Over the past year, I’ve been gaining an appreciation for jazz, and on a lesser note (heh), the blues. Hearing a nice cool jazz tune while driving aorund the city on a rainy night gives me the same warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of my stomache that I got at Christmas during childhood…almost like eating a small kitten. A lot of the Blues I’ve come across is too gritty and old for me to really latch onto, but I can listen to a contemporary, introspective blues song with strong lyrics for hours if it rubs me the right way. And as I sort through the diffeent songs and subgenres it starts becoming apparent that I love a good jazz or blues song that’s been romanticized. Where the reality of the entertainer or songwriters steps aside so that the all the things that shape the genre can step up to the plate without anything holding it back. In some cases, these songs may even be a little artificial. Though as much as I love this sound I keep stumbling upon, there’s no real established term to define it, and so I’m left looking for more.
Most what what I find are single songs baring little resemblance to others the band/artist has done. So I come here for examples of bluesy/jazzy songs that are over the top and highly enjoyable. Polish, with a little song. Sin City is to noir, as ______ is to jazz/blues.
As you can probably tell with my own additions, I’m a bit of a music n00b. No lynchings please.
Multigenre music is allowed. To this list, I will add:
When the Levee Breaks – Lead Zeppelin (\m/)
Melancholy Man – Moody Blues
Folsom Prison Blues – Johhny Cash
When the Man Comes Around – Cash
Hurt – Cash
Dark Night – Tito and the Turantuals
Long Cool Lady in a Black Dress – The Hollies
And almost everything form the Cowboy Bebop soundtracks…hmm, didn’t look like a lot of jazz made the list. Of hell…I’ll try and remember some later
I thought I was with you until you listed one of Led Zeppelin’s hardest rocking songs and one of Cash’s most yee-haw good time havin’ ones. Are you saying that you love songs with a heady sense of atmosphere and history?
Either way, I think you’d love Tom Waits’ “Nighthawks at the Diner,” especially the song “Eggs and Sausage.” It’s a record that he did by erecting a fake nightclub in the studio and recording before a live audience in this environment. “Eggs and Sausage” in particular just NAILS this vibe that you’re talking about.
For blues, I highly recommend Muddy Waters “Hard Again”, which was produced by Johnny Winter. Johnny also plays on it. It’s kinda like Muddy’s greatest hits produced by one of the best rock guys that knows blues and knows what really crosses over. That single albumn opened up the blues to me as a teenager and 30 years later it’s still awesome.
Howlin’ Wolf songs (aside from the above) with lots of style:
Moanin’ at Midnight
Goin’ Down Slow
Smokestack Lightning
Hidden Charms
I Asked for Water
Forty-Four
Get out of my head! I came in here to recommend that, my favorite album by my favorite artist! While Tom Waits isn’t a jazz artist, I tend to prefer a lot of his jazzier material. Some songs I think you’d like that aren’t on Nighthawks include “Romeo Is Bleeding,” “Small Change,” “Step Right Up,” and “Never Talk To Strangers,” a loungey duet with Bette Midler.
A classic jazz album everyone must own, that has that smoky, laid-back, cool feeling the OP wants: Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. Any jazz aficionado, whether they’re a fan or not, will tell you it’s a highly influential and key album for any collection.
The OP also said:
This leads me to believe you might like some of the swing music that came out in the late '90s, when a lot of ex-punk rockers put on some really sharp vintage zoot suits, tracked down some horn players, and put together “small big bands,” playing fast, upbeat swing music that borrowed liberally from '50s rhythm ‘n’ blues, rockabilly, and punk. Bands like Royal Crown Revue, who performed “Hey Pachuco” in the Jim Carrey movie The Mask, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, who played “Go Daddy-O” in Swingers. Unfortunately, the swing scene, which focused on retro clothes, cocktails, and even vintage pin-up girlie art in addition to the music and dancing, came and went after a few years, probably lasting from 1996-99 all in all. But, as my name suggests, I’m a huge fan of all the bands from that era, and I love that kind of music. It wasn’t all just a gimmick or a lot of bandwagon-jumping, but really great musicians from the present looking back to the past for inspiration, and combining all their influences.
If you want stuff that’s got a little of that over-the-top quality, I’d dig around for some soul music. My favorite example: have you ever heard War, by Edwin Starr? Everyone’s heard it in the background of a movie or movie trailer, but have you ever heard it by itself? I think it’s fucking incredible.
I’m a bit lost in this thread; I thought I knew what the OP was talking about, until I read his examples, and all the subsequent suggestions, most of which I’ve never even heard of (I am, admittedly, still a bit of a jazz novice). Nonetheless, I’ll give examples of the type of thing I thought the OP was looking for, and maybe something will strike a chord.
