Jazz Recommendations

Maybe it's my German heritage, but what about Passport? The "Talk Back" (hard to find but might have some luck used -- e.g., smoothsounds.com) and "Infinity Machine" albums are, IMHO, great. Many mention Chick Corea -- I'd like to recommend the "My Spanish Heart" album in particular. The other posts are great and mention some fantastic music. Thanks.

Charles Fambrough's The Charmer, Keeper of the Spirit and Upright Citizen are very good. Michael Wolff's - self titled and Impure Thoughts. Also, Steve Allee's - The Magic Hour and Mirage. These are artist who get little attention or respect but put out great music. They may be a little hard to find but go to half.com and you might get lucky. Remember - if music be the food of life .... Jazz is one of its delicacies.

I guess the original post asked about "mainstream", but some of the most interesting and best recorded stuff put out in the last 20-30 years can be found on the ECM, Soul note, CMP, Enja, and JMT labels. It's a great time to be a music consumer. Try Max Roach- Pictures in a Frame, David Murray- Ballads for Bass Clarinet, or Lucky Four,John Zorn Masada or his Sonny Clark Mem.Quart. titled Voodoo, Jerry Granelli-Another Place, Ed Blackwell- What It Is, Francois Bourassa trio- Echo. None of these are real outside avant brain fry recordings, but they are beautifully played and amazingly well recorded. This is just a tiny sample, there is an incredible amount of GREAT stuff out there. We are a bunch of lucky dogs.

Combining your knowledge with a very pleasant writing style should yield a best seller.

Thanks for the education.

Wow this thread is a classic. I will mention two books that I have with info on jazz: All that jazz-the illustrated story of jazz music. This book contains great pics and I recommend it for someone who is just starting out. The other is Jazz by John Fordham and has a forward by Sonny Rollins. Both are informitive and a must for your jazz library. Good listening!