After over a year of musical ennui, I was finally re-energized today when I heard Charles Mingus’ The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady for the first time. Sadly, my jazz collection consists of Peter Brotzmann’s Machine Gun, which I do love, a lot of John Zorn’s different projects, and a bunch of Coltrane, which I never listen to since it’s on vinyl. So what I need are jazz recommendations, but nothing that would be described as “smooth jazz”. No, sirs, I need some element that might be described as “avant garde”, and no amount is too much. I just need albums that attain a level of awesomeness near The Black Saint.
Fieldwork.
Aren’t they on Pi?
Oh my goodness. Hard to know where to start with this one. You certainly have started with a high standard with Black Saint. So that’s good. At least we don’t have to re-educate you off Kenny G.
If you’re into Mingus and Coltrane, there’s tons of directions to go both backwards and forwards in time from there, none of which involves “smooth jazz.”
This is just off the top of my head that would be good places to jump from here, sticking to relatively the same time period as Black Saint (And let’s just skip right past Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue and Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, because you should know and/or own them already, being The Obligatory Jazz Records That Everyone Owns) Not necessarily “avant jazz” but with great improvisation and experimentation:
Almost anything by Thelonious Monk–brilliant, funny, lyrical, adventurous–but good starters are:
Monk’s Dream – my personal favorite.
Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane
Some Mingus-era avant jazz records:
Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come– Not quite free jazz, but getting there, with Coleman abandoning strict chordal structures to songs and having everyone basically improvise off melody (i’m oversimplifying, i know). Still quite listenable for those open to it, which it sounds like you might be.
Eric Dolphy’s Out There - A freakin’ mindblowing genius of a musician–he killed on, lessee: bass clarinet, flute, alto clarinet, others I’m probably forgetting–and as adventurous as Coleman and Coltrane. And he played with Mingus. This one is also “near free jazz”–and has a Mingus cover on it too.
Oh shit! And speaking of Dolphy, that reminds me of the record that in my mind I always kinda think of as stylistically very similar to "Black Saint, Oliver Nelson’s The Blues and the Abstract Truth, which also features Dolphy, and which is some delicious blues based jazz with complex ensemble arrangements. Great stuff.
This is obviously just tip of the iceberg suggestions. I’m sure others will have more. Have fun!
Yes. Why?
I was just making sure that it was the Fieldwork I was thinking of. I have one of their albums somewhere, but I don’t recall ever listening to it for some reason. I’ll definitely check out their new album, “Door”.
hard bop
start with art blakey and the jazz messengers Blue Note output then examine things like Lee Morgan’s Sidewinder and Rumproller, then branch out to some of the other players.
Larry Young’s Unity is a current favorite.
if you’re looking for inexpensive editions you can typically find these on CD for around $10 or vinyl for $12
Thanks for the help so far, everyone. I’ll start digging in once I stop listening to Black Saint on repeat.
Sonny Rollins, my favorite player.
Pick up Newk’s Time, A Night at the Village Vanguard Vol. 2, Saxophone Collosus, and/or Way Out West. Rollins takes old showtune standards, turns them about as hard as anything can be turned into hard bop, and makes them swing. Way Out West is a great example.
Rollins is in his late 70’s and still kicking ass. He won best Jazz album only last year, and just now released a fantastic collection of recordings from live shows, Road Shows Vol 1, available as an MP3 album from Amazon, that I highly recommend.
another good one for taking music you know and twisting it is guitar player Grant Greene.
Well worth a listen.
If all the hard bop gets you in the mood for something a bit mellower, check out some Jimmy Smith
Heh. Machine Gun being one of my most listened-to pieces of music ever, hard bop is pretty mellow by my standards.
Miles - Complete Bitches Brew sessions should serve you well.
wrong link and i usually argue against something like bitches brew or on the corner to someone just getting into jazz.
how about Kind of Blue or Birth of the Cool to start?
Fixed the link. If you read the OP, he’s specifically asking for something avant-garde. You can call Kind of Blue many things, but avant-garde it ain’t. Still one of my favourite albums though.
avante garde now it’s not but at the time it was quite experimental.
Following the inclusion of pianist Bill Evans into his sextet, Davis followed up on the modal experimentations of his Milestones album and the '58 Sessions. The album is based entirely on modality in contrast to his earlier work with the hard bop style of jazz and its complex chord progression and improvisation.[4]
I should have mentioned that I own Kind of Blue and enjoy it. I also have “A Love Supreme” and all that, er, jazz.
I absolutely adore Vince Guaraldi’s work (the peanuts music guy, yes)
But… his stuff is more of the Smooth Jazz variety
oh, then definitely go for Bitches Brew and On The Corner.
You might check out Mark Feldman. He’s a fabulous jazz violinist and some of his work is categorized as avant garde.
Oh, and I might be a bit biased because I grew up with his son, but if you’re looking for avant garde and experimental jazz, Anthony Braxton is your guy. He is extremely prolific, though, so arm yourself with a good guide.
Plus: In A Silent Way