Teach me about Jazz!

You've got a great list already started, and I'm sure you will get lots of suggestions of specific recordings. As far as some additional vocalists, off the top of my head: Ethel Waters Mildred Bailey Lena Horne Maxine Sullivan Anita O'Day Jo Stafford Connie Boswell Lee Wiley As far as building your collection, the number of reissues and repackaging is overwhelming. When I was just getting into early jazz, a knowledgeable friend turned me on to the JSP box sets, particularly those mastered by R.T. Davies, as who does the mastering in the reissue can make a huge difference in what it sounds like. Thehttp://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=jsp+box+set&x=0&y=0 box sets were inexpensive ($25) for the amount of music, and they have great collections of Louis, Jelly Roll Morton, Django.... A couple years ago http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=proper+box+set&x=0&y=0 also started putting out inexpensive box sets, and while they aren't, IMO, as good sound quality wise, I think again the price is right and they are great introductions to the musicians of the era. They also come with fat educational booklets. Hope that helps!

Wait, really? No one has mentioned http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_davis yet?! (the birth of cool! the king of bebop! the sultan of swing? the sultan of swing!) GET THEE TO A RECORD STORE AND BUY http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000002ADT/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/! At least in my mind, here a few of my favourite "classic recordings" that no jazz library should be without: Louis Armstrong: Hot Fives and Sevens Ella Fitzgerald: singing Mack the Knife in Berlin, singing the Cole Porter Songbook Miles Davis: Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew, Sketches of Spain John Coltrane: Live at the Village Vanguard, Blue Trane, with Duke Ellington, A Love Supreme Thelonius Monk: Monk Charlie Mingus: Tonight at Noon http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000472E/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ Stan Getz and Tom Jobim

Start here. Sorry, I neglected to point out that that's a link to the top albums of the 1950s, period. Please note that most of them are the work of (so-called) jazz artists.

Also, I would not worry about the Penguin guide recommending inaccessible and difficult music. None of the artists you are interested in made music that is particularly inaccessible (some of the later recommendations people are making here may require a little grappling, though). It is true that if you went through the book picking up every CD in their "core collection", you'd have a lot of difficult listening (mostly from the late fifties on), but you're not doing that.

I'm still pretty new to this. I like and want accessible, and that's one of the reasons I don't like modern Jazz. Do you think this book is still worthwhile as a resource for a beginner? It is still extremely worthwhile when you have the question "What recordings should I buy by this artist?" (and it looks like you have a couple dozen of those questions!). I bought it and used it in that way as a beginner. It is not as worthwhile for questions like "I'm interested in jazz, where should I start?" or "If I like Kind Of Blue, what other albums should I try?" or "I like mellow piano trio music, what should I buy?" So I guess it mostly comes down to whether you have enough questions of the first sort for it to be worth it.

You can get a good feel for how much jazz evolved from the 1920s to 1950s by listening to jazz pianists of that era. There are a number of jazz pianists from this juncture that you should absolutely listen to, each with highly distinctive playing styles, including: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgWvggDY2qA - A legend with fantastic chops who played in a more classical style of jazz. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_tAU3GM9XI - An incredible improviser who played everything by ear because he couldn't sightread! Erroll Garner composed the popular jazz standard "Misty." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swLnc_KSm4Y - Outside of Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson was perhaps the most technically proficient jazz pianist there was (he sure as hell wasn't afraid to show it!). He had a real sense of swing, a powerful melodic vocabulary, and a great feel for the blues. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uon2Gu6jgf8 - One of the progenitors of bebop (along with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker), who had a significant influence on how jazz piano was played post-1950. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKb0Sc2lYVU - Art Tatum was a pianistic god. Some of the things Tatum did with a piano were completely out of this world. If you like flashy pianistic devices and runs, this is your guy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGLpczTtnEM - Kind of an overlooked pianist, but influential and unique in his own right. Check out the way he incorporates walking basslines in his solo piano playing, which contrasts the stride/ragtime or chordal accompaniment that jazz pianists used in the early days. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITGQPsWpmyc - A stride piano master with an incredibly upbeat repertoire of tunes ("A Handful of Keys, "Viper's Drag," etc). Waller's singing is classic as well; check out some of his videos on YouTube to get a feel for his jazzy personality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNH4Sipmj1w - like Earl Hines, Teddy Wilson is a legend whose playing reflects a more classical style of jazz. He was particularly renowned for his use of pianistic runs for embellishment. Like you, I was more into older jazz styles (ragtime, swing, bebop, etc.) than modern playing when I first started to listen seriously a little over a year ago, so hopefully these suggestions will give you a good backdrop to work from. Other jazz resources I recommend checking out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIfHtPwF8wY, a highly informative series of radio interviews with jazz musicians who talk about their music, their style, their backgrounds, and even their practice routines if you are curious about how they learned their craft. The http://www.youtube.com/user/jazzvideoguy?blend=1&ob=4 on YouTube has hundreds of informative videos, documentaries, performance recordings, and TV clips on jazz that you might like. Enjoy!

