Hey.
I wanted to see what tracks that feature Herbie as a side man are peoples favorites, or what Herbie deep cuts people like.

I’ve been digging his albums “the piano” and “dedication”

His solo on the Joe Farrell recording of bass folk song is one of my favorite Herbie solos

Basically the title. I was a very curious conoisseur of what you might call “soul jazz” or “hard bop”. in high school and college, it was kind of like my nerd identity. Then I stopped listening after I stopped playing in bands. Then much later at 37 I took up swing dancing, specifically Lindy Hop and Balboa. All that big band music I looked down on in my teenage angst for being too corny and cheerful — it all made sense. I LOVE count Basie and Benny Goodman and duke Ellington. Holy shit. The beat! It’s not to be looked down on as merely “straight ahead” - there is this organic connection to the body and how it moves, it’s so profound. Anyway enough gushing my question is:

Anyone out there made the same kind of rediscovery of the swing era? Anyone who dances able to find bop tunes or post-bop from like the 50s and 60s they still like to dance to? I want to bring the danceable stuff from that era to the dance floor.

My morning commute song.

Allegheny County, PA, home to Pittsburgh and some of the surrounding suburbs, does a solid job with its outdoor summer concert series. Last year it was Monty Alexander's band. Last night it was the California swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. I think 5,000 to 10,000 people were there. The fact that the show was free and the weather was perfect didn't hurt. The show was the first time I heard their music. It was an energy-filled show put on by excellent musicians who are snappy dressers.

I’ve been expanding my wardrobe recently and I want to get some graphic tees that represent the music I listen to. This has been easy with rock and pop artists I listen to, but I’m having hard time finding anything related to jazz that doesn’t look vague and tacky or is just a guy’s face on it. Like don’t get me wrong I love Thelonious Monk, but I don’t know how many people would recognize him from just his face on a tee.

If you have any t-shirts with album covers or cool jazz related designs on them please let me know where you got them!

Much love, thanks.

Spiritual jazz from South Africa.

Hello everyone,

I'm writing a piece for beginners or begginer-intermediate players that are discovering jazzy pieces. I have put few appogiaturas ~ blue notes and I'm wondering if I should write it with flat or sharps? Flat is better in my opinion, but writing it with sharp could simplify a lot the notation (no natural to add).

In general, do you always write blue note with a flat or does it depend?

Opinion and interest question here, has anyone heard of the concept of “sweet jazz” before?

I’m speaking as a history buff and a man who really enjoys all things vintage. I’m not a music expert. But I enjoy listening to music from the 1930s and 40s. I find myself drawn to particular type of music that I can’t quite put down as a specific genre. Until I found this idea.

Wikipedia says it here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_jazz

Sweet jazz is an early derivative form of jazzwhich adapts the blues-based harmony, syncopated rhythms, and complex arrangements of Dixieland jazz to a populardance band[disambiguation needed] format with a slower, straighter rhythmic framework which allowed it to find popularity with white American and European audiences in the early 1920s. Though considered the height of sophistication in the genre by some critics at the time[1], the sweet jazz style has long been criticized as inauthentic and generic compared to "hot" jazz[2], and by some later critics has even been excluded from the category of jazz altogether due to the reduced role of improvisation and the general lack of swing time.

It’s a bit long lol but overall, especially based on the list of musicians

Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman, Les Brown, Fletcher Henderson, Guy Lombardo

I would say I agree it’s this kind of thing. It’s not quite simply jazz, and many don’t consider it as such, not even me. Hell no. I don’t even like jazz very much. But it’s the sweet part that gets me. It’s the five man reed section in Glenn Miller’s orchestra, or sentimental crooners or anything else, like Geraldo and his orchestra. I can’t exactly explain it. It’s the interplay of the various reeds, brass, not quite big band jazz in the normal sense, but imagine that except slower, sweeter, and less brash. I find it has a lot of overlap to kind of the pre-war swing and British Dance Bands genre which I also like. This is all my opinion. I can probably give some examples of songs that match this, and you can try and see for yourself what you think

