I know sweet fuck all about Jazz.

However, I've been led to think that Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain is a fantastic jazz album, while incorporating various other styles of music that I really like.

I've been meaning to get into jazz -- would this cd be a good first Jazz CD to buy?

It would make it easier if I knew what kind of music you like.


Sketches of Spain is an excellent recording. But not the first I would recommend by Miles. I can think of maybe 15-20 I would recommend first. But Miles pretty much put out a lot of great recordings.

Without knowing what you genre of music you like I would suggest getting

Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong- Complete Hot Five and Sevens, these four Cd's are basically the foundation of jazz. Keep in mind these were recorded in the 20's.

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue, considered the best jazz recording by most fans of jazz. This also put playing modal on the map.

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (deluxe edition). I would say he is the Jimi Hendrix of Jazz. He is also on Kind of Blue. He was a member of what is considered Miles first great quintet. Though this is different in style. Just before Coltrane went into free jazz.

Bill Evans - "Waltz for Debby" & "Sunday at the Village Vanguard"
Sonny Rollins - a Night at the Village Vanguard
Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
Charlie Parker - The Quintet: Live at Massey Hall (is considered one of the best live recordings in Jazz history.)
Bud Powell - The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1 & 2
Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music, Vol 1 & 2
Duke Ellington - Ellington at Newport 1956 (Complete)
Herbie Hancock - "Maiden Voyage" & "Empyrean Isles"
Dizzy Gillespie - Complete RCA Victor Recordings
Count Basie - Original American Decca Recordings


Both Miles and Coltrane covered a great deal of jazz history.


The God's of Jazz that you really can't go wrong with

Louis Armstrong
John Coltrane
Miles Davis
Charlie "Bird" Parker
Charles Mingus
Art Tatum
Bud Powell
Thelonious Monk
Duke Ellington
Count Basie
Lester "Pres" Young
Coleman "Bean" Hawkins
Sonny "Newk" Rollins
Bill Evans - also was on Miles "Kind of Blue".



If you are into the more wilder/extreme types of music, I can give you recommendations in the avant-garde, free jazz, free improv areas.

What do I like? Mostly a wide variety of rock music, and a bit of electronic music, mostly trance. I'll give you a list of what I've been listening to lately.

The Mars Volta
...the Trail of Dead
Nick Drake
The Stone Roses
Catherine Wheel
Spacemen 3
The Verve (who are my favorite band)

if that helps, then that's cool... if not, then that's cool too!

First, those recordings I gave you should be part of every jazz collection. And as I said that list of musicians are the God's of jazz. They generally cover jazz from the beginning through the pre-60's. With a couple exceptions. After that you are getting into the avant-garde, free jazz and free improv.

Now the closest you are going to get to electronica/trance would be Miles Davis' Electric phase. In which he fuses jazz/rock, which led to the genre of Fusion. But all you really need from the whole Fusion genre is Miles recordings up until a point.


Especially, Bitches Brew, In a Silent Way, and finally Jack Johnson. Each of those has had elaborate box sets released. These include alt takes if you are interested in that. You can get both the new Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way reissues alone as well. Since Jack Johnson's box just came out, they haven't got around to reissuing the original material only yet.

I would recommend the box sets myself. But that might be more than you are willing to spend just getting into Jazz. Of the three recordings, Bitches Brew would be the first to get.


Your other option would be the man from Saturn, Sun Ra and here is a previous thread on Sun Ra.

The Man from Saturn


This is a good site to use for reviews. Though they have proofreading issues on information.

All Music Guide

A great book would be, The Penguin Guide to Jazz.

If you want a vocalist, Billie "Lady Day" Holiday is my ultimate favorite.


Smething to keep in mind. Keep track of the sidemen on each of the recordings. Many of the greats at one time or another were sideman on other greats recordings. Miles for example was a sideman with Charlie Parker. And it's pretty much a who's who of jazz for those that have played with Miles, Duke Ellington, Count Basie.

So those sideman that catch your interest could end up leading you to their recordings and sideman, etc.....

Jazz just like rock has a lot of styles, but a very basic, and I mean basic evolution would be

New Orleans
Dixie
Swing/Big Band
Bop
Cool Jazz
Hard Bop
Avant-gard
Free Jazz/Free Improv


And many of these have sub-styles, as well as styles in between those.

I got into jazz via a sort of "side door". I was into the jazz-funk of the Headhunters-era Herbie Hancock, Return To Forever, and some Weather Report. Basically the liner notes all pointed to Miles Davis, so eventually I broke down, bought Kind of Blue, and my life has never been the same. The only other jazz album I had at the time was Dave Brubeck's Time Out. Those two albums seem to be the most commonly owned, and they are a good start, I think.

Personally, I find the 60's "hard bop" era (or bop or whatever it is called) to be my favorite period.

Back to Sketches!

This may not be a traditional jazz recording but it is damn good. Only miles could take a spanish paradigm and flip it without making the whole thing seem contrived. Its straight goot.

stachmo...you did a nice job! you really added some nice info there!

don't thing I have to add anything more!

I know 2 persons who claimed that they can hear colors in Sketches of Spain. can anyone hear colors in that album???

I can't...

I "hear" colors when I hear individual notes, but that goes for anything...I don't recall Sketches being different...