A friend of mine introduced me to Jazz. I've always looked at jazz as a quality genre of music with so much beneath the surface. Complicated song structures or complete improvising.
The record he played me was Miles Davis' "Live Evil". This is actually a genre called "jazz fusion", which just means it adds elements of rock to it.

For the past couple weeks, I did some reseach online for the best jazz albums. I started by downloading the two best selling jazz albums of all-time:
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out

I liked both albums, but they were a little quiet for me. The first thing I noticed about Time Out was the 9/10 time signature and melodies I recognized immediately.

This is what I have so far:

Miles Davis
-Kind of Blue
-Bitches Brew (fusion)
-Live at the Filmore (fusion)
-Live Evil (fusion) <-awesome!
-Jazz at the Plaza (cool jazz)

Dave Brubeck Quartet
-Time Out

John Coltrane
-A Love Supreme (cool jazz) <-my fav studio record

Thelonious Monk
-Brilliant Corners

Can anyone reccomend me jazz, cool jazz, jazz fusion, or other jazz-related albums or artists?

Thanks in advance.

Btw, this is the best music to listen to while at work or while surfing the net.

I'm not very good at labelling music, but have you tried gypsy jazz (Django Reinhardt, Bireli Lagrene, Rosenberg Trio...) or things like Medeski, Martin & Wood (acid jazz maybe) ?

I thought acid jazz was pretty much Jamiroquai. At least Wiki lists it like that.

Wiki also says Gypsy Jazz uses guitar and violin as the main instruments.

Interesting....

There was a great thread on here a few months back about jazz and where to start with it. you might want to search for that.

If you like bitches Brew and live evil i would check out the Miles Davis album Tribute to Jack Johnson. I think it is awesome.

another one of my favorits is Herbie Hancocks Empyrean Isles.

Definitely check out Coltrane's Blue Train. It's my favorite jazz album of all time.

Some other recommendations:
Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil
John Scofield - Up All Night
McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy

I could recommend a ton more albums too, depending on what you like. If you're into fusion check out Herbie Hancock (Thrust and Headhunters), John Scofield, and Scott Kinsey.

a friend of mine introduced me to a love supreme, very cool stuff.

Not to be a nazi or anything, but there's no such thing as a 9/10 time signature.

Check out Mingus' "Ah Um".

my bad, I meant 9/8 and 5/4.

Also, I'll check out that Coltrane record as well as the Miles Davis tribute.

For now, I'd like to stick with jazz fusion and cool jazz.

Naked City's Torture Garden is a pretty great out there jazz album. Pretty much hyper-jazz from the year 9000.

But Zappa's Hot Rats is a great fusion album.

Check out Herbie Hancock's Thrust, Mahavishnu Orchestra's Birds of Fire, and more recently Chris Potter's Underground for some classic fusion type stuff.

For other jazz a few of my absolute favorites are Andrew Hill, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Jaki Byard and Jackie McLean. Check out Charles Mingus' Town Hall Concert album (the one from '64 with two tracks). Not only will it allow you to hear Mingus, Byard, and Dolphy all in one album but the song Meditations on Integration (labeled praying with eric on the sleeve for some unknown reason) is i think the single greatest song jazz has ever produced, a sweeping masterpiece of uncanny proportions.

Good recs, bluenote... that Mahavishnu Orchestra album is top notch

Try Miles Davis' "In A Silent Way" for some more fusion and Bill Evan's "Sunday at the Villae Vanguard" for some cool jazz. I also reccomend "Mingus Ah Um," phenomenal album.

If you're starting to listen to Miles, pick up "Miles Smiles". That's one of my favourites of his.

Generally, I'd suggest you start off with the classic cool Jazz artists and go from there: Davis, Coltrane, Parker, Gillespie, Mingus, Monk etc.

Since I just mentioned Coltrane and Monk, I suggested the Coltrane/Monk "At Carnegie Hall" album in the other Jazz thread awhile back. I can't reccommend that one highly enough.

Coltrane's "Giant Steps" and "My Favorite Things" are also recommended.

Wes Montgomery; "Bumpin" or "The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery" are both good places to start

George Benson; "George Benson's CookBook" & "It's Uptown"

Al Dimeola and Pat Metheny are a couple of good modern Jazz guitarists

Also recommended, Jimmy Smith "Back at the Chicken Shack" & "Midnight Special" Smith popularized the Hammond B-3 organ.

You might dig into some Leon Redbone as well for some ragtime jazz.

Getting into Jazz is diving into a deep ocean, there are just loads of great talents that have come out in the last 60 yrs. or so.

If you liked Coltrane, get some :
Sonny Rollins albums (Now's the time and Our man in jazz for example). Wonderful sax sound, less experimental than Coltrane but really cool to listen to while driving in a city at night (really "jazzy" atmosphere)

I also recommend you to lend an ear on Charles Mingus "tijuana Moods" which is a great album with spanish influences all over it.

Awesome guys! Keep em coming.

downloading:

Coltrane/Monk - Carnegie Hall
Mingus Ah Um
Davis - In A Silent Way
Rollins - Saxophone Collosus
Coltrane - Ultimate Blue Train

I'm really looking foward to the Coltrane stuff and Charles Mingus.

Here's a great website I found on jazz albums:
http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/b ... lbums.html

Thanks for the recommendations.

Blue Train is blowing my mind! This is perfection!

Hell yeah.. Coltrane is my favorite out of that era

Miles - In A Silent Way AND Tribute to Jack Johnson