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Thad Jones

While listening to Pandora in the backgroud...this killer trumpet playing caught my attention.  I walked over to the player to see that it was the Thelonius Monk album 'Five By Monk Five'.  I looked up the album on Wikipedia to see what musicians were on the session. It listed Thad Jones as the trumpeter.  He was killing it.  I'm 65 years old and have been listening to jazz for 46 years and have never heard any music by Thad Jones.   I'd seen his name a few times over the decades while reading about jazz, but nothing ever stood out.  I retrieved the album on Napster and played it.  Excellent album.  Cat can play.

Can anyone recommend any Thad Jones recordings that you think are some of his best work?

On a trivia note, .....pianist Hank Jones and drummer Elvin Jones are his brothers.
128x128mitch4t
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,239 posts
 
"A Child Is Born" absolutely a beautiful classic written by Thad. Pepper Adams (Baritone Saxophone) did a wonderful cover of this song as have many others.

Mitch, Navarro had some very nice sessions with Tadd Dameron. He was a superb Bop trumpeter. Not nearly as well known as the iconic Dizzy Gillespie but I prefer Fats Navarro’s playing more. Sadly he died at the tender age of 27.
Charles
jond's avatar
jond
5,706 posts
 
"Central Park North" kills just finished listening to it, the title track is a wonderfully complex but grooving song!
pryso
1,915 posts
 
mitch, don’t feel bad. I’ve been a jazz fan for more than 50 years and thanks to the "Jazz for aficionados" post here I’m still discovering musicians I never heard of, including some from many years ago. But yes, as a big Monk fan I’ve owned "5 X Monk X 5" nearly that whole time. Good choice!
mktracy's avatar
mktracy
91 posts
 
Thad Jones caught my ear about a year ago and I was blown away by him. My favorite album by him is "The Magnificent Thad Jones" followed by "Detroit-New York Junction". Thad is a monster and very very talented, I think he was a very underrated trumpeter.
nicotico
187 posts
 
Also which might be of interest: Thad Jones plays on certain cuts on the excellent “Ellington Is Forever, Vol. 1” by Kenny Burrell. Also, I recently picked up a Thad Jones tribute album entitled “Mad About Thad” by the NYJAZZ Initiative - excellent tribute album which exceeded my expectations.
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