Jazz - gimme good jazz

[DaveCollingwood]

This isn't a self-promotion post, more an appeal to point me in the direction of some seriously good jazz. To be honest i hate using any term that loosely, but it's an area i know little about and i reckon i could learn a lot from jazz musicians. I don't just want to hear some group of guys who use fretless 6-string basses and play all the fastest stuff they can, i want stuff with real soul and preferably a bit of rock to it, if you know what i mean. You know the feel of "Starless and Bible Black" era King Crimson? Heavy riffs, minimalism, odd time signatures, structural twists and turns..... obviously that's very much the rock side of things but you get the point.

What's out there? Any obscure gems i should be checking out?

[elvinstheman]

The Dave Holland Quintet "Extended Play, Live at Birdland" has many twists and turns and drummer extraordinaire Billy Kilson brings a lot of rock feel to it. This is one of my all-time favorites for complex, yet extremely playful, music.

[aminadab]

If you want odd time sigs, try some Don Ellis. It's a tad heavy handed at times but it does the trick when you're in the mood. It's not minimal at all, but it does rock.

[SheldonWhite]

Look for recordings by Bill Bruford's 'Earthworks'. Nice soloists, swinging sound, and with Bill Bruford providing the muscle you know things aren't going to be boring.

[DaveCollingwood]

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Look for recordings by Bill Bruford's 'Earthworks'. Nice soloists, swinging sound, and with Bill Bruford providing the muscle you know things aren't going to be boring.

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I saw them a couple of years ago, Bruford's an incredible drummer but overall it wasn't quite what i was after as a package. Can't really say why not, just didn't push the right buttons.

[bilkay]

Try Bruford's band "Bruford"- "Feels Good to Me", "One of a Kind", "The Bruford Tapes"; Kazumi Watanabe- "The Spice of Life"; David Torn- "Cloud About Mercury", UK- "UK"; Bruford Levin Upper Extremeties- "BLUE", "BLUE Nights"; King Crimson's ProjeKct One- "Live at the Jazz Cafe"

That should get you started.

And you might want to pick up Earthworks' "Footloose and Fancy Free" and listen to it several times. Trust me.

[spasticGrOOve]

If you're looking for more subtle, straight-ahead complexities within jazz, check out drummers like Nasheet Waits. His playing on "Fred Hersch Trio + 2" is unbelievablly complex and musical. I suggest anything with Ari Hoenig; his release "The Painter" is a very aggressive approach to playing jazz, and has all KINDS of structual twists and turns. Obviously anything with Tony Williams will also get you cooking. Joshua Redman's "Elastic" group with Brian Blade on drums and Sam Yahel on organ is groove-a-licious; definetly a more hard-hitting groove oriented group with all kinds of funky riffs, and NO bass player! Hard to believe at some points...

Good luck!

dan