Any other jazz fans?

The punk thread got me thinking: Anyone else here into jazz--and that's the music, not the b-ball team? It's one of my other music loves: Wes Montgomery, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderely, Dave Brubeck, Sonny Rollins, Horrace Silver, etc., etc.

Not sure why no one ever told me sooner, but I recently found the perfect metal/jazz crossover: Alex Skolnick. Testament's guitarist also does jazz. Some samples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJkIr2xw_Hs

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhYaXkGCOFU

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8NJd9fJvhM&feature=related

I loves me some jazz. I'm more of a Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, Diana Krall kinda guy.

The slower the better.

Oh, can't forget Harry Connick Jr.

I tend to lean toward the faster stuff, but I'll slow down for some Kurt Elling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rv_AU_URkk

Not a jazz guy, but fusion has been my first choice for the last 30 years or so.

And Horace Silver does some really nice slower stuff, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLdm1yuoU_Q

I seem to like the older stuff as far as Jazz goes..my only flirtation with "fusion" was back when it started so long ago. Stuff like The Crusaders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZfT2T1wRzo

Not sure I'd call that fusion. Pretty light stuff.

Kurt Elling does some really smooth stuff. But when I say slow, I mean SLOW

Here are a couple of my favorites of all time:

Lilac Wine by Nina Simone. It has an almost show-tune quality to it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFNsmaVzElQ

Almost Blue by Diana Krall. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z7X8fbNIkI

HCJ doing If I Only Had a Brain. If you haven't heard this yet, its a totally interesting take on the classic Wizard of Oz song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0pUShNMC3U&feature=artist

Billie Holiday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7llu2aQRSQ

Classic fusion from the day. Great players. If you don't know it, it's really worth listen..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOsMgY9myX0&feature=related

Moroccan roll and Unorthodox behavior are some of the best music ever made, IMO and are in regular rotation in my shop.

Phil Collins on drums.

I'm a big fan of the Preservation Jazz Hall Band. Probably not the same kind of jazz you all are thinking about though.

Henry Mancin/ Lalo Schifrin /thread (for me).

Crime jazz rules.

I love Miles Davis. Bitches Brew (the entire album[s]) was a real eye-opener musically.

Kind of Blue is terrifying, it's so perfect.

I listen to the Real Jazz channel on Sirius quite a bit. It's very educational.

That said, I still don't know enough about jazz (and I can still do 3 hour lecture on it)

So many standards that are so, so great.

Cannonball--Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

Jobim--Waters of March (bossa nova, but whatever, it's jazzy)

Brubeck--all of the TIme Out album (Paul Desmond is amazing)

yeah, i always thought he was kinda cool..

novaderrik wrote: yeah, i always thought he was kinda cool..

Oh boy. I can tell there is more than meets the eye with this one.

Absolutely.

My Dad was a jazz musician, and I was raised on the stuff. Discovered his old collection of original 78's in my grandmother's attic when I was very young. He had thousands.

When all my friends were listening to the Beatles, I was dancing around her attic to the sounds of all the greats of the 20's, 30's, and 40's coming from her old wind up Victrola in her attic. My friends thought I was pretty weird.

Didn't listen to Rock until I got to college.

I like almost all types of music.

My favorites have been more on the Duke Ellington side of the coin, and the modern incarnation of that, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra- we are honored to get them in Ann Arbor every winter. They do a huge repitoir of music, but IMHO, their specialty is when they do versions of the Duke.

I never appreciated Miles until a few years ago, when I really got listening to Kind of Blue- and getting commemerative box was amazing. The second disk (which isn't the original album) is amazing.

UMS has been doing a great Jazz series for a little over 20 years now- which spans my time in Ann Arbor, so in addition to the LCJO, we are bonus blessed.

Oh, and Latin Jazz- Tito Puente, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Celia Cruz, etc- love that. Granted, I'm very biased. But when satillite radio has a latin jazz station- I was there most of the time. Now I'm 95% on Pure Jazz. So very cool.

In reply to David S. Wallens:

I mentioned Alex to you in another music thread at some point. AST is about the only jazz I've gotten into so far. The Veritas album that came out last year was very good, Bollywood Jam is a good tune.

Always looking for something new to listen to, I have some downloading to do this weekend.

I love John Coltrane.

mtn wrote: I'm a big fan of the Preservation Jazz Hall Band. Probably not the same kind of jazz you all are thinking about though.

I saw them in concert.

MA$$hole wrote: In reply to David S. Wallens: I mentioned Alex to you in another music thread at some point. AST is about the only jazz I've gotten into so far. The Veritas album that came out last year was very good, Bollywood Jam is a good tune.

I know, I'm an idiot for not picking up the CD sooner. I just saw Testament and have tickets to see them again, but now I want to see his trio, too.

I <3 jazz. I just don't know the who is who of the jazz world, so this thread pertains to me!

In reply to David S. Wallens:

They were touring last month, haven't seen any dates for 2012 yet.