Hi Orpheus - I do not have nearly the collection of or familiarity with all the great jazz that is out there as the rest of you on this thread do, first of all. Probably only about 10-15% of my collection is jazz, another 5-10% spoken word recordings, and the rest is classical. That would probably also be an accurate reflection of the listening I do as well.
The collection of jazz recordings I do have is pretty reflective of my taste, though. By far the biggest artist represented in my collection is Ella Fitzgerald - I have just about all the songbook albums, and many more besides. She is by far my favorite jazz vocalist, though I also like Sarah Vaughn in particular. I'm not that big on male voices in jazz, for some reason.
Being a professional brass player, I tend to center in on brass players in the jazz world, which means mostly trumpet. I have several Miles Davis albums, several Wynton Marsalis albums, a little Lee Morgan, a little Louis Armstrong. I also like Clark Terry, John Faddis, Freddie Hubbard (the earlier stuff, not the later). For trombone, I have a couple of JJ Johnson albums. I also have some jazz horn albums (yes, it does exist, though it's very rare) - Julius Watkins I have mentioned earlier in the thread. There are a few different guys making their living doing jazz horn right now, too. One is a Russian guy whose name I would butcher without looking it up first, Arkady something or other, last name starts with an S. Tom Varner is another. A famous "crossover" player is Tom Bacon, who is also big in the classical world. He used to own a gay bar in Houston that featured live jazz nightly, but I think he sold it long ago, as he doesn't live there anymore.
Another of my very favorites is Oscar Peterson, who would be my favorite jazz keyboardist, though I also like Bill Evans and Monk. I also like the Basie and Ellington bands. All of this is very mainstream, I realize, but there is a good jazz club in my city which I visit sometimes, especially when a friend of mine plays there, who is a bass player in my orchestra but who is an equally accomplished jazz artist - he has a few different groups, one of which is very avant garde, and the other main one does old standards. I guess the biggest name I have heard in there live is Curtis Fuller, who unfortunately chose to spend the entire evening playing very softly, with the mike actually up his bell, and then waving a plunger mute over both. Very bizarre, though he did manage to create some interesting effects. The band with him was absolutely fantastic, though, all much younger New York guys.
I don't play a whole lot of jazz myself (mostly just when we have a jazz group or artist with the Pops, or do a big band/swing themed Pops), and have never done any jazz improv (I have, however, improvised cadenzas on the spot in horn concerti). I have played sometimes in a big band, both in school and also once or twice professionally, though that was probably 20 years ago now. This bass player friend of mine is thinking of putting a group together to recreate The Birth of the Cool live, and if he does I may get to do that. That will be fun if it happens. I guess that about covers it for now!
The collection of jazz recordings I do have is pretty reflective of my taste, though. By far the biggest artist represented in my collection is Ella Fitzgerald - I have just about all the songbook albums, and many more besides. She is by far my favorite jazz vocalist, though I also like Sarah Vaughn in particular. I'm not that big on male voices in jazz, for some reason.
Being a professional brass player, I tend to center in on brass players in the jazz world, which means mostly trumpet. I have several Miles Davis albums, several Wynton Marsalis albums, a little Lee Morgan, a little Louis Armstrong. I also like Clark Terry, John Faddis, Freddie Hubbard (the earlier stuff, not the later). For trombone, I have a couple of JJ Johnson albums. I also have some jazz horn albums (yes, it does exist, though it's very rare) - Julius Watkins I have mentioned earlier in the thread. There are a few different guys making their living doing jazz horn right now, too. One is a Russian guy whose name I would butcher without looking it up first, Arkady something or other, last name starts with an S. Tom Varner is another. A famous "crossover" player is Tom Bacon, who is also big in the classical world. He used to own a gay bar in Houston that featured live jazz nightly, but I think he sold it long ago, as he doesn't live there anymore.
Another of my very favorites is Oscar Peterson, who would be my favorite jazz keyboardist, though I also like Bill Evans and Monk. I also like the Basie and Ellington bands. All of this is very mainstream, I realize, but there is a good jazz club in my city which I visit sometimes, especially when a friend of mine plays there, who is a bass player in my orchestra but who is an equally accomplished jazz artist - he has a few different groups, one of which is very avant garde, and the other main one does old standards. I guess the biggest name I have heard in there live is Curtis Fuller, who unfortunately chose to spend the entire evening playing very softly, with the mike actually up his bell, and then waving a plunger mute over both. Very bizarre, though he did manage to create some interesting effects. The band with him was absolutely fantastic, though, all much younger New York guys.
I don't play a whole lot of jazz myself (mostly just when we have a jazz group or artist with the Pops, or do a big band/swing themed Pops), and have never done any jazz improv (I have, however, improvised cadenzas on the spot in horn concerti). I have played sometimes in a big band, both in school and also once or twice professionally, though that was probably 20 years ago now. This bass player friend of mine is thinking of putting a group together to recreate The Birth of the Cool live, and if he does I may get to do that. That will be fun if it happens. I guess that about covers it for now!