Playlists for Newcomers to Jazz

[rinoRotti]

This thread is a goldmine. Thanks for all the effort, Alypius!

[Alypius]

Originally Posted by rinoRotti

This thread is a goldmine. Thanks for all the effort, Alypius!

Rino, Thanks. Hope your explorations are continuing apace. All the best.

[boberz]

Originally Posted by Alypius

Earlier I posted playlists for jazz guitar and trumpet. Here’s the first of four playlists dedicated to jazz pianists of the last 50 years. As with my other playlists, these four give only the tiniest glimpses into the range and styles of these artists, but hopefully, for newcomers, these might provide a first foothold.

Merci

[John_Swing]

Hello,

This is my first post to this forum, but I just wanted to say an enormous thank you for all the discoveries I made through your playlists. Thanks for all the effort, and I'll keep following this thread with much attention.

John.

[Alypius]

Originally Posted by John_Swing

Hello,

This is my first post to this forum, but I just wanted to say an enormous thank you for all the discoveries I made through your playlists. Thanks for all the effort, and I'll keep following this thread with much attention.

John.

John, Welcome to the forum. I'm glad to hear that you've found the playlists helpful. I hope you'll consider continuing to contribute, sharing your interests and discoveries. All the best.

[HutchFan]

Bobby Hutcherson - Selected Sideman Highlights, Vol. 1

1. Curtis Amy, “Oatmeal” (from Various Artists, This is the Blues, Vol. 1, 1960; reissued as a bonus track on Les McCann Ltd in New York)
2. Jackie McLean, "Frankenstein" (from One Step Beyond, 1963)
3. Grant Green, "Jean de Fleur" (from Idle Moments, 1963)
4. Andrew Hill, "Alfred" (from Judgment, 1964)
5. Eric Dolphy, "Gazzelloni" (from Out to Lunch, 1964)
6. Jackie McLean, "Hootnan" (from Action, 1964)
7. Dexter Gordon, "Who Am I to Turn To?" (from Gettin' Around, 1965)
8. Joe Henderson, "Black" (from Mode for Joe, 1966)
9. Prince Lasha & Sonny Simmons, "Psalm of Solomon" (from Firebirds, 1967)
10. Gerald Wilson Orchestra, "Mini-Waltz" (from Everywhere, 1967-68)

Total time: 69:01

[HutchFan]

Bobby Hutcherson - Selected Sideman Highlights, Vol. 2

1. Duke Pearson, "The Phantom" (from The Phantom, 1968)
2. George Cables, "Inner Glow" (from Cables' Vision, 1979)
3. Larry Vuckovich, "Blue Balkan" (from Blue Balkan: Then & Now, 1980)
4. John Hicks, "Pas de Trois" (from John Hicks, 1982)
5. Cedar Walton, "My Foolish Heart" (from Among Friends, 1982)
6. Herbie Hancock, "Minuit Aux Champs-Elysees" (from Round Midnight OST)
7. Andrew Hill, "Golden Sunset" (from Eternal Spirit, 1989)
8. Kenny Barron, "For Heaven's Sake" (from Other Places, 1993)
9. McCoy Tyner, "Manalyuca" (from Land of Giants, 2002)

Total Time: 70:05

[Alypius]

Hutch, Thanks! Those two playlists look great. I look forward tonight to listening to what of those that I've already got and to tracking down what I don't. I very much appreciate your expertise here.

[Alypius]

A friend of mine's son has been playing the double bass in his school's orchestra. While he has enjoyed the instrument, he worried that he had little opportunity to take the lead musically. My friend had heard that in jazz bassists were much more prominent but didn't know his way around the discography and asked for help. So I put together a couple of jazz bass playlists to introduce them to key performers and performances. My selections try to highlight bass players both as soloists and as band leaders. For younger listeners, it is important to highlight contemporary performers and not simply give a history lesson. So I've slightly biased these two lists to the contemporary scene, but do give a smattering of greats of the past. That said, I do give a bit of a history lesson in the case of Jaco Pastorius, opening with Charlie Parker's "Donna Lee" so that he could appreciate the astounding virtuosity of Jaco's performance. Here's the first. I hope this proves helpful to other newcomers:

