First posted on Mark Is Cranky:
Ok, so last time around in my attempt to recommend some jazz-type recordings for The Duke, I kinda got sidetracked. This week, it's nose to the, uh...CD Player?
Anyway, what follows is a list of jazz-ish albums that I think might be to the liking of those who are sort of interested in jazz, but who have found it to be...how do I put this?....slow. A common way to introduce a person to jazz might be to invoke the "F-Word": fusion. Not this time around. It's been done many times before and it's just too easy. I also toyed with the idea of dealing in "energy music", some free jazz that seems to employ instruments as weapons...figuring that yer typical G.G. Allin fan might be able to appreciate the saxophone-as-blowtorch of a Peter Brotzman. Again, a risky thing.
Instead, let's consider some music that's odd, energetic and (sometimes) just plain weird. Here goes nothin'...
Naked City - John Zorn
This is Saturday morning cartoons, roller derby, detective movies, blues, cheesy television, surf, pornography, violence and more. Sometimes all in the same tune. Check out the cover of the James Bond Theme, where the entire band turns on a dime, blows its collective nose and finishes out the song.
Rootless Cosmopolitans - Marc Ribot
One of my favorite guitar players, Ribot defines 'angular'. While some of his finest stuff has happened as a sideman (good gawd, he's all over the fricken place on Tom Waits' Rain Dogs...and now that I think of it, he applies extra twangosity on Elvis Costello's "Let Him Dangle" (from Spike)), Ribot has put out an impressive collection of solo work. Cosmopolitans has Ribot making funny with some justabout sacred rock tunes including a complete bastardization of Hendrix' "Wind Cries Mary" and a busted, detuned "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Plus, how can you not like a guy who names his band 'The Prosthetic Cubans'?
Article comments
1 - JR
You definitely went with the outside. I'd worry that there aren't enough accessible hooks there for someone who isn't already into harmonically abstract music. (Except for the Naked City, which is just plain fun for anyone with an attitude.)
There is plenty of music in the mainstream jazz tradition that might also appeal to someone with a more, ehm... "normal" harmonic asthetic looking for more energy. Art Blakey certainly won't put anyone to sleep, and who has more catchy hooks than Horace Silver? I might recommend Silver's "Blowin' the Blues Away" or "Finger Poppin'". Blakey's two volumes of "A Night At Birdland" are the quintessential hard bop.
Speaking of bop, you could go straight to the source with Charlie Parker, something like "Bird and Diz" maybe. Earlier stuff is better, but I don't know which are the good compilations.
Good large bands can be pretty exciting. Rumour has it that Count Basie swings; something like "The Complete Atomic Basie" comes off a bit Vegas-y, but it's fun none the less. Along the same lines, I'd probably try to turn people on to organ master Jimmy Smith through albums like "The Cat" and "James and Wes - The Dynamic Duo". Actually there are probably hundreds of better big band recommendations, but I'm kind of drawing a blank.
Ellington comes to mind, but his stuff can seem more artsy than lively, although it's all great. He did make an album called "Money Jungle" with Charles Mingus and Max Roach which is a bit rougher than one might expect from him. Good stuff.
A quirky one I got into early on was Roland Kirk's "We Free Kings". He did even more interesting stuff later, but I know that one is a good introduction.
One more recent album that I've found appeals to non-jazz listeners is the Charlie Hunter Quartet's "Natty Dread", a cover of the Bob Marley album. The combination of jazzy harmony laid over the simple reggae tunes seems to strike an ideal balance for Rock fans.
2 - Mark Saleski
right you are jr, there's tons of stuff in the more uptempto jazz realm, including big band.
heck, there's even the more modern big band stuff like Carla Bley and also the Either Orchestra.
i just went for the 'quirk angle'.
3 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
mark, i will check these out A.S.A.P, and thats a hell of a wager at the end there. i'm especially looking forward to this Song X malarkey.