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Jazz recommendations for a beginner?

Hello, I purchased my first 3 jazz cds just to experiment: Cafe Blue (Pat Barber), Love Scenes (D. Krall) and Kind of Blue (M. Davis). Now I want to officially start listening more jazz. I really liked tracks 2,3,4,9,10 and 11 on Barber's cd, almost every song on Krall's, but honestly 'Kind of Blue' was not too much of my taste. So based on this brief comments, has anybody some good recommendations for a beginner? I'd appreciate your suggestions. Thanks.
Jorge R.
jorge_err
newbee
4,093 posts
 
For singers, if you like Krall, you'll love Shirley Horn, she is a bit slower, but eminently a better jazz singer and piano player than Krall. For piano try Bill Evans. For Sax try Houston Persons and Scott Hamilton. For guitar try Joe Pass. For clarinet try Peplowski. For bass try Ray Brown or Charlie Haden. Most of the works by these artists are easily digested, not discordant or avante guard. If this interests you, individual CD's can be recommended or you can find them on a web site, All Music (which also has a guide out as does Penguin, I think). Jazz has a huge discography to explore - read up and enjoy.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
If you didn't like Kind Of Blue,
try Miles Davis' "You're Under Arrest", "Amandla", "Tutu", "Do-bop" and "Decoy".
If you will like these above funko albums you may listen to "Bitches Brew" and "Siesta".
ben_campbell
1,164 posts
 
No offence Jorge but I'm inclined to say if you don't like Kind Of Blue but do like D.Krall then you are in the area of soft jazz and that you will probably not like traditional jazz much at all.
brianmgrarcom
1,317 posts
 
A couple things, there are different styles of Jazz and though you may find you like some in each category, you may prefer one style over another.

There are some that may try and make you feel guilty for liking Diana Krall, I too enjoy her music and that is what matters; if you enjoy the CD of hers that you own, buy others and enjoy.

On the same token, there are 'Jazz police' that may want to 'arrest' you if you like Smooth Jazz, again, if you like it buy it and enjoy. I too own the acclaimed Kind Of Blue CD and I don't enjoy it either.

Some others to look into, Eva Cassidy, Chris Botti, FourPlay, Larry Carlson.

Goto to http://www.bmgmusic.com and search for those you have interest in, if they carry those titles you can play short clips. (Some others on here may know better sources for sampling.) My local Barnes and Noble allows you to play segments of tracks of CD's you are interested in purchasing.
wstritt
170 posts
 
This is an excellent thread on the subject, particularly Sdcampbell's contributions:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?gmusi&976325372&read&3&4&

Helped me quite a bit.
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