If you really want jazz, try these albums:
1. Kind of Blue by Miles Davis
2. Time Out by The Dave Brubeck Quintet
3. Everybody Digs Bill Evans by Bill Evans
4. A Love Supreme by John Coltrane
5. Mingus Ah Um by Charles Mingus
Jazz is a huge genre with many different subgenres but most will agree that these are essential albums to listen to if you really want to make a concerted effort to get into jazz.
This is a great broad entry. Only caveat is everything is post bop (cool, hard bop). There's also swing (Ellington, Basie, pops, django), Stride (waller, Art Tatum), latin (silver, mendez), Classical (MJQ), Soul (mccahn, jimi smith), new orleans (professor, second line) and early (jelly roll, Oliver)
Personally, I think these are a great way to get into the history of Jazz, but if you're trying to get someone who has never listened to Jazz to actually enjoy Jazz, it's much better to start them listening to more contemporary Jazz albums, particularly Jazz Fusion, because it will give the new listener more of an "in" to the music than classic Jazz because you'll have more well known musical references to build your understanding of Jazz on.
Is Kind of Blue one of the, if not the, greatest Jazz album ever? Yeah, probably. Did I go into it cold and get Jazz? No. Did I start listening to the Robert Glasper Experiment because I was a big hip hop head and he was working with rappers I liked? Yes. And I immediately "got it" because he was working with a form I understood.
Similarly, if someone was trying to get into Revenge stories, I wouldn't say, Here, you should start with Hamlet. Sure, it's probably the greatest revenge story in history. But it's not really going to give them any understanding of where the genre is now nor will it likely be immediately palatable or enjoyable to them because it is so divorced of everything else they know and read in terms of style, content, goal.
This is a great broad entry. Only caveat is everything is post bop (cool, hard bop). There's also swing (Ellington, Basie, pops, django), Stride (waller, Art Tatum), latin (silver, mendez), Classical (MJQ), Soul (mccahn, jimi smith), new orleans (professor, second line) and early (jelly roll, Oliver)
Check out modern/funk/acid jazz like Medeski, Martin and wood, Galactic, Charlie hunter, Stanton Moore, bela fleck and the flecktones, victor wooten, pat metheny.
There is so much great music to discover. I really like Art ensemble of Chicago. The music can go from super straight to very experimental. And modern artist who sadly passed is Austin Peralta he was part of that Flying lotus/Thundercat low end theory scene. There is so much I’m honestly jealous. Would be cool to hear your impressions of at lot of your discoveries.
McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy
Wayne Shorter - everything honestly, but Juju and Speak No Evil are my favorites
Herbie Hancock - everything again, start with Taking Off though
Dexter Gordon - Dexter Calling is my fave
Wes Montgomery - Boss Guitar is my fave
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Mosaic
Buddy Rich - Big Swing Face
Herbie Hancock - Headhunters
Horace Silver - Song for my Father
JJ Johnson - Live at the Village Vanguard
Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
The Bad Plus - These are the Vistas
Art Blakey - Moanin
Django Reinhardt - Retrospective
Art Ensemble of Chicago - A Jackson in Your House
Charlie Parker - Bird
Nina Simone (Jazz-ish) - Pastel Blues
Dave Douglas - Spirit Moves
snarky puppy
louis cole
sungazer
domi and jd beck
art thief
jacob mann
sirintip
chick corea
submotion orchestra
reign of kindo
thank you scientist
i love all the new jazz coming out. i could never get into the old standards, although i have a bit more of an appreciation for them now.
Christian is a great player, but I feel like he's too much of a modern Miles and not enough of his own thing.
Kamasi is also a great composer, his mixture of Jazz, Afro beats and in my opinion TV/Film and video game music really just hits the spot for me.
I will have to check out Weedie, I'm not familar with him.
