Building your jazz music collection

Building a jazz music library has to do with personal tastes while keeping an eye on history.  On the one hand, jazz is about tradition.  Being aware of who has done what and learning to appreciate the different eras of jazz is a worthwhile endeavor.  Understanding the stories behind certain key albums can give keen insight into our country and culture.  That being said, find out what you like and obtain a lot of it...ultimately it's about enjoyment.  I'll maintain this page with a bias toward the connoisseur, though I, at best need to be viewed as a novice who is learning as I go.  That is why I have left the comments section open for your suggestions as to what you like and what albums & artists you think need to be included.  (I'll update this page periodically, so check back often)

It's been said that when building a jazz music collection, start with Kind of Blue and then buy anything connected with the cats who play on the awesome album.  That's some pretty good advice.  Here's some more...

Click here for a basic summary of jazz styles.

1800's-early 1900's:  The Blues

1900-1920

1921-1940

Billy Holiday:  The Ultimate Collection

Louis Armstrong

Ella Fitzgerald

Duke Ellington--The Best of the Complete RCA Victor Mid-forties Recordings

Duke Ellington--16 Most Requested Songs

Jelly Roll Morton

King oliver

Bix Beiderbecke

Sidney Bichet

Count Basie

Benny Goodman

Lester Young

Chick Webb

1941-1960

Brother Jack McDuff--The Best of the Concord Years

Charles Mingus--Blues and Roots

Charles Mingus--Thirteen Pictures:  The Charles Mingus Anthology

Dizzy Gillespie

Charlie Parker

Nat King Cole

Dexter Gordon

Glenn Miller

Jimmy Smith--The Sermon

Max Roach

Sara Vaughn

Miles Davis

Dave Brubeck

Quincy Jones

Oscar peterson

Sonny Rollins

1961-1980

Thelonious Monk--Live at the IT Club

Ornette Coleman

John coltrane

Cannonball Adderly--The Definitive Cannonball Adderly Collection

Ron Carter

Stan Getz

Elvin Jones

Jaco Pastorious--Punk Jazz:  The Jaco Pastorious Anthology

Herbie Hancock

1980-1990:  Smooth Jazz & Neo-traditionalist

Wynton Marsalis

1991 to 2000

Christian McBride--Live at Tonic

Dizzy Gillespie--To Diz with Love

E. S. T.--Seven Days of Falling

Regina Carter

Cassandra Wilson--Blue Light 'til Dawn

Cassandra Wilson--New Moon Daughter

2000-present

Brian Bromberg:  Downright Upright

Comments

[Jai]

"Idle Moments" Grant Green
"The Matador" Grant Green
"Best of Herbie Hancock" Blue note years
"Bright Size Life" Pat Metheny
"The Way Up" Pat Metheny
"For the funk of it" Grant Green
"Root Down" Jimmy Smith
"The Boss" Jimmy Smith(Geo.Benson-guitar)
"Punk Jazz" Jaco Pastorious

[Tia Fuller]

God Bless you and your gift of creation and speading the word of God through jazz.

Thank you for the message on sun...it was wonderful to hear and see you!!

tia

[joel]

Brother,

thanks for your great list here. I haven't read your books yet but will and will work my way through the jazz list with my Rhapsody account. I have really enjoyed a few folks over the years (Coltrane, Fats Waller, Herbie Hancock, Louie, Miles, etc.) and enjoyed finding the places in my neighborhood where many of them played and some lived.

Blessings,
Joel.

[Danny]

If it wasn't for jazz fusion of the 70's - Return to Forever and specifically Al DiMeola I may have never encountered jazz.

Joe Pass and Larry Carlton has does some great things too.

