Recommendations Needed for the Best Traditional Jazz Albums

[NipperDog]

Hey Guys, I'd really like to learn about some of the best current and classic jazz CDs available. I'm already familiar with Kind of Blue, Time Out and Giant Steps but that's pretty much the extent of it for me. I know there must be other great jazz albums out there that have somehow flown under my radar all these years. 

 

I just started steaming some music, and I know Spotify will likely have most of your suggestions.

 

Thanks for your help,

Steve

[Ralf11]

you want Trad?

 

get the DSD of Buddy Bolden

[Musicophile]

7 hours ago, Route 66 said:

Hey Guys, I'd really like to learn about some of the best current and classic jazz CDs available. I'm already familiar with Kind of Blue, Time Out and Giant Steps but that's pretty much the extent of it for me. I know there must be other great jazz albums out there that have somehow flown under my radar all these years. 

 

I just started steaming some music, and I know Spotify will likely have most of your suggestions.

 

Thanks for your help,

Steve

You will find quite a number of recommendations in here.

 

Not all of them are "traditional", but all are worth checking out.

 

https://musicophilesblog.com/category/music/jazz/25-essential-jazz-albums/

[AnotherSpin]

It is very difficult to select several recommendations from hundreds and hundreds of jazz recordings outside of Kind of Blue or Giant Steps... If you would only narrow to specific style or instrument, or period of time. It may be useful to google and check Penguin Guide to Jazz: Crown Albums List. There is no ultimate "list" of jazz recordings, and wouldn't be, but this one looks quite sensible and may be used to start.

[sphinxsix]

8 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

It may be useful to google and check Penguin Guide to Jazz: Crown Albums List.

+1000

It's been my personal jazz bible for years. In particular useful in times when my interest in jazz started. Got 2 (paper!) editions. Highly recommended just like @Musicophile 's blog (your Shai Maestro albums reviews did cost me some money after I heard one of his album and looked for his other recordings reviews and BTW yours were among top Google search results - I forgot to thank you for that so hereby I do it).

[Ralf11]

The PBS special is also very worthwhile (despite some backlash on historical issues).  The albums you mentioned are not usually considered Trad jazz, but a visit to NoLa will allow you to hear live interpretations of it at various places, assuming you don't spend all your time listening to Bounce, Funk, etc.

[Melvin]

There are so many good ones ..

 

Sonny Rollins:

• Way Out West
• The Bridge
• Saxophone Colossus

Art Pepper:

• Meets The Rhythm Section
• + Eleven
• Straight Life

Bill Evans:

• Waltz For Debbie
• Portrait in Jazz
• Everybody Digs Bill Evans

John Coltrane:

• Blue Train
• A Love Supreme
• Giant Steps

Chet Baker:

• My Funny Valentine
• Chet
• In Tokyo

Blue Mitchell:

• Blue's Moods

McCoy Tyner:

• The Real McCoy
• Nights of Ballads and Blues

Dexter Gordon:

• Go
• One Flight Up

OK, I'll stop now. 

[Ralf11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trad_jazz

 

[NipperDog]

3 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

...The albums you mentioned are not usually considered Trad jazz...

You've helped me illustrate how little I know about the subject. 

[Ralf11]

No problem - everyone starts somewhere.  I think you'll find the PBS series useful & enjoyable.  Many libraries have it on DVD.

 

you found some things you like and want more related things.  I often do this both with music and book authors (and it is used in animal search strategies too, like birds looking for insects).

 

So.. you want to fish around for more Miles & Trane, but both went into different types of sounds, esp. Davis and some of it is not.. euphonic.  Love Supreme is a great one... maybe listen to Coltrane Plays the Blues.

 

For Brubeck, Adventures in Time is one to listen to.

 

And for a decade or two later you could listen to some of the players in California in the 1970s, many of them on the California Concert album.

[jjborders]

Art Blakey - Moanin'

 

Cannonball Adderley - Something Else

 

Horace Silver - Song For My Father

 

Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder

 

 

Just scratching the surface.

[miguelito]

16 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

It may be useful to google and check Penguin Guide to Jazz: Crown Albums List.

Thank you for that! 

 

http://www.tomhull.com/ocston/nm/notes/pjazz-crown.php

 

http://www.tomhull.com/ocston/nm/notes/pjazz-core.php

 

[AnotherSpin]

4 hours ago, miguelito said:

Thank you for that! 

 

http://www.tomhull.com/ocston/nm/notes/pjazz-crown.php

 

http://www.tomhull.com/ocston/nm/notes/pjazz-core.php

 

 

Will be glad if it help!

[sphinxsix]

11 hours ago, Melvin said:

There are so many good ones ..

+1 A very nice choice IMO.

I'd add Miles Davis 'Kind of Blue' (absolutely!) and let's say (hard to choose 2 or 3, got his 100+ albums) - 'Round About Midnight' and 'In a Silent Way' or 'Bitches Brew' (the last  two are from his fusion - jazz-rock period).

@Route 66 You probably meant mainstream jazz not traditional one. Good luck with your jazz adventure!

[Melvin]

Some current jazz artists worth a listen:

• Emmet Cohen
• Go Go Penguin
• Mathew Halsall
• Dave Peck
• Giovanni Mirabassi
• Enrico Pieranunzi
• David Hazeltine
• Tord Gustavsen
• Joshua Redman

So many ..