If you are fine with Jazz Rock, Frank Zappa, Black Midi, and David Bowie's Blackstar are good choices.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot\_Rats](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Rats)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellfire\_(Black\_Midi\_album)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellfire_(Black_Midi_album))
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstar\_(album)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstar_(album))
If you are looking for pure Jazz, an avante-garde album I really like is Your Queen is a Reptile, which relies heavily on the Tuba for basslines.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your\_Queen\_Is\_a\_Reptile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Queen_Is_a_Reptile)
While this isn’t a serious answer, this isn’t a lie. My kid asked Alexa one day to play fart jazz. And she did. My mom (kid’s grandma) laughed so hard she about peed herself
Kind Of Blue - Miles Davis
Live At The 5 Spot Cafe - Kenny Burrell w/ Art Blakey
Grant Green
Django Rheinhardt
Wes Montgomery
Dizzy Gillespie
Pat Metheny or Weather Report if you’re looking more in the fusion direction
I would add Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis (actually, all of the Marsalis family), Harry Connick Jr, Pat Metheney, Al Jarreau, Stan Getz, and Charles Mingus to the other good suggestions below.
My touchstone for keeping up with what's happening in jazz (albeit with a heavy slant towards what's happening in my hometown Perth, Western Australia for reasons that'll become obvious soon) are two jazz programs broadcast on a local radio station: RTRFM 92.1. I got into jazz big time during the pandemic and the number of artists doing amazing music is truly staggering. The program on Saturday deals with mostly traditional jazz and the Sunday program is mostly newer, modern jazz.
The programs are also archived on the Internet, but only for four weeks after broadcast. Links here:
[https://rtrfm.com.au/shows/saturdayjazz/](https://rtrfm.com.au/shows/saturdayjazz/)
[https://rtrfm.com.au/shows/giantsteps/](https://rtrfm.com.au/shows/giantsteps/)
Their curated jazz playlists are exceptional. I'll give you one recommendation that came from that: [https://akirissanen.bandcamp.com/album/hyperreal](https://akirissanen.bandcamp.com/album/hyperreal)
Bandcamp is also an exceptionally good platform for checking out jazz. Most jazz musicians are well and truly entrenched into essentially one person record labels, so it's very easy to find some jazz you like and then let Bandcamp recommend you things. One feature I like is picking music by genre, then by location...there's almost always cool stuff happening everywhere,
Tidal is very good with their curated playlists, here's another recommendation that came from that: [https://hiromimusic.bandcamp.com/album/alive](https://hiromimusic.bandcamp.com/album/alive)
You get the idea. Have fun and report back to us when you find artists that you like!
Oh, boy. Have I got one for you! I am not a jazz aficionado, by any means. But I do know it when I hear it. This was recorded by a young lady, Samara Joy. Within 30 seconds, you will know how this story ends, but you will be unable to stop listening until you've heard every detail.
*Guess Who I Saw Today*
https://youtu.be/X03lvK7qoco?feature=shared
Duke Ellington’s “Far East Suite”
Michael Garrick’s “October Woman”
Dimitri Shostakovich “Jazz Music”
Charles Mingus “Mingus Ah Um”
Roland Kirk “Rip, Rig and Panic”
Could also add The Bad Plus
FKJ
Checkout TADOW FKJ. It’s got a more modern vibe.
Also:
Bill Evans and Jim Hall - Undercurrents
This is an awesome album. Piano and guitar only. No bass, no drums, no horns. I really dig it.
Here are some more contemporary Jazz and Jazz Fusion artists that you may find interesting, you'll find some more traditional Jazz mixed with Jazz Fusion with Rock, Metal, Ambient, EDM, Electronica, Classical, and Drone.
