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Jazz For Beginners: 20 Essential Albums For An Introductory Guide

Some jazz fans can be snooty about the music they love – they try to turn it into a club that refuses to admit new members. But a guide to jazz for beginners is essential for anyone needing an introduction to jazz. Spotify Premium Apk is one of the most popular and talked online music streaming application that is serving millions of people with its supreme quality of audio-visual functions.

These 20 albums form an introductory guide to jazz – each one is a brilliant album that no discerning jazz fan would be without. Both credible and accessible, they offer an entry point into jazz for beginners looking to make that first step into the unknown. We’ve included includes albums that consistently make the lists of the most important jazz albums of all time, along with other albums that have added breadth to the genre.

Spotify Premium APK iOS is one online music streaming application where you can easily interact with all the songs that are existing in the music industry. There’s also big band swing, a shining example of jazz guitar, stunning vocal jazz, some of the funkiest organ ever captured in the studio, plus a whole lot more.

We’ve listed these albums chronologically, so you can get a sense of jazz’s progression across the years. If you have any albums that you consider to be essential jazz for beginners, then let us know in the comments section.

Jazz For Beginners: 20 Essential Albums For An Introductory Guide
Louis Armstrong: Satchmo At Symphony Hall (Decca, 1951)

One of jazz’s founding fathers, trumpet sensation and gravel-voiced singer Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong became an ambassadorial figure for the genre in his later years. He recorded this memorable concert at the age of 46, in Boston, during November 1947. Though bebop was beginning to make its presence felt in the jazz world, there was still room for Satchmo and his authentic New Orleans-style jazz, as packed concert halls attested to. Satchmo At Symphony Hall contains some of Armstrong’s seminal tunes and features him fronting a seven-piece band that included Jack Teagarden on trombone. It wasn’t released until 1951, when it appeared as a 2LP set.

Thelonious Monk: Genius Of Modern Music Volume 2 (Blue Note, 1952)

Thelonious Sphere Monk’s advanced musical language – featuring angular melodies and unusual dissonances – was deemed controversial when he first emerged on the New York jazz scene during the late 40s. Blue Note Records, however, admired his individuality and took a chance on him, recording a clutch of 78rpm 10” singles that were eventually compiled into two albums. The second volume initially contained eight songs, including the first recorded version of Monk’s classic tune ‘Straight, No Chaser’. The album was expanded to 12 songs in 1956 (when it was issued as a 33rpm 12” LP) and included ‘Monk’s Mood’. In the CD age, both volumes were combined into a single album called Genius Of Modern Music, which makes an excellent introduction to Monk’s groundbreaking recordings.

Billie Holiday: Billie Holiday Sings (Clef, 1952)

Born Eleanora Fagan, in Baltimore, Billie Holiday possessed one of the most recognisable voices in jazz: languid and imbued with an inherent sadness and a naked emotional honesty that resulted from her tough upbringing and romantic disappointments. After her apprenticeship with several big bands, Holiday carved out a distinguished solo career, first at Columbia and later at Verve. This 1952 album (initially released as an eight-track set on a 10” format) found her recording for producer Norman Granz’s Clef label and serving up indelible versions of ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’, ‘You Go To My Head’, and a touching rendition of Duke Ellington’s ‘Solitude’. In 1956, an expanded 12” version was released under the title Solitude. A timeless collection illustrating “Lady Day” at her peak.

The Quintet: Jazz At Massey Hall (Debut, 1953)

The Quintet was a modern jazz supergroup that formed specifically for a one-off gig in Canada, at Toronto’s Massey Hall, on 15 May 1953. It was the only time that alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, pianist Bud Powell, bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach played together as a group (it was also the final time that Parker and Gillespie were captured on tape together). Despite his drug problems, the mercurial Parker is on magnificent form, shining brightly on a six-track album that was once hailed as the greatest ever jazz recording (even though Charles Mingus, who released it on his own Debut label, felt compelled to overdub his bass parts in a studio, as his instrument was inaudible on the original tape). A rare meeting of jazz giants.

Listen to the Jazz Giants playlist on Apple Music and Spotify and scroll down to read our introductory guide to 20 essential jazz albums.

