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If you were introducing someone to jazz...

It was a key entry point to jazz for me. I bought it at the time for £1.99 and ended up buying almost all of the albums that it samples. I still have the coffee mug you could write off for via the insert, though I ended up giving the album to someone else to start their journey as I no longer needed it.

PS Looking at the track listing I’m missing the Stanley Turrentine album, I obviously need to fix that! Got the rest.
 
The correct answer is Duke Ellington, big band is very approachable & you may as well start with the best. Blues in Orbit is a good start. The other route in is Louis Armstrong Hot Fives/Sevens (Muggles, West End Blues, No papa no). Miles Davis KOB is the next obvious step.
 
Weekender said:
This Blue Note sampler did it for me:
https://www.discogs.com/Various-A-Sample-Of-Blue-Notes/release/1010391
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Forgot about that one - I have on cassette. A good way to spend £1.99.

Another Blue Note sampler I like is the 'Straight No Chaser' set that came out in '94 as part of the reissue programme that was a late cash in on the acid jazz craze.

417D53VJFKL.jpg
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000005GWS/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
 
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I have to admit there are 2 or 3 albums mentioned here I haven't heard! I will catch up soon.

My answer to the OP question is Search For The New Land by Lee Morgan.

Marchbanks said:
It would depend where they are coming from. A rock fan would get ‘Jack Johnson’ rather than Jacques Loussier, a classical buff might prefer ‘Sketches of Spain’ to Sons of Kemet.
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Sons of Kemet's album Burn contains Adiona's Lullaby and Song for Galeano - I think both are a wonderful fusion of jazz and classical - as well as jazz of other varied, and I'd say even novel, styles! I admit Your Queen Is A Reptile, a disappointment for me, seems homogeneous compared to Burn.

Darkagesound said:
A long preamble to say that I would nominate Man Made Object by Go Go Penguin.
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Funny thing taste, I like both v2.0 and A Humdrum Star. I really like Branches Break from Man Made Object.
 
I got into jazz Years back Gerry Mulligan- Lester Young-Stan Kenton etc but in my view you have to be very careful in making suggestions or giving advice, personally I do not like all jazz and I suspect lots of people would be of that opinion! For example Coltrane going on a trip!! might not lead on to some one appreciating Ben Webster, Perhaps the softer approach of Art Tatum and Bill Evans should come before Monk, who I enjoy and was lauded by the old Scottish film and documentary maker John Grierson (sp)

Some perhaps would enjoy the DVD " Harlem" ( music also on CD ) which is about many notables meeting up for a photo and a discussion about different types of Jazz and includes Willie "The Lion " Smith the old stride Piano player for example. This I think was in the mid fifties.
 
Can't speak as an expert but if I had to say who was my favourite Jazz person growing up as a kid it would have to be Oscar Peterson.

He had a tv series in the early seventies - Oscar Peterson Presents - Never missed it. Was my favourite thing on the telly. I just loved that guy.

Night Train is in my top 10 albums of all time. By anyone.

 
Take5 said:
Introducing someone to jazz with only one album is a tall ask. In fact probably impossible

Frankly, jazz is not for all and some of the above suggestions will have the newcomer running from the scene,
Having decided that jazz isn’t for them.
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Night Train - Oscar Peterson will do the trick for anyone with two ears.


If they don't like it, kick their effing head in.
 
Aethelist said:
Can't speak as an expert but if I had to say who was my favourite Jazz person growing up as a kid it would have to be Oscar Peterson.

He had a tv series in the early seventies - Oscar Peterson Presents - Never missed it. Was my favourite thing on the telly. I just loved that guy.

Night Train is in my top 10 albums of all time. By anyone.

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Jesus, I went to get a track on Youtube, listened to a few and came back with C Jam Blues and you had posted the very same track. I would have chosen your version, but I thought maybe the intro is a bit long. All the same the coincidence is incredible.
 
Aethelist said:
Can't speak as an expert but if I had to say who was my favourite Jazz person growing up as a kid it would have to be Oscar Peterson.
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I assume you have the MPS albums that make up this box? If not immediately buy it! His best recorded output IMHO, and apparently his too.
 
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Time Out is a very easy album to love.
Waltz for Debbie, Ah-Hum, My Favourite Things, Somethin Else or Autumn Leaves are all must haves in any collection.
 
Mingus Oh Yeah was my gateway drug (Hog Callin' Blues is just magnificent - Roland Kirk!!!), but Ah Um is probably a better entry point; very accessible and wide-ranging in content/style it surely has something everyone would like.
 
gassor said:
Night Train - Oscar Peterson will do the trick for anyone with two ears.
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Agree, its great. one of the first LPs i got in to when I got in to swing type music.

Great as it is, here is something interesting.

Check out the increase in tempo between the start and the finish. But the increase is so gradual that our ears accept it. Even the greats get carried away with excitement. Fantastic stuff.
 
I'd sit them down and plan a multi-pronged attack, starting in no particular order with something like this, beginning with saxophone, then vocals, then Blue Note impressionism, then electric...

Coltrane, 'Out of This World' (from 'Coltrane' 1962) - this was my gateway to Coltrane; ecstatic from the beginning, with some more challenging sections of overblowing, but propelled forward by Elvin Jones.

Charlie Parker, 'Lover Man'. Hoping they have a taste for raw magic and strange beauty, and hoping their tastes are not too hi-fi. (I'm not playing them any ECM releases)

Sarah Vaughan, 'Lover Man'. The most purely exquisite voice of all time, so if the Parker was too raw, surely they're getting it now.

Herbie Hancock, 'Maiden Voyage'. Still playing to their more refined and exquisite impulses, with this explosion of tone colour and delicacy (yes, you can have delicacy and explosion together).

Miles Davis, 'Jack Johnson'. Back from the head to the guts; surely I've got them now?

Note I'm not playing them any late Coltrane or Evan Parker, so I'm keeping my greatest musical passions held back. I'll wait until the earlier Coltrane has sunk in first.
 
Introducing someone to Jazz could put someone off for life if you're not careful. I really don't get some of it at all.

I like Kenny Burrell though.

What an utter and complete gentleman

 
John Coltrane - Crescent is an excellent album & a perfect bridge from Giant Steps to Love Supreme. Not listened to any Coltrane for ages so will be putting this right over the next few days.
 
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