I could use some jazz mentoring.

Coltrane Lush Life, Blue Train, and standard Coltrane. Hank Mobley Roll call ( look for the RVG edition or SACD hybrid if using CD's ), Mile Davis, Blue Miles. Just a few personal favorites. Happy listening!!!

Many of Bill Evans piano recordings have a quiet, ethereal quality to them. One of my personal favorites is a recording the Evans did with Jim Hall around 1963 titled "Undercurrent", which has been re-released on CD.

If you like "Kind of Blue", then you should listen to Miles' early recordings from the 1953-55 period. Four of his best from that era were the group of recordings sometimes known as the "Cooking - Relaxing" albums. These have been available on both CD and LP reissues for some time.

For one of the most relaxing tenor sounds ever recorded, check out the recordings by the great Zoot Sims. He did a series of LP's for the Pablo label in the mid-1950's (with pianist Jimmy Rowles), which included several of my favorites: "Warm Tenor" and "Suddenly It's Spring".

Another great ballad player was tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, who had one of the fullest, smokiest sounding horns of all time. Stan Getz also had a wonderful ability with a ballad, so I suggest you look for some of his more laid back albums (the recordings he did in the final few years of his life are particularly poignant -- such as "People Time", which featured duets with the stellar pianist Kenny Barron).

In a somewhat different vein, you might also like the recordings aht guitarist Grant Green did on the Blue Note label in the early to mid-1960's. Grant has a rather laid-back style, and the guitar that he played had a particularly mellow tone.

Last suggestion: for a much more contemporary sound, you might try one of the recent CD's by Tomas Stanko, a Polish trumpet player. Stanko leads a very cohesive quartet, and his sound is very much like Miles Davis from the 1950's.

If you'd like to discuss some of these choices, or learn about others, feel free to drop me a personal E-mail.

Best regards,

Scott C-

Well--I'm going to recommend some DVDs--and they aren't even DVD-A or some other music only. Ken Burns--Jazz. This was originally broadcast on PBS. I am not an expert in jazz--I love it, but I do not know the history and want to have the connection to the roots of jazz. You know they are there, and I know that most of it was before my time. I have thoroughly enjoyed this DVD collection (10-discs) because I couldn't see it when broadcast (good ad for Tivo I suppose). This will not only give you an insight into other performers you may like, but also into the history of jazz, which to me makes the music all that more interesting.

Along the trumpet idiom, look into Lee Morgan. Maybe a little less laid back, but very well thought out solo work.

If you can log on to internet feed you can educate yourself very quickly with 2 very good jazz PBS stations.

kplu.org Tacoma, WA
kuaz.org Tucson, AZ

In all my travels, these are two of the very best for traditional jazz. Graveyard shift of kplu turns wild with some avantgarde and very unknown talented artists.