JonathanShaw

I just started listening to jazz. My favorite people to listen to are Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Maynard Ferguson etc. I feel I have only just scratched the surface the jazz listening field. Any suggestions on who to listen to that I can learn from.

PerunaPete

Here are some names you can check out. Definitely not the be all, end all but it's a start.

Louis Armstrong
Art Farmer
Chet Baker
John Coltrane
Kenny Dorham
Oscar Peterson
JJ Johnson
Freddie Hubbard
Dexter Gordon
Roy Hargrove
Lee Morgan
Art Blakey(will feature many of these artists)
Horace Silver
Booker Little
Clifford Brown
Arturo Sandoval
Terence Blanchard
Wayne Shorter
Terell Stafford
Carl Saunders
Marvin Stamm

trpt2345

I think you should just ramble around listen to things you like and try to figure out why you like it. Take a recording you like:if there's a pianist or drummer you like, try to find another recording with the same pianist or drummer and see if you like that. If there's a saxophonist you like on one of those recordings try to find another recording with him or her. Above all have fun and enjoy it. If you hear something you don't like put it aside but be willing to return to it after a while because your point of view might change. You have a great adventure ahead discovering America's true art form.

Michael McLaughlin

"Write something, even if it's just a suicide note."
Gore Vidal

ptynan

Get a copy of the "The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz".

It is a great sampler from the start of the music's history to the modern day.

You should get a ruff Idea of what you do and don't like from that.

PT

surfhorn

You just may need a survey of jazz class at a local community college. Or check out history of jazz or PBS dvds from your library.

Skeetpf

Sign up for NAPSTER's free service. You can listen to any album up to 5 times free. It's great, no strings. Lots of jazz choices

RP

NickD

I'd pop into JazzPlayer Radio.com now and then and listen for a while. They play an amazingly eclectic mix of stuff - from the old jazz legends to the current heavies to obscure indies!

http://www.jazzplayerradio.com

do all of hte other stuff posted as well! This will be a project that will take all of your life! That's part of the fun! It never ends!

Peace.

Nick

TWEAK

http://www.pandora.com/

go to it
you won't regret it.

jazz is about MELODY and not about playing as many notes as you can in a measure. remember that.
the perfect example of a master at melody making: keith jarrett.

he is a pianist, and he is one of the last of his kind.

bigtiny

Jamey Aebersold has a list of required listening that they print in the jazz primer that they send with orders (it's also got some chord scale tables and stuff). Anyway, the listening list is excellent an provides a great basis for a collection (it might be called something like "100 jazz albums every jazz musician should own").

bigtiny

A.N.A. Mendez

What a great statement, I heard Parker for the 1st time (that I was aware it was him)recently and I marveled at how he does not seem to be trying to stuff too many notes into a measure. So many "Jazz" artists seem to revert to scales and not playing from feeling. Parker was always right on the beat it seemed too. Another totally unrelated artist who seems to always be right on the beat is Stevie Ray Vaughn. Just my .02 worth......