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Recommend Me Some Jazz/Fusion

#61
Blue_Whistle88 said:
Regarding Miles Davis, the only albums I can remember off the top of my head that I got were Bitches Brew and something with "Spanish/Spain" in the title, but there were a few others as well.
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Sketches Of Spain?
If so, both Classics...but are about as opposite on the pole as you can get. Good for you!

You may like the Decoy band (includes Branford Marsalis, Darryl Jones, & John Scofield).

You may also like Miles' band with a young Marcus Miller:
Star People
We Want Miles
This material has been described as "chromatic funk" & is definitely pre-Tutu, pre-Siesta, pre-Amandla & Miles' other too finely(IMO) produced stuff.
 
#62
"Ballads" by Dexter Gordon. If you like tenor saxophone, this is a must have.

+1 on Cobham's "Spectrum" - easy to get into if you're unfamiliar with jazz but interesting enough to keep you coming back for more. The drumming is unbelievable, and of course some really tasty bass playing courtesy of Ron Carter and Lee Sklar (I actually never thought the guy was into fusion until I listened to Spectrum - I've only known him as the less is more player)

Too bad you didn't get into Bitches Brew right away - I'd recommend you give it more time. It's a gift that keeps on giving, and I remember my first listen. I thought what the **** am I listening to. But the more I listened, and the more I listened closely to Miles solos in particular, it's slowly become one of my alltime favorite albums. Kind of Blue however left me kind of cold (pun intended) no matter how much I listen to it. I recently got the Coltrane omnibook however, and the guy did some really crazy things on So What so eh I guess I gotta listen more...
 
#63
Nashrakh said:
+1 on Cobham's "Spectrum"....and of course some really tasty bass playing courtesy of Ron Carter and Lee Sklar (I actually never thought the guy was into fusion until I listened to Spectrum - I've only known him as the less is more player).
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I have some old Sklar interviews/articles from '70s Guitar Player, etc-
Sklar was/is an original '70s Fusioneer...because he often gigged with James Taylor, Jackson Browne, et al...a lot thought of him as a "Folkie" (IIRC, that is the term he used in one or more of these interviews).
Sklar had a side band in those daze called The Section (w/ Russ Kunkel & Danny Kortchmar)...check 'em out.

Also, about Sklar being a "less is more" player...in one of those interviews, he mentions practicing something like The Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" @45rpm vs. the LP's standard 33 1/3 rpm.
Then, going back to the normal playing speed of the LP (33 1/3 rpm)...he said he had an enormous amount of time to add even more notes!
:)

BTW, Will Lee often talks about Spectrum in the interviews I have laying around...he was Cobham's bassist at this time. Apparently, Uncle Will's frankenstein'd Fender P (or J) was not happenin' tone-wise. Lee said this taught him a valuable lesson" Have good gear & a good tone, otherwise...
 
#64
Nashrakh said:
Too bad you didn't get into Bitches Brew right away - I'd recommend you give it more time. It's a gift that keeps on giving, and I remember my first listen. I thought what the **** am I listening to. But the more I listened, and the more I listened closely to Miles solos in particular, it's slowly become one of my alltime favorite albums.
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I bought Bitches Brew in the mid-'70s...cause I read it was a seminal Fusion album. Man, was I disappointed. This is Fusion?
;)
Anyway, it took me 20 years to get into that album...now I would call it a favourite.
Kind of Blue however left me kind of cold (pun intended) no matter how much I listen to it.
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KOB is an oft-cited album for Jazz noobs to check out-
If you're into it, check out the oft-overlooked Oliver Nelson album called Blues & The Abstract Truth.
Nelson is joined by KOB's Bill Evans & Paul Chambers + Eric Dolphy, Roy Haynes, Freddie Hubbard, & George Barrow.
 
#69
Roy Vogt said:
Get Virgil Donati's solo project. Great fusion with the amazing Anthony Crawford on Bass!
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Yea, I actually got this not long after I originally created this thread, and it blew me away. The bass playing on that album is just fantastic (Doug Shreeve being my personal favourite of the 3 players), and some of the orchestration is actually masterful (see Paradise Lost).
 
#71
Blue_Whistle88 said:
Yea, I actually got this not long after I originally created this thread, and it blew me away. The bass playing on that album is just fantastic (Doug Shreeve being my personal favourite of the 3 players), and some of the orchestration is actually masterful (see Paradise Lost).
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This album is awesome, Doug Shreeve's solo on red air flows so well, really want to transcribe it now.
 

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