Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Jazz Recordings

The Stunning Recording thread is primarily Classical links and I have ordered a "Starter Set" including Holst and Stravinski with a couple of others. The only Jazz link that is surviving is one for the Oscar Peterson Trio. I have never listened to Jazz although I think my dad was a Jazz fan in his day. I would order a Jazz "Starter Set" if I had any idea where to start. Any of you guys have Jazz reco's?

I think the two I suggested in the Pandoras box thread are pretty good because they are more easy listening.

One thing you can do is check out your local library. Its a great way to listen to stuff if you are not sure you will like it.

You are referencing the Dave Brubeck and Chick Corea? I'll give them a spin - so to speak. I also called my brother and asked for recos.

Yup.

I'd recommend Kind of Blue or Birth of the Cool by Miles Davis and My Favorite Things by John Coltrane, in addition to the others.

If you like vocal jazz, anything by Ella Fitzgerald is a must.

Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is a must have. If you like it, then I would recommend any of his recordings on the Prestige label. Try Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus and Charles Mingus' Ah Um! next. If you find that you prefer more recently made jazz, look at The Rippingtons' Moonlighting and Acoustic Alchemy's Back on the Case. If you really like some of these suggestions, let me know and I can suggest others with a similar sound. The good news is, like classical, many of these recordings can be found relatively inexpensively.

Excellent...your suggestions with Kcarlile for Miles Davis - My brother also said he is a must have definately puts him in the Set. I think I would also check some of the more recent stuff as well

I have more than 20 of Miles Davis' CDs. My favorites were recorded in the 1950s and early to mid 1960s. Miles always had good recording engineers and producers with him through his career and I can't think of a single poorly recorded album of his. Miles also had an ear for talent and had many excellent musicians backing him.

A little known recording called Jazz at the Pawnshop, and several follow-ons

Another is called Digital Duke, a modern day tribute to Duke Ellington

Both are specialty recordings on audiophile labels - if memory serves

I have found that for quite some time now, Jazz and Classical recordings, regardless of the vehicle(CD or Vinyl) in terms of "audiophile" quality and consistency, they have generally always been the best. It has been no accident that reviewers tend to use this type of music for judging equipment. The trouble with pop or rock is that songs on the album can be recorded at several different venues with different producers and recording engineers hence an inconsistency in the entire process and outcome.

OR, it could just be that the musicians on Jazz and Classical are that much better.

I have the SACD of Jazz at the Pawnshop and I agree that it is excellent in 5.1. Thanks for the tip on Digital Duke. Another Ellington can't miss is Blues in Orbit.

Second that, and if you own a sacd player, then the sacd version is a must, even if you already have the vinyl or cd.

While I have Back on the Case, it is Reference Point that I was thinking of that is remarkable with excellent songs and recording quality.

I like Jazz. The problem though, is that Jazz is such a wide genre that it's hard to recommend specific things without knowing what you like. I mean, there's 'classic jazz', 'smooth jazz', 'contemporary jazz', etc.

Dave Brubeck's Time Out is pretty much a classical jazz standard. As is Miles Davis's Kind of Blue. Of course there's Sinatra and Bennett. Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Louis Armstrong ought to be considered too, though Armstrong is a little bluesy.

If you're after more modern stuff, well, there's a lot of that too. Let me scroll through my iPod for recommendations...

Norah Jones is really great. I use her album Come Away With Me as pretty much my 'gold standard' for what a voice should sound like on a stereo system. I have it on both SACD and CD, and I've used it dozens of times when demoing systems. It always seems to separate the 'men from the boys'.

Diana Krall (many great ablums, but Live in Paris is probably my favorite) is another must-have, IMHO. Harry Connick Jr is usually good too. I really enjoy his album NOLA.

Other, less known recommendations would be Jane Monheit (Surrender), Madeline Peyroux (Careless Love), and Sarah Gazarek (Live at the Jazz Bakery). All I consider 'stars' in my Jazz collection.

Dave Koz and David Sanborn are also good, but a little more 'c-jazzy' that some might like. I enjoy them. Chris Botti is another favorite - his album Italia is really lovely. Two other groups that I like are Spyro Gyra and the Rippingtons, though they are both definitely further out into the 'contemporary' jazz genre.