[NipperDog]

8 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

 

@Route 66 You probably meant mainstream jazz not traditional one. Good luck with your jazz adventure!

Thanks, It's good to be able to know the correct name for the type of music I'm asking about. 

 

[bmoura]

Some Other Time: The Lost Session from the Black Forest by Bill Evans in DSD 256.  Nice ! 

https://2xhd.nativedsd.com/albums/2XHDRE1044-bill-evans-some-other-time-the-lost-session-from-the-black-forest

[jjborders]

12 hours ago, Melvin said:

Some current jazz artists worth a listen:

• Emmet Cohen
• Go Go Penguin
• Mathew Halsall
• Dave Peck
• Giovanni Mirabassi
• Enrico Pieranunzi
• David Hazeltine
• Tord Gustavsen
• Joshua Redman

So many ..

 

Add trumpet player Etienne Charles to this list. I heard him for the first time today on SiriusXM's Real Jazz channel. He smoked it. 

 

I also discovered trumpet player Brian Lynch on Band Camp. Very good.

[AnotherSpin]

4 hours ago, jjborders said:

 

Add trumpet player Etienne Charles to this list. I heard him for the first time today on SiriusXM's Real Jazz channel. He smoked it. 

 

I also discovered trumpet player Brian Lynch on Band Camp. Very good.

 

I am not sure OP wants traditional jazz or good jazz of any style? If we start speak about trumpeters, I would recommend Warren Vaché for former case. His album with Bill Charlap is beautiful. Vaché plays flugelhorn there. For latter I can not give enough praise for great modern trumpet players Tomasz Stanko, Jon Hassel, Dave Douglas, Enrico Rava, Leo Smith, Nils Petter Molvaer, Cuong Vu, Arve Henriksen, Avishai Cohen. From more historical figures Chet Baker, Art Farmer, Don Cherry should not be missed, imho.

[NipperDog]

9 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

I am not sure OP wants traditional jazz or good jazz of any style?...

Sorry for my confusion; Sphinxsis clarified for me that what I was actually asking for were mainsteam jazz recommendations and not traditional jazz suggestions.

[AnotherSpin]

21 minutes ago, Route 66 said:

Sorry for my confusion; Sphinxsis clarified for me that what I was actually asking for were mainsteam jazz recommendations and not traditional jazz suggestions.

 

Do not be sorry) Critics invented terminology which is often very confusing by itself. And, good music is good music with or without any label and in each and every style..) Wish you lot of great discoveries in jazz and other music!

[Ralf11]

It's a taxonomy issue.  And like many evolutionary lineages, it starts out pretty linear in time and then bursts into many later on, like a starburst in 4th of july fireworks.*

 

My take is that currently, jazz is in a period of re-examination since pretty much all forms have been pioneered.

 

Again, that PBS series is a good intro and will help with discovering what you like.

 

 

* I still don't know what to do with Mingus tho.

 

Ah Um...

[semente]

I'll add a couple (or thirty) more to the pot...my today's list of classics (one album per artist):

• Art Blakey "Moanin'"

• Art Pepper "Meets The Rhythm Section"

• Art Tatum "Piano Starts Here"
• Ben Webster "Soulville"
• Benny Carter "Jazz Giant"
• Bill Evans "Waltz For Debbie"
• Benny Goodman "The Benny Goodman Story" - I prefer his small group to his big band
• Cannonball Adderley "Something Else"
• Charles Mingus "Mingus Ah Um"
• Chet Baker "Chet"
• Coleman Hawkins "The Genius Of Coleman Hawkins"
• Dexter Gordon "Go!"
• Django Reinhardt "Djangology"
• Duke Ellington & John Coltrane "In a Sentimental Mood"
• Eric Dolphy "Eric Dolphy In Europe"
• Erroll Garner "Concert By The Sea"
• Gene Ammons "Boss Tenor"
• Grant Green "Idle Moments"
• John Coltrane "Blue Train"
• Lee Morgan "The Sidewinder"
• Lester Young "With The Oscar Peterson Trio"
• Lionel Hampton "The Lionel Hampton Quintet"
• Louis Armstrong "The Great Chicago Concert"
• Miles Davis "Kind Of Blue"
• Milt Jackson & John Coltrane "Bags & Trane"
• Modern Jazz Quartet "Django"
• Sonny Rollins "Saxophone Colossus"
• Wes Montgomery "Smokin’ at the Half Note"
• Yusef Lateef "Eastern Sounds"

 

How about some vocal jazz?

• Billie Holiday "Lady Day: The Best Of Billie Holiday"
• Dinah Washington "Drinking Again"
• Ella Fitzgerald "Sings The Cole Porter Song Book"
• Frank Sinatra "Songs For Swingin' Lovers!"
• Nina Simone "Jazz As Played In An Exclusive Side Street Club"

• Sarah Vaughan "Sarah Vaughan With Clifford Brown"

 

[Nikhil]

This album from Bill Evans is pretty special

http://www.resonancerecords.org/release.php?cat=HCD-2019

 

[semente]

Just now, Nikhil said:

This album from Bill Evans is pretty special

http://www.resonancerecords.org/release.php?cat=HCD-2019

 

 

Thanks. I am an admirer of Bill Evans, will look into it.