[Diana]

Hold on there! Where's Ella?? I don't think Louis would appreciate you leavin' her out. (Neither would The Count, Benny, or Louis Jordan) If you have iTunes open, here's a classic: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?i=1109031&id=1109050&s=143441

[jazztheologian]

Diana,
I am remiss...how could I have left out the first lady of song!
robert

[Drum Phil]

Beautiful work, brother! In the time periods from 1980 onward, you could include works that build on the foundation of John Clayton on bass and Jeff Hamilton on drums. A good example is the album "The Music" by the Clayton Brothers. Clayton and Hamilton have skills beyond limit, but they put all their skill purely at the service of the music. No egos -- it's all about excellence in the musical result. True beauty!

[jazztheologian]

D Phil,
Thanks for the tip...I'll check it out.

[okielawyer]

Good start. May I suggest Charlie Christian & (early) Freddie Hubbard? Also Modern Jazz Quartet.

[Brian]

The only other suggestion for getting into jazz I can think of is to find a friend, who you know likes jazz, who also likes a lot of the other music you listen to & borrow some. ...or do like I did, find a musician friend [in my case, guitar teacher] & get them to make a list for you. I like Miles Davis, & subsequently some of the fusion groups born from the members of his bands. Mahavishnu Orchestra [formed by guitarist John McLaughlin], Return to Forever [formed by Chick Corea], & Weather Report [formed by Joe Zawinul & Wayne Shorter]. By the way...I actually don't have Kind of Blue, I don't know if I liked it the first time I heard it. [probably would like it now] I like Tribute to Jack Johnson, & In a Silent Way -a lot.
Since I like progressive rock stuff, my teacher got me into different jazz bands/ artists, like Bela Fleck & the Flecktones. Don't know if this helps anybody.

[Marshall Colston]

I think it is notable to consider that Jazz remains the the only authentic American art form. From a mathematical and theological perspective, it boasts the most complex of musical mechanics and delivery. Jazz has the potential for unlimited musical resolutions unlike any other brand of music, be they more limited by pattern or structure. This is why there are so many strains and variances of jazz, each offering creative opportunity based on the unique gifting of the individual artist or group. Therefore it is likely there is a recorded style of jazz pleasurable for most anyone. Jazz could be described as "an artist's art form" since it encourages improvisational expertise and the free flow of musical idiom. The writing, arrangement and performance of jazz music, inspired by the likes of legends listed in your summary, have historical relevance beyond time and space.

[bryant hill]

So, after spending Tuesday Night with the Jazz Theologian, I went home and found my Pharaoh Sanders, Karma album and listened to The Creator has a Master Plan, Miles, Kind of Blue album, Flamenco Sketches, Cannonball Adderly, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy and John Coltrane, Love Supreme albums. It was a wonderful walk down memory lane. When I was a kid growing up in Boston, my oldest sister married Lenny Johnson, a trumpet player who played with Miles Davis, Quincy Jones (you can see Lenny in Quincy's documentary, "Listen Up")Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Clark Terry and many, many others. He taught me to play the trumpet and more importantly, appreciate jazz. He was very well known and has a memorial at the Berklee School of Music. From the age of 13, every week I sat in Paul's Mall, the Jazz Workshop, Blinstrub's, and other clubs listening to anyone who came into town, for FREE! Every Thursday, or Sunday 'matinee', I would be somewhere listening to Miles, Roland Kirk (who was blind and played 3 horns at the same time!), Herbie Hancock, Herbie Mann, all aforementioned artists, and many, many others. I was even invited to go to Russia with Earl 'Fatha' Hines as a valet with Budd Johnson; and Joe Williams, the jazz singer and Arthur Prysock and Tony Bennett were Lenny's personal friends, who came by the house for dinner, when in town. I spent my summers in New York from ages 13-17, and was a regular at the Village Gate and The Village East jazz clubs; and any outdoor concert at Bryant Park where I saw Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughn, and others. Needless to say, as a young man I was richly blessed to experience "The Groove". I listen to Les McCann's 'Layers' album every day because of the Lord's peace and serenity it provides my spirit. I have a fairly substantial jazz collection, and am willing to share my journey in jazz' theology with you anytime! Meanwhile, I humbly thank you for taking me back to my core, "one more again" as I "Look down, look down, that lonesome road..."