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[Pat2099]

Apparently April is Jazz appreciation month. What are some good Jazz albums to listen to?

[AaronTheCabe]

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD SOME BODY FINALLY TALKING ABOUT JAZZ....cough...i mean, ya, sure i know a song or two....

#1 all time favorite, Charles Mingus. Best albums albums "Blues  & Roots" "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" [that one borders on avant garde while still having repeated motifs and prime melodies that are counter pointed to. Mingus is the Mozart of Jazz or Beethoven. Black Saint is like his 5th symphony, if i may use an anology] , Ming Ah Um [great hard bop]

Thelonious Monk, my main man piano machine percussive punching prodigy. Just.listen.to.it.all. but if you must,a collection of his Blue Note years will give you the best idea but depending on the time and era, whether four piece bepop era or larger band hard bop era, the same songs can come out very differently. so is the nature of the beast.

The Sax god and his contempory masters: Coltrane [Giant Steps & Blue Train], Eric Dolphy, Sonny Rollins, and of course the man who started it all, BIRD [CHARLIE PARKER]

Early Bepop that is good but not quite on the level of these masters: Miles Davis [played on a great many of the records above, his personal music is essential bepop and cool jazz from a mainstream point of view], Art Blakey and the jazz messengers, Dizzy Gillispie [what Bird was to Coltrane on sax Dizzy was to Miles on trumpet, the less known and older essensial bepop trumpeter] and DUke Ellington of course, you don't get more New Orleans' jazz beginnings than that [though i think he was born and lived his early life in Chicago].

COOL JAZZ / WEST COAST JAZZ: i only know one that really stuck with me, beginning with his very popular "Take 5" is Dave Brubeck. One of the best composers of irregular rhythm patterns and odd time signatures, his music manages to be relaxed while syncopated, odd but also somehow even. Hence, its just....cool.... my favorite song by him was recently made a little more popular due to having been in Silver Linings Playbook. I literally [ever so slightly] jumped out of my seat when i heard "Unsquare Dance" come on. if you hear one Brubeck tune, let it be this one.

Post 60s I am unfamiliar with other than Weather Report and Fusion artist like Zappa and then the big band and bepop revival [90's big band revival and 2000s Bepop revival, although the bepop revival is more just the internet spotlightning the same number of artist that were around before the internet, not really a revival though]

hope this helps, thanks for being the person who asked, i have been wanting to share this info on pix board for EVER. I made a jazz thread five or so years ago and i think after two or three all agreed with me on mingus and that was kinda it.

[manmagic]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNuUNHlsPgI

[Rapture Ready Blowhard]

A few of my favorite jazz albums:

Black Woman-- Sonny Sharrock  Sharrock was avant-garde but still very accessible.  His wife, Linda, sings on a few of these songs in a noisy, atonal way that sounds a bit like Yoko Ono but far better.

Liberation Music Orchestra  Another one that blends melody and noise in a very listenable manner.  Many of the songs are derived at least in part from Spanish Civil War tunes, or are tributes to leftists/leftist movements.

Cecil Taylor-- Conquistador  Not Taylor's most beloved record (that would be Unit Structures), but despite usually being relegated to "second-best" status it is by far my favorite.  Sharp, jagged piano on on two side-long pieces.

Various Coltrane albums  Aaron recommended some of his earlier albums, but I'm more into his mid- to late-era stuff.  Ascension is maybe his most out-there and controversial and polarizing record.  I, for one, really like it.  Stellar Regions is a really beautiful record that has no chordal instruments, contributing to a much freer feel.  My favorite of his earlier albums is Live at Birdland.

Black Saint and the Sinner Lady To be honest, I'm not into most of his other albums that I've heard, but this is a masterpiece

[pronetoaccidents]

i just watched two awesome jazz themed flicks..





charlie parker is awesome as all fuck for inventing bee bop, one of the few types of jazz i enjoy. i also really dig coltrane and of course, miles davis.

Bitches brew is amazing.

and does punk jazz count? Minutemen? Nation of Ulysses? that sorta thing? i usually like my jazz with as little Caucasians involved as possible (with the exception of course being Red Rodney, the trumpeter with Charlie Parker touring band) 

[Pat2099]

This is awesome, keep em coming!

[skateandannoy]

Everything everyone has said so far is super on point. For something not said before, I'd like to add Fletcher Henderson (the best bandleader/ composer of the Swing era) to the list. He was on a way different level than everyone else.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25a561uTif4

For some proto-jazz obviously Scott Joplin is the Ragtime king. Everyone always says Maple Leaf Rag is his best work but they're wrong. Ragtime Dance is his crowning achievement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unGmMmD8kPQ

Django Reinhardt: the french swing guitar genius.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlnpBTVAcVc

Art Tatum: piano virtuoso
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Cs_zb4q14

Art Blakey: changed the world of jazz drums
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IQNPlnc9c0

[Aaron]

I'll post some more contemporary kind of stuff.

The guitarist from Wilco is a really awesome jazz player:

This album is pretty cool if you're into guitars:

Brad Mehldau and Pat Metheny are both majorly influential innovators, although Metheny certainly isn't without his cheesy side:

Here's something that was posted last week.  The last two Bad Plus albums were really awesome:

And for something more classic and relaxing you can't go wrong with Chet Baker, either singing or playing trumpet:

Or this album.  Bossa nova:

I feel kind of bad for posting a bunch of white dudes, but I'm not too deep into jazz and everybody I listen to has already been mentioned.  When I lived in LA I heard a bunch of really cool contemporary Mexican jazz on the radio, but I don't remember any names...

[AaronTheCabe]

Jazz is the epitome of a new creation out of multiple cultural heritages. Black white or green or maroon, it doesn't make a difference.