That's a very broad question there. Here's a thread with recommendations for perfect albums.Good luck with your search. |
Congrats on your new equipment. I selected stuff that I love to hear anytime but particularly on new equipment to judge just how good that equipment can sound. If you liked Dark Side you may enjoy Pink Floyd's Meddle, and The Wall.
All the following CD's are exceptionally well recorded and performed: Some easy to love jazz are Beyond the Missouri Sky by Pat Metheny, At Ease with Coleman Hawkins, and Soul Station by Hank Mobley.
Two great recordings are The Ultimate Jesse Cook and Get Lucky by Mark Knopfer (of Dire Straits)
Finally to add to your classical, Malcolm Frager plays Chopin (wonderfully recorded using a Bosendorfer Piano). Piano Transcriptions by Volodos, and the Carnegie Hall Concert with Kissen and Levine |
Since you like Miles David, try out one of his piano players, Bill Evans. |
The best way these days to get exposure to new music you might like is via web music applications like Pandora that will play music similar to that you provide as a seed.
Or just find a few good internet radio stations for the genere of interest. Radio Paradise is a fantastic station for those that want to branch out from the classic rock favorites. |
Youtube is great to discover new music.
Just a few names and titles to check out:
John Coltrane - many albums.
John McLaughlin Trio - Que Alegria
Paco de Lucia - Siroco
Al di Meola - Cielo e Terra
John McLaughlin/Paco de Lucia/Al di Meola - Friday Night in San-Francisco
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Jonas Hellborg/Glen Velez - Ars Moriende
Elend - The Umbersun (neo-classical, very dark) |
Talk Talk, The Colour of Spring on vinyl. It will test your dynamics.....and a truly great lp. |
Pandora and Youtube are great suggestions.
With Pandora you input an artist and it plays 1 song from that artist, and then branches out with similar artists to the original, then similar to the 2nd group, then similar to the third group, etc. (not quite that linear but that's the idea). You can also like or not like and it will react to that.
iTunes is also pretty good. It's free from Apple. Plug in an artist and listen to samples, and it will give a "what others have bought who have bought this artist" to give you other ideas. Of course you can buy music. |
Katie Melua, will set you on a path to more like her, including Nora Jones. Katie's two DVD's are a great way to see and hear her. They are a great value. |
Just a couple of 'rock' titles you might enjoy...
Elton John - "Madman Across the Water"
Bryan Ferry - "Boys and Girls" or "Bete Noire"
Supertramp - "Crime of the Century"
Steely Dan - "Countdown to Ecstasy" |
Second the recommendation of Pandora, particularly with its $36 a year premium subscription.
Also check out Spotify. It's invitation-only at the moment but you can usually find a way to get an invitation. It delivers almost anything you could want to hear on demand. The classical selection isn't comprehensive but it's a great way to expand your horizons. |
Fleet Foxes. Both of their albums are available on vinyl. Great, timeless music that is well recorded. |
All Steely Dan is amazing...vinyl and otherwise including the solo stuff from Becker and Fagan. I recommend John Scofield, especially the stuff with Medeski et al, for kick butt jazz (Metheny usually uses a too "apologetic" tone for my tastes), and Little Feat for sophisticated boogie...Feat is what the English guys (like Page, Stones,etc.) were nuts about in the 70's. |
You can also check the different threads here at the music forum, the guys always listen to good stuff. |
If you loved PF, then you'll probably love Porcupine Tree; especially Deadwing and In Absentia.
For rock, try any of the following bands:
Alter Bridge, Black Keys, Big Sugar, Darker My Love, Foo Fighters, Paul Gilbert, The Greenhornes, Jonny Lang, John Mayer (live), The Raconteurs, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Slash, The Steepwater Band, Stereophonics, Underwhelmed, The Verve Pipe, The White Stripes, Wolf People, Young The Giant.
Admittedly some of the above are considered more 'blues' than 'rock' and most of them are not exactly mainstream musical selections. Nevertheless, I hope you find something to like from this list.
Do yourself a favor and also listen to Broken Bells and Deerhunter. Not rock, but both very good alternative bands. |
Mumford and Sons "Sigh no More" debut cd is a must own. |
Also, if you like female jazz vocalists I highly recommend Meody Gardot's latest. She's smokin hot. |
totally agree with the fleet foxes recommendation..... |
one of most enjoyable jazz cds I have heard in a long time is: 'Jazz in an R&B groove'. listed on amazon now as 'avalible from these sellers' it's a sacd hybr, wonderful singing and organ / sax playing. if you are just getting into jazz, stay with the guys with one foot in jazz and the other in R&B i.e cannonball adderly, oscar peterson, art blakey i.e. the stuff that makes you tap your feet. Louis Armstrong once said, if you can't dance to it, it ain't jazz. Coltrane is one of those guys that the avant-garde says you have to like, to be hip, but a lot of his stuff was noise. And remember, most of the greats are dead, so be careful of so-called 'smooth and contemporary jazz' Wyton Marsalis is a good younger player |
that would be jazz in an r&b groove VOL 1. vol 2 is not nearly as good. |
There are two quick and simple ways to discover music that's similar to bands you already like. The easiest is to go to www.pandora.com. It's a web site that plays music that's similar to whatever band you enter. It's the easiest way I know to find great music from bands you may never have heard of before.
The second is to go to Amazon.com or iTunes and enter the name of a band with which you're already familiar . The search results will bring up their albums. Click on your favorite. You'll then see a list of things people purchased in addition to the album you already know you like. Most of them will be similar in style, and you can listen to samples to tell if you like them too. |
