Jazz question/cool not hot?

Subject: Jazz question/cool not hot?
From: WyoWoman
Date: 10 Nov 99 - 09:24 AM

I have a CD of Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue," which is one of my favorite albums ever. However, I got another Miles Davis CD and I didn't really like it that much (sorry). I think the distinction is between cool jazz and le jazz hot. I don't like all that busy-ness, I guess. I want something mellow and cooool when I'm needing to unwind.

Can anyone recommend other CDs/artists I might like that are cool like "Kind of Blue" (without hurling invective because I dared to say I wasn't fond of something Miles Davis did? I forever ruined my image in the eyes of one of the men I work with when I admitted that...)

Tx/WW

Subject: RE: Jazz question/cool not hot?
From: Roger the skiffler
Date: 10 Nov 99 - 09:59 AM

Although I prefer my jazz hot, my favourite Miles is the Porgy & Bess treatment. Do you like Gerry Mulligan? He's usually pretty cool? Or for guitarists, Wes Montgomery. Other trumpeters: Art Farmer, Clifford Brown. I enjoy all these but am most likely to settle down with Louis, Bechet, the Lonnies (Johnson & Donegan) or Django. RtS

Subject: RE: Jazz question/cool not hot?
From: Peter T.
Date: 10 Nov 99 - 10:02 AM

WW, the height of cool jazz is usually from 1953 - 1960, though obviously people went on doing it after that. You probably got some post 1960 Miles. You should try some others in the earlier period, the seminal record being "The Birth of the Cool", which was recently reissued. Miles worked with Gil Evans on various classics like Sketches of Spain, etc. Anything of Bill Evans (the pianist on Kind of Blue) in that period ("Everybody Loves Bill Evans", etc.) is terrific (anything by Bill Evans anytime is terrific), early John Coltrane (Ballads), again pre-1960, 61.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Jazz question/cool not hot?
From:
Date: 10 Nov 99 - 10:11 AM

If you liked "Kind of Blue" and want to try some more Miles, I'd recommend "My Funny Valentine", "Complete Birth of the Cool", "Sketches of Spain", and anything else he did with the Gil Evans Orchestra. I'll make you a list, but if you like singing, there's one album you should go buy today; " John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman". Also maybe some Bossa Nova, starting with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto (Buy "Getz/Gilberto" first). As categories of jazz, "Cool Jazz" was mostly the stuff that Miles Davis did in the fifties. In the late sixties he started playing around with all that jazz/rock fusion stuff that I think most jazz fans wish he hadn't. "Hot Jazz", as a genre, was originally a European phrase to describe the kind of stuff that Stephane Grapelli and Django Reinhardt were doing (Quintette du Hot Club du France"), although I've heard it used many time to describe anything that's uptempo and more frenetic, like Bebop. Let us know more specifically what you like and many of us hear can steer you where you want to go.

More later, Chet

Subject: RE: Jazz question/cool not hot?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 10 Nov 99 - 12:03 PM

Good stuff, Roger, Peter and Chet. Now for another Chet I admire...Mr. Baker. Ignore the hype, the busts, the false teeth, the wives etc. There are several Chet's Greatest Hits albums out there. 'course that's a joke, cause jazz guys don't HAVE hits..except for Louis' "Dolly" and "Wonderful World", but the less said about those, the better. His singing and trumpet playing are the epitome of "cool".
Rick

Subject: RE: Jazz question/cool not hot?
From: Martin _Ryan
Date: 10 Nov 99 - 08:28 PM

Art Farmer, Chet Baker, Bill Evans and, nowadays, Brad Mehldau. Also - try an Irishman - guitarist Louis Stewart.

Regards

Subject: RE: Jazz question/cool not hot?
From: Frankie
Date: 10 Nov 99 - 09:47 PM

WW, I'll second Chet Baker, Stan Getz and Bill Evans. As for Miles Davis,his albums SOMEDAY MY PRINCE WILL COME and MILESTONES which preceded "'Blue" are also very fine. Also very cool was Lester Young. You might want to check his pre-war recordings with Count Basie, Billie Holiday and especially the Kansas City Six. Going back a bit further coolness was evident in the recordings of Bix Beiderbecke. Especially those with Frankie Trumbauer like "I'm Coming Virginia" and "Singing the Blues". Happy listening. What is "cool" anyway?

PS One of the great things about this site is that you people are always reminding me of great music that I sometimes forget about. Listening to THE GENTLE SIDE OF JOHN COTRANE right now. It is a compilation from BALLADS, the album with Johnny Hartman and I believe the one with Duke Ellington (oh yeah, Johnny Hodges).Johnny Hartman singing "Lush Life", McCoy Tyner intros arrrggghhh...

