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I had previously no idea who he was. Having listened to his music, I now understand how good he is/was and this was a gentle introduction to this genre.

Are there good jazz piano/jazz albums to listen to that people might recommend? (By him or others)

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Jazz pianist here. Among the greatest jazz pianist albums:

Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage, Empyrean Isles, Herbie Hancock Trio (1981)

McCoy Tyner - Supertrios, The Real McCoy

Keith Jarrett - Facing You, Survivors Suite, Fort Yawuh, Expectations

A lot of my favourite piano/keyboard playing is on Miles Davis albums:

Red Garland on Steamin'. Relaxin', Workin', Cookin', Round About Midnight, Milestones

Herbie Hancock on Four & More, My Funny Valentine

Keith Jarrett on Live-Evil

Not to mention all the other amazing musicians on those! Among my musician friends, Miles' band with Wayne Shorter, Herbie, Ron Carter and Tony Williams (1963-68) is considered unrivalled in jazz. All Miles' records with Gil Evans' orchestra are superlative also.

P.S. There's also the strange and not-very-important question of labels – I don't think Facing You (or The Köln Concert) or Live-Evil are jazz, or anywhere near it. They are played mostly by jazz musicians, I guess. Who cares, they're good music.

Bill Evans and Hiromi are, for me, in the top 3 with Chick. Hiromi is a monster of technique whereas Bill is a pioneer of the Chopin Debussy style, when most jazz pianists then didn't have roots in the classical world.

Was going to post the same. I can't go a week without listening to Bill, Chick or Hiromi at some point. There is a YouTube video of dualing pianos with Chick and Hiromi, it's one of my most watched. They are both just out of this world.

I'm not one of your friends, and I'm hardly a musician, but I agree that Miles' second quintet is indeed unrivaled in jazz. All of the music they made is sublime, but my favorites are the albums Filles de Kilimanjaro, Sorcerer, Water Babies, Nefertiti, and of course In A Silent Way (featuring late great Chick Corea).

Not sure why "of course" In a Silent Way - that's with a very different, much larger group. p.s. my favourite is Live at the Plugged Nickel.

I'm curious, if The Köln Concert is not jazz then what is it? I'm not a fan of discussing labels and semantics endlessly but I'm interested where would you place it, as I have a very hard time imagining it under any other major genre.

Well, I don't hear anything jazzy about it. I guess it's (piano) improvisation. Or "Keith Jarrett music".. a mix of classical/gospely/bluesy/folky etc influences. Don't know. If someone wanted to hear jazz, I wouldn't play them that. I think if Keith wasn't a jazz musician, noone would think of calling it jazz.

I heard a couple of times about 15 years ago a classical guitarist playing a transcription of the Memories of Tomorrow encore (the last track of Köln Concert) on the Australian classical-music-only radio station ABC Classic FM. They'd never play the original – that would be "jazz", I guess, and inappropriate. But a classical guitarist playing the same notes – classical.

Interesting view, thanks for sharing it. You are likely more qualified to categorize music as you have proper musical training. To me, the fact, that the concert is entirely improvised already places a foot on the jazz camp, considering it's an important characteristic of the genre that is not strongly shared by other genres.

The second argument can be tricky though, if I played you Technical Death Metal in the piano you may think it's classical music too [0]. There is something more to being a genre than the notes that are played, I think...

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W05qbb0NeYk

I'm not trained in categorization though, and don't often think about it! The subject reminds me of bins in records stores, and maybe that's all it comes down to. "Hmm which of these large bins does Köln Concert best fit into". Reminiscent of finding pi to 1 decimal place, not very useful. And Keith's solo improvisations seem particularly unique.

Köln Concert does seem a very different kind of thing to Facing You though, although the latter is mostly totally improvised also, I believe. I guess due to F You's much shorter tune lengths and absence of extended improvisations over 1 or 2 chords etc. Facing You will play for 10 seconds with what Köln spends 5 minutes with..

> it's an important characteristic of the genre is not strongly shared by other genres.

What is not strongly shared, improvisation, or being entirely improvised?[0]

I also listen to a lot of North Indian classical..which seems about the same percentage entirely improvised as the Köln Concert.

