Jazz enthusiasts I need your help

[JR]

Verve puts out some great compilations of jazz vocalists.

I know it sounds a bit much like K-Tel but I have a few 3 or 4 CD boxed sets with everybody from Besse Smith to Ella to Frank to Dinah Washington. Love 'em.

 

[Bubbler]

I'm an In A Silent Way/******* Brew/Jack Johnson/Agartha kind of guy, but that doesn't sound like what you'd want.

 

[Beef03]

If you live near your dad you've got to go over to his place and dig through his collection when he's not looking and see what he's got. Then come back to the board for more advice.
If he's a serious listener he's got all the Davis, Coltrane, Brubeck, Mingus, Rollins he needs.
If he's a pain in the ass to buy for like all dads, get him a gift card at Best Buy or whatever and let him sort through the jazz section himself. Better yet, pile him in the car and take him there yourself, stopping for a birthday beer on the way home so you and him can have some alone time.
By the way, why hasn't anyone mentioned Chet Baker? My fave.

I really wish i could be more specific, but again I have to claim ignorance here on the genre - of course I've heard of a lot of the greats, but I really couldn't tell you what made them great or separated them from each other or anything like that.
All I know is he likes the older stuff and preferably non-vocal because it is what he listens to while he reads.
Unfortunately he is not close enough to where I live to rifle through what he has.
I don't think he's really partial to one instrument over another.
I wish I could be more help in direction. I think I may need to phone home and see if my mom could do some scouting for me.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

I'm a big fan of piano jazz -- Monk, Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner. Try the latter first. I've always found him more accessible.

 

[Huggy]

I've got a couple of the Verve boxes and they're great samplers. I'll second Wynton Marsalis's LCJO stuff (saw them live once and they were amazing). Marsalis's Live At The Village Vanguard box (I bought it dirt cheap when it was released off CDNow) is recommended too.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

I'm a big fan of piano jazz -- Monk, Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner. Try the latter first. I've always found him more accessible.

Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that Monk was even better before he finally found his way to a recording studio, but he remained a trailblazer and an awesome talent at Columbia, and beyond. Miles gave Evans his stamp of approval, and you don't have to listen very long to understand why. Evans was indisputably great . . . though I personally prefer others more.

 

[Joe Williams]

I've been waiting for years for someone to get my birthday gift here:

http://www.mosaicrecords.com/giftcard.asp

Instead, I get grilling utensils.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

I've been waiting for years for someone to get my birthday gift here:

http://www.mosaicrecords.com/giftcard.asp

Instead, I get grilling utensils.

Wow. I think I know where some of that Gov't rebate money is going to go.

 

[fishwrapper]

What about a pair of John Stockton shorts?

 

[HC]

If you want to try a vocal album get Rosemary Clooney's disc with Ellington's orchestra. Great stuff.

 

[Huggy]

If you want to try a vocal album get Rosemary Clooney's disc with Ellington's orchestra. Great stuff.

Or Frank live at the Sands with the Count Basie Orchestra.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

If you want to try a vocal album get Rosemary Clooney's disc with Ellington's orchestra. Great stuff.

Or Frank live at the Sands with the Count Basie Orchestra.

While that's largely about Frank . . . and we could do with a shortening of the lengthy recititives interrupting the musical programming . . . that's not a bad thing.
One of the dynamite albums of the era.

 

[Huggy]

Pretty much every live Frank album or bootleg I've heard has a lengthy monologue or two (some of them, as I'm sure you know, Ben, not exactly politically correct these days). As much as people wanted to hear him sing I guess he wanted to hear himself talk.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Pretty much every live Frank album or bootleg I've heard has a lengthy monologue or two (some of them, as I'm sure you know, Ben, not exactly politically correct these days). As much as people wanted to hear him sing I guess he wanted to hear himself talk.