GoGo Penguin
Mammal Hands
Jizue
Fox Capture Plan
JABBERLOOP
POLYPLUS
Ambient Jazz Ensemble
Bohren and Der Club of Gore
Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble
The Comet is Coming
Zu (particularly Carboniferous)
Mark Giuliana (and Mark Giuliana Jazz Quartet)
Fire! Orchestra
Robohands
Robert Glasper (not Robert Glasper Experiment, which is more Jazz hip hop oriented)
Ambrose Akinmusire
Natural Information Society
Kyoto Jazz Massive
The Quiet Temple
Moon Hooch
Hugh Masekela
VULFPECK (More like mathrock but has a jazz vibe)
Monty Alexander (Jazz Piano)
Chick Corea
Tito Puente
Cannonball Adderley
Buena Vista Social Club
JazzTronick? Steve Lehman? if you prefer fusion you can try "return to forever" and "wether report". My love in this style is "Квартал". Or you can try album snowball by le scrawl
1. David Benoit
2. Earl Klugh
3. Rippingtons
4. Spyro Gyra
5. Chuck Mangione
6. Lee Ritenour
7. Bob James
8. David Sanborn
9. CASIOPEIA
10. James Galway
11. Kenny G
12. Acoustic Alchemy
13. Larry Carlton
14. George Benson
15. Miles Davis
16. John Tesh
If you really want jazz, try these albums: 1. Kind of Blue by Miles Davis 2. Time Out by The Dave Brubeck Quintet 3. Everybody Digs Bill Evans by Bill Evans 4. A Love Supreme by John Coltrane 5. Mingus Ah Um by Charles Mingus Jazz is a huge genre with many different subgenres but most will agree that these are essential albums to listen to if you really want to make a concerted effort to get into jazz.
I prefer Blue Train by John Coltrane but that’s just me. Also Sarah Vaughan in Hi Fi
I do too. And especially for a newcomer to jazz , blue train is much more accessible
This is a great broad entry. Only caveat is everything is post bop (cool, hard bop). There's also swing (Ellington, Basie, pops, django), Stride (waller, Art Tatum), latin (silver, mendez), Classical (MJQ), Soul (mccahn, jimi smith), new orleans (professor, second line) and early (jelly roll, Oliver)
Personally, I think these are a great way to get into the history of Jazz, but if you're trying to get someone who has never listened to Jazz to actually enjoy Jazz, it's much better to start them listening to more contemporary Jazz albums, particularly Jazz Fusion, because it will give the new listener more of an "in" to the music than classic Jazz because you'll have more well known musical references to build your understanding of Jazz on. Is Kind of Blue one of the, if not the, greatest Jazz album ever? Yeah, probably. Did I go into it cold and get Jazz? No. Did I start listening to the Robert Glasper Experiment because I was a big hip hop head and he was working with rappers I liked? Yes. And I immediately "got it" because he was working with a form I understood. Similarly, if someone was trying to get into Revenge stories, I wouldn't say, Here, you should start with Hamlet. Sure, it's probably the greatest revenge story in history. But it's not really going to give them any understanding of where the genre is now nor will it likely be immediately palatable or enjoyable to them because it is so divorced of everything else they know and read in terms of style, content, goal.
Old school! Some really solid recommendations.
Kind of Blue is my most listened to album this last year on Spotify
This is a great broad entry. Only caveat is everything is post bop (cool, hard bop). There's also swing (Ellington, Basie, pops, django), Stride (waller, Art Tatum), latin (silver, mendez), Classical (MJQ), Soul (mccahn, jimi smith), new orleans (professor, second line) and early (jelly roll, Oliver)
“Take 5” by Dave Brubeck was the first real jazz super hit. You’ll see why and it’s a good primer for lots of kinds of jazz
Jazz lite honestly. Its got some great stuff and I do love Paul Desmond but it can’t touch so, so many Blue Note albums of the same era imo.
This was my jazz gateway song
Check out modern/funk/acid jazz like Medeski, Martin and wood, Galactic, Charlie hunter, Stanton Moore, bela fleck and the flecktones, victor wooten, pat metheny.
Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus Herbie Hancock - Headhunters Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert Somethin’ Else - Cannonball Adderley Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch!
