Music That Reminds You Why You Fell In Love With Jazz

[Gary Sisco]

This week I've been listening to a lot of pre-Coltrane Miles on Prestige, which I haven't done in a long while, not because I don't love it but because I've been busy for years buying new rekkids and listening to them (not being a guy like some who can have stacks of unlistened to CDs around). Being on a serious no-buy regimen, I've been listening instead to the ton of music I already own.

This is some of my favorite music of all and listening to it again has reminded me of how it was that I fell in love with jazz in the first place, as a kid.

The Miles Prestige box was the first box set I ever bought and it will always remain my favorite musical possession. Especially from CD 3 on, Miles can be heard nailing the greatness he'd aimed at previously but hadn't always hit. Listen to tracks five and six on disc 3 (Blue'n Boogie and Walkin'). Just amazing stuff. Great jazz. Great *music.*

What music hits you in this way?

[burning dog]

The Miles stuff between Birth of the Cool but before Coltrane seems relatively neglected now. I love the Miles version of "It never entered my mind" with Silver on Bluenote and "Weirdo" on the same label. The Rollins/Davis version of "In your own sweet way" on Prestige is great too. I also go back to Bird on Savoy to remind me why I fell in love with jazz and some of mainstream players associated with Duke, Hodges and Webster especially.

[stonemonkts]

I'd have to say almost anything with Monk, and mid 20's to early 30's Armstrong does it for me, each and every time. I hope it never ceases to have that effect.

[Root Doctor]

The Kansas City crew: Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, Andy Kirk, Jay McShann, Julie Lee, Mary Lou Williams, Jimmy Witherspoon.

[Vince Kargatis]

Generally, I feel this way about a variety of things that just hit my brain in the particular right mood. Happened plenty, but I can't ascribe any patterns.

[John L]

Originally Posted by Root Doctor

The Kansas City crew: Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, Andy Kirk, Jay McShann, Julie Lee, Mary Lou Williams, Jimmy Witherspoon.

I'll join you there. But only after you add Lester Young. (Maybe we could also sneak Charlie Parker into the mix.)

[Dennis Gonzalez]

Big Fun - Miles
Sweetnighter - Weather Report
Contours - Sam Rivers
Of Mist and Melting - Bill Connors
Solstice - Ralph Towner
Lord of Lords - Alice Coltrane
The Koln Concerts - Keith Jarrett
Tribute - Paul Motian
Nice Guys - Art Ensemble of Chicago

[walto]

I think it was Cecil and Muhal who dragged my attention toward jazz.

[jaka]

Originally Posted by stonemonkts

I'd have to say almost anything with Monk

I'm with stone here, plus Tim Berne's JMT stuff, which has been what really dragged me into "improvised music" (though largely written in parts, in this case) in the first place.

[burning dog]

And I forgot to add the Monk on Bluenote material.

[Ron Thorne]

Among the earliest which tugged at me:

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Oliver Nelson - The Blues and the Abstract Truth
Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
Chico Hamilton - Chico Hamilton with Strings Attached
Lee Morgan - Sidewinder
Hank Garland - Jazz Winds From a New Direction
Horace Silver - Song For My Father

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

My parent's jazz, Duke, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday.

Then Art Blakey's Moanin', Dizzy's The Ebullient Dizzy Gillespie, Miles' Sketches of Spain and Kind of Blue, Mingus' Black Saint and Sinner Lady.

When my interest began to flag, I discovered Cecil Taylor's Indent, Silent Tongues and Nefertiti and Rahsaan's Inflated Tear and The Return of the 5,000 Pound Man.

The next megaburst was finding this place, and the earliest albums I discovered here that propelled me on were John Lindberg's Bounce, Art Ensemble of Chicago's Urban Bushmen, Billy Bang with Sun Ra doing A Tribute to Stuff Smith, Sun Ra's Other Planes of There, Vienna Art Orchestra's Concerto Piccolo and the great Sergey Kuryokhin's Some Combinations of Fingers and Passion.

[Dr Dave]

I'm not ashamed to be a cliche: Miles's "Kind of Blue" and Coltrane's "A Love Supreme." Ancillary influences: Gary Burton's "Duster" and Jimmy Smith's "The Sermon." Oh, and lest I forget: Stan Getz's "Jazz Samba," the first jazz record where I learned to sing all the solos...

[Paul B]

Rollins' "Tenor Madness." The first album that really hooked me. My bartender had it cranking the other night as a few of us finished up our drinks, and it always slays me (as does all Rollins' work from that era).

Bye-ya

[JamesH]

Nice thread Gary.

For me it's the sound of suprise married with swing.

Last night I was listening to Stefon Harris' latest which includes songs from Ellington's "New Orleans Suite". Stefon put's a new spin on old music and it mostly sounds fantastic.

This morning in the barber's chair I heard a track from Sonny Clark's "Leapin' and Lopin'" cd with Tommy Turrentine and Charlie Rouse. Now those brothers were swingin'.

Right now, I'm listening to Joe Lovano's "Joyous Encounter". Just a magical sound coming from Joe's tenor.

Reminders just keep coming.

[Ron Thorne]

Gary Burton's Duster was a *great* album, Doc.

Not to upstage you, but his first recording was also phenomenal . . . Hank Garland's JWFAND mentioned in my post above. If you don't have it in your collection, get it by whatever means necessary. It's the shit!

