[Today: Cue up the jazz...]
Shopping for jazz can be a vertigo-inducing exercise in guesswork. Some really great artists (Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, and many more) have made some really puzzling albums, while other greats (Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, etc) have been over-anthologized to the point of utter confusion. Jazz also features a lot of off-shoot styles (Dixieland, Hard Bop, Fusion, etc) that are acquired tastes at best.
Also, there are but a handful of relevant jazz artists under the age of 50, which only widens the gap between audience and music, because there’s nobody out there (besides Roy Hargrove, Wynton Marsalis and a few others) talking about influential jazz musicians and making us care about them. Jazz feels like a dying brand – an attribute that isn’t attractive for large segments of a 24/7, Internet-driven world.
Even many diehard jazz fans will agree that too many albums in the genre require chemical enhancement or a PhD in music for full understanding or appreciation. Personally I enjoy the Cuban back-alley brawl as depicted by orchestra that is Charles Mingus’ music, but that’s not the kind of thing to recommend to the casual fan who’s dipping a toe into jazz.
Naturally, most novice fans are directed towards the brightest lights of jazz music, but those are the very artists who tend to be the most poorly represented on record. Also, a lot of the albums that a consensus of knowledgeable fans and critics would agree are “masterpieces” (such as A Love Supreme or Bitches Brew or Mingus Ah-Um) can be tough sledding for the recreational listener.
Two albums that I can unconditionally recommend to those looking for agreeable jazz are Shorty & Doc (Shorty Baker & Doc Cheatam, Prestige/Swingville, 1961) and Blue’s Moods (Blue Mitchell, Riverside, 1960). Uncomplicated, enjoyable – dare I say cool? This is the kind of music that’s perfect for the CUE JAZZ MUSIC spot of a movie. No PhD required for a good time…
Listen: Good Queen Bess [Shorty & Doc]
Listen: I’ll Close My Eyes [Blue Mitchell]
Listen: Baker’s Dozen [Shorty & Doc]
Listen: Sweet Pumpkin [Blue Mitchell]
Tags: Blue Mitchell, Doc Cheatham, Shorty Baker
3 August 2010 at 2:05 pm |
Awesome post!
First of all, drugs are baaaad, mkay? (That would explain the strange albums of Davis, Coltrane, Gordon, et. al).
Second of all, Hard Bop is quite the misnomer and doesn’t require as much “acquired taste” as one might think. It’s not “hard” at all. It’s actually the laid back, singable stuff from the 50s. It’s actually the logical extension from Jazz to Blues to Popular music (as one musical historian friend explains). Bebob, on the other hand, is that frenetic, “unstructured” jazz sound that so many people who don’t like jazz associate.
Hard bop (bad name and all) is frankly the only jazz I listen to these days. Long live Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers!
Stu
3 August 2010 at 8:26 pm |
You’re right Stu, I dropped ‘Hard Bop’ where I meant ‘Bebop’. My bad, and thanks for the correction…
3 August 2010 at 2:20 pm |
Oh and forgot to throw in my own Hard Bop recommendations:
Art Blakey (Moanin’, and a single that I can’t remember which album it’s off–Backstage Sally–which started my obsession with Hardbop)
Horace Silver (Finger Poppin’)
Dexter Gordon (Go!)
Joe Henderson (In ‘n Out)
Lee Morgan (The Sidewinder)
Hank Mobley (No Room for Squares, Soul Station)
And of course legends like Coltrane and Miles Davis, but those guys were so all over the board musically, it’s like playing jazz roulette, and impossible to say which albums are hard bop and which are something else entirely (often even on the same album).
And agreed–Mingus Ah-Um and Davis’ Bitches Brew are still unlistenable, even to me as a jazz aficionado and jazz drummer (albeit not nearly as good as I’d like to be at either of those). A Love Supreme is one of my top 5 albums of all time (any genre) but that’s because I have a drum-centric position and Elvin Jones makes that album. I also think it’s much more mainstream-able than …Ah-Um and Bitches Brew… by miles (no pun intended).
3 August 2010 at 8:36 pm |
Excellent list – this post could easily have been Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley, but I would have gone with Morgan’s self-titled Blue Note album and Mobley’s The Turnaround. And to set the record straight, I totally enjoy Mingus Ah-Um, Bitches Brew and A Love Supreme, I just don’t think they function well as introductory jazz albums. Thanks for the comments…
23 November 2010 at 4:05 pm |
Discovering your blog and you are the kind I like: nice stuff to expand my tastes! Good work, Thanks !!!
One of my favorite Jazzmen are not so well known today; Jack Wilson or Harold Betters. But there is lots of musician out there, isn’t it?
Ravel, Montreal, Quebec.