wander, I'm glad you found my posts useful, and I just wanted to say: Also, as for following songs, that's one of the things I love about Jazz, how everyone's got a different take on it, how you can listen to so many different versions of the same song and how they're all beautiful in their own way. It really gives Jazz that community feel, like the music belongs to everyone in a way. Most of the Jazz standards I love I couldn't even tell you who originally wrote it, and there's something I find beautiful about that. I think that is really eloquent how you put it, and I totally agree and feel exactly the same way. Right on.

I've gone through a few different jazz phases, and right now I'm in a long-standing time of listening to precisely the type of jazz you're talking about. And it's because I'm a swing dancer and DJ. Right now I get most of my music through downloading, mostly on http://emusic.com/ but sometimes through Amazon. Both of those let you preview, so you can get some idea of what you like, what's quality, what's actually the same track in different places, &c. And I definitely suggest checking out http://jazz-on-line.com/, where you can download from a huge collection of DRM-free, public domain old-time jazz. For this reason and because much of this was before the album, I'm not sure what CD recommendations would be best. Still, I have a few for you (all from my own collection). http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000HWXGDO/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000050G85/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000003N3T/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ (I was given this as a gift shortly after I started dancing, and I keep coming back to it years later to find great songs to play) Fats Waller - Thru the 30s, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001HIWSV8/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ and http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001HF1XH6/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0013EWYQK/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000ION1YK/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ (I just bought this at the Louisiana Music Factory and am excited about it. I also suggest http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006BT4G/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/, with Frankie Trumbauer.) Woo, all this and I haven't touched all the artists you mention, let alone ones you didn't (unless you count Trumbauer) or contemporary artists upholding the tradition. I could go on and on, but I'm a bit tired and I don't want to bore. Feel free to memail me for more. Also, check out http://www.mikethibault.com/?p=149, written by a friend and excellent dancer/teacher/DJ.

