Which Jazz and Blues Cd’s Do You Recommend?

Question by Kimberly Kitten: which jazz and blues cd’s do you recommend?
I’m getting into jazz and the blues but which cd’s are the best ? and which singers do you prefer ?

Best answer:

Answer by trendspeed
This is an AWFULLY open-ended question 🙂 But for kicks, I’ll try and make a few broad suggestions that can get you on the right course.

Blues:
Get Buddy’s newest album, “Skin Deep”. I always recommend this for new Blues listeners because it’s a great transitional CD to get from typical rock and softer rock sounds into Blues. Then check out Buddy’s “Sweet Tea”. An *amazing* Blues CD with a lot of blues classics.
George Thorogood, “Greatest Hits” is also a great way to ease into the Blues using a rock feel.

B.B. King *IS* the Blues. Check out his “Greatest Hits”, “Blues in the Bayou” and “Live in Cook County Jail” for starts. Then try “King Of The Blues”. Notable songs: “Thrill Is Gone”, “Rock Me Baby (with Eric Clapton)”, “Lucille”, “Dangerous Mood”…

Muddy Waters is as Blues as it gets. If Blues had another name, it just might be Muddy Waters. Check out “I’m Ready”! Notable songs of his too are “Hoochie Koochie Man”, “Mannish Boy”, “Rock Me”, “Cocaine & Reefer”….

Stevie Ray Vaughan, “Texas Flood” is a Blues must-have. It’s got a definite rockish sound, but SRV was as Texas Blues style as it gets. Any song off of Texas Flood is pretty notable 😛

Also, no joke! Go grab Blues Brothers “Briefcase Full Of Blues” or their “Soundtrack to the Original Motion Picture” They’ve got plenty of great Blues songs sang masterfully!

Finally, try checking out the “Black Snake Moan” soundtrack. It really is pretty gosh-darn good!

I left out a lot of folks here, Albert King, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Little Walter, Big Momma Thornton (she did a lot of songs that Elvis covered later, made him famous! Check out “Hound Dog!”) etc. etc. But just the musicians I specifically mentioned up there could keep you busy for a couple months! And IMHO those tend to be about the best starting point for getting into Blues, which seems to be what you’d like.

Jazz:
Man, Miles Davis just defines Jazz. Try maybe “So What” (or really anything Miles for that matter.) That dude was FOCUSED! Miles put so much soul into his music, it’s intense!

Maybe not so intense, but every single bit as purely amazing as Miles… the great Satchmo… Louis Armstrong. It’s a hard pick, but I think “The Essential Louis Armstrong” is as good a place to start. Of course, his signature song “Wonderful World” is beyond notable. If you don’t have it, grab it!

John Coltrain is amazing Jazz too.

Charlie Mingus and Cecil Taylor are also Jazz Giants, but I’m simply not qualified to give you album suggestions on them. You may have to get a critic’s consensus off of Amazon or something 🙂

Actually, check this out for Jazz! I’m familiar with some of these albums; I think this is a pretty good starting point!
http://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/best100.html

As always, if you want some more suggestions beyond what I dropped, you just go on and e-mail me and I can give you some more. Esp for Blues, I kind of tried to give you a “Blues overview”.

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