Jazz Piano Trio / Spanish Guitar

Bill Evans, a premier jazz pianist. Bill Evans Trio recorded by Riverside. Waltz for Debby is a good recording to start with.

Tommy Flanagan - A trio with Peter Washington & Lewis Nash on a release called "Lady Be Good" by Verve is a good place to start.

Gene Harris & the Gene Harris Quartet on the Concord Label

Ahmad Jamal - He has some late recordings on Telarc which are Trios and excellent listening.

Oscar Peterson, another premier pianist, with the Oscar Peterson Trio. I perfer his earlier recordings on Verve. "We Get Requests" is a good place to start. He did a bunch of stuff for Telarc as well.

Andre Previn has some great 'Dinner Jazz' recordings with Mundel Lowe on Guitar and Ray Brown on bass (NO drums!). I think Previn is a far better jazz musician (pianist) than folks might be aware from his later years prominence in conducting, performing, and writing classical music.

And for 'Spanish' guitar artists, I don't know, but for some classic jazz guitar don't over look Joe Pass.

Hope that helps a bit. All are very assessible.

For the Guitar, check out the LAGQ - Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. Personally, I like the Flamenco excitement. The LAGQ is definately more subdued than the Flamenco.

Also, check out a great CD by Nils Lofgren - Live Acoustic. He is/was a guitarist for Bruce Springstein. This is really one of the best guitar CDs. It is tough to get and you should search for it used as I think it is sold out everywhere in the world new. It is one of the best albums I own, a great recording with great music - an excellent demonstration of guitar.

If you want, send me your e-address and I can e-mail you one song from the album for you to listen to (in WAV).

Good suggestions - here are a couple more pianists of high calibre...

Dave Grusin - Homage to Duke - very nice classic Duke Elllington stuff - very melodic. Not your pretty Jazz trio stuff but more meaty material.

Dave Brubeck

Guitar ;-

Gipsy Kings is some pop stuff - if you trying to get into Spanish music from rock/pop then they are good (slower type of flamenco).

Paco de Lucia

Hey, one bit of advice--older recordings and sonic beauty are not mutually exclusive. In fact, it's often quite the opposite.

Recordings made the old fashioned way (no overdubs, no compression/limiting, no complex ADC conversions, no processing, no equalization, etc.) with musicians all playing together with minimal mic use has yielded some of the most spectacular recordings of all time.

Some of these old master tapes have been lovingly preserved and then re-cut to digital using the best mastering gear and minds available (not early digital), has made for excellent re-releases.

Likewise, there's a lot of new music that's not lovingly produced. I'd respectfully suggest you re-examine the original assumption and seek some other views as well.

As for selections (and I know this just sounds so damn predictable), but I was just listening to "Kind of Blue" this afternoon, and for me, each new listen is better than the last. Keep in mind that while Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, and many others may not be solely balladeers, their ballads are simply magnificent.

Bill Evans (as noted earlier) is a great suggestion. Look for some Art Pepper as well.

If you want to find some really "minimalist" music, look for "Lords Tundra" by Dean Peer (bassist) or "Wood" by Brian Bromberg (bass also).

I don't really have much in terms of Spanish Guitar, but there's a jazz guitarist named Grant Geissman that's very melodic.

Finally, a favorite of mine is Ry Cooder (guitarist) with V.M. Bhatt on "A Meeting by the River". It's an improvisation with a definite East Indian feel, but is very melodic and amazingly recorded live.

Newbee's list is fairly comprehensive. Can't go wrong with anything there. Since you didn't specify format ... a CD you might want to try is "Young at Heart" by Tony Williams. He's joined by pianist Mulgrew Miller and bassist Ira Coleman. It features great production quality, with the ensemble putting forth nice interpretations of a few jazz standards. For vinyl, pick up John Di Martino's Romantic Jazz Trio rendering of "Music Of The Night" ... kind of a jazzy take on some show tunes and recognizable melodies. Sorry, no help on the Spanish Guitar. Good luck and happy listening!