There's more to jazz than Kenny G and Wynton Marsalis. That's why we created Building A Jazz Library. With this resource, you can home in on the players and styles essential to the past and future of jazz. Each section in this series features a brief introduction which provides some background and biographical information to shed light on each particular artist or style. Then we list the discs. You'll find landmark material here, true high-water marks worthy of respect and attention. We recruited a special enthusiast to assemble each section in this series. These people have spent a lot of time with the subject (and probably bought way too many records to back it up). We assure you that the nuggets listed here are carefully considered and on-target. If you're new to Jazz -- or new to an artist or style -- treat Building A Jazz Library as a primer of sorts. It will provide you with enough information to step confidently into the store (or the library) and find something tasty. Or if you're a serious collector, you might just find that a few of these recommendations may fill some gaping holes on your shelf. Building A Jazz Library throws its doors wide open to all different kinds of Jazz fans and interests. Certain sounds may mesh with your particular tastes, and this series aims to bring you and the music together in perfect harmony. So dig in, and enjoy! Essential Buying Tips for Building a Jazz Collection on a Budget.
Pat Metheny: Quantum Musician
If Pat Metheny never plays another single note, he would have already lived a “bright size life."
Pat Metheny was born in Kansas City in 1954 and first picked up his guitar at the age of twelve. By age fifteen, he was already playing with the top jazz musicians in town. In 1974, he became a ...
Bulletin Board Members' Picks
Since we started the Building a Jazz Library (BAJL) series, we've assembled more than sixty collections, and that number continues to grow. We thought it might be interesting to see what readers would recommend, so we asked AAJ Bulletin Board members to provide a short list of recordings they considered essential, and the 159 different lists ...
McCoy Tyner
Some jazz fans only have a partial acquaintance with McCoy Tyner, that being that “he was Coltrane's pianist." Indeed, it is fairly common to know McCoy Tyner only through his stellar contributions as a sideman in the 1960s, not only with Coltrane but also with Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson and Joe Henderson. Along with 'Trane, these ...
Tomasz Stanko
Trumpeter and composer Tomasz Stanko (b. 1942 Rzeszow, Poland) was present at the birth of modern European jazz. He's most closely associated with the man who was at the center of seemingly all art forms in Poland in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Krzysztof Komeda. Although his early work has been described, even by himself, ...
Creed Taylor Productions, Part 2
Part 1 | Part 2
CTI Jazz live and rehearsal tracks exclusively available in the AAJ Download Store
The place in jazz history held by Creed Taylor is impeccable, stylish, and essential. He produced some of the best music for some of the best labels dedicated to jazz, then formed his own label and with meticulous ...
Creed Taylor Productions, Part 1
Part 1 | Part 2
CTI Jazz live and rehearsal tracks exclusively available in the AAJ Download Store
The place in jazz history held by Creed Taylor is impeccable, stylish, and essential. He produced some of the best music for some of the best labels dedicated to jazz, then formed his own label and with meticulous ...
Piano Trio
When one talks about “jazz piano music," it is almost taken for granted they are talking about jazz piano trio music. The trio is and has been most jazz pianists' favorite format, and with good reason: the jazz piano trio has been said at times to represent the essence of jazz in the most condensed yet ...
Jazz for Kids!
There is some kind of Jazz for everybody. And kids are no different. While the music presented here is by no means only for kids (Silly Rabbit, it's okay) it does happen to have the necessary qualities for kids to gravitate toward it. There's the fun factor; Horace Silver's music is undoubtedly FUN. There's the “head ...
Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?
Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?
The Big Easy. The Crescent City. N'awlins. Some adore it, some despise it. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans continues to be the testimonial travesty of the United States. With certain political officials claiming that New Orleans is “not worth rebuilding, I would have ...
Vocal Jazz: 1917-1950
There have been as many variations on the definition of vocal jazz as there have been people with opinions. Over the years, the consensus within the jazz community has shifted frequently as critics and fans have wrestled with the often-competing imperatives of improvisation and interpretation. For some people, vocal jazz should be exactly that - voices ...
Vocal Jazz: 1951-1968
These 17 years play out like the vocal jazz equivalent of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Much of the core body of work that makes up vocal jazz was recorded during this relatively short time span. These were the years that saw some of the greatest jazz singers working at the peak of ...
Jazz Trumpet, Part 1
Jazz trumpet is practically an art form unto itself, with a richness in terms of its greatest soloists that is hard to match. Some have even argued for it being the “classiest," most sophisticated solo instrument in Jazz.
Moreover, it seems that in every period of Jazz history, dominant voices on trumpet have leapt to the ...
Drum-n-Bass
Electronica stands alone among modern music styles as a byproduct of both audience appeal and technological progress. Once techno had caught on and the underground scene was well-established, DJ's began experimenting more creatively with programming the beats themselves. In the clubs and in the studio (mostly in England), drum-and-bass (d-n-b) was born. (Note: you'll hear “jungle" ...
Vocal Jazz: 1969-2001
The Dark Age followed by the Renaissance.
The tumultuous changes of the 1960s radically changed the American musical landscape. Jazz fell off the American cultural radar, nightclubs closed their doors and record companies moved on to rock. With few opportunities to work and little money to be made, jazz became a music played by the dedicated ...
