Jazz recommendations?

[Outright Villainy]

What is says on the tin my friends, I'm looking to expand my music library, and I realised I know of little to no jazz at all. For reference I think Cowboy bebop had a fantastic soundtrack, the opening song in particularly being my favourite:
So, any jazz lovers out there got any good recommendations for me? Lively stuff that has great musicianship and the like would be preferable!

 

[Lullabye]

Oscar Peterson is one of my favs, I loooove his piano jazz.

 

[Harlemura]

The only jazz I know of is the stuff in the Sonic Unleashed soundtrack.

Spoiler: Example that comes to mind

Say what you want about the game, it had a doozey of a soundtrack.

I think this is jazz, anyway...

 

[Outright Villainy]

Charles Mingus

That was pretty sweet, I might check more of his stuff...

 

[octafish]

Herbie Hancock, I particularly like the Headhunters album.

Lively stuff huh, Dizzy, Cannonball and Ornette should be lively enough for you. That's Dizzy Gillespie, Canonball Adderley, and Ornette Coleman. Coleman isn't for everybody though, he's pretty out there. Speaking of out there...

 

[no oneder]

Look for some of Charlie Watts' solo stuff. Really hard to find, but totally worth it.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Glad some of the great ones have been mentioned already. But I'm still going to second Miles Davis, because he's my all-time favourite. Kind of Blue is just one big ear-orgasm.

Moving on, there's John Coltrane:
Freddie Hubbard:
Horace Silver:
Glenn Miller:

Most of these artists have slower stuff as well, you can't go wrong either way.

And here are some swing bands from the 90's swing revival that I love. If anything's lively, it's that. I just can't sit still while listening to it.

Big Voodoo Daddy:
(That's a cover by the way.)

Royal Crown Revue:

That should get you started. There's more of course, LOTS more.

 

[Steve Butts]

Great suggestions so far. Add to it Wes Montgomery's early stuff on Riverside and Bill Evans recordings with Scott LaFaro. If you want to hear a lot of the greats playing in one place, check out Lionel Hampton's birthday album from the Blue Note.

As far as Oscar Peterson goes, almost anything is great, but you can start with the albums with Lester Young, Stan Getz and Ben Webster. The trio's album with Louis Armstrong is sublime.

Though it's not strictly in the tradition of straight ahead jazz, I've really been amazed by the Rosenberg trio. If you're looking for virtuosos and an amazing groove, the album Live at the North Sea Jazz Festival is not to be missed.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Thanks for all the great suggestions guys! I'm gonna bookmark this now, I'm going to be quite a while getting through all these guys...

 

[Cowabungaa]

le snip

Just wondering; did you by any chance attend the North Sea Jazz Festival? I've been curious about that for years now, and I wonder how much old-school jazz there is over there. You know, the kind of genres I posted.

I tried to watch the TV broadcast of it a couple of times, but I didn't see thát much that tickled my fancy. Then again, I caught only small parts of it.

 

[Julianking93]

Mile Davis

Charles Mingus

Dave Brubeck

You ninja'd everything I was going to say...

 

[skips]

Charles Mingus is the big one. I recommend 'The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady' and 'Let My Children Hear Music.' He has a number of other excellent albums as well.

Pharaoh Sanders is my personal favorite, his best being 'Karma'.

Of course, there's still plenty of other worthwhile jazz artists. To list a few: William Parker, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, The Jazz Composers Orchestra, Louis Moholo, Peter Brötzmann, and plenty others.

 

[ICanBreakTheseCuffs]

Louis Prima is good

kind of a jazz/rock mix

 

[UncleOvid]

Jeez. Shame on EVERYONE for not mentioning Django Reinhardt. Dude played with only two fingers of his left hand and he's STILL the most amazing guitarist that ever lived. I also recommend Stephane Grappelli, who played with him a lot.


Also, if you liked the Cowboy Bebop song, may I recommend the soundtrack for Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis (2001)? In fact, go ahead and just see the whole movie. It's super good.

 

[Scobie]

DELETED

 

[T3hMonk3y]

Try this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMnrl0tmd3k brilliant tune and if you wanna make it even better try listening to this as well at the same time http://www.rainymood.com/ makes you feel like a proper classy gentleman. Enjoy.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Dave Brubeck

Yeah. I suppose it was naive of me to think I wouldn't be beaten to it.

Some Jonny Greenwood, then. No doubt the purists will disapprove.

And Joscho Stephan. Gypsy jazz, along the lines of Reinhardt.