A couple of weeks ago, my brother in Seattle called and asked if I could recommend a few jazz CDs for his 20-year-old son who had expressed an interest. A starter kit, if you will.
I've had like requests many, many times over the years, and so it dawned on me: Why not publish one?
Here's a 10-CD jazz primer designed to lure those curious about the genre into getting, if not hooked, at least satisfied enough to continue a jazz quest. Being a jazzbo like me can be lonely these days, so the more folks I can recruit the better.
Before we get started, a few words about criteria. I didn't attempt to cover all the bases in jazz history. The idea here is seduction through listenability, while offering a solid overview. I may love 1930s Duke Ellington, but to the uninitiated it tends to sound like music from old cartoons. Likewise, I dig Albert Ayler, but most people would hear it as squawky noise and want to plug their ears. That said, this is no dumbed-down list. Most of the titles are recognized classics, and a few will pose a challenge, especially for those who like their music sensible and orderly.
There are many overlapping players on these discs, but I purposely limited artists to one title.
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue (Columbia/Sony, 1959)
This is always the first album I recommend to the jazz curious. The ultimate gateway drug — gorgeous, intimate and expansive at the same time. Kind of Blue is probably the most widely revered jazz record of all time, and for good reason. Simple, grabby melodic sketches give way to extended solos by one of the greatest lineups ever assembled, including Miles on trumpet, John Coltrane on tenor sax, Cannonball Adderley on alto sax and Bill Evans on piano. The music is dark and moody yet somehow comforting.
Oliver Nelson: The Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse!, 1961)
Nelson was a saxophonist, composer and arranger who balanced a restless artistry with commercial instincts. This is his classic, a set of smoothly swinging, terrifically melodic tunes played by a six-piece band. The horn arrangements are imaginative and delightful, and Nelson's profoundly bluesy tenor sax solos complement alto saxophonist/bass clarinetist Eric Dolphy's darting dissonance. If you don't fall in love with the lead track, "Stolen Moments," then feel free to quit the jazz quest posthaste.
Charlie Parker: Best of The Complete Savoy & Dial Studio Recordings (Savoy, 1944-1948)
Bird, as the alto saxophonist was known, goes down as perhaps the most important figure in modern jazz. He, along with a few fellow travelers, developed the styled called bebop, a harmonically and rhythmically complex sound that changed the focus of jazz from big bands to small groups. Although Bird has had scores of imitators over the years, hearing his fleet, commanding sax work is still a marvel. This single disc culls the best material from a particularly fruitful period of his too-short career.
Bill Frisell: Blues Dream (Nonesuch, 2001)
The most recent title on our list, Blues Dream is a fine example of how jazz morphed and blended with other genres through the years. This is lush midnight music, mostly down-tempo, pitting an ethereal horn section with the exotic web of Greg Liesz's lap steel and Frisell's warbling, impressionistic guitar paintings. Although a serious blues thread runs through the music, Frisell also blends in country and other elements of Americana.
Ornette Coleman: The Shape of Jazz To Come (Atlantic, 1959)
Risky though it may be, I'm going to have you stick a toe in the avant-garde end of the pool. When Shape of Jazz came out in '59, it was shocking (and to many, repugnant). A half-century later, not so much. The music is frenetic and at times harsh, but it hangs together with swing-based grooves. The melodies ain't pretty in the conventional sense, but they are gripping. Alto saxophonist Coleman and trumpeter Don Cherry don't hew to the chord-based improvisational orthodoxy of jazz at the time (hence the term "free jazz"), but the sublime cry of Ornette's horn still stirs the soul.
Weather Report: Black Market (Sony, 1976)
For the most part, jazz's fusion movement of the '70s seems quaint and dated these days, but a handful of acts have stood the test of time. None more so than Weather Report, headed by two refugees of Miles Davis' bands: keyboardist Joe Zawinul and saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Zawinul's tasteful and innovative use of electronic keyboards adds a fresh textural dimension. Bassist Jaco Pastorius, who appears on about half the album, was reinventing the electric bass. The compositions are brilliant, the arrangements remarkable. The music swings, rocks and funks.
John Coltrane: A Love Supreme (Impulse!, 1965)
Revered as one of the most intense, personal and spiritual albums in jazz annals, A Love Supreme is by turns aggressive, meditative and hypnotic. Coltrane's playing is so exploratory that it seems as if he wanted to crawl inside his tenor sax and live there. While the disc clearly falls into the challenging category, it retains a mesmerizing accessibility.
Bill Evans: Sunday at the Village Vanguard (Fantasy, 1961)
The piano trio (piano/bass/drums) is a venerable jazz format, and Sunday at the Village Vanguard is an ideal example. This live recording was not a case of a pianist being backed up by rhythm players; rather Evans, bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian are on pretty much equal footing, probing, interacting, exploring. As a pianist, Evans was more introspective than flashy, so he leans toward ballads and midtempo swing. The overall effect is gorgeous, music you can get lost in.
Cannonball Adderley: Somethin' Else (Blue Note, 1958)
With Miles Davis on trumpet, Somethin' Else can be viewed as a precursor to Kind of Blue — not as inventive or historic, certainly, but similar in feel: relaxed, open, inviting, with freewheeling but controlled improvisational forays. Cannonball, a Floridian, doused his post-Bird alto work in the blues.
Wayne Shorter: Speak No Evil (Blue Note, 1964)
While a member of Miles Davis' lauded 1960s quintet, Shorter released his own quintet effort, similar in flavor: elastic, inquisitive and thoroughly mesmerizing. The saxophonist's elliptical and complex compositions make absolute sense; the marvelous solos integrate into an exquisite whole.
This article appears in Jan 7-13, 2009.