Jazz for aficionados

I will finish my rant with this instrument which was created to reproduce the human voice, the duduk, and which will remind us the way Sydney Bechet was able to "spoke" "petite fleur" on an another instrument my first post above...

life is mysterious like is love...No other mysteries can surpass them save the mystery of the infinite which is only love forgetting himself and reminding itself .... Is it not music this forgetting and this reminding, this waving ?

The  heartbeat for sure....

Kenny Werner

First, a quick comment about an earlier comment about Pat Metheney. Metheney is an extremely eclectic composer. I love many of his records, while some just don't appeal to me at all. In terms of more, what I might call "conventional" perspectives on jazz, I think the early ECM albums make a strong case for themselves: Watercolours, Bright Size Life - and taking some liberties with the term "conventional"  - American Garage.

Separately, as a guitarist, I've always found the Concord Jazz recordings to be very well engineered, so I'll mention Emily Remler's East to Wes and Jim Hall's Circles.

Not on Concord, while he can veer into smooth jazz territory a lot, an exception is Lee Ritenour's Wes Bound - top quality musicianship and an excellent recording.

BTW, I'll listen to anything by Wes Montgomery - even the CTI recordings.

frog, interesting point about instrumentalists studying or reciting lyrics.  I never gave that much consideration before, but it makes sense.  Simply playing the musical lines of a song can allow improvisation.  But knowing the lyrics should allow more insight into the intent of the composer, and thus suggest more essence in the interpretation.

mahgister, I'd say you are more on a roll than on a rant.  I agree that my most favored musicians are those who can "speak" with their instruments.  Regardless of the type of music -- jazz, blues, classical, world music, etc. -- it is the performer's ability to express their emotion that really speaks to me.