Ella Fitzgerald’s Songbook Series – You mentioned “romanticized” music, and this was the first thing that came to mind. Some of the tracks are actually a bit too lush and “romantic” for my taste, but there are some undeniable gems there. The most famous track has to be “Bewitched” from the Rodgers & Hart disc.
Billie Holiday – “Strange Fruit” is perhaps her most famous recording, but she does a brilliant job on almost all of her songs.
And I’ll just second the recommendations for Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters. Chess records released great discs for each of them, entitled “His Best” – an excellent primer for some of the best the Blues has to offer.
Smokestack Lightning is on a Muddy Waters album called (something like)Rare and Unissued. I just moved all my CDs into a new rack, and all my tapes are temporarily in a crate, so I can’t find it.
Muddy and Wolf were friendly rivals working at the same studio. Willie Dixon said sometimes he could talk Muddy into doing one of his songs by telling him Wolf was about to record it.
Mmmm. good song. I’m not sure if it’s as over the top as what I’m looking for, but it’s a nice listen anyway.
I think you could say Sin City is to noir as When the Levee Breaks is to the Blues. I mean, it is a cover of a blues song, only they play the ever living hell out of it. C’mon! The ever wailing harmonica is a dead give away.
Maybe I was out of order listing When the Man Comes Around, but it is a song about the end of the world. It just happens to be upbeat. But maybe it’s more country than anything else. I can’t tell.
Man, this Tom Waits guy is pretty damn cool. Eggs and Sausage is a nice track, but Warm Beer and Cold women really does it for me. I’m going to have to sit down and replay it over and over for a good hour or so when I get the time.
I’ve been listening to Muddy lately. He doesn’t take things as above and beyond as what I’m looking for, but he’s still a greta musician. I’d consider him more of a pioneer of sorts more than an elaborater, but I’ll look into those songs all the same. Oddly enough, Jimmy Reed should be in the same boat I put Waters into, but his music sounds a tad more contemporary to me.
Whoah, big lists there AskNott and Marley. I’ll need some time to give those a listen.
I remember that trend. I really liked it and still wish it had stuck around. I’m still holding out for fedoras to come back into style. Not that it would do me much good…a fedora would look silly without a suit, and a full get up would get pretty warm here in Florida. Eh.
Anyways, I forgot all about those retro swing bands that had popped up. I’ll have to take a look at them again sometime soon.
What, you mean “WAR, HUH, WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?”? An old radio station I used to listen to played it all the time. Good song. Is it really soul though? I always thought it was rock. It was on a rock station…hmm. Same station played Buffalo Springfeilds “For What its Worth” all the time too, and I freaking loved hearing that without some shell shocked soldier’s monologue about Veitnam.
Sorry to make things confusing. I’m not entirely sure how to define what I’m looking for, but many the suggestions I’m getting back totally makes the list.
I’ve never actually heard much or any Billie Holiday. Ella Fitgerald is cool though, I’m a little familiar with her.
I’m going to add Cassandra Wilson to this list. I’ve been very impressed by everything I’ve heard from her
Speaking of Ella . . .
Under your criterion of romanticized music.
July, 1996. I hadn’t seen my wife for four months–she was away on a six-month project in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Georgia. I was sitting down to write my nightly email to her, having heard earlier in the day that Ella had died. I popped my CD of Ella and Louis Armstrong into the player, and when it got to “Cheek to Cheek,” [1956, with Oscar Peterson on piano, Herb Ellis on guitar, Ray Brown on bass, and Buddy Rich on drums], and especially when Ella came in after Armstrong started off, the tears started running down my face: there was nothing more that I would like at that moment than do be dancing with my wife cheek to cheek instead of her being off working with citizen activists during a lull in the shooting war. It was at that point that “Cheek to Cheek” edged “I Can’t Get Started” as my favorite Ella tune.
Having said this (and just having put “Cheek to Cheek” in the player again), I also have to plug “Lover Man” as a tune to investigate. Whether by Ella, Sarah Vaughn (way cool), or even the heroin-fuddled Charlie Parker of the Dial sessions, it is a classic.
Blind Willie Johnson “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground”.
Non verbal vocals unlike his other music and his innovative slide guitar played with a pocket knife.
He considered himself a gospel singer, but he was an inventor of the Blues.
A brief digression.
His Mother was beaten by his step father for infidelity. She threw lye into Blind Willie’s face, hence his nickname.
He died from sleeping in wet newspaper in his burned out home because a hospital wouldn’t admit Black folks. He is accompanied by his Wife on some recorded songs.
The above song is on the recording carried by the Voyager space probe, the only man made object to leave our solar system.
Robert Johnson, who is said to have sold his soul to the devil for the ability to play the Blues, “Crossroad Blues”. Recorded by Eric Clapton if Mr. Johnson needs a reference.
