HTF Jazz Club (1 Viewer)

[Todd Hostettler]

Mike,
Great list. However, I might suggest bypassing a Count Basie compilation in favor of one of the following:
April In Paris
or
The Atomic Mr. Basie

 

[Holadem]

Great idea. I definitely going to try this in a couple of weeks.

--

Holadem

 

[Mike Broadman]

Norman,

I don't know about DVD-A, but you should check out CDNOW.com or amazon.com to see if they have it. Chances are, if they don't got it, it's not out there.

But don't let any of that deter you from getting the music. They are doing a fantastic job remastering this music. Unless DVD-A becomes the new dominant sound format, I doubt you'll be seeing any of the releases on my list make it onto DVD-A. All of the releases so far seem to be rock and classical, with a small handful of popular jazz titles on SACD or DVD-A, if at all.

Todd,

Thanks for the Basie titles. I'll keep them in mind. I'm not too thrilled with my cheap Basie compilation.

At some point, I'm going to want to recommed Duke Ellington for the "club." Do you have any suggestions? I have a couple of multi-disc compilations, but I don't know if people are willing to shell out for a 3 disc set (the ones from Columbia and RCA are excellent and, between the two of them, contain the essential Duke recordings).

 

[Evan S]

Mike, where do you get your stuff? Being a drum guy, I put Blakey's "Moanin" at the top of my list when I headed out today. Went to both my local Circuit City AND Best Buy and found jack squat. Maybe one selection in each store by Blakey and it wasn't "Moanin". I saw Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" on SACD, but figured I'd wait to get that one later.

Looks like I've got a better chance of hooking up with Jennifer Aniston than I do of finding this disk locally. Any suggestions? Any preferred internet retailers?

 

[James RD]

Try CDNOW or Amazon. It's a shame when great music is hard to find.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Evan,

Best Buy and Circuit City totally suck ass, pardon my language, for jazz music.

Right near my office, there are a Newbury Comics and a Tower Records in the same strip-mall area. Between the two of them, I usually find whatever I want (though, oddly enough, neither ever have Bob Dylan's "Bringing It All Back Home," the only Dylan album left I want to get. Oh well). All the cats there know me and take care of me. God knows I spend enough money there.

There is also a large Border's book and music store with a wonderful jazz section. I go there rarely because I end up wanting to get too much. Then I have no money to eat.

I'm in New York a lot, too, so I stop into the HMV and Virgin stores when I can.

I personally only resort to ordering online if I'm not going to find what I want in a local B&M. I hate the waiting. The last thing I ordered was a 2-CD collection of Dizzy Gillespie's Big Band recording entitled Birk's Works (highly recommended, btw).

HMV and Tower are my favorite CD chains. If you have to order, then I guess you have to order.

Also, if you want to get other Blakey albums, that's great. I have 5 and plan on getting many more. My other Art Blakey discs:

1. Self-titled for Columbia label. Early recording.

2. Self-titled for Impulse! label. Later recording.

3. Caravan (Prestige label). This one's a classic, and I was torn between this and Moanin' for this thread.

4. W/ Thelonius Monk. Playing Monk's songs. One of my favorites.

 

[Todd Hostettler]

Although it may sound like a cop-out, a great starting point for Ellington might be GRP’s Digital Duke. It was recorded about 10 years ago with many original band members and a few "special guest" players. Recorded all digitally, and sounds fantastic.
Beyond that, my favorite "original" Duke album would be Blues In Orbit.
Any Horace Silver fans in here?

 

[Mike Broadman]

Todd, I'd rather people listen to Duke playing piano himself on his compositions. Heck why don't I just ask them:
Would you folks be willing to purchase a 3-CD compilation set of Duke Ellington as one of the monthly titles?

Any Horace Silver fans in here?

Now I'm going to sing the theme from "Song For My Father":
dum Dam-Dam dum-dum Dam-Dam
"Rikki don't lose that number..."
Oops.
Song For My Father and Six Pieces of Silver stand proudly on my CD rack, with plans to get more. Good stuff.
I just picked up a 3 CD Count Basie collection- Complete Original RCA-Victor Recordings. I only listened to the first disc so far, but half have vocals, which I don't like. If the other two discs are like this, I'll have to send this back.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Update: That Count Basie compilation I mentioned in my earlier post is weak. Way too many vocals (as much as I love jazz, I hate jazz singing for the most part).

I'm sticking to my cheapo compilation for now. For newbies and people who don't know if they are interested in swing, I suggest this is the way to go. The Ken Burns and This Is Jazz series are decent, cheap ways to introduce yourself to an artist's music.

 

[Mark Klaus]

I just got back from Best Buy. I usually stop there once a week to check out the new DVD releases. This week, there was nothing I wanted.

I recently started watching the Ken Burns Jazz doc my wife bought me for Christmas. With that in mind, I headed over to the small Jazz section with the idea of picking up the Burns collections from Satch and Duke. Something hit me, I remembered reading a list of the best albums of all time (I was a "Dark Side.." voter) that had "Kind of Blue" at #1. I also remembered reading recently that a new remastered version was now available. What the heck, $10 bucks, I thought.

I popped it in the CD player on my way back to work. "So What" started playing and I was transfixed immediately. I wanted to skip work and hear the rest, but I have a family to feed. I knew I had to post my experience here.

I was going to title my thread "Kind of Blue - Where have I been?" or something to that affect. Why didn't someone strap me down years ago and force me to listen to this?

I am at least glad at 40 I should have many years to get acquinted with this great music and look forward to using this thread as a guide.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Excellent, Mark!
Btw, what is "Dark Side?"

 

[Mark Klaus]

Mike,

I'll assume since there was no smiley that you really don't know.

"Dark Side.." refers to the Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)masterpiece "Dark Side of the Moon". It's always been my favorite album. Come to think of it, it's not really a rock album, and if you substituted a horn for the lead guitar (blasphemy!), parts of it would sound a lot like jazz.

Mark

 

[Tom Ryan]

Mark, while I love jazz (and only recently listened to Kind Of Blue myself), Dark Side Of The Moon is also my favorite album. Pink Floyd isn't my favorite band (they're #2, Zep is #1), and I've only been into them for a few years, but that album is just sublime. I can't think of anything more perfect in music.

-Tom

 

[Mark Klaus]

Tom,
Ditto on the Zep, especially the bluesier stuff. But this is a JAZZ thread .
My drive home tonight should be just long enough to listen to all of "Kind of Blue". I'll post my thoughts tomorrow.
Mark

 

[Mike Broadman]

I didn't realise you were refering to an album, I misread the post. Oops.

 

[Ted Lee]

woo-hoo! count me in as a jazz neophyte. i do have the happy anniversary charlie brown cd and always thought it was cool.

five albums is way too much for me...i'll start with just one.

it sounds like the miles davis one is a good call for my first choice?

 

[James RD]

Yes, Ted. Do yourself a favor and purchase "Kind of Blue". It is really that good, and a wonderful introduction to the world of jazz.

 

[Ted Lee]

thanks james! kind of blue it is...columbia...remastered. i'm pretty sure i can remember that.
i found it here at amazon. it does appear to be the columbia release, but i'm not sure it's the remastered version that mike is recommending? it's about 12 dollars.
i'll probably check tower/virgin, etc to see if it's comparably priced.

 

[Wade]

Ted,

That one at Amazon is the remastered version. Do check out Tower Records however. They always have a lot on hand and usually have a sale price of 9 or 10 bucks. I believe I got mine there for $8.

Wade

 

[Ted Lee]

eight bucks? most excellent...thanks wade!