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
