Suggested Listening
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Here are some jazz musicians who are excellent to listen to for style, improvisation, composition, and inspiration. The more you listen the better you will be! You also don’t have to like everything on this list – the more you listen the more you will start to develop your own unique style and choose your own favorite musicians to listen to. This list is just to get you started.
Early Jazz
Bessie Smith, “The Essential Bessie Smith”
Fats Waller, “Handful of Keys”
Louis Armstrong, “The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings”
Mahalia Jackson, “Essentail Mahalia Jackson”
Swing Era
Duke Ellington, “Ellington at Newport 1956”
Mary Lou Williams, “Zodiac Suite”
Count Basie, “The Complete Decca Recordings”
Billie Holiday, “Lady Day: The Master Takes and Singles”
Bebop
Charlie Christian, “The Genius of the Electric Guitar”
Charlie Parker, “Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve”
Thelonious Monk, “Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1”
Post Bop
Miles Davis, “Kind of Blue”
Charles Mingus, “Mingus Ah Um”
Sarah Vaughan, “Live at Japan”
Cool Jazz
Dave Brubeck, “Time Out”
Gerry Mulligan, “The Original Quartet with Chet Baker”
Other
Nina Simone, “Sugar in My Bowl”
Alice Coltrane, “Journey in Satchidananda”
Vi Redd, “Bird Call”
Annette Peacock, “I’m the One”
Avant Garde
Carla Bley, “Escalator Over the Hill”
Sun Ra, “Greatest Hits – Easy Listening for Intergalactic Travel”
Ornette Coleman, “The Shape of Jazz to Come”
Eric Dolphy, “Out to Lunch!”
Music Today
Mary Halvorson, “Meltframe”
Jamie Branch, “Fly or Die”
Melissa Aldana & Crash Trio, “Back Home”