Share some under appreciated jazz album titles


I’ve been on a journey to discover more older jazz albums deeper down the catalog that share two traits; I like/love the music and the recording shines, quite possibly unexpectedly. By that I mean, I probably have a bias that leads me expect recordings from the fifties and sixties to be less detailed or “audiophile” than more recent recordings. I’m finding this bias to be truly misguided to say the least. 
Please share some of your favorite lesser known jazz gems with both traits. To roll the ball…  Dave Brubeck “In Time”, Johnny Hodges “Not So Dukish” and “Gerry Mulligan Meets Johnny Hodges”  

Yes, I’ve been on a Johnny Hodges kick lately 

happy listening everyone 

 

david_principato

A lot of good titles mentioned, though I beg to differ that some of those mentioned are certainly very popular and sold a A LOT. Not the below. 

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Second for Booker Little "Out Front" on Candid - masterpiece and should be heard by anyone interested in who Miles referred to as if Booker had lived longer, would have eclipsed nearly every trumpet player out there - they went to the same music school in MD at different times. He and Dolphy were soulmates as well, and cut more well known albums live together that need no explanation. He also was part of Max Roach's band before going solo. Little tragically died at 23 of complications with uremia, not anything but that. Nat Hentoff was devastated - they were very close, and of course the two dirges on here will make you stop. 

Mingus - "East Coasting" on Bethlehem - under-appreciated is an understatement. As a Mingus freak, this is in my top 3. Like a foggy day with beautiful flowing charts and Dolphy's bittersweet wail once in a while. It is a tone poem, and should he heard in full, Accessible in a mysterious way. There is a reason Mingus, if ever, did not put other musicians names on his albums. That was not the point like other labels using it as a marketing gimmick. 

Second nearly all the later Chet Baker LP's while rebuilding his embouchure in Europe

Coltrane - "Ole" - I actually am not sure if this one is/was popular. However, the track "Ole" across all of side one is IMHO, and virtuoso performance of every musician - two bassists included bowing back and forth between each other at the height of the chart. Side 2 of course needs no explanation. 

Music, Inc. - "Live at Slugs" - whatever versions you can find. Charles Tolliver, Stanely Cowell, Cecil McBee, and Jimmy Hopps. Something happened during those shows, that, for me, is magical and transcends most jazz of that time and now. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the same. smiley

Jazz is often and acquired taste. Most folks are not exposed and never acquire the taste and/or consider it and elite / intellectual taste. As you know the majority in the US are now pro ignorant and stupid.... so, it is not surprising that folks look down on us. 

 

Stunning recommendations done right with explanations!

Welcome on audiogon...

I will listen right now Booker little and look for "live at slugs" ...Thanks...

 

 

A lot of good titles mentioned, though I beg to differ that some of those mentioned are certainly very popular and sold a A LOT. Not the below. 

----

Second for Booker Little "Out Front" on Candid - masterpiece and should be heard by anyone interested in who Miles referred to as if Booker had lived longer, would have eclipsed nearly every trumpet player out there - they went to the same music school in MD at different times. He and Dolphy were soulmates as well, and cut more well known albums live together that need no explanation. He also was part of Max Roach's band before going solo. Little tragically died at 23 of complications with uremia, not anything but that. Nat Hentoff was devastated - they were very close, and of course the two dirges on here will make you stop. 

Mingus - "East Coasting" on Bethlehem - under-appreciated is an understatement. As a Mingus freak, this is in my top 3. Like a foggy day with beautiful flowing charts and Dolphy's bittersweet wail once in a while. It is a tone poem, and should he heard in full, Accessible in a mysterious way. There is a reason Mingus, if ever, did not put other musicians names on his albums. That was not the point like other labels using it as a marketing gimmick. 

Second nearly all the later Chet Baker LP's while rebuilding his embouchure in Europe

Coltrane - "Ole" - I actually am not sure if this one is/was popular. However, the track "Ole" across all of side one is IMHO, and virtuoso performance of every musician - two bassists included bowing back and forth between each other at the height of the chart. Side 2 of course needs no explanation. 

Music, Inc. - "Live at Slugs" - whatever versions you can find. Charles Tolliver, Stanely Cowell, Cecil McBee, and Jimmy Hopps. Something happened during those shows, that, for me, is magical and transcends most jazz of that time and now.

 

 

Great topic. My contribution: ANYTHING by Bobby Hutcherson. I saw him at the Blue Note in Japan. He was up in age at that time. I was gob smacked by him and his band. I own most of his albums. Not a dud in the bunch ... 

I lost interest in "straight ahead" jazz at a certain point---I came up in "audiophile land" and all of us had the same records, I think. I had taken a plunge into the Vertigo Swirls a little more than a decade ago, and crossed paths with someone who asked me if I liked "spiritual jazz"-- I thought it referred to gospel, little did I know. Started buying various Strata-Easts, Nimbus Wests, Impulses (and Chad reissues of Impulses). 

Something less cacophonous than "free jazz" but still unpredictable and unrestrained. I got a kick out of watching the TV series Bosch and seeing the protagonist chase Horace Tapscott records. I was enormously gratified to interview Cecil McBee recently as he reached his 90th year on the planet. Some of his work is more straight ahead, but he is on so many great records and he always finds a hidden line within a composition that adds, never detracts.

I can read music, but my playing days are long behind me. And though I did a huge amount of work in the industry as a consigliere, very little of it involved music that I listened to, with a few exceptions. 

Today, all those roads converge for me--

@viridian,

The jazz for aficionados thread actually has a whole lot more music there other than straight ahead or avant garde, fifties and sixties jazz. You would be surprised. Even the OP orpheus10 posted a ton of other worldly music other than straight ahead or avant garde jazz.  

And don’t mind @stuartk, he means no harm, he can sometimes come across as a curmudgeon and very cantankerous but he’s really not, and that does come with age. In fact he has a very wide music pallette and has posted many varieties of music on that thread alone.