Cash McCall – The Blues

um nat king cole or something from the 40s-60s i guess
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Billie Holiday—I’ll Be Seeing You" – one of my favorites
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Go out and buy the Ugetsu album by Art Blakey
also Tones for Joan’s Bones – Chick Corea
the album Birth of Cool – Miles Davis
and my favorite composer is Charles Mingus, so check out his stuff
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I love jazz! I mostly listen to the classics from the 30s-40s: Charlie Parker (amazing alto saxophonist), Dizzy Gillespie, etc. Also, since I’m a jazz pianist, I’m really into the piano greats, like Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea.

If you’re looking for more modern jazz, there are so many great artists out there who cover old standards or write their own music (Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Michael Bublé, etc). I would check out iTunes under the ‘jazz’ genre to find more!

As for learning about jazz, I think it’s pretty much a trial-and-error thing. Go into record stores, check out random artists on the internet! Your personal jazz tastes can only be determined by you.

Good luck! :]
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melody gardot is amazing.one of my fave jazz artist
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some of my favorites:

red clay – freddie hubbard
a night at birdland – art blakey
the shape of jazz to come – ornette coleman
koln concert – keith jarrett
take five – dave brubeck quartet
karma – pharoah sanders
alone at last – gary burton
soul box – grover washington, jr.
spectrum – billy cobham
my favorite things – john coltrane
slow traffic on the right – bennie maupin
other side of abbey road – george benson
filles de kilimanjaro – miles davis
live-evil – miles davis
elegant gypsy – al di meola
jaco pastorius – self-titled
maiden voyage – herbie hancock
friday night in san francisco – di meola, de lucia and mclaughlin
head hunters – herbie hancock
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Sonny Rollins, check out some of his greatest hits, he’s awesome
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Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Anita O’Day, Ella Fitz Gerald.
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Hm…let’s see. I can give you some of my favorites.
Of course, the all-time greatest jazz musician is Miles Davis. His most influential and acclaimed albums are Bitches Brew and Kind of Blue, and I heavily recommend both. I recommend the songs "So What" and "Pharaoh’s Dance", especially, both beautiful pieces of art that display his creativity and talent. He’s done tons of music within several genres, including jazz fusion, progressive rock, and even avant-garde. And then there’s the king of jazz, Louis Armstrong, who’s dabbled in several genres of music, including the blues, swing, and even traditional pop. I heavily recommend his album Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy, if you can find it anywhere. A lot of great covers on there. He’s played a lot with another classic jazz singer, Ella Fitzgerald. I don’t know if you’d consider her jazz, the blues, or traditional, but Billie Holiday has some really beautiful music. Of course, there are more modern artists that I think you’d like, including King Crimson, Yes, and Traffic, all of which were popular in the 1970s and drew huge influence from Miles.

Here are a few great websites to check out:
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/zaire/721/historyframe.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avant-garde_jazz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_rock

Hope I helped. Have a great 2010.
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