Music Looking for some good jazz albums

I consider myself an audiophile and just recently I've realized my jazz/big band collection is rather limited so I'm looking for some albums to compliment my collection. My favorite artists include (albums in parentheses):

Lionel Hampton (I'm listening to My Man right now - love that vibraphone!)
Dave Brubeck Quartet (Time Out)
Quincy Jones (Big Band Bossa Nova, I also like the song from Ocean's Eleven, "Blues in the Night")
John Coltrane (The Very Best Of)
Vince Guaraldi Trio (Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus)

I also have one song by the Ramsey Lewis Trio, "The In Crowd" which I really like.

How can I expand this collection? I'm open to more albums from these artists above, or other artists (I don't have any Herbie Hancock or Miles Davis).

Thanks in advance,

Sam Taylor

 

I don't have any Miles Davis albums, but got to see him live some years ago. Was a great concert, he's one of the best. I tend a bit more toward jazz fusion, Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Bob James. In particular, Metheny's As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls and Bob James' Hands Down. Al di Meola has some good stuff to listen to, and for vocals, check out Etta James. For something different, perhaps check out some old Benny Goodman for a retro fest.

 

Anything by Tom Waits or Regina Spektor. Regina may not strictly be jazz to some, but it's off kilter piano and vocals at it's experimental anti-folk best.

Ask Bindi though - he only ever listens to jazz. When he puts his music on in the office I start to wonder if I'm in an elevator or not.

 

LMAO!

John Coltrane Cheesecake. I have his (old) anthology.
Miles Davis - the live sets are very strange (what Joe is referring to) but other stuff is certainly more regular (if that's even possible).
St. Germain - another personal fav, less obscure than the above.

I'm going to have to listen to the ones you mentioned above though. Best way I found is to whack them into Pandora (NOOOOOOOES) or Last.FM and see what else it churns out.

 

There are a couple of favourites of mine that I can mention:

Cannonball Adderley - Live at The Club (Should be bought for the track Mercy, Mercy, Mercy alone)

Weather Report - Heavy Weather and Domino Theory (Start with Heavy Weather, it is more approachable than Domino Theory. Be warned, some Weather Report is genius, some of it is dreadful)

Billy Cobham - Spectrum (The best Jazz drummer ever (possibly). Have seen him live twice and he is quite simply stunning. If you like Massive Attack, you will find where they lifted the bass line from one of their tracks from)

Bill Frisell - Guitar Jazz (Lots of playing round with other peoples music. Particularly good version of Heard It Through the Grapevine)

Dave Grusin - The Gershwin Collection (Simply stunning trio work, piano drums and bass)

Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters (One of the first ever Jazz - Fusion albums, and still a seminal classic)

Manu Katche - Neighbourhood (Another drummer, playing with the likes of Jan Garbarek)

Oz Noy - Live (This is a case of if you can find it, although his website does have samples at least.)

The Philadelphia Experiment - The Philadelphia Experiment (Very funky trio)

Tower Of Power - Live in Living Colour (Another live album, but you really need to hear a live version of Down to the Nightclub)

Just my 2ps worth

 

Nina Simone for the cheesecake.

 

Have to disagree with Spektor. I like it, but that ain't jazz. Wouldn't say Simone is either tbth. I'd describe her as more Soul - wikipedia disagrees with me, but I disagree with it

Anyway, obviously you need some Davis. And besides that my reccomendation of the moment would be to try the Esbjorn Svennson Trio. They're kinda Indie Jazz - not traditional at all, not frantic or heavy at all, they aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalmost fit into chillout at times. Maybe not for you, but I really like some of their stuff.

 

Yeah, Spektor is more Anti-folk I suppose. Nina definitely toes the line.

 

Specific albums:

Satchmo plays king oliver - louis armstrong
Relaxin' - miles david quintet
Saxophone colossus - sonny rollins
How hi the fi - buck clayton
Weather report - heavy weather if you want something a bit more modern without being modern.
****somethin' else - cannonball adderley**** (with miles davis, hank jones, sam jones and art blakey) highly reccomended

Those are good starter easy jazz albums but i am not sure all of those are available on cd, if they are find them.

 

try on some Thelonius Monk or Wes Montgomery. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. none of the solo Bela stuff though - too bluegrass-y.

Wayman Tisdale if you are into the "smooth" stuff. Pat Metheny as mentioned above. Weather Report. all good stuff.

 

Coltrane and Miles is essential. I also love many contemporary artists like Robert Mazurek. I'm also a huge fan of Medeski, Martin & Wood's stuff. They rule live. Free-form jazz/pr0n music Cheesecake!

 

Anything by Rudy Van Der Saniei or Howlin' Jimmy Jefferson.

 

Joe, you realise you're gonna hear a LOT more lift music one I find all these?

 

Haha. If you want the quintessential elevator (lift , you people and your English english) song you need Walter Wanderly's Summer Samba - if you don't recognize it trust me you've heard it before...

Thanks for all the tips y'all; I'm downloading what I can on Spiralfrog now (there's a lot of jazz on there) and I'll be making a trip to the local FYE ($20 gift card) this weekend!

 

sidney bechet
and for something a bit more contemporary courtney pine

seconded on both counts

 

Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn!

Iconic vocalists!

(Since Ella reminded me of scat, I'll throw Mel Torme in there too!)

 

Maynard Furgeson!
Triple High C!
saw him live. i enjoyed it greatly.

 

I listen to contemporary electronica-jazz, which is a fusion of ambient lounge moods with jazz. Here's one of my albums, but I don't know if it's something you'd like:
Jazz Lounge, Vol. 2 by Water Music Records.