derekkress

If you checked out our music stores back when we were growing up in Canada, it was hard to find jazz recordings other than what sold like Spyro Gyra , Chuck Mangione etc... that's why CBC radio was great, there we found the "real stuff" and whatever we could find from our teachers and who ever else loved jazz.Anyways good music is good music regardless of style.Enjoy what you enjoy!

et_mike

Blue Mitchell and Freddy Hubbard are a couple of my favorite.

Also, you can look up Mark Ingraham on Myspace... he is a close friend of mine, playing in the Richmond, Va area currently!!

gridjam

Ha! Yeah, my 'purist' friends would give me crap for listening to Spyro Gyra, but hey- it was only in my mom's car and she only had a cassette player,and yes-it was pretty hard to find good music in the stores in Canada. There was something bubble-gum poppish in their sound (and UZEB too, uh uh, Quebec) that satisfied my teenage needs in a wierd way and made the long commute (an hour plus a day to school and back) kind of fun. Things changed drastically when we got a stereo that we could record cassettes on- Freddie(Red Clay), Jaco,Trane, Woody Shaw,etc..took over. One more good source for inspiration and education can be a CD/record store that specializes in jazz or rare Cds/lps. I was in Seattle recently and found a great store with rare, used stuff that you could spin and listen to before buying. These stores are almost as rare as 'clubs that let you hang out after the gig' these days and can be great sources of direction for your taste. I used to take the ferry over to Vancouver and shop for LPs and was able to do the same thing, often getting advice from the cats working there and/or (OMG) meeting people that would direct me to music I might dig. I sound old- fashined here, but I do worry that we will end up in our little computer bubbles and miss out on the sensual experiences that we really need,in order to live and feel life.

brem

Yeah, I would get teased for listening to elevator music, that's why I asked. :)

BergeronWannabe

What's an LP?....just kidding!
Consider yourself lucky, the only vinyl in my house was my mother's
Julio Iglesias albums... Doesn't do much for a kid wanting to learn jazz!
Andrew

Bay Area Brass

All the above plus Kenny Dorham-let's not forget KD!

Smithi20

Go to local gigs (if you can - how old are you?!!). Booker Little still turns me around, Art Farmer, Harry Sweets Edison, Miles.....

I also found blues a great springboard into jazz... and any of Art Blakey's bands, with any of his trumpeters!

And now comes the IMHO bit... sing along to Bill Evans records, Jim Hall, and any other pianist/guitarist that you feel a special affinity with (this can be done in your head!).

wvtrumpet

In no particular order:

Freddie Hubbard, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Dorham, Woody Shaw, Louis Armstrong, Blue Mitchell, Charles Tolliver, Clark Terry, Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan, Chet Baker....To name a few!

Boplicity

worth adding to the list:

Fats Navarro

Find the Album Giants of Jazz 71

Vulgano Brother

Don Ellis. Tom Farrell. Chet Baker.

If you want to communicate "musical truth," stay safe, stay within the "classical," whether it be jazz or 'legit;' if you wish to communicate deep feeling, the essence, the core of being, the thing that makes us the amazing creations that we are, humans; imperfect; full of ideas and ideals, then look to the crazy guys--they are the prophets, and jazz at its best is prophesy.

Take an idea; spin it out in all its possibilities, and then hone it in on that moment of musical satori where all the permutations come home.

Don't learn "licks." Don't play the changes, but learn to play them. Learn the scales, then forget them. It is not so much who you listen to, but how you listen to them. Ask yourself: "what are they trying to say?" If they are just filling space with cool sounding, pleasant notes, that should not be a role model, unless you want to make money.

In the end it comes down to a simple answer:

LISTEN TO YOURSELF!

Each and everyone of us has something worthwhile to say via music, yet almost each and everyone of us say what we want others to hear, almost every time.

Go for it, and I wish you every success!