I just wanted to say that, sitting so close to a thread entitled “What’s so unstoppable about Stockton to Malone?,” this thread’s title is almost criminally misleading.
Buddy Rich’s big band is a must-have. You might want to purchase a few compilation albums and see where your taste takes you. That’s how me ‘n’ the hubby started building our jazz collection.
Related to the earlier Dave Brubeck suggestions, Paul Desmond (his longtime alto sax player, who also wrote the DBQ’s biggest hit, Take Five) and Gerry Mulligan (who also collaborated with Brubeck) have some great duet albums, particularly “Blues In Time” and “Two of a Mind”. These two albums are played only with drums and bass accompanying them, so everyone’s really digging into the time and weaving deftly through the rhythm in their improvisation. Some great examples of clear-melodied West Coast post-bebop counterpoint.
If you want to get into something a little more funky, Les McCann and Eddie Harris’s “Swiss Movement” album from the Montreaux Jazz Festival has their souljazz hit, “Compared to What”, and a simple but damn sweet groove blues, “Cold Duck Time”.
Um, hello? Bill Evans people, BILL EVANS!
anyone heard of EST? These guys are just wonderful…modern and sweet…nothing more to add, you all did it already…but seriously, check out strange place for snow by these fellows and you will not be disappointed…
I’m with Eve: Bix! Bix! Bix!
And I’m listening to The Essential Count Basie from Columbia Jazz Masterpieces right now.
You guys are great!
**Ukulele Ike **,
being new to Jazz, I am not sure what constitutes modern.
I guess we could sum it up by saying that we didn’t want any new manifestations of jazz such as fushion or acid.
I saw the Jazz dvd on Amazon. It’s a bit steep in price so maybe Santa will bring one! It looks fascinating.
Eve,
When I was a kid, I saw in one of my dad’s books the name Bix Beiderbecke. I named my stuffed rabbit that. 
Since I have you all here, what about some crooner 20’s style stuff like Rudy Valley? (is that him?)
Herbie Mann, credited as being one of the seminal jazz flutists.
From the 1950s-'60s:
Sonny Rollins: Saxaphone Collosus, Alfie
Booker Little
Ornette Coleman: Change of the Century, Live at the Golden Circle, Shape of Jazz to Come
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue, Live at the Plugged Nickle
Jackie McLean: Let Freedom Ring, One Step Beyond
Cecil Taylor: Looking Ahead!
Wayne Shorter: All Seeing Eye
Archie Shepp: Four for Trane
John Coltrane: Live at the Village Vanguard, Crescent
Charles Mingus: Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
T. Monk: Live at the It Club
New York Art Quartet
Bill Evans (live recordings with bassist Scott LaFaro)
Eric Dolphy: Outward Bound
1920s pop vocals aren’t really jazz, although there’s jazz influence. Jazz influenced EVERYTHING in the 1920s. I like Rudy Vallee myself, so I’d recommend a good best-of collection…make sure it has his version of “Let’s Do It,” one of the most lascivious ever…and maybe some Russ Columbo, too. And Mildred Bailey. And Helen Morgan. And Ethel Waters.
A lot of the greats and must-haves of instrumental music have been named already, but just lemme add Gene Ammons, Zoot Sims, and Ben Webster, three great tenor saxphonists who don’t often get placed in the top rank.
Then you’re probably cool up to about 1965 or so. Not sure if you’d like free jazz or not (which can be traced back to around 1959 and Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come) but didn’t start hitting the mainstream until the mid-'60s.
As some other people haven mentioned, try a few compilations and see what you like. The big Smithsonian Collection of Jazz has good representations of most periods. I hated Ken Burns’ jazz serial, but it might steer you to some good stuff.
Ah, '20s vocals . . . My faves . . . I recommend trying out “Crosby, Columbo and Vallee,” and also some of the lesser-knowns but still greats: Aileen Stanley, Libby Holman (hot) and Ruth Etting (light); Annette Hanshow, “boop a doop” girl Helen Kane . . . Try some of the links on this site for great, little-known early music.
Here, Here! I third that vote on Bix - my parents practically raised me on Bix! (hell, we even named our 2nd dog Bix!)
Thanks again!
the current music is dull.
It’s so nice to rediscover a genre.
For some great introductory stuff check out the Starbucks Blue Note Series (yes, that’s the coffee people. you can buy it on their website). From there, if you want to stick with anthologies, try the Ken Burns series, which offers a separate CD for each artist covered. For something out of a TV show (even PBS), I think it’s of remarkably high quality, and not dumbed down or smoothed over.
I want to suggest that Mr. Babs not miss out on some of the great vocalists, who can use their voices like an instrument. But it’s a fact that the vocal jazz does tend to lean more towards ordinary ballads and pop. I have to admit that I listen to my Sarah Vaughn CD a lot less than my others. It has some great numbers on it, but mixed in with some more middle of the road pop.
Unfortunately, ol’ Sassy did a lot of shit. Blame the times.
What you want to get the BEST of her is Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown, one of her early recordings. With Brownie on trumpet, Herbie Mann on flute, and Paul Quinichette (called the “Vice-President” because of his devotion to the Lester Young sound) on tenor. Sarah’s voice is the fourth horn.
The “Lullaby of Birdland” will have you weeping with pleasure.
Jean-Luc Ponty: violin.
I am not much into Jazz but Tom Waits blows me away. I can listen to him over and over. I guess he would be considered jazz? Jazz or not, great sound.
Oh man that is the most heartbreaking song of all time. “Weeping with pleasure” is the perfect way to describe it. That track is easily in my top 5. The counterpoint between Mann and Brown is just haunting.