Jazz Recommendations

I have a question...does anyone know of any cd's similar to the seledtions on Patricia Barbara's "Cafe Blue". I bought quite a few cd's recommended on best female vocalist list and I didn't particularily enjoy her vocals and almost threw it away until I decided to listen to it again. The jazz instrumentals blew me away (my new speakers broke in at about that time too)and I would like some more of the same if anyone can help.

Maybe I missed it in all the postings, but Bud Powell is an essential and seminal piano player, one of the fathers of hard bop and a tremendous influence on Monk, Miles and every piano player that followed him. His later work on Verve can be uneven (Powell had a difficult and troubled life and died young)but his earlier recordings on Mercury (?) are not to be missed - a true genius!

Two of the most popular guides to jazz are the "Penguin Guide to Jazz (on CD)" and the "All Music Guide to Jazz".

Out of the two, I like the All Music guide better. I like their album descriptions more, and they also supply other information. For each artist, they have a summary of his style and musical history. Like Penguin, they have a similar "rosetta stone" mark for truely outstanding albums but unlike Penguin, they also have marks for the best albums of that particular artist, along with a first purchase mark.

All Music also has some neat essays about the history of jazz, along with major artists and best selections (books and albums) for major jazz eras. All in all, I find this book to be "more accessible".

I love miles davis's stuff on prestige & his first few recordings on columbia, john coltrane's stuff on atlantic. other faves billie holliday, but before her stuff on verve, gerry mulligan has alot of great stuff, hampton hawes all night sessions, chet bakers stuff on emercy(I think there are 4 cd's of those).

Any CD with Eric Alexander playing !!