Jazz Bass: Playlist #1 (of 2)

1. Haitian Fight Song (12:01) (from Charles Mingus, The Clown, 1956) (Charles Mingus: bass)
2. The Clutch (6:30) (from Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth, Deluxe, 2010) (Chris Lightcap: bass)
3. Roll Credits (6:10) (from Ben Allison, Little Things Run the World, 2008) (Ben Allison: bass)
4. Everything in Its Right Place (6:55) (from Brad Mehldau, Anything Goes, 2004) (Larry Grenadier: bass)
5. A Night Away (8:01) (from Pat Metheny / Brad Mehldau, Quartet, 2007) (Larry Grenadier: bass)
6. A Bright Size Life (4:46) (from Pat Metheny, Bright Size Life, 1975) (Jaco Pastorius: bass)
7. Donna Lee (2:34) (from Charlie Parker, The Yardbird Suite)
8. Donna Lee (2:27) (from Jaco Pastorius, Jaco Pastorius, 1976; reissue: Essential Jaco Pastorius, 2007)
9. Hejira (6:43) (from Joni Mitchell, Hejira, 1967; reissue: Essential Jaco Pastorius, 2007) (Jaco Pastorius: bass)
10. Conference of the Birds (4:43) (from Dave Holland, Conference of the Birds, 1972) (Dave Holland: bass)
11. Shadow Dance (14:44) (from Dave Holland, What Goes Around, 2001) (Dave Holland: bass)

[Alypius]

Jazz Bass: Playlist #2 (of 2)

1. So What (9:25) (from Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, 1959) (Paul Chambers: bass)
2. Tiny Resistors (6:45) (from Todd Sickafoose, Tiny Resistors, 2008) (Todd Sickafoose: bass)
3. Padrecito (6:27) (from Medeski, Martin & Wood, Radiolarians II, 2009) (Chris Wood: bass)
4. Kisofim (7:12) (from Masada, Live at the Tonic, 2001) (Greg Cohen: bass)
5. Technicolor Nightmare (12:48) (from Christian McBride, Live at Tonic, 2006) (Christian McBride: bass)
6. Star Eyes (5:23) (from Chris Potter, Gratitude, 2000) (Scott Colley: bass)
7. Black Cherry (2:42) (from William Parker & Hamid Drake, Piercing the Veil, 2001) (William Parker: bass)
8. Sun (13:56) (from William Parker, O’Neal’s Porch, 2002) (William Parker: bass)
9. Jade Visions (4:12) (from Bill Evans, Sunday at the Village Vanguard, 1961) (Scott LaFaro: bass)

[xybert]

^^^ Cool playlist. Very interested to hear what the recipient's impressions are; please share if you get any feedback

[Alypius]

Originally Posted by xybert

^^^ Cool playlist. Very interested to hear what the recipient's impressions are; please share if you get any feedback

Xybert, Thanks. I'll certainly pass on what I hear back. As you can tell, I built it around the bassists, to give this friend and his son a glimpse of some of the best bassists working today. I tried to pick out numbers that were attractive in and of themselves, but was most concerned that they lead off with great solos -- and in a variety of styles. I obviously shortchange the greats of the past: Mingus, LaFaro, Chambers. I give Jaco a bit more space because he tends to immediately catch the imagination of younger listeners. One has to have heard a good bit of jazz to savor the brilliance of Paul Chambers or Scott LaFaro. Now Mingus -- well, everybody gets Mingus, his virtuosity, his compositional brilliance, and ability to put a band through its paces.