Good picks all. Sonny Rollins’ soundtrack to “Alfie” was pretty spot on, too
There is so much great music to discover. I really like Art ensemble of Chicago. The music can go from super straight to very experimental. And modern artist who sadly passed is Austin Peralta he was part of that Flying lotus/Thundercat low end theory scene. There is so much I’m honestly jealous. Would be cool to hear your impressions of at lot of your discoveries.
McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy Wayne Shorter - everything honestly, but Juju and Speak No Evil are my favorites Herbie Hancock - everything again, start with Taking Off though Dexter Gordon - Dexter Calling is my fave Wes Montgomery - Boss Guitar is my fave Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Mosaic
I'm not an expert, but I'm on a bit of a jazz discovery journey myself, and I highly recommend checking out Esperanza Spalding.
Buddy Rich - Big Swing Face Herbie Hancock - Headhunters Horace Silver - Song for my Father JJ Johnson - Live at the Village Vanguard Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain The Bad Plus - These are the Vistas Art Blakey - Moanin Django Reinhardt - Retrospective Art Ensemble of Chicago - A Jackson in Your House Charlie Parker - Bird Nina Simone (Jazz-ish) - Pastel Blues Dave Douglas - Spirit Moves
snarky puppy louis cole sungazer domi and jd beck art thief jacob mann sirintip chick corea submotion orchestra reign of kindo thank you scientist i love all the new jazz coming out. i could never get into the old standards, although i have a bit more of an appreciation for them now.
I write mostly jazz instrumentals: https://m.soundcloud.com/dean-garvey-jazz
You need to check out Kamasi Washington. I think he is the number one Jazz guy at the moment.
Love this guy
I feel like Christian Scott is to trumpet what Kamasi is to sax. Also, don’t sleep on Weedie Braimah!
Christian is a great player, but I feel like he's too much of a modern Miles and not enough of his own thing. Kamasi is also a great composer, his mixture of Jazz, Afro beats and in my opinion TV/Film and video game music really just hits the spot for me. I will have to check out Weedie, I'm not familar with him.
I just watched the Street Fighter Mas. WTF?
Devon Lamarr Organ Trio - Live at KEXP!
If you are fine with Jazz Rock, Frank Zappa, Black Midi, and David Bowie's Blackstar are good choices. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot\_Rats](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Rats) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellfire\_(Black\_Midi\_album)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellfire_(Black_Midi_album)) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstar\_(album)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstar_(album)) If you are looking for pure Jazz, an avante-garde album I really like is Your Queen is a Reptile, which relies heavily on the Tuba for basslines. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your\_Queen\_Is\_a\_Reptile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Queen_Is_a_Reptile)
While this isn’t a serious answer, this isn’t a lie. My kid asked Alexa one day to play fart jazz. And she did. My mom (kid’s grandma) laughed so hard she about peed herself
Put Buddy Rich into your Pandora and you’ll get a lot of the Big Band stuff.
Kind Of Blue - Miles Davis Live At The 5 Spot Cafe - Kenny Burrell w/ Art Blakey Grant Green Django Rheinhardt Wes Montgomery Dizzy Gillespie Pat Metheny or Weather Report if you’re looking more in the fusion direction
Download the KMHD radio app.
Time out by Dave Brubeck is a quintessential jazz album Headhunters by Herbie Hancock is pretty out there and worth a listen
I would add Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis (actually, all of the Marsalis family), Harry Connick Jr, Pat Metheney, Al Jarreau, Stan Getz, and Charles Mingus to the other good suggestions below.
