Verve has a ton of good compilations. Good way to get a good variety to find out what you like.
The iTunes essentials are a pretty good way to sample music too. I found a lot of music that way. Not saying to jump out and buy one of the essentials playlists (because they're ######edly priced), but you can usually listen to a minute and a half clip of some stuff you wouldn't necessarily be exposed to elsewhere.
So what exactly makes a stereo system better for jazz? I've got a pretty decent audio setup, but always interested in new gear...
Pretty much the same that makes it good for classical, very flat frequency response, very accurate, jazz sometimes benefits from a slightly 'coloured' speaker, a touch of emphasis on the bass.
The british speakers, Kef, B&W, Celestian etc tend to do well at whatever price point as they always seem to design around the idea that their speakers will be used to listen to classical even if it is not likely.
The Canadian brands, Mirage and Energy and totem have always tried to challenge the british for sound quality and design approach at least in their higher price point speakers, not so much at the lower end.
The n american brands, JBL, Cerwin Vega etc tend to be designed for a more contempory (rock) audience so they tend to heavily 'colour' them to emphasise the bottem end as well as adding protection circuits but that comes at the sacrifice of their ability to really bring out nuance in the vocals and acoustic instruments.
Last edited by afc wimbledon; 03-14-2012 at 03:25 AM.
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There's almost nothing better than listening to live jazz in a smoky club late at night, but I have a peculiar aversion to listening to jazz otherwise. I think it has something to do with the fact that no recorded jazz can measure up to the real deal. I got spoiled a long time ago by just happening to be in Toronto for the jazz festival about 15 years ago and nothing measures up to watching some of the best jazz musicians in the world jam at 4 in the morning while slamming imported beers and smoking good cigars.
I hear ya. I was in NO for a week last September, and was just blown away. I had no idea it could be so good, and now listening on the computer will never be quite the same. I have to get back at some time, it was just simply amazing.
I actually had a chance to sit down for about an hour with a pianist that was playing at the Royal Sonesta, it was one of the coolest conversations I've ever had. The guy was a fantastic creative pianist and had a pretty interesting life to boot.
He was supposed to be one of the acts performing at the now defunct Calgary Jazz festival the year it died (was it 2010? time flies!). I still don't understand how an affluent urban city the size of Calgary can't manage to pull off even a smallish Jazz Festival.
On a side note, I was listening to Oz Noy's Twisted Blues Volume 1 yesterday. Not sure if I'd call it blues or jazz, maybe it qualifies as fusion? There's quite a few tunes on the disc that start bluesy and rapidly evolve into jazz though.
For the adventurous (perhaps not to be played at the dealership):
Quite the quartet. David S. Ware on sax can be an absolute whale. William Parker is very renowned on bass and Matthew Shipp on piano. I had the pleasure of seeing these guys in Seattle, and Matthew Shipp again in Montreal. William Parker has a number of nice albums out there.
As long as there is democracy, there will be people wanting to play jazz because nothing else will ever so perfectly capture the democratic process in sound. Jazz means working things out musically with other people. You have to listen to other musicians and play with them even if you don’t agree with what they’re playing. It teaches you the very opposite of racism and anti-Semitism. It teaches you that the world is big enough to accommodate us all