Jazz For Beginners: 20 Essential Albums For An Introductory Guide
Louis Armstrong: Satchmo At Symphony Hall (Decca, 1951)

Thelonious Monk: Genius Of Modern Music Volume 2 (Blue Note, 1952)

Billie Holiday: Billie Holiday Sings (Clef, 1952)

The Quintet: Jazz At Massey Hall (Debut, 1953)

Clifford Brown And Max Roach: Clifford Brown And Max Roach(EmArcy, 1954)

One of the early architects of a jazz style known as hard bop, which came to dominate the genre during the 50s, Clifford Brown was a gifted trumpeter who was cut down in his prime. Though he was killed in a car accident when he was just 25, on 25 June 1956, his genius is preserved by the many recordings he made. Clifford Brown And Max Roach was one of his best, made in tandem with a quintet he co-led with drummer Max Roach. It features Bud Powell’s piano-playing brother, Richie, who also died in that fatal car accident with Brown, along with tenor saxophonist Harold Land. “Brownie”, as the trumpeter was known, is sensational throughout the album, but especially brilliant on a thrilling version of Victor Young’s ‘Delilah’. He shows his prowess as a composer with his own fine number ‘Joy Spring’, which is an archetypal example of hard hop.

Count Basie And His Orchestra: April In Paris (Verve, 1957)

Originally from Red Bank, New Jersey, Bill Basie, like his contemporary Duke Ellington, adopted an aristocratic title for a stage name and was a major force in the rise of the swing big bands of the 30s. Though most big bands had bitten the dust by the 50s (largely due to economic factors), Basie kept his going and enjoyed something of a renaissance. Regarded by many as the Basie band’s finest moment in a recording studio, April In Paris captures the swagger, verve, finesse and fuel-injected power of an ensemble that featured in its ranks trumpeter Thad Jones, saxophonist Frank Foster and rhythm guitarist Freddie Green. Among the many highlights is the buoyant title track, along with ‘Shiny Stockings’ and ‘Corner Pocket’. Big band jazz at its absolute peak.

John Coltrane: Blue Train (Blue Note, 1958)

Coltrane’s journey from an average bar-walking blues player into a seer-like jazz pathfinder is miraculous. Blue Train was the saxophonist’s first truly great album, coming after he kicked his heroin habit for good. It was recorded in September 1957 as a one-off for Blue Note during a time when “Trane” was actually contracted to Bob Weinstock’s Prestige label. The album features a sextet – with Curtis Fuller’s trombone adding richer sonorities to the horn section – and contains five songs, all but one written by Coltrane. Blue Train’s most memorable cut is its 10-minute title tune, which begins with a distinctive clarion call-like horn theme before morphing into a showcase for Coltrane’s unique approach to improvisation (which was described as “sheets of sound” by one US jazz critic).

Cannonball Adderley: Somethin’ Else (Blue Note, 1958)

An alto saxophonist from Tampa, Florida, Julian “Cannonball” Adderley was initially viewed as the heir to Charlie Parker. He found his own individual voice on his instrument, though, as this 1958 album – his only release on Blue Note – clearly illustrated. Cannonball, who was playing in the Miles Davis sextet at the time (and would go on to record the iconic Kind Of Blue with the trumpeter a year later), managed to rope his boss into the sessions. Miles rarely appeared as a sideman after 1955 but shines in a quintet opposite Cannonball using a muted horn on the tracks ‘Autumn Leaves’ and ‘Love For Sale’. He also wrote the title song. A stunning example of late 50s hard bop.

Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers: Moanin’ (Blue Note, 1958)

A powerhouse drummer and bandleader who could drive his musicians with a propulsive sense of swing, Art Blakey had a missionary-like zeal in his desire to spread the jazz gospel. Moanin’arguably represents the pinnacle of Blakey’s work with his long-running band, The Jazz Messengers – dubbed “The Hard Bop Academy” on account of the all the many talented musicians that came through its ranks (ranging from Wayne Shorter to Wynton Marsalis). The gospel-influenced title song (written by Philly pianist Bobby Timmons), with its antiphonal cadences, anticipates the soul jazz style that would emerge from hard bop. Other great moments on the album include the tunes ‘Along Came Betty’ and ‘Blues March’, two classics both penned by Blakey’s then tenor saxophonist, Benny Golson. Blakey’s prowess as a sticksman is highlighted on the dramatic ‘Drum Thunder Suite’.

Source : https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/jazz-for-beginners-essential-albums/