I understand you don't want to strain the pipes for a straight-ahead hour, which I'd guess is why most use the device . . . but at least one of the Basie breaks is especially long . . . you have to do what you have to do . . . the one time I saw Bennett (within the past eighteen months), he'd sing the shortest versions of songs allowable . . . and take a ton of breaks. TB's no kid, and I understand, but it's disconcerting.

 

[Huggy]

Good point but I dig listening to those big bands go. I've seen hundreds of rock shows but there's nothing like a big band at full blast.

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

Depending on what your father likes, here's a list that I've come up with of what he might like (All of the following are from the 1950s and early 1960s, which I think is what you mean by 'older' and what I enjoy the most). If your father prefers a certain instrument, hopefully this list of each will help you:

Piano
Dave Brubeck: Time Out (Take Five alone makes this album worth it), Time Further Out, Jazz Goes to College
Ahmad Jamal: But Not For Me, Live at the Penthouse
Bill Evans: At Town Hall, Waltz for Debby
Oscar Peterson: Bursting out with the All-Star Big Band, At the Concertgebouw
Thelonious Monk: At Town Hall, Big Band and Quartet in Concert, Thelonious with John Coltrane
Vince Guaraldi: He did the Charlie Brown soundtracks (which are good), but his trio stuff is great. Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus (Cast Your Fate to the Wind is the hit here), V.G. in Person, V.G. and Bola Sete: All Sides
McCoy Tyner: Inceptions

Sax
Gerry Mulligan (baritone sax): Concert Jazz Band at Village Vanguard, A Concert in Jazz, G.M. Meets Ben Webster
John Coltrane (soprano, alto): J.C. and Johnny Hartman (vocalist), My Favorite Things, Giant Steps, Blue Train
Cannonball Adderley (alto): Somethin' Else, Things are Getting Better, C.A. Quintet in San Francisco
Lee Konitz: Live at the Half-Note

Trumpet
Miles Davis: Cookin', Relaxin', Steamin', Workin' (all four are classics), Kind of Blue, Round About Midnight, Someday My Prince Will Come
Nat Adderley: Work Song
Dizzy Gillespie: Anything will do, but I highly recommend At Newport, Birk's Works, D.G. with Roy Eldridge
Art Farmer: Meet the Jazztet
Clifford Brown: C.B. Quartet in Paris, Jam Session

Trombone
J.J. Johnson: The Great Kai and J.J., Proof Positive, Dial J.J. 5
Bob Brookmeyer: Traditionalism Revisted

Arrangers
Gil Evans: Miles Ahead, Porgy & Bess, Sketches of Spain (those three are collaborations with Miles Davis and are must-haves), Gil Evans and Ten, Old Wine New Bottle (for what it's worth, Gil is my favorite). This is an excerpt of Miles Ahead:
Norman Granz: Any of his albums will do
Duke Ellington: Any are great, but if you do get one, get Ellington at Newport, his 1956 concert.
Count Basie: C.B. at Newport, 1959, C.B. and the Kansas City 7

Others
Modern Jazz Quartet: Django, Lonely Woman
Wes Montgomery (guitar): The Incredible Jazz Guitar of W.M.
Lionel Hampton: Hamp and Getz

All of the above I have on LP and am 99.9 percent sure are available on CD. Hope this helps.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Nice work, Corky.
Basie and the KC 7 is a must.

 

[Beaker]

I know they've been mentioned, but two musts are Davis' Kind of Blue and Coltrane's Giant Steps.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Jeez, I know he's another generation back, and he can be a challenging listen unless you're head-over-heels infatuated with the skill set, but Art Tatum is the greatest jazz pianist that ever lived. I could play, a little (and I mean VERY little),
but I take consolation in the fact that if I could ever play worth a quarter, I'd listen to Tatum, and say to myself, "Why bother?"

 

[Blitz]

Bix Beiderbecke was one of Jack Kerouac's favorites.
And JK loved Charlie "Bird" Parker, too.

(If any of that sways you)