Wow! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You all are amazing, and this is definitely a case where I consider every answer the best answer. This is fantastic information, definitely enough to get started. A quick note: Ignore the order of the list. It's not in any particular order. While Ella and Louis would be at the top were I to actually arrange it, Django would be too. There isn't any preference or logic in how it is right now. Now for individual replies: http://ask.metafilter.com/170744/Teach-me-about-Jazz#2456011 Thanks! I had no idea about those sets, and as someone who basically stopped buying CD's since I felt they were too expensive, seeing the price on these was a pleasant surprise. I'm definitely getting Hot Fives and Sevens, and the Django set as well (and maybe even an extra copy of both later as gifts). I absolutely love Django, so there's almost no such thing as too much. There's a follow-up question for both you and John Cohen below, so please read that too. http://ask.metafilter.com/170744/Teach-me-about-Jazz#2456014 Thanks for the recommendations! I'll definitely be picking some of those up. I appreciate the Oscar Peterson rec, too. I love the stuff of his I've heard, and I know that most of his stuff was recorded after the era I like, so I was hoping I'd still get a rec about his stuff despite that. Regarding overanalysis: What you say is very true. I have a tendency to overanalyze things (and I'm on metafilter, what a surprise!), so it's something I have to remind myself not to do. However, I think I'm just worried about getting a mediocre record or a collection of unremarkable songs put out as a cash-in. With recommendations it's much less of an issue, but starting from scratch like I am, it's hard not to be anxious about what to pick. To both dfan and John Cohen, one quick follow-up question. The Penguin book looks great, and I was set to order it, but one of the reviews seemed to make an interesting point, saying: The first type of a guide book is a guide book for people who are new to Jazz and would like to learn where to begin and which records to buy in order to establish a modest collection of key recordings and recordings that are good introductions to jazz. The penguin guide will not serve this purpose well for several reasons. First, there is not much information on the artists themselves, their style, and even of a more basic level, what styles are there in jazz and how do they differ. It is more like a catalogue of reviews. Second, the authors are very experienced Jazz fans and it shows. Normally, people start listening to jazz after being introduced to relatively accessible artists such as Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, and the like. Often, their taste develops over the years and they tend to focus more on avant-garde, complex recordings. This is definitely the case with the authors, who show a strong tendency to recommend complex and demanding works which are not suitable for beginners. For example, in order to help new comers, the authors list "core recordings" which should be in every basic collection, but include in this core collection artists like Cecil Taylor, who is a great pianist, but not very accessible. Charming albums which are great but undemanding get lower ratings. I think an album should be judged for what it is and how good it is in it's genre and compared to the other albums of the artist in question, but this is not what the Penguin Guide does. So, if you are a newcomer, this book is absolutely not for you. Try allmusic's guide to jazz or the rough guide instead. From http://www.amazon.com/Penguin-Guide-Jazz-Recordings-Eighth/product-reviews/0141023279/ref=cm_cr_dp_synop?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#R3UA5NVUE691XY. This is a pretty big red flag for me, as that description describes me pretty accurately. I'm still pretty new to this. I like and want accessible, and that's one of the reasons I don't like modern Jazz. Do you think this book is still worthwhile as a resource for a beginner? http://ask.metafilter.com/170744/Teach-me-about-Jazz#2456018 Thanks for the Allmusic recommendation. That seems like a great place to start, and I'll definitely be using it! http://ask.metafilter.com/170744/Teach-me-about-Jazz#2456020 Thanks much for the additional vocalists. Out of all the ones you mentioned, I've only heard of a few, so I'm excited to check them out. Thanks too for the tips on the box sets. I'll be looking into both of them. http://ask.metafilter.com/170744/Teach-me-about-Jazz#2456029 Ooh, that box set looks great! Thanks for the other recommendations as well. http://ask.metafilter.com/170744/Teach-me-about-Jazz#2456031 Wow. Thank you so much! No need to apologize, both of your comments are fantastic as is, a very informative and digestable summary. I'll definitely look into the artists and albums you mentioned, and I may take you up on sending you additional questions, once I've had the time to actually form some! I don't know how long it took for you to write your comments, but I really appreciate you taking the time to do so. (I'd love to read any paper you wrote about Jazz, if you did happen to write one :) ) Also, as for following songs, that's one of the things I love about Jazz, how everyone's got a different take on it, how you can listen to so many different versions of the same song and how they're all beautiful in their own way. It really gives Jazz that community feel, like the music belongs to everyone in a way. Most of the Jazz standards I love I couldn't even tell you who originally wrote it, and there's something I find beautiful about that. http://ask.metafilter.com/170744/Teach-me-about-Jazz#2456046 Thank you so much for the album suggestions. I love the danceable Jazz too, so I'm very excited to look into the albums you mentioned. http://ask.metafilter.com/170744/Teach-me-about-Jazz#2456102 Heh. I've heard that's the canonical Jazz album, but for some reason I haven't gotten around to listening to it. I'll try to amend that. Thanks for all the other recs too, those look pretty enticing. http://ask.metafilter.com/170744/Teach-me-about-Jazz#2456133 Ooh, radio stations. Once I've managed to get through the bounty of recordings I've been recommended here, I'll check those out! I'll also keep them bookmarked for when I'm out and about or in an internet cafe. http://ask.metafilter.com/170744/Teach-me-about-Jazz#2456147 I'm definitely not shrugging off the jazz of the 50's. When I say 20's through the 50's, that includes the 50's, so no worries. It's not a strict cutoff, too, I do like things outside of that era, but it's much fewer and far between. I'd be open to any suggestions you'd have outside of there. That list looks great, and I'll definitely refer back to it, so thank you sharing it. http://ask.metafilter.com/170744/Teach-me-about-Jazz#2456179 Ooh, that sounds great! Thanks for the recommendation! http://ask.metafilter.com/170744/Teach-me-about-Jazz#2456202 So ordered. Thanks! http://ask.metafilter.com/170744/Teach-me-about-Jazz#2456401 I figured someone would mention Ken Burns at some point. I have been meaning to watch it, as I've heard good things. The issue is tracking it down first, and at this point the idea of watching an entire miniseries is a little daunting. Still, if I can manage to get it from the library I'll give it a shot. http://ask.metafilter.com/170744/Teach-me-about-Jazz#2456417 Thank you for both the recommendations and the ideas! I will pay closer attention to who is playing with who. http://ask.metafilter.com/170744/Teach-me-about-Jazz#2456946 Thanks! I'll bookmark that site as well. Okay, once again, thank you all so much. This is more information than I imagined, and it will definitely keep me occupied for a long while. Still, any more recommendations are more than welcome. I'll try to post again later on after I've had the chance to give some of these things a listen.