Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Jazz Recordings

Hi Argon,

There are lots of good suggestions in this thread, but try out (if you can find it), a Philips CD of French jazz pianist Jacques Loussier: The Best of Play Bach. I've used this CD for speaker listening tests for years. He does jazz treatments of various Bach melodies and his CDs are beautifully recorded. Excellent string bass, acoustic piano and superb cymbals and drums. Almost any album by Loussier is worth getting.

You might get into jazz vocals. One classic (not very good sound quality--there is distortion on the vocal peaks) that is great musically is Ella Fitzgerald: Live in Berlin.

Another jazz CD with excellent sound quality is on Chesky Records: The Hot Club of 52nd Street. Two acoustic jazz guitar players, a jazz violinist and bass player. Great sound and a very natural live ambience. (Tip: I was at that recording session in New York sitting in the 2nd row and can be heard whooping it up.) It's jazz much in the style of the legendary gypsy jazz guitarist Django Rhinehart, and Stephan Grappelli, the late French jazz violinist. I also use this disc for listening tests from time to time. This album can also be downloaded for a fee in lossless FLAC files from http://www.hdtracks.com

Regards,

Alan

Or, your Axioms make them sound really good

+1 on Madeline Peyroux, I like her stuff a lot.

Bill Evans is my favorite classic jazz pianist. He was with Miles Davis in "Kinda Blue". Evans stuff was particularly good, in my estimation, when Scott LaFaro was his bass player. Amazing interaction between piano and bass. A good example of this is in the "Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961", give it a listen if you like good bass. Unfortunately, LaFaro was killed in a car accident shortly after that recording.

I'm pretty sure I've recommended that album before around here, so yes, it was probably me. I also think I do remember hearing your tale of super-slow shipping from Chesky.

Glad you enjoy the album! It's one of my favorite chill-out, lights-low, crank-the-Axiom's album.

Peter, did I tell you that one of my Astronomy buddies over at the Cloudy Nights forum is Diana Krall's uncle. It is pretty cool talking to him and hearing about Diana's life.

Whaaaaaaat? No, I don't think I knew that.

That's AWESOME!! Way cool.

Peter,
Thanks for your recommendations....The second paragraph is almost verbatim what my brother recommended from Brubeck and Davis down to Sinatra and Armstrong. He (my brother) made a comment that he liked Frankie singing with the big bands because he followed the band rather than the band following him. It was an intriguing comment.

Thing is - I don't know what I like other than I am tired of pop Rock all the time. SO....all the suggestions are going to be considered and I will likely spread it out until I do know what I like. Definately going to be a starter set.

BEST part is that I just got THE e-mail. I used the analogy over a year ago when posting about buying a system ....... Joe Montana going long. Meaning that I did not want to piece together a system - I wanted to buy it all at once. I ordered on Sunday April 26 in Custom Vinyl and was told it would be 4 weeks. THE e-mail came today telling me to wait 2 business days to check out the tracking number - advice that I promptly ignored. Of course tracking is not out there yet....but the ball has left Joe's hand in route to the end zone

Thanks, Alan. I will definately do a search for this one in particular. The Epic 60's & 500 will be here soon - probably before I can find your suggestion.

Im a metal head, but I happen to love the DVD Peter Cincotti - Live in New York. It has fantastic DTS audio. I heard it at my fathers house and had to get myself a copy!

http://www.amazon.com/Cincotti-Monster-D...41835586&sr=8-3

Make use of your local library. They will have a wide selection of music and will have all the classics.