I'm no an expert, but I don't think totally improvised western music is at all common outside "free jazz". i.e. it usually sounds like atonal noise, not pleasingly harmonious. That is very difficult. Classical musicians used to do it, until the 19th C, apparently, but gave up.

> There is something more to being a genre than the notes that are played

Absolutely, I've made this point many times myself, and it's something that was driven home to me when I started writing music with computers. Use jazz instrumentation and the music sounds like jazz. Rock instrumentation and it sounds like rock. Orchestra and it sounds like classical etc.

[0] Just to be clear, the last track isn't "entirely improvised", it's an improvisation over the Jarrett tune Memories of Tomorrow, which he'd been playing since at least 1966. And

> Subtle laughter may be heard from the audience at the very beginning of "Part I", in response to Jarrett's quoting of the melody of the signal bell which announces the beginning of an opera or concert to patrons at the Köln Opera House, the notes of which are G D C G A.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_K%C3%B6ln_Concert

I just learned that the Freiburg and Paris 1975 solo concerts, recorded days before and after Köln, respectively, feature pre-composed melodies a lot more. I wonder if that was because Köln was recorded by ECM? (Part II of Freiburg is a 30 minute expanded version of a melody from Survivors Suite, in Paris Part II starts with In Your Quiet Place and then keeps returning to the same Survivors Suite melody.)

Both available here: http://tela.sugarmegs.org/

There is some backstory regarding the piano that Jarrett was given for the Köln Concert being broken [0]. That may have forced him to improvise a lot more as whatever pre-composed melodies he could use as a crutch may have not been workable with the piano he had.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_K%C3%B6ln_Concert

> That may have forced him to improvise a lot more as whatever pre-composed melodies he could use as a crutch may have not been workable with the piano he had.

Hmm I doubt it. I'd expect that to exert force more in the other direction. Anyway, it's all speculation. There is a book called Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert which seems well-written.

p.s. I just keep mentioning Facing You because I think it's his best record! I've talked to quite a few musicians who feel the same.

Thank you, good excuse to give it a new listen today. I have a soft spot for "The Survivor's Suite", I think is his album I return the most often to.

Thanks for the explanation, it seems you have a more nuanced view due to having a broader exposure and understanding of music and musical theory so I appreciate your viewpoints.

I'd call The Köln Concert "protracted edging".

Have some respect. For HN, if not for Keith. Thanks.

Disclaimer: My favorite subgenres of jazz are fusion and post-bop.

A wonderful, accessible jazz album that I highly recommend for newcomers is saxophonist Michael Brecker's 1987 self-titled album, which was his first album as a band leader (though by this point he had already been a highly prolific session player). There is some great piano playing on this album. I consider Michael Brecker one of the greatest saxophonists in jazz. Unfortunately he passed away rather untimely in 2007, but thankfully he left us with a lot of wonderful music.

While I'm still talking about Michael Brecker, I also recommend the albums "Steps Ahead," "Modern Times," and "Magnetic," which are all from the band Steps Ahead and feature Michael Brecker as a sideman. Don Grolnick was another wonderful pianist, and I also recommend his album "Hearts and Numbers," which features Michael Brecker.

Regarding Chick Corea's work, "My Spanish Heart" is an excellent introduction, as well as "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs." The albums from his two fusion bands Return to Forever and the Chick Corea Elektric Band are also all top-notch; I recommend starting with "Romantic Warrior" for the former and "Eye of the Beholder" for the latter as definitive albums for these bands.

Thank you and others for the suggestions. This is great.

Haven't listened to Steps for far too long, I'll go and play Radio Active, thank you!

You mean there's jazz outside of Kenny G?

Pat Metheny is going to kill you in your sleep.

EDIT: Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-mjt1ypiF8

I noticed a lot of the MSM eulogies focus on Chick being a pioneer of fusion, which is true, but only one of many of his musical facets.

Return to Forever, Crystal Silence, Romantic Warrior, My Spanish Heart, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy.

When you're done with those (I figure, five years or so :) ), then you will want to listen to everything else...

My personal favorite is probably Crystal Silence, that is such an amazing piece, it never ceases to give you more joy and new bits of discovery, even when you know it note-for-note.