But if you want just generally amazing recordings, check out Chesky Records. They have a lot of Jazz in their catalog, though none of it will be from very well-known people. Some of it is hit-or-miss with me. The recordings though, my oh my, they are stunning. Rio After Dark by Anna Caram, and Cantos De Agua Dulce by Marta Gomez are my two favorite Chesky albums that I own. Cantos De Agua Dulce in particular has spine-tingling dynamics and might be the finest recording - on a technical level - that I have in my collection. All in Portugese, so I have no idea what she's singing about. But her voice, the percussion, the instruments, all recorded and mastered with great care and precision, it's auditory bliss.

Total agreement on your Diana Krall, Nora Jones, Jane Monheit, etc. I'll have to check out the others.....they make my Axioms sound sooooooooooo good.

If you like Diana, Norah, and Jane, I'll almost guarantee that you'll like Madeline Peyroux.

Take a listen to Careless Love

Peter, was it you who recommended Marta Gómez so long ago? I've enjoyed her SACD, Cantos de Agua Dulce, a lot.

I would recommend NOT ordering directly from Chesky if anyone is thinking of doing that. Get their stuff through a place like Amazon.com, as Chesky's site took a million years to send me my order.

You sure you weren't trying to order something on Chesty.com?

Ha ha, I imagine their order processing would be just as problematic if their workforce is comprised of a bunch of boobs.

Hi Argon,

There are lots of good suggestions in this thread, but try out (if you can find it), a Philips CD of French jazz pianist Jacques Loussier: The Best of Play Bach. I've used this CD for speaker listening tests for years. He does jazz treatments of various Bach melodies and his CDs are beautifully recorded. Excellent string bass, acoustic piano and superb cymbals and drums. Almost any album by Loussier is worth getting.

You might get into jazz vocals. One classic (not very good sound quality--there is distortion on the vocal peaks) that is great musically is Ella Fitzgerald: Live in Berlin.

Another jazz CD with excellent sound quality is on Chesky Records: The Hot Club of 52nd Street. Two acoustic jazz guitar players, a jazz violinist and bass player. Great sound and a very natural live ambience. (Tip: I was at that recording session in New York sitting in the 2nd row and can be heard whooping it up.) It's jazz much in the style of the legendary gypsy jazz guitarist Django Rhinehart, and Stephan Grappelli, the late French jazz violinist. I also use this disc for listening tests from time to time. This album can also be downloaded for a fee in lossless FLAC files from http://www.hdtracks.com

Regards,

Alan

Or, your Axioms make them sound really good

+1 on Madeline Peyroux, I like her stuff a lot.

Bill Evans is my favorite classic jazz pianist. He was with Miles Davis in "Kinda Blue". Evans stuff was particularly good, in my estimation, when Scott LaFaro was his bass player. Amazing interaction between piano and bass. A good example of this is in the "Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961", give it a listen if you like good bass. Unfortunately, LaFaro was killed in a car accident shortly after that recording.

I'm pretty sure I've recommended that album before around here, so yes, it was probably me. I also think I do remember hearing your tale of super-slow shipping from Chesky.

Glad you enjoy the album! It's one of my favorite chill-out, lights-low, crank-the-Axiom's album.

Peter, did I tell you that one of my Astronomy buddies over at the Cloudy Nights forum is Diana Krall's uncle. It is pretty cool talking to him and hearing about Diana's life.

Whaaaaaaat? No, I don't think I knew that.

That's AWESOME!! Way cool.

Peter,
Thanks for your recommendations....The second paragraph is almost verbatim what my brother recommended from Brubeck and Davis down to Sinatra and Armstrong. He (my brother) made a comment that he liked Frankie singing with the big bands because he followed the band rather than the band following him. It was an intriguing comment.

Thing is - I don't know what I like other than I am tired of pop Rock all the time. SO....all the suggestions are going to be considered and I will likely spread it out until I do know what I like. Definately going to be a starter set.

BEST part is that I just got THE e-mail. I used the analogy over a year ago when posting about buying a system ....... Joe Montana going long. Meaning that I did not want to piece together a system - I wanted to buy it all at once. I ordered on Sunday April 26 in Custom Vinyl and was told it would be 4 weeks. THE e-mail came today telling me to wait 2 business days to check out the tracking number - advice that I promptly ignored. Of course tracking is not out there yet....but the ball has left Joe's hand in route to the end zone

Thanks, Alan. I will definately do a search for this one in particular. The Epic 60's & 500 will be here soon - probably before I can find your suggestion.

Im a metal head, but I happen to love the DVD Peter Cincotti - Live in New York. It has fantastic DTS audio. I heard it at my fathers house and had to get myself a copy!

http://www.amazon.com/Cincotti-Monster-D...41835586&sr=8-3

Make use of your local library. They will have a wide selection of music and will have all the classics.

