Nine Nice Jazz Favorites

            And I thought nine would be an easy number to deal with.  Once again I've ended up sacrificing so many great albums, but I think the ones I've kept are pretty nice.  These are probably not the greatest by consent of most jazz purists and believe me, I'm far from being a jazz expert.  But I do own a lot of jazz albums and there are so many that could have made the list.  I'll stick with these.  I know what I like.

           This selection covers a pretty nice range of styles.  I'm keeping it light on vocal music, which is a genre I truly enjoy.  I'm also leaving off the jazz albums I had on my previous lists.  These are all favorites, but I don't know that they would necessarily supercede any other favorites I have in my collection.  In other words there would be several other albums I could interchange with these.  Seeing as how I've only got nine places to fill I'll stand by these.

          Here are my NINE NICE JAZZ FAVORITES:

Pass The Plate (1971) by The Crusaders-- This is the first album the Jazz Crusaders released under their shortened name: a jazz funk album which at times has been flawlessly engineered to create an almost psychedelic musical mind trip.  There's nothing weird or far-out about the music, but portions have been edited and phased in and out in a tasteful manner in the amazing title piece.  The rest of the album is bop, funk, a touch of gospel, and a whole lot of good listening.  This is one of the earliest jazz albums I bought back when I was still in college in 1971.



Don Shirley in Concert (1968) by the Don Shirley Trio-- Classical music is some of the finest music of all in my opinion.  This album almost comes across as classical at times, with influences that might remind one of Rachmaninoff or Chopin.  The classical sound makes sense since Don Shirley is also a classical pianist who has written symphonies and concertos.  But this album is clearly jazz--a very melodic, beautiful form of jazz.  Shirley is accompanied by bass violin and cello in a concert at Carnegie Hall performing unbelievably beautiful renditions of "Georgia on My Mind", "I Can't Get Started", "My Funny Valentine", and other jazz standards.  This is another album from my college days.

         The Essential Dorsey Brothers (1928-1935)  Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra--  In the 50s I was growing up on this stuff and still digging on it into college.  This was the music of my parents so there were always plenty of big band music albums to listen to.   It seems terrible to bring down big band and early jazz to be represented by just one album, but we're talking about so much great music in the first half of the twentieth century.  I'm choosing this one because it is a jazz orchestra with a string section and I'm partial to strings.  Also, I like the campy sound of the music of the pre-WW2 era.  There are some really fine arrangements of fairly well-known standards as well as songs that are not often heard.  It's some really great music.

           Bopland: The Legendary Elks Club Concert L.A. 1947 by Dexter Gordon and many others--I'm not a huge fan of be-bop and some of the wilder modern jazz sounds, but I do like it and listen to it when I'm in the right mood.  And actually if I put one of these CDs on, if it's good it will put me in the right mood.  Like the big band music I'm leaving out a lot of music here.  I am a big fan of time-travel and though I usually don't like live albums with a lot of extraneous crowd noise, this album makes me feel like I've traveled back in time. 

          I became interested in hearing some Dexter Gordon after reading Jack Kerouac's ON THE ROAD.  In the book, the characters frequent jazz clubs where this style of music is being played.  Kerouac goes into some extensive descriptions of some of Dexter Gordon's music and reading about made me want to hear it.

The Bopland album effectively provides the experience of live bop and the musicianship is at times a wonder. I especially like the electric guitar work of Barney Kessel.  But of course Dexter's sax and the rest of the band are pretty good too.

           Idle Moments (1963)  by Grant Green -- This is superb guitar music backed by an excellent ensemble of musicians.  The title track is one of the most ultimately cool jazz pieces ever--perfect for lazy afternoon or dreamy late night listening.  The entire album is the epitome of coolness.  Besides the totally laid back fifteen minutes of "Idle Moments" there are some exquisite examples of ensemble bop featuring swinging saxophone and irresistible vibes.  Put this CD on, maybe have a martini or two, and you will just feel so cool.  Like, yeah man!

             Stormy Weather: The Legendary Lena 1941-1958 by Lena Horne-- Oh, such a travesty!  Perhaps I should have done a separate list of vocal albums.  Maybe I should later?  This current list is lacking so many great female vocalists such as Julie London, Dinah Washington, Diana Krall, Cassandra Wilson, and so many more.  I went with Lena Horne because she had such a long musical history.  And this album has some of my all-time favorite songs.   Lena's vocal stylings are impeccable.  It's old music, but it's classic and it doesn't get much better than this.

                The Man From Ipanema (1995) by Antonio Carlos Jobim --- This 3 disc career retrospective set would be cool for the packaging alone. It comes in a colorful spiral bound booklet form.  The music ranges from the beginning of Jobim's career into the nineties.  Tracks feature collaborations with Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Pat Metheny, and many others in ensemble and with orchestra backing.  Some of the more well known songs have as many as four different versions, each one as good as the other.  The music is smooth bossa nova.  There is not a bad track to be found on any of the discs.  This is a prized part of my music collection.

Cool Cat Blues (1990)  by Georgie Fame-- There are so many male jazz vocalists that one could choose so I thought I'd go with one who I feel has been the most overlooked in the United States.  I've been a fan of Georgie Fame since 1965 when his jazzy version of "Yeah, Yeah" hit the U.S. charts.  He had a couple of other hits in the United States after that, but never achieved wide recognition.  The Cool Cat Blues album features an alternate slowed down take of "Yeah, Yeah", "Moondance", and "Georgia".  He is joined by the likes of Boz Scaggs, Robben Ford, and long time collaborator Van Morrison.  Fame is jazz in the pop vein very much like Scaggs and Morrison.  This is a fine album from one cool cat.

           Paganini: After a Dream (2003) by Regina Carter -- As a fan of jazz violin I had to put one fiddle player here.  There are many good ones to choose from, but Carter probably plays closest to a style I most enjoy.  Also, this album fits the classical mold I like so well.  Regina Carter takes some lovely impressionistic pieces by Ravel, Debussy, Faure, and others and jazzes them up a bit.  The result is mellow melodic jazz that is beautiful to listen to but with enough improvisation to demonstrate her skill as a jazz artist.  Everything I've heard by Carter is quite good, but this is the album that really suits me.

           So much that I've had to leave off, but that's the nature of a list like this.  It pained me to eliminate "Charlie Parker with Strings", "Cool Velvet" by Stan Getz, and "Mel Torme Sings Fred Astaire", but what the hey--I'm not on any desert island and I can still listen to any of my albums when I want to.

           How'd you like my list?   You can still add one of your own.  Don't be intimidated by "jazz".  You probably listen to it without even realizing it's catagorized as jazz.  Jazz is cool.