I meant to add to my previous statement that, for me, the feel of jazz is remarkably consistent. I can listen to Louis Armstrong, and get the same visceral reaction to it that I would to Coltrane or Davis. That’s even true of Jelly Roll Morton, though maybe a little less. That’s probably because I started out playing ragtime piano, and I get too lost in marvelling at the technique.
Looking at my own meagre collection, I’ve got a couple of Louis Armstrongs, a Count basie, a Duke, a Benny Goodman, a Louis Jordan, and a Louis Prima.
Ken Burns’ Jazz is damn good-- and you might be able to rent the thing at your local video store. Very good viewing.
My current most played CDs (i.e. the ones which live on top of the CD player, rather than put back in the rack) - in no particular order:
Dave Holland Quintet - Prime Directive
Chick Corea - Now He Sings, Now He Sobs
Herbie Mann - at the Village Gate
Herbie Mann - America/Brazil
Ron Carter & Jim Hall - Telepathy
Bojan Zulfikarpasic - Solobsession
Eve and the others are right. You can’t go wrong with Bix.
WordMan is also right, particularly about Art Tatum. The things that man could do to a piano were mind-bending. I’d recommend the Tatum Solo Masterpieces and the Tatum Group Masterpieces, both on Pablo. The solo records are phenomenal. As for the group recordings, besides being beautiful listening experiences, they are pretty good gateways to discovering other musicians who could keep up with him.
Also, when you’re in the record store, check the back of the record for the engineer. If it says Rudy Van Gelder, you’ve probably struck gold.
In my random list of favorites from the 50s and 60s, I somehow forgot to mention these Blue Note classics from the great Dexter Gordon:
Go
Our Man in Paris
I gotta agree with those folks who are mentioning Miles Davis and David Brubeck.
If I had to recommend two discs, they would be Kind of Blue and Take Five.
Hey Saxman, you’re right about the Desmond/Mulligan stuff. Once, I was listening to the CD samples at a Borders and I stumbled across Quartet. I normally avoid music store prices like the plague, but I bought that one on the spot. Great stuff!
Try some Joe Pass for some really excellent guitar.
I definitely think the Ken Burns series is a great place for any layman to start, though I have problems with it on many levels. It did exclude or under-represent so many, while at the same time being somewhat of a Louis Armstrong biography. But it would give you taste of the different eras and individual styles enough to know what to search for more of.
Also, I am a big fan of fusion, in contrast to the many traditionalists here and in the jazz world. It did evolve into something quite cheezy by the end of the 70s and into the 80s, but if you are turned off to the idea only because of what you’ve heard about it, and not because of what you’ve heard directly from it, you may not want to dismiss it so quickly.
Back to jazz. One of my favs is Coltrane’s My Favorite Things.
Also anything Miles in the mid 60’s. His quintet at that time is arguably the greatest group ever to play jazz.
Uncultured boob checks in: I had no doubt this was going to be about whether management erred in re-signing Stockton and whether a youth movement ought to be underfoot.
Back to your regularly scheduled program.
Wayne Shorter’s tenor playing on the Plugged Nickle recordings is the highlight of this amazing band. Their best studio recording is, in my view, Miles Smiles.