True, although I seem to have bad luck with Library CDs being so scratched up they have ruined tracks.

Is it so hard not to use a borrowed CD as a Frisbee???

I hear ya, Andrew. That's one of the first things I check on my Netflix discs--to see if they've previously been used in street hockey games.

Peter, you might try Sophie Milman, very sophisticated and torchy jazz singer, a lot like Diana...

For those who like the great SRV, you might check out Chris Duarte out of the Austin area, a lot of SRV similarities, but yet he has his own style... jammin texas blues rock at its finest.

Wow, I love Pandora....

This gal is darn good also...

Miss Tess

http://www.misstessmusic.com/music.html

Will do!

Funny that you mentioned her. Just last night I was lounging on the couch, browsing through the 'other artists you may like' feature on AppleTV. She came up. My wife and I listened to a few 30s snips of songs from her 'Sophie Milman' album, and were quite impressed. I made a note to do a little bit more research on her & her albums. Then you show up and recommend her.

Yes. That's one of many reasons that I have given up on renting DVD's. Our local video rental place seemed to have a real problem keeping scratch-free DVD's in stock. I'd always check them at the counter before leaving, but it seemed like about 25% of the time it would look like someone took sandpaper to the back of the DVD. Or at least, someone had decided to walk around a gravel driveway with the DVD taped to the bottom of their shoe.

Yet another reason why I truly love renting from AppleTV...

I must be lucky to have a good library (or well behaved library partons). I have yet to have a single issue with any discs I have borrowed.

Sophie Millman opened for Chris Botti at a concert in Vancouver a few years ago. I listen to her cd often. I had Sophie sign the cd at a meet and greet. A very talented and pretty young lady!
Another one to check out is Laila Biali. She opened for Chris Botti as well.

Miles Davis - Round about Midnight SACD is quite good as well. if you like kind of blue you're likely to enjoy this one as well.

Last night I was listening to The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery. This is great Sunday morning lounging around kind of music that I would highly recommend.

But last night was Tuesday night.

It was Tuesday morning for me.

You're right! I should have been listening to Sheryl Crow's Tuesday Night Music Club.

I love this album by Kurt Elling

http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/albums/Nightmoves-MP3/

If someone who currently listens to Rock or R&B asked for something Jazzy they might like, I would probably recommend some "tweener" stuff like:
-Steely Dan "Aja" "Royal Scam" "Goucho"
-Chicago "at Carnegie Hall"
-Stanley Clarke "If this Bass Could Only Talk" "Hideaway"
-BB King/Diane Schuur "Heart to Heart"
-Concord SACD Jazz Sampler
-Spyro Gyra "Catching the Sun"

(I would not recommend Kenny G, Micheal Bolton or other soft/light/new age stuff. My apologies to any who like this style- but I wouldn't want to be responsible for leading someone down this particular road of Jazz.)

As far as a few of the most essential Jazz recordings from my Jazz collection:
-Manhattan Jazz Quintet (First Album, 1984)
-Stan Getz/Charlie Byrd "Jazz Samba"
-Miles Davis "Some Day My Prince Will Come" "Sketches of Spain"
-Toots Theilman "Brazil Project"
-Stanley Clarke "Journey to Love"
-Joe Pass "My Song"
-George Benson "White Rabbit"
-Chick Corea "My Spanish Castle"

Of course, these are mostly "somewhat modern" Jazz selections and I do appreciate the Latin influence.

As one builds their Jazz collection, I think a "starter kit" for each Jazz era could quickly follow.

I wish I could discover these for the first time again, however, they do continue to delight.

Enjoy!

Last night I listened to the Oscar Peterson Trio's Night Train and Joshua Redman's self-titled debut album. Both were excellent. I love how Oscar Peterson plays with such feeling and soul.

I've been listening to Mike Stern's "Who Let the Cats Out?" a lot lately. Here's the brurb:

"Who Let the Cats Out? was recorded in January 2006 and features a stunning lineup including bassists Richard Bona (who handles vocals on two tracks), Anthony Jackson, Meshell Ndegeocello, Chris Minh Doky and Victor Wooten, trumpeter Roy Hargrove, saxophonists Bob Franceschini and Bob Malach, drummers Dave Weckl and Kim Thompson, harmonica player Gregoire Maret, and keyboardist/producer Jim Beard."

I have been enjoying Freddie Hubbard's Red Clay this week. I especially like the live alternate version of the title track which includes Stanley Turrentine and George Benson.