[bonethugz]

anybody notice that some old, very old cartoon ie bug bunny or popeye used some jazz for their background music? i didn't quite notice that until i got louis armstrong's sugar and jazz lips. it's really that kind of music/jazz. so when saw this thread, i think umm, i listen to jazz all my life and still do

[Lenny D.Guitarist]

Kind of Blue sealed my fate.

Anything by Wes, Charlie Christian, Joe Pass, Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker.

[turnoutthestars]

My first jazz cd`s/tapes:

Richie Cole-Pure Imagination
Sonny Rollins-G-Man
Duke Robillard-Swing
Gary Peacock-Tales Of Another
Ray Brown-Don`t Forget The Blues
Chick Corea-Akoustic Band and Trio Music Live In Europe
Phil Woods-Bouquet
Miles Davis-Kind Of Blue and Bag`s Groove

[Leon Harris]

I was fortunate enough to come of age when (and where) Jazz was a part of the popular music Universe, and it was not so unusual to hear the likes of Eddie Heywood, Johnny Smith, King Pleasure, Count Basie (w. Joe Williams), and Dinah Washington, on your local Pop Music radio station.
The first time I remember feeling Jazz as something other than Popular Music was when I heard The Thelonious Monk Quartet (+2) play "I'm Getting Sentemental Over You" (Not too long after that, Monk seemed to become ensnared in his own personal "Groundhog Day".)

Leon Harris

[Surfer]

I think the question was, "What music reminds you of why you fell in love with jazz", not "What music made you fall in love with jazz"

So I guess in the last few years, the few new-to-me recordings that reminded me of how I felt when I first heard Coltrane come in on Afro Blue from Live At Birdland, are Rara Avis by Clusone 3 and maybe the Sclavis disks Suite Africaine and Carnet de Routes.

[Lilsis]

For me, my parents loved Duke Ellington and Count Basie. My father particularly liked Jimmy Lunceford: all big band sounds. But then I had an older brother who started collecting jazz albums in his early teens and played Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Fats Navarro, J.J. Johnson, and then... he played an Ahmad Jamal tune on the old hi-fi. I was smitten. I was eight years old and the song was "Poinciana". I remember it also came out on a 45 record and I played it over and over and over again.
Furthermore, it didn't hurt having my oldest brother to become a jazz musician. He helped to nurture my love for the music.

Keep the Music Playing

[Felix]

Originally Posted by Surfer

the Sclavis disks Suite Africaine and Carnet de Routes.

Have you heard African Flashback?

[ericdevin]

Originally Posted by bonethugz

anybody notice that some old, very old cartoon ie bug bunny or popeye used some jazz for their background music? i didn't quite notice that until i got louis armstrong's sugar and jazz lips. it's really that kind of music/jazz. so when saw this thread, i think umm, i listen to jazz all my life and still do

That would be Raymond Scott...

Personally:

John Coltrane - Kulu Se Mama
John Coltrane/Archie Shepp - New Thing At Newport
Yusef Lateef - The Golden Flute
Yusef Lateef - 1984
Matthew Shipp/William Parker - DNA

The first four are my mom's old records, the last I bought on a lark around the time it was released after reading an interview with Shipp in a magazine which otherwise focused on punk.

Eric

[Sergio Zamora]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

What music hits you in this way?

Rahsaan. I could play RRK every day but I don't because I don't want to lose that feeling when I do.

[Root Doctor]

Originally Posted by John L

I'll join you there. But only after you add Lester Young. (Maybe we could also sneak Charlie Parker into the mix.)

Gladly, as well as Jimmy Rushing, Don Byas, Eddie Durham, Buck Clayton, Jo Jones, Walter Page, Buddy Tate, and the rest of those great players.

[Ron Thorne]

Every time I hear (the "original") So What, I'm reminded. Every time I hear (the "original" from Oliver Nelson) Stolen Moments . . .

[Robert de St. Loup]

Bobby Watson and Horizon Reassembled, which is paying over my iPod speakers right now as I take 5 from working on Sunday. Truly great stuff that I have never heard before today (and just downloaded from emusic 2-3 days ago).

[Felix]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

The Miles Prestige box was the first box set I ever bought and it will always remain my favorite musical possession. Especially from CD 3 on, Miles can be heard nailing the greatness he'd aimed at previously but hadn't always hit. Listen to tracks five and six on disc 3 (Blue'n Boogie and Walkin'). Just amazing stuff. Great jazz. Great *music.*

I recently exchanged my old Miles Prestige CDs for the box, and have been listening to that particular period as well. There was a lot of stuff I didn't know (on the first discs), but those 1954 recordings still do it for me, especially the December session with Monk, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath and Kenny Clarke where they do Bags' Groove.

Almost anything by Duke Ellington. Even some albums I didn't listen to as a kid have a familiar feeling about them.

Also, Coltrane's 1961 Village Vanguard sessions, especially the originally issued India (with Dolphy) and Impressions.

[Canuck Don]

It was 1959.I was 15 then.This one Sat. morning I was changing stations on the radio and this song was on. I could not believe how beautiful this female singer sounded.Never heard this type of music before.When the song finished the guy on the radio said it was Ella. I never heard of her before or even what jazz was ,all I knew is that I loved the sound and I got hooked.I started to only listen to jazz stations and started to buy jazz records.So whenever I hear anything by Ella now..it brings back that Sat morn. way back in 1959 when I got hooked to this beautiful artform ,called jazz, and I got to see Miss Ella 5 times...the last time, one month before she left us.