Jazz Recs for Classical Music Fan - Challenging


Having acquired 1000s of classical CDs (probably more than I could ever listen to), I think that it is time to start with some Jazz. I know there are a lot of forums, websites, and books that give much great advice on how to approach the subject. However, I am looking for more particular recommendations. Perhaps some fellow posters with classical tastes in the Romantic and Modern eras could give some recs that would nicely bridge the gap. I've tried to make my way into Jazz a couple of times, but haven't been successful to date. Perhaps someone here can help me make the breakthrough.

Here are some of the things I am looking for:
1) Decent recordings. This probably means something from the 60s, forward. A little tape hiss is OK, but excessively remastered or noisy recordings are not what I'm looking for. I know that many of the great recordings are from the 30s through the 50s, and I have ordered a couple of those.
2) Naturally recorded. No amplification, no over-miking, good engineering. Vocals should be minimally or not amplified. Soundstage needs to be realistic. The venue should be apparent. No 50 ft clarinets and vocals eminating from the entire soundstage.
3) Acoustic instruments. I do not like electronic music.
4) No divas-come-lately. I don't care to hear the latest 22 year old with a big voice, amplified and electronically filtered to 'perfection', a pretty album cover, and a marketing campaign to tell me how great she is.
5) Emotional content. Not just for tapping your foot or for background music.
6) Great performances. Not just something that came out last month with high recommendations in the press.
7) Probably smaller ensemble pieces. Vocals, piano, quartets, etc.
8) There may be some labels that have classical and jazz recordings that overlap (?ECM).

Thanks,
Rob
rtn1
I can't believe that nobody's mentioned Jacques Loussier yet. Try "Plays Bach" and "Baroque Favourites". These are jazz trio interpretations.
Maasada 8: Live in Sevilla. Great music, astounding musicianship, excellent recording.
A good place to start is with the classic records from the '60s. Small jazz combos playing bop, and hard-bop. Tons to recommend here.

Rather than providing another immense list, I would like to urge you to take very seriously the lists provided by both slipknot1 and rushton. These are very good suggestions and, in my opinion, are much, much better places to start than what many of the others have suggested. You will have plenty to work with there.

For what it is worth, you can get a great collection of '60s classic jazz from bmg. Look for the remastered versions of the classic blue note 60's stuff. All Music Guide (available on-line) can help you identify which they are. (Miles Davis, Grant Green, Freddie Hubbard, Eric Dolphy, Kenny Dorham, Art Blakey, Herbie Hancock!!, Johnny Griffin, Hank Mobley, Joe Henderson, etc., etc.)

Hope this is of some help.
There's a huge rich vein of great stuff out there that punches holes in the old category boundries. You're right to suspect that ECM is a good place to start, (Eberhard Weber "The Following Morning" or "Endless Days" are a couple of my favorites). You might try Louis Sclavis "Les Violences de Rameau" and Kenny Wheeler "Deer Wan"... there are dozens of other ECM releases that are equally good. The "Group Therapy" disc by the Jim McNeely Tentet (Omnitone) really seems fresh and alive, (you get a very nice interpretation of a Coltrane and a Bud Powell composition on this one). One recording that came to mind right away while reading your post was Beirach/Hubner/Mraz "Round About Monteverdi", the title (i know cor-ny) probably doesn't grab you, but the recording quality and the playing here will. Here are a few other possibilities:

Kamikaze Ground Crew/Senic Route

Franz Koglmann/L'Heure Bleue (this one is on Hat, Ejlif is right as usual)

Univers Zero/The Hard Quest (More ominous chamber music than what most people think of as jazz)

Tom Varner/Long Night Big Day

Wayne Horvitz/Sweeter Than The Day

Nils Wogram/Speed Life

Volapuk/Volapuk (Twisted Hungarian folk dance energy...maybe like if Bartok had an instrumental rock band w/ only cello drums and clarinet).

Giorgio Gaslini/Masks

Jerry Granelli/Another Place
I read you criteria. Because jazz started roughly at the time of commercial sound reproduction,some of the recordings sound like,well,remasters of recordings up to a century old.

Early Jazz--any of the compilation anthologies of Louis Armstrong,Hot Five/Hot Seven recordings. The music justifies the recordings' qualities.

Swing--Art Tatum. Since you said small ensembles,I'll pass on Basie and Ellington.

Bop--Charles Parker,Ornathology

Cool--Miles Davis/Gill Evans,The Birth of the Cool....Kind of Blue

Hard Bop.--Mingus,Ah Um. Coltrane,Giant Steps. Blakey,Night in Tunisia

Modern--Bill Evans,Sunday Afternoon at the Vanguard

As a classics listener,The Modern Jazz Quartet may interest you. They were together as an ensemble for decades and got so good that some thought they were playing written out compositions.

Enjoy the collecting