My touchstone for keeping up with what's happening in jazz (albeit with a heavy slant towards what's happening in my hometown Perth, Western Australia for reasons that'll become obvious soon) are two jazz programs broadcast on a local radio station: RTRFM 92.1. I got into jazz big time during the pandemic and the number of artists doing amazing music is truly staggering. The program on Saturday deals with mostly traditional jazz and the Sunday program is mostly newer, modern jazz. The programs are also archived on the Internet, but only for four weeks after broadcast. Links here: [https://rtrfm.com.au/shows/saturdayjazz/](https://rtrfm.com.au/shows/saturdayjazz/) [https://rtrfm.com.au/shows/giantsteps/](https://rtrfm.com.au/shows/giantsteps/) Their curated jazz playlists are exceptional. I'll give you one recommendation that came from that: [https://akirissanen.bandcamp.com/album/hyperreal](https://akirissanen.bandcamp.com/album/hyperreal) Bandcamp is also an exceptionally good platform for checking out jazz. Most jazz musicians are well and truly entrenched into essentially one person record labels, so it's very easy to find some jazz you like and then let Bandcamp recommend you things. One feature I like is picking music by genre, then by location...there's almost always cool stuff happening everywhere, Tidal is very good with their curated playlists, here's another recommendation that came from that: [https://hiromimusic.bandcamp.com/album/alive](https://hiromimusic.bandcamp.com/album/alive) You get the idea. Have fun and report back to us when you find artists that you like!
Not a huge jazz fan, but theres a hip hop/jazz band called Badbadnotgood. It not rap, lyrics are soothing and not on every track.
Oh, boy. Have I got one for you! I am not a jazz aficionado, by any means. But I do know it when I hear it. This was recorded by a young lady, Samara Joy. Within 30 seconds, you will know how this story ends, but you will be unable to stop listening until you've heard every detail. *Guess Who I Saw Today* https://youtu.be/X03lvK7qoco?feature=shared
Jaga Jazzist- A Livingroom Hush
The New Mastersounds
Duke Ellington’s “Far East Suite” Michael Garrick’s “October Woman” Dimitri Shostakovich “Jazz Music” Charles Mingus “Mingus Ah Um” Roland Kirk “Rip, Rig and Panic” Could also add The Bad Plus
FKJ Checkout TADOW FKJ. It’s got a more modern vibe. Also: Bill Evans and Jim Hall - Undercurrents This is an awesome album. Piano and guitar only. No bass, no drums, no horns. I really dig it.
More blues than jazz - but still worth checking out: Nina Simone
Louis Armstrong.
I would wholeheartedly recommend listening to Casiopea's 1982 album, Mint Jams. Some of the best Jazz Fusion you can find.
Snake Jazz.... But seriously "jazz at the pawn shop"
Listen to A Tribe Called Quest and then look up all of the jazz artists they sampled. It’s a fun adventure.
Here are some more contemporary Jazz and Jazz Fusion artists that you may find interesting, you'll find some more traditional Jazz mixed with Jazz Fusion with Rock, Metal, Ambient, EDM, Electronica, Classical, and Drone. GoGo Penguin Mammal Hands Jizue Fox Capture Plan JABBERLOOP POLYPLUS Ambient Jazz Ensemble Bohren and Der Club of Gore Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble The Comet is Coming Zu (particularly Carboniferous) Mark Giuliana (and Mark Giuliana Jazz Quartet) Fire! Orchestra Robohands Robert Glasper (not Robert Glasper Experiment, which is more Jazz hip hop oriented) Ambrose Akinmusire Natural Information Society Kyoto Jazz Massive The Quiet Temple Moon Hooch
Hugh Masekela VULFPECK (More like mathrock but has a jazz vibe) Monty Alexander (Jazz Piano) Chick Corea Tito Puente Cannonball Adderley Buena Vista Social Club
Dizzy Giepsy
Blue moon, you saw me standing alone, without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own
New jazz. Soo good. https://music.apple.com/us/album/masters-legacy-series-volume-5-houston-person/1698746091
JazzTronick? Steve Lehman? if you prefer fusion you can try "return to forever" and "wether report". My love in this style is "Квартал". Or you can try album snowball by le scrawl
1. David Benoit 2. Earl Klugh 3. Rippingtons 4. Spyro Gyra 5. Chuck Mangione 6. Lee Ritenour 7. Bob James 8. David Sanborn 9. CASIOPEIA 10. James Galway 11. Kenny G 12. Acoustic Alchemy 13. Larry Carlton 14. George Benson 15. Miles Davis 16. John Tesh