir ( a big dsocvery fro mme!), and appropriate re-wrkings of their songs by for instance Lucinda Williams, Bonnie Raitt (a la her pre-fame, 70s-artistic peak), Garland Jeffrys, and Lou Reed (!) Even Nick Cave's good, and I usually have 0 use for him.

Great (if schizophrenic) Stan Getz album: Captain Marvel with Tony Williams, Ron Carter, and Chick Corea on electric keyboards.

Anyway, I don't really think including Brazillian stuff (jazz/bossa nova/whatever you want to call it) is essential to an introduction to jazz.

Bossa nova is not "Brazilian jazz," no matter how much Stan Getz fucked up those recordings with his fruity sax playing. As for Braziian singers, forget that rank amateur (sexy, sure) Astrud Gilberto. ELIS REGINA is the one to listen to--why on earth do not people realize this??!!

-- eddie hurt (eddshur...), October 14th, 2004.

I really like Elis Regina, but her bossa nova stuff is not that great. Her best material is from the 70's, songs of Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges, etc. And this is not bossa nova, this is MPB.

I think Astrud is a good introduction for a foreing person (I am brazilian). I prefer Maíra, Silvia Telles and others. And I think bossa nova is essential - lots of american artists made bossa nova records, millions of albuns were saled... and at least one album, "Getz/Gilberto", appears in all lists of essential jazz albuns.

Blues & the Abstract Truth -- Oliver Nelson
Saxophone Colossus -- Sonny Rollins
Alfie soundtrack -- Sonny Rollins
Out of the Cool -- Gil Evans Orchestra
Mingus Dynasty -- Charles Mingus
Mingus Ah Um -- Charles Mingus
Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus -- Charles Mingus
Monk's Dream -- Thelonious Monk
Criss Cross -- Thelonious Monk
The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes -- Charlie Parker
"Jumpin' at the Woodside" Count Basie Orchestra
"Night Train" Jimmy Forrest
"Moody's Mood for Love" Eddie Jefferson

Blues and the Abstract Truth is overrated.

it is? i like it...

Well, I don't think it's bad, I just don't think it's canon material. But it's all just taste I guess.

Paul Desmond.

Little Walter as long as it's not You're Baby Aint Sweet Like MIne...she might get the wrong idea.

its in the canon Hurting?

what if she doesn't come pick them up?

xpost

It absolutely is -- I always see it on essential jazz lists, critics top jazz albums lists, etc. It's a good album, but I feel like Stolen Moments is the only track people really remember. Also I'm not a big fan of Nelson's arrangements.

oh, I think "Blues and Abstract Truth" is pretty great, been listening to it a lot lately. Dolphy is amazing.

I do like some Stan Getz...but I guess I don't like the bossa stuff he did because that seems to be what a lot of folks think of when they think bossa nova, and it takes away from the original João Gilberto recordings, you see. I probably overstated that a little bit.
And yes, "Focus" is one amazing, amazing record, the best Getz I've ever heard.

B. B. King is most always a shuck, I believe I did say that a while back. But when he's good, he's great, as on "Live at the Regal." I saw him several times in the '80s and it was always disappointing. In general, these canonized blues guitarists drag me a bit, not just B.B. I just prefer guys who play good rhythm, that single-string shit just doesn't make it for me all the time. Which is why I don't understand why bluesniks don't get with Snooks Eaglin, who is about a thousand times the musician B. B. King is. But because he's a New Orleans guy and does all kinds of material, he's not often admitted into that damned blues canon. B. B. King doing stuff outside the blues format is usually wretched, whereas I've seen Snooks Eaglin kill Stevie Wonder's "Boogie On Reggae Woman" dead. Different philosophies entirely.

And right, Elis was MPB. Some of her very early stuff was a bit more in the bossa nova vein. She was quite good in the '60s as well--her '66 "Elis" album is great. "Elis in London" from '69 is another great one. Around '73/'74 she was at her peak, no doubt. Again, it's a bit like my comment about Getz--when people think of "Brazilian female singer" they seem to call up Astrud and I think that Regina is far better, whether she's bossa or MPB or whatever. Astrud has an endearing quality I don't deny and enjoy for what it is, but when you start talking about real singing...

xpost
I'm glad Hurting stuck to his guns on the Oliver Nelson record as I tend to agree. There's also some bizarre story about him which I probably read on the album liner notes: he went to Hollywood, got a gig writing TV music, such as "The Six Million Dollar Man Theme" and then got disgusted with himself and let a substance problem get the better of him.

As far as Elis Regina: from what I hear she was a beloved figure in Brazil. I have got one great record on her, Elis and Tom, which is her dueting with Jobim. It is also a good record on him, as most of the time he tended to want lots of gooey strings. Their version of "Waters of March" surely belongs in some canon or other.

I also have a really good record which is a tribute to her- Astronauta: Songs of Elis, from Joyce who apparently was some kind of protege and songwriter of Elis's. It has some jazz cats on it, Joe Lovano and Mulgrew Miller, and lots of that crazy Brazilian percussion instrument that sounds like a canine beatbox, the cuica. One of these days I am gonna go up to Drummer's World on 48th Street and buy one of those things.

Joyce singing Elis, with Joe Lovano and Mulgrew Miller no less! I'll have to check that. Matt Cibula wrote well about Joyce at http://thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com/