While I’m blogging Spotify playlists, here’s one I made which I didn’t write about at the time. Over on the lovely The Online Photographer blog, in March 2011, Mike Johnston posted what he called a Jazz Starter Kit:
This is written for people who don’t listen to jazz, but are curious about it, or who would like to try it. And it’s just one guy’s suggestions, nothing more. There might, however, be a sort of hidden benefit in my lack of expertise: being just an average person makes it easy for me to know what other average people go through when trying to expand their musical horizons. That’s my story, anyway, and I think I’ll stick with it.
I love lists of “the best” music/books/etc so, knowing very little about jazz, this was great stuff. So here’s the Spotify playlist and, for posterity, the listing of albums, although you should go and read Mike Johnston’s descriptions, where there are more suggestions in the comments.
- Harry Edison – The Swinger (1958)
- Harry Edison – Mr Swing (1958)
- Coleman Hawkins – Prestige Profiles Vol. 4 (Compilation)
- Kenny Burrell – Midnight Blue (1963)
- Dizzy Gillespie – Sonny Side Up (1957)
- Kenny Dorham – Quiet Kenny (1957)
- Count Basie – E=MC2 (1957)
- Ginger Baker and the DJQ2O – Coward of the County (1999)
- The Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet – VooDoo (1999)
The only album not on Spotify is Roy Haynes’ When It Haynes It Roars (1994), which should go after Count Basie in this list.
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