jazz jizz

[erickelric]

If you are a punk, check out some Albert Ayler. One of the feircest sax players ever. He contorted old spirituals and marches and just blasted the fuck off. Will make you wish you were religious.

Also check out Tony Williams Lifetime ('Emergency' and 'Right On'). Trio explorations (guitar, drums, organ) that prefigure things like Sonic Youth and Fugazi, but swings hard. Ya just gotta look past Tony's cheeze-whiz vocals and focus on the godhead drumwork (he was in Miles Davis' band when he was a teenager).

There's always things like Last Exit and Flying Luttenbachers, but you probably mean "real" jazz. Charlie Parker swings like a motherfucker.

Sun Ra if you wanna get freaky and spacey. 'Space is the Place' is as good as any to start with (Sun Ra's like The Fall; a million fuckin records; most good, some amazing).

[Count Drugula]

Pick up some
Louis Armstrong
Miles Davis (Just about all his early works, (Stay away from anything with strings or from the 80's)
Thelonius Monk (good starting point is Monks Dream, and you can't go wrong with any of Monk's greatest hits LP's)
John Coltrane
Duke Ellington (you can't gop wrong with much of these guys' stuff, just once again stay away from strings and orchestra stuff)
Charles Mingus-(A best of Mingus will do for starters, but if you can look for something with "Pithetcanthropus Erectus" Its an intense freak out jam, like most his shit was..INTENSE!

As for female vocal stuff check out,
Miss Peggy Lee. Dinah Washington, ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.

I dunno I'm still learning more and more about Jazz, but these were all starting points that were recommended by a friend, when I asked the same question you did ,who is real into jazz and has served me well.
But for the most part Jazz records around here are pretty cheap and easily accessable, best bet is to just buy whatever catches your eye and go from there.

[erickelric]

You got Jerry's!

Man, that Mingus album 'The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady' is fuckin mind-blowing. I need to read his auto(?)biography.

[Jared]

Bobby Hutcherson - 'San Franciso', 'Dialogue' (really good modal stuff)
Andrew Hill - 'Point Of Departure'
Eddie Gale - 'Eddie Gale's Ghetto Music'
Jimmy Smith - 'Root Down', 'Back At The Chicken Shack'
Archie Shepp - any but 'Attica Blues' is pretty fine
Jackie Maclean - 'Let Freedom Ring' (the beginning of the avant garde in jazz)
Yusef Lateef
Dizzy Gilespie
and if you want something really out there and mind blowing check out Sonny Sharrock's 'Black Woman' (some of the wildest guitar you're likely to hear)

[yanni805]

Charles Mingus does it for me.
Mingus Plays Piano and Money Jungle are pretty damn good.

[Jared]

Oh yeah!  And some early Hoagy Carmichel really hits the spot sometimes, too!

[SSR]

Young man, there is a "jazz session" at my pad tonight. There will be alot of "scat singing."  You are welcome to come over and "jam." 

[Jared]

Young man, there is a "jazz session" at my pad tonight. There will be alot of "scat singing."  You are welcome to come over and "jam." 

Well, damn, Scott, if we weren't a good two states a way I'd be all over that!

[johnny guitar]

oliver nelson - the blues and the abstract truth
lee morgan - the sidewinder
cecil taylor - unit structures
pharoah sanders - karma
*DON CHERRY - mu part 1 and 2
*CHARLES MINGUS - black saint and the sinner lady

*(might be my favorite albums from any genre)

[Dang]

lee morgan - the sidewinder

I recommend any of his others before the Sidewinder.  That one is boring and goes nowhere.

Art Ensemle of Chicago
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
John Zorn
Jackie McLean
Grant Green
Ahmad Jamal
Tito Puente
Count Basie

[Jared]

lee morgan - the sidewinder

I recommend any of his others before the Sidewinder.  That one is boring and goes nowhere.

You're kidding right, Dang?  Please tell me you're kidding!  'The Sidewinder' kicks ass if for the first song alone!  Are you sure you're no thinking of 'Rumproller' 'cause that one doesn't do too much.
And John Zorn?  Ya better be more specific.  The guy's got so much to wade through that the good stuff is really few and far between.  (And he's always hangin out with those Medeski, Martin, & Wood cats.)

[erickelric]

Don Cherry is the shit. 'Brown Rice.' 'Mu's the one with all the tripped-out vocals, right? Sounds like he's talking to himself in an unknown language.

[ihatecops2themax]

i know nothing about jazz

All I know is that Brittany Murphy's favorite music is jazz and her favorite artist is Cole Porter. He's a white guy but he sounds like he's black. That's all.

[johnny guitar]

cole porter is for old ladies and gay men

[em]

My rec is for Mingus' "Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" as well.

I very much enjoy Art Pepper's earlier stuff.