Jazz for someone who doesn't like jazz.

^^^ Like a lot of jazz musicians, Kenny G.went over to the dark side to make money. You'd think he would have broke loose once in a while to appease us jazz guys. I agree ... he could really play when he turned off all of the electronics and the drenched in digital reverb recordings. 

Frank 

@oregonpapa said: "Like a lot of jazz musicians, Kenny G.went over to the dark side to make money"
I think this is true in a lot of genres. Lots of serious rock bands abandoned their core stuff to make ballads. They all made tons of money on cheesy, monotonous ballads and virtually none of them ever recover artistically. Others, like ZZ Top make a killer album like Eliminator and every album after it sounds exactly the same.


It would be hard to turn your back on the kind of money that vapid vacuous pop-ified music can offer.

I do remember a funny quote from Huey Lewis that after being a cult band on the local scene that they were accused of "selling out" when they got popular. He said they had been trying to sell out for years.


Listening to Harry Connick, Jr.'s Lofty's Roach Souflle' and it is not bad.


@nicotico We have watched two episodes of Jazz and I'm enjoying it. It really is more about the people than the music, and that's fine. I don't mind that. Its good to know some of the back story.

n80, as I suggested earlier there are a multitude of styles/types of jazz.  That is what makes suggestions to a "newbie" so difficult, and the subject so baffling to the newbie themselves.  Many, many great suggestions have been made here and sampling those can be as good an introduction as any.

After my post I considered suggesting the Ken Burns series, but with so much music to listen to I wasn't sure if you'd be willing to watch that much video?  If you watch more you'll certainly find more to explore.

Contrary to many others here I don't consider KOB a good "introduction" album for someone starting out in jazz.  It is one of the best ever recorded but is subtle and complex enough it will not be appreciated by many newbies.  To your credit you've stated you like it.  That suggests you can skip past many of the more "lightweight" suggestions.

So all I'll offer at this point is based on what you've sampled that you do like, continue exploring other recordings by those artists.  You are bound to run into some dead ends but that's OK, just try more recordings.  With that you'll find side men/women with your preferred artists who are interesting and that will lead you to their recordings.  And so on and so on.

@pryso Thanks. I'm not sure that I like Kind of Blue for the right reasons. I'm sure there is depth there that I have not explored or even recognized is there. But, when you are initially drawn to something it is a lot easier to dig deep than when there isn't that initial appeal.
I also like classical music. Not an aficionado by any stretch, but do understand that there is depth and complexity and can sometimes recognize and appreciate it. So that might help some.

If the first (or earliest) bottle of wine I ever drink is a $500 vintage bottle, it is not the same as if I drink that same bottle after having experienced many other bottles over a long period of time (responsibly, of course). Enjoy the wine (or music).