Jazz Recommendations

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 !!

Oh, this is one of the finest threads I have come across on any board. Not unlike the original poster, I was interested in starting a jazz collection, after having gone about as far as I could with a 2000, mostly R&R, LP collection from the mid 60's to the late-70's. As I have gotten older I have realized that my taste in music (and the sound from my system) have chnged dramatically.

The recommendations of SDCampbell, and some others, I have been "spot-on" for me.

Recent additions to my collection which I will reiterate and highly recommend are Bill Evans's "Undercurrent", Art Pepper's "Intensity", "Focus" by Stan Getz, and Erroll Garner's "Concert by the Sea". In addition, for those of you who like guitar, the Joe Pass, Jim Hall, and Wes Montgomery works are not to be missed!

Salut to you, SDCampbell!