Subject: RE: Jazz question/cool not hot?
From:
Date: 11 Nov 99 - 09:39 AM

Eddie Jefferson, also King Pleasure - vocalists, about as cool as it gets.

Chet

Subject: RE: Jazz question/cool not hot?
From: Libby
Date: 11 Nov 99 - 02:15 PM

Hi, I'm new in town, but an old lover of jazz. For cool, try also Shirley Horn. She did some live recordings in Paris that are about as smooth as cream. Mmm-mmm!

Subject: RE: Jazz question/cool not hot?
From:
Date: 24 Nov 99 - 02:44 PM

PLEASE HELP! I need to know the characteristics of Jazz, Rhythm and Blues. Crescendo, homophonic, etc. I am ignorant to this type of music and went to a concert. I now have to write it up and am not quite sure how to describe what I heard. Please help me.

Thank you in advance for you help. Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Subject: RE: Jazz question/cool not hot?
From: willie-o
Date: 24 Nov 99 - 02:59 PM

I think we should help this honest soul out. Jazz isn't the number one thing around here, but its definitely a sideline, and if its opinions you want...you're in the right place.

But we need more information. Who did you see? What kind of instrumentation and performance? Did anything stand out from your point of view? How did it all make you feel?

Bill C

Subject: RE: Jazz question/cool not hot?
From: Frank Hamilton
Date: 24 Nov 99 - 08:17 PM

Sonny Rollins is a nice mellow player. Paul Desmond and Dave Brubeck. Desmond wrote "Take Five". Paul Horn, Paul Winter are choices also. (Flute players..mellow). Laureindo Almeida plays mellow jazz Brazilian style on nylon string guitar. Chuck Mangione is considered to be pretty commercial by some jazz standards but his music is appealing in a mellow way. Duke Ellington with Johnny Hodges. Freddie Hubbard plays mellow sometimes. George Shearing, Ahmed Jamal, and Marion MacPartland offer a kind of impressionistic jazz. Early Nat King Cole is great too. Not many people know that he was a superb jazz pianist. Oscar Petersen can play very "pretty". Bill Evans plays in a romantic mood as does guitarist Jim Hall. The two have played together. Lester Young, the "Prez" with Billy Holiday never fails to set a mood. Some Coleman Hawkins is dreamy style jazz. Andre Previn was once a jazz pianist in this vein. Concerto for flute and jazz piano by Claude (?) (French composer) is nice for background music. James Moody, a sax player does a lot of "ballad" type tunes (not folk ballad, here.) Errol Garner is very listenable for relaxing music, a unique pianist.

Cool is epitomized by a kind of low-key listening type music practiced by Miles Davis, Lenny Tristano, Lee Konitz and others who followed that style. It tends to be less impassioned as hot jazz and less frantic than bebop or hard driving as the later Hard Bop. Cool jazz tended toward an intellectual approach to jazz emphasizing subtle and complex harmonic structure and lots of whistling wind through the reeds and horns. Tristano's "Imagination" and "Wow" would epitomize the extreme in the style. Or pieces like "Ice Cream Konitz". Paul Desmond must be in this category as well. Nowadays, the legacy would be in the playing of David Sandborn and Tom Scott who do a kind of easy listening fusion.

Frank

Subject: RE: Jazz question/cool not hot?
From: annamill
Date: 24 Nov 99 - 09:04 PM

Has anyone ever heard Bill Evans "Empathy" album? One of my very favorites. WW, I also have "Kind of Blue" but it's a record and I love it. Coltrane is my very favorite Sex, oops, I mean Sax player. I could listen forever. There is so much beautiful stuff out there, WW. Has anyone mentioned Charlie Parker (Bird Symbols)? I have this one, haven't listened to it for a while. I think I'll go put it on. 'scuzeme.

Love, annap

Subject: RE: Jazz question/cool not hot?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 24 Nov 99 - 09:18 PM

My Favorite Things by John Coltrane. One of MY favorite things. He plays a lot of Soprano sax on it and some purists object, but I find it an album that is sexy, cool, and beautiful. Round Midnight by the great Thelonius Monk. What a mood setter.

Subject: RE: Jazz question/cool not hot?
From: _gargoyle
Date: 25 Nov 99 - 12:43 AM

Cripes....Weed Wachin'Wanderer --- you have a collection suggested above of the the Best of the Best....the "God's of Cool Jazz"

For something from the 90's, to round them out, you could consider recordings by Ahmad Jamal in particular, or Clare Fisher.