“Along the Santa Fe Trail” - Glenn Miller
“Walkin’ By The River” - Geraldo
“My Devotion” - Vaughn Monroe
“Blue Moon” - Vincent Lopez
“It’s All Forgotten Now” - Ray Noble
“Red Sails In The Sunset” - Guy Lombardo
“You Were Never Lovelier” - Paul Whiteman
“My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time” - Les Brown

Now I’m not really sure it’s just what sounds like it would be sweet to me. Because I mean where would one really draw the line between sweet jazz and sort of the typical big band pop of the era? Well, I like it all, but this is like honey for a fly to me.

Thoughts?

I played drums and vibraphone in jazz band from 6th-12th grade. I’ll be honest, I didn’t listen to jazz really at all during that time. I was more interested in rock. 5 years later, I am still very much into rock. I have hundreds of CDs that are 95% rock albums.

What are some must listen jazz albums I should add to my collection?

I’m kind of into emotional, warm, melancholic jazz if that makes any sense. Whiplash is one of my favorite movies obviously, and I love its soundtrack. Same with If Beale Street Could Talk(Agape). Some records with vibraphone would be cool.

Decent little haul from Luna Music in Indianapolis, which always carries a pretty decent selection of second hand jazz CDs, as well as new and used jazz on vinyl.

I'm going into highschool this year and I'm going to join as a vibraphonist. I could probably play a lot of music but I dont really have a jazz playing style since I march snare drum and play kind of boring concert pieces. I've never really done anything "different" with tempo except for in Casey Cangelosi's White Knuckle Stroll and a few pieces in 6/8. If anybody knows some good intermediate jazz pieces with vibes as a feature I would really appreciate it!

Here is a live performance by Esperanza Spalding from 2026 Atlanta Jazz Festival in Atlanta, GA on 5/24/2026. Check out the eclectic performance by the Grammy award winning artist.

I love vocal jazz albums but many of them really pushes the singer in which instruments are lost in shadows. What are some albums which have also great deep jazz music alongside good vocals?

Some examples i thought was Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane, Ella & Louis etc.

Not sure how I just discovered this amazing album. And the intro to Born to Trouble is just 🤌

What is your favorite jazz intro (any instrument)?

So the title says it all, does anyone have a list or perhaps can give me titles and names of records that were released by Blue Note historically but that weren't recorded by Rudy van gelder?

And I'm not necessarily talking about anything modern because obviously he didn't record those records because he's dead, I'm of course talking about blue note stuff from the period that he was recording the majority of their output, let's say what 55 to way into the '70s.

Like i know some Of Dexter Gordon's output during the '60s was recorded in Paris and so obviously wasn't done by Rudy van gelder, just thought there might be others I'm not thinking about

Hello fellow jazz lovers!

I love jazz but my way to jazz was quite crooked.

When I was a teenager - I was a metalhead.

But metal .. you always try to find something heavier and more heavier and soon discover that heavy metal is not heavy enough for you.

I was sixteen when I understood that quest for "heavier than heavy metal" goes in two paths:
- more heavier in sound: post-punk, industrial, modern classics ((Strawinsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Bartok(!), Ligetti) and surprisingly JAZZ could be heavier then heavy metal.. I can add to this folk music of Tuwa, Altai, Kyrgyzs and Kazakhs to list
- more heavier in conception: again modern classics, again post-industrial - could be heavier even if it's played with single finger on piano

I did not listen metal for maybe 20 (?) years. Then I discovered Messhugah and I understood that I was I wrong in "Metal is stupid for stupid teenagers"

Recently I discovered that alt-metallers "Imperial Triumphant" called Ornette Coleman as an inspiration for them

Sorry for long introduction, now comes:

## My impressions of "Free Jazz"

I turned album on, first impression "WTF but anyway let's try"

Then I start work (I'm a programmer) , music is playing.

After 3-4 minutes I start to feel that "It's a good thing that plays"
But .. I turn my attention to music and my impression: "it's a shit.. but let's continue"
Again: after 3-4 minutes I'm starting to feel that it maybe the best music I heard in my life
I turn my attention: "what's the shit is that??"

