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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
duanegoosen
355 posts
 
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
pragmatist
336 posts
 
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
herman
2,216 posts
 
The Smithsonian put out a 5 CD, 6 hour set called "The Smithsonian Collection of Jazz" that covers 50 years or so of jazz, pretty much everything from Jelly Roll Morton through Ornette Coleman. Try that and see if there is anything you like. If not, you might try the 2 main forms of music, Country and Western.
rtn1 OP
535 posts
 
Well, BMG now has their $2.99 sale. I just placed an order for 9 CDs that are recommended in this thread. I also bought 4 CDs from recommendations on a previous thread. After S&H, it came out to less than $7 per CD and earned me 2 free CDs. Pretty good deal.

Thanks,
Rob
pardales
652 posts
 
Anything by Bill Evans, especially, Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby.
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