[Chautauqua]

(From another non-native-english-speaking...) I've used a couple of days reading through all this, and I'm really impressed about the the high standards the subjects are treated by. Now, this tread is more of 'playlist expertise' than 'jazz for newcomers'. My way into this is different from learning the old classics, which to mee seems to be a real burden. A few friends and I happened to listen to jazz already in High School in about 1985 - but our way into that got by Carlos Santana, Mezzoforte, Dave Grusin (I think), Larry Carlton and even Manhattan Transfer - before someone brought in the at that time-contemporary Chick Corea and John McLaughlin-lead bands. In our part of the world, the 'electrification' of the genre was prevailing - whereas here, the 'fusion'-term more comes into play. This almost entirely leaves out Miles Davis' 'Star People' and 'Decoy' that for me still are milestones.

During the next many years jazz was forgotten, only Pat Metheny stuck - to me his music is very accesible and kind of dynamic - it fits OK in the car or on the cell phone and much of it from the 70-80's didn't require too much attention to hit me. I still miss to study his last (15 years of) work, especially with Brad Meldau. Much effort was used for entering the electronic genres, (mostly in cars or on cell) which then was just as virgin to me as is most jazz now. Nice to recognize local Nils Petter Molvaer.

During the 2 last days - mainly thanks to Youtube, Aaron Parks, John Zorn, Vijay Iyer and Benn Frisell have entered my mind - this is virgin land for me. I'd really like to dig into the pre/hard/post-bop - artists - but it seems hard to me to regard much of this as more than a 'theme' alternating with 'solos' - I miss melody lines to remember and there's too much cheroot and beer to this - expressed in local terms - and it's not Diane Krall or Esperanza Spalding I'm after.

Again, thanks for the enormous effort and the very high quality of your work here.

[Alypius]

Originally Posted by Chautauqua

(From another non-native-english-speaking...) I've used a couple of days reading through all this, and I'm really impressed about the the high standards the subjects are treated by. Now, this tread is more of 'playlist expertise' than 'jazz for newcomers'. My way into this is different from learning the old classics, which to mee seems to be a real burden. A few friends and I happened to listen to jazz already in High School in about 1985 - but our way into that got by Carlos Santana, Mezzoforte, Dave Grusin (I think), Larry Carlton and even Manhattan Transfer - before someone brought in the at that time-contemporary Chick Corea and John McLaughlin-lead bands. In our part of the world, the 'electrification' of the genre was prevailing - whereas here, the 'fusion'-term more comes into play. This almost entirely leaves out Miles Davis' 'Star People' and 'Decoy' that for me still are milestones.

During the next many years jazz was forgotten, only Pat Metheny stuck - to me his music is very accesible and kind of dynamic - it fits OK in the car or on the cell phone and much of it from the 70-80's didn't require too much attention to hit me. I still miss to study his last (15 years of) work, especially with Brad Meldau. Much effort was used for entering the electronic genres, (mostly in cars or on cell) which then was just as virgin to me as is most jazz now. Nice to recognize local Nils Petter Molvaer.

During the 2 last days - mainly thanks to Youtube, Aaron Parks, John Zorn, Vijay Iyer and Benn Frisell have entered my mind - this is virgin land for me. I'd really like to dig into the pre/hard/post-bop - artists - but it seems hard to me to regard much of this as more than a 'theme' alternating with 'solos' - I miss melody lines to remember and there's too much cheroot and beer to this - expressed in local terms - and it's not Diane Krall or Esperanza Spalding I'm after.

Again, thanks for the enormous effort and the very high quality of your work here.

Chautauqua, Welcome to the board. Thanks for your comments. We all have unique journeys into this music, and it is helpful to hear yours. I appreciate your interest in what we would call "fusion" and what you all in Denmark call "electrification." If you explore some of the lists that are "Best of Year Such-and-Such," you'll find that I routinely give examples of contemporary electric jazz. It doesn't sound like 80s fusion. I'm traveling at the moment, but if I can get a chance, I'll see if I can highlight some of those recent electric efforts. I do have a "Artist Playlist: Bill Frisell." You might start there. Frisell does some remarkable computer looping with his guitar playing. All the best.

[Chautauqua]

Alypius, thanks for your advice. I've proceeded into this already helped by the lists and our local library, which is a goldmine too. The 'Follow the sidemen'-principle proves valuable too - met Mike Moreno and Eric Harlan after Aaron Parks this way.