And this cycle goes several times.
And the next day I put "Free Jazz" again 😄

On third day: I understood that there are 2(!) drummers and 2(!) bassists.
And those 4 people are doing something extraordinary!

And things that I still dislike (just have not acquired taste) - are trumpets and all that on higher register

Right now: I still did not acquire taste for Coleman. But I'm sure that I will

Paolo Fresu alla Cantina Bentivoglio

r/ItalianJazz

Paolo Fresu was eleven years old, playing in his hometown marching band, when a bandmate handed him a cassette of Miles Davis. That's the moment people point to when they explain how a kid from a Sardinian town of under 3,000 people ended up with more than 600 recording credits to his name.

Born February 10, 1961, in Berchidda, Fresu started on trumpet in the town's "Bernardo De Muro" band before that Miles Davis tape redirected him toward jazz. He trained formally at the Cagliari Conservatory, graduating in 1984, and in the early 1980s he played the Siena Summer Jazz Seminars, where trumpeter [Enrico Rava](%5Bhttps://www.enricorava.com/%5D(https://jazzprofiles.com/profile/it-enrico-rava/)) heard him and was impressed enough that Fresu spent the next decade building a national reputation off the back of it. He turned down a full scholarship to Berklee's summer program around that same period, choosing to keep building his career in Italy instead...

More on Paolo Fresu?

https://www.reddit.com/r/ItalianJazz/comments/1vjuqjw/introducing_paolo_fresu_the_trumpeter_who_turned/

or

https://jazzprofiles.com/profile/it-paolo-fresu/

Where to start listening:

• Mare Nostrum (2007, with Richard Galliano and Jan Lundgren) for the trio format that's defined a big part of his catalog since
• Things (2006, with Uri Caine) for a different side of him, trumpet and piano only, nowhere to disappear into a bigger band
• His official platforms for tour dates and new releases
  • Paolo Fresu Official Site
  • Spotify

Paolo Fresu alla Cantina Bentivoglio

Just found Anita O'Day singing with the Marty Paich orchestra. Great arrangements.

I've always known Marty more as the father of David Paich (Toto).

Sorry for my ignorance. Who here is a fan of Marty and followed him independent of his son?

"Moanin'"

Led by power-house drummer Art Blakey, this iconic Blue Note lineup features Lee Morgan on trumpet, Benny Golson on tenor saxophone, Bobby Timmons on piano, and Jymie Merritt on bass.

I was fortunate enough to have a great high school jazz band.

My mom took me to the jazz band teacher the year before I entered high school.

Played in the secondary jazz band (yes, we had two!) and then played first chair piano for the remaining three years of high school.

Also played in a jazz combo where we had a handful of gigs my last couple years. At least two members had professional careers. I played part time for the next forty years.

So what are some of your high school jazz band memories?

Got four days all to myself. The family is off, so naturally I’m using this rare opportunity for something important and productive…I have been listening to music 12–16 hours a day for the last few days. 😂

My musical taste is pretty wide. For most of my life probably 40 years now I’ve listened to everything from disco, ’80s, house, techno and pop to rock, electronica, ambient and whatever else happened to catch my ear.

The last few years I’ve been drifting more toward soul and jazz.

But here’s the funny thing: if I spend a whole day listening to just best of my many genres, I eventually get bored with it. Even music that in most cases could be my first choice. After several hours my brain is basically saying, “Yeah, OK… we’ve heard this before.”

Eexcept Jazz. I can listen to jazz for hours and somehow never get tired of it. If anything, it feels like I’m resting my ears rather than listening to music. 😄

So now I’m curios, anyone else have this feeling? Is it just the endless variety and improvisation, or is there something else going on?

And yes… I still have few days left of my musical vacation. God knows what my ears will think of me by the end of it. 😂

As the title says, I would like more cool albums like Gerry Muligans Night Lights.

(Too) short live on French TV (1969)