Selections for Houseguests with Infant Jazz Tastes
Big_Stacks
"I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
Hey Folks,We had houseguests over the weekend. A lot of times, these folks have infant jazz tastes where I have to play them some pablum rather than some steak. What are some of the jazz LPs that you play that they can stomach? I'll start off.-"Sleeping Gypsy" or "Art of Tea"-Michael Franks.-"Soft Space"-The Jeff Lorber Fusion.-"S/T" and "Morning Dance"-Spyro Gryra.-any Bob James.-"Reed Seed", "Feels So Good", and "Mister Magic"-Grover Washington, Jr.-"Rainbow Seeker"-Joe Sample.-"Sophisticated Funk" and "Fourth Dimension"-Jack McDuff.-early-mid 70's Ramsey Lewis.-most Stan Getz.-"Shadow of Your Smile"-Astrud Gilberto.-"Wave"-Antonio Carlos Jobim.-most Shirley Horn.Peace,Big Stacks from Kakalak
Comments
will add Kind of Blue + any Blossom Dearie
I thought this thread was about jazz for infants... my son loved Blue Train... then we found out that he was intolerant to milk so he started drinking Isomil and we didnt need to play Trane much anymore.
But Brian, you're talking about a coffee shop. Those folks are probably more open-minded than most. Unfortunately (cultural insight-related), everyday Black folks think Najee is good jazz. I can't drop down that far though, so I play them something progressive. I actually started with "Moonchild" by the Johnny Lytle Trio ft/ Ray Barretto at first, which didn't go over well strangely enough.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
coltrane- ballads
Not really a genre Brian, just acknowledgment of the fact that John (Joan) Q. Public gravitate toward music that is easy to interpret. The usual "K.I.S.S." maxim applies here, fa real.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Maybe some Eddie Henderson on Capitol or the Tom Browne w/Funkin' For Jamaica
oh, and plenty of 70s Crusaders and Roy Ayers 76-82 seems to fit into this sound.
Miles Davis - Relaxin'
Stan Getz - The Brothers
some Billie Holiday plus some songs like
Bill Evans - Nardis
John Coltrane - My Favorite Things
Gary Bartz - I've Known Rivers
Cannonball Adderley - Somethin' Else (Blue Note)
When faced with folks asking me to introduce them to jazz, they are usually rock listeners and I always play them Mingus, something like "blues and roots" right off the bat and they love it. I am thinking they can like it so quickly because he is so riffy and it has a deep driving beat. I have found that "Kind of blue" sounds kinda sleepy and boring to neophytes because that style is taken for granted and sounds unremarkable to people who do not fully know what they are hearing. I know if I was exposed to "Kind of Blue" in a "I wanna check out some jazz" stage of my musical life I would have yawned and not taken an interest in jazz. What did it for me was Art Blakey "Night in Tunisia"...I was hooked after repeated listening to that.
Seriously, there's a lot of classic jazz that's also quite accessible--you don't have to resort to playing them fuzack.
+
Ahmad Jamal (maybe Ahmad Jamal's Alhambra, Extensions, The Awakening...)
Milt Jackson (his stuff on CTI is very accessible; Sunflower and Goodbye)
Wes Montgomery (especially his Trio work and the song Four on Six)
Paul Desmond (most of his catalog is pretty easy to digest)
Stan Getz (Sweet Rain, Focus, Early Stan, Big Band Bossa Nova...)
Man, there's tons of this shit out there... And it's good as well, so you're not just sandbagging it -- like playing that Spyro Gyra shit.
Stacks you are dumbing down your own people man, "everyday Black folks" that I know love some Miles, Coltrane, on down to obscure shit like Prince Lasha "The Cry" which I was playing the other day... an older Black gentleman strolled in and kicked it for a while on the strength of the music. He wanted a burn of the record because he listens to CDs.
I mean, I know plenty of folks, of all colors and walks of life, who are not into records or obscure music and can still appreciate real jazz. Sounds like these friends of yours just have bad taste.
Hey Jonny,
You said it, an "older Black gentleman", is not exactly "everyday Black folk" today. Remember, I'm 36 years-old, so I wouldn't normally hang out with that cohort. I'm talking my age and slightly younger, folks are clueless about jazz. They say and I quote, "I don't like that old stuff." Doesn't this sound familiar (rap-related)? I even have an older Black colleague (mid 50ish) who gets amped about going to a Boney James show. I remember back in Akron, my wife and I (girlfriend back then) went to see 1 + 1 with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. Some Black folks next to us were complaining because they didn't play "Rockit" I think I saw 2-3 Black folks out of a predominately White crowd at a Buddy Guy concert in Cleveland some years ago. Oh course, there are exceptions like my older brother and some of his dudes (who are older also, by the way), but folks are on some dumb shit about music. It's the sad truth.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Man, just because people don't actively seek vintage jazz out doesn't mean that they're going to be totally hostile to it. I think that's the mistake you're making.
As far as Najee goes, I don't think I know any young folks of any race that listen to that crap, although I have known plenty of older black folks that somehow went from listening to James Brown and the Stylistics to listening to John Tesh over the past thirty years (actual example)... but even so, I don't think most of the older folks that now listen to smooth jazz would be like "turn it off" if you tried to put on some real jazz.