SlipLive

i have thoroughly enjoyed anything i have heard from these guys but have yet to really explore any of their music. i hope to eventually check out all of it...but there is so much and i don't know where to begin.

could anyone recommend a few albums to begin with?

right now i am thinking of buying miles davis' Bitches Brew and/or Kind of Blue

i recommend listening chronologicly to miles (thats what i did anyway).

check out his first quintet series w/ coltrane. (workin, steamin, relaxin, cookin). there might be one or two more, but i love these 4. i think columbia made a best of, but i think its worth it, especially if you find them used. this series was just classic, straight ahead, tight be bop jazz. fast and tight.

kind of blue came next. everyone should own this ablum. EVERYONE.
sketches of spain also came out during this time. and by its name it has some elements of world music, especially spanish instruments and percussion.

live at the black hawk came a few years later. i just picked up both nights and i havent really dove in deep, but its awesome.

i dont have anything after this until the late 60's. miles meets hendrix, does more drugs and decides that he wants to own jazz and rock. in a way he does.

so his next quintet is where he starts getting a little more loose: in a silent way. the little brother of bitches brew. hes not as crazy and a little more kept. bitches brew is just out of control. how can a jazz song be 15 minutes?!? guitars and distorted horns?? the snobs hated this direction, but this is where fusion is born. this shit will make you question todays music (jam/ jazz / fusion). get the box set, or pick up big fun (bitches brew sessions). and if you still need more (and still have some money left) pick up a tribute to jack johnson.

Moved the topic to general convo for you...

You know, it's strange, I don't actually own any recordings by these musicians myself, but after five years of living with music students, I'm always surprised at how well I know some classic albums. My favorite is In a Silent Way... I must have listened to it going to sleep for a while, cause when another friend played me a disc from the box set of those sessions a while later, and I knew the album material inside and out, even though I couldn't have told him before-hand that I did.

We stumbled across Kind of Blue and Sketches of Spain on vinal within the last couple months... amazing to hear these on the original medium they were intended for, definately pick up a record if you ever see one in decent condition (and reasonably priced, I've seen mint-condition albums priced way too high).

miles davis...

the later half of his career is my passion. In A Silent Way is a fabulous album that can be listened to zillions of times. It has the ambiance of a Brian Eno Ambient album, and the instrumentation of miles' late jazz fusion supergroup that made another appearance on Bitches Brew. now that album is dark, and complicated, and rich - my friend zak use to say it sounded like arcane magic to him.

next step along this line, if you like what your hearing, would be to go for one of the live disks from that era - i recommend Live/Evil or Black Magus - one of those shows variations of the kind of group he was playing with on Bitches Brew, but with long, far out improvisations and playing with noise tectures, and enmeshing music technologies - chick corea can be found playing an electric piano processed by a ring modulator, along side aierto playing talking drum.

finally, take all of that, and condense it, and make it funky, and you've got On The Corner, which to me is the last major step in this part of his career. here, with simple gestures and plenty of chaos (tamboura paired with multiple percussionists, full rhythm section, multiple horns) he makes an artful step forward. many critics flat out dis this album, saying it isn't jazz. then again, folks like Bill Laswell and Squarepusher think it's the magnum opus.

so, to round up: if you are interested in 1968 onward, i recommend:

1)In A Silent Way
2)Bitches Brew
3)Live/Evil or Black Magus
4)On The Corner
.
from there, Tribute to Jack Johnson, Big Fun, Fillmore East, Agharta, Pangea... and you might just even find yourself picking up the complete sessions box sets.

oh, speaking of box sets: The Complete Columbia Miles and Coltrane is nice, as well as the Complete Plugged Nickel, for earlier material.

someone got an intro to monk? his actual discography is a big mystery to me.

coltrane introduction:
Giant Steps
My Favorite Things
Village Vanguard (box if you feel adventurous!)
A Love Supreme

screw that trendy jazz and pick up mingus- ah um.

I've got The New Miles Davis Quintet, which has Miles and Trane playing on it. It's pretty straightforward, nothing too extreme (like Bitches Brew, Silent Way). I'm a big fan. Also of Someday My Prince Will Come. Miles covers Disney tunes? Kind of like Phish Gettin' Jiggy Widdit.

Kind of.