jazz bands.

[cobrasneverdie]

i want to get playing some jazz stuff, but i dont know of any jazz stuff at all. can someone hook me up with some jazz bands? help appreciated.

[Planet Boulder]

Where to begin?

What kind of "jazz" are you talking about? 50s bop ala Miles, Coltrane, etc? 60s avant garde ala Miles, Thelonious? Late 60s & 70s fusion? That "smooth" stuff they call jazz today?

The genre is tremonxious. What kind of jazz are we talking about?

[DaveBeny]

As a starting point, here's All About Jazz's guide to starting a jazz collection:

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/library/index.html

[Aaron]

How I built my jazz collection (and most of my music collection) is that I found cats i really liked and then checked out who they listened to and who they inspired. I found out that Victor Wooten was a pretty big Jaco fan, so i check him out. I really dug Jaco's stuff so i heard he was a big fan of Stavinsky, Duck Dunn, James Brown, Bird, etc. So it just happened that I dug all of their stuff, too. I also check out a bunch of guys Jaco inspired quite a bit like Richard Bona and Mark Egan.

So I'd say find a jazz group you really like, then figure out where their sound came from and what their sound evolved to later on.

[Juneau]

Originally Posted by Aaron

How I built my jazz collection (and most of my music collection) is that I found cats i really liked and then checked out who they listened to and who they inspired. I found out that Victor Wooten was a pretty big Jaco fan, so i check him out. I really dug Jaco's stuff so i heard he was a big fan of Stavinsky, Duck Dunn, James Brown, Bird, etc. So it just happened that I dug all of their stuff, too. I also check out a bunch of guys Jaco inspired quite a bit like Richard Bona and Mark Egan.

So I'd say find a jazz group you really like, then figure out where their sound came from and what their sound evolved to later on.

I did exactly the same thing, found players I dug, looked up who they were into or inspired by, then moved on to those things. Good way to go about it IMO.

[peteroberts]

Start with Miles. You'll get almost everybody, because almost all the greats played with him, from Art Blakey to Coltrane to Tony Williams to Scofield. That's how I started; I listened to 'Kind of Blue'. Then I went out and got a whole bunch of Bill Evans and Coltrane records.

My cherished discovery - Wayne Shorter. Great player and composer!!!

[Wrong Robot]

Originally Posted by peteroberts

My cherished discovery - Wayne Shorter. Great player and composer!!!

yeah man, he's one of my all time favorites, and he has such an amazing tone.

[s0ckeyeus]

I just bought some great CDs that might be worth checking out...
Miles Davis "Miles Ahead" ("Kind of Blue" is wonderful too, of course)
John Coltrane "A Love Supreme"
Charlie Parker "The Complete Savoy & Dial Studio Recordings"
Charles Mingus "Ah Hum"
Herbie Hancock "Maiden Voyage" and "Head hunters"
Thelonius Monk "Genius of Modern Music: Vol 1"

[cobrasneverdie]

Originally Posted by s0ckeyeus

I just bought some great CDs that might be worth checking out...
Miles Davis "Miles Ahead" ("Kind of Blue" is wonderful too, of course)
John Coltrane "A Love Supreme"
Charlie Parker "The Complete Savoy & Dial Studio Recordings"
Charles Mingus "Ah Hum"
Herbie Hancock "Maiden Voyage" and "Head hunters"
Thelonius Monk "Genius of Modern Music: Vol 1"

i really enjoied all of those guys. thanks.

[fulcrum]

What about getting your hands on one of the volumes of The New Real Book (I think there are three)? Hundreds of jazz standards right at your fingertips. Works wonders for your reading, and pushes your harmonic vocabulary into areas you might not go to on your own.

[cobrasneverdie]

Originally Posted by fulcrum

What about getting your hands on one of the volumes of The New Real Book (I think there are three)? Hundreds of jazz standards right at your fingertips. Works wonders for your reading, and pushes your harmonic vocabulary into areas you might not go to on your own.

i will look into that.