As for other good Jazz albums, Pat Metheny, Al di Meola, Weather Report might be to your liking, and maybe McCoy Tyner, try 'Fly with the wind'. And a bit more off the beaten path, Friedrich Gulda, the 'terrorist pianist'.

Enjoy! And mail me if you want more.

Thank you, I just got hooked to John Coltrane but my view of the jazz world was very limited, glad to see so many new names.

Jazz is probably wider and deeper than either pop or classical, you have your work cut out for you :) But it's the best kind of work.

Oh, and I forgot to mention Michel Petrucciani.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PyYcnXQZJY

> Return to Forever, Crystal Silence, Romantic Warrior, My Spanish Heart, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy.

funny these would have been in my top too

I'd add the blue note acoustic band session of the early 90s (colaiuta/patittuci)

What games shall we play today? ;)

Flora Purim has such a beautiful voice.

where have i known you before :p

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O25Wm42m3qE

-For something same, same but decidedly different, you could do worse than checking out Keith Jarrett.

I usually recommend his Köln Concert as a starting point - a recording of a 1975 concert which even though I've probably listened to it a thousand times over the years still sounds fresh and brings a smile to my face every time I put it on.

Among the contemporaries, I have a soft spot for Iiro Rantala. Oh, and Bugge Wesseltoft.

The Köln and Vienna concerts are my all-time favourite Keith Jarrett recordings. Perhaps that is part nostalgia: They were the first I ever heard of him.

I love a good piano jazz album because it makes typing on a computer keyboard so much more fun when you’re in a flow state.

I highly recommend Bill Evans Trio: The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings and Ryo Fukui: Scenery as they are two of my go-to jams, especially the former.

Bill Evans I find is fantastic for coding / flow states, it grooves just right. I can listen to village vanguard on repeat and not even notice it flows so well.

I haven't seen him mentioned in this thread, but I was introduced to the phenomenal drummer Dave Weckl through Chick Corea and his Elektric Band. In my mind, Dave is the best drummer alive today. The mix of technical and musical skills is super impressive. After Dave played with Chick and the Elektric Band he's done several albums and is all over the place sharing his gift with folks from around the world. Look him up, you won't be disappointed.

It's fun because as a drummer not that much into jazz or fusion I got introduced to Chick Corea through Dave Weckl (which yes is the best drummer alive and maybe of all time) :)

Consequently, I'm currently watching this one because my first reflex this morning was to type "Dave Weckl Chick Corea" on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-XZu8DBLSs

And speaking of Dave Weckl I can't resist posting this one with the late Didier Lockwood https://youtu.be/K-R9u-1R1FI

Two Drummers Auditioning For a Jazz Course https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKRzq-t8lIY

(warning: very funny)

Good stuff... but.... Yussef Dayes? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwVtIPeYIeQ

Add in Rocco Paladino on bass and Tom Misch on guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7GaK516Wkk

Or Rocco Paladino on bass and Charlie Stacey on keyboards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLWygV_OGc0&t=2414s

A personal favourite of mine is Play (Chick Corea and Bobby McFerrin).

A short list of albums I'd suggest as an introduction to Jazz, piano-based or otherwise:

* Time Out (Dave Brubeck)

* Spectrum (Hiromi)

* Mopocalypse (Mopo)

* Why? (Ginger Baker)

* Your Queen is a Reptile (Sons of Kemet)

Time Out is a classic, but most of these are from the 2010s.

Thanks for sharing more recent albums. As much as I love the 'classics', I believe that an essential part of the jazz tradition is the ongoing exploration of new artists and new directions.

If you are into something more modern, and not piano based, this is my favorite Jazz album of 2020 - https://youtu.be/7GYsSqsa3dQ

One of the classics by Chick is "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs."

If you (or anybody else) happen to be into vinyl, the Blue Note Tone Poet pressing of this record is excellent.

Just last week I was watching a recent YouTube video of Chick explaining how he loved Roy Haynes's ride cymbal on that record so much that Roy gave it to him. He's had many of the subsequent drummers in his bands play that same cymbal. Chick was playing drums in the video and seemed to be so completely full of energy and life. I was stunned by the news of his death because he seemed to like somebody who had another 20 years ahead of him.

I like the yesenadam list below, but this is some of what I am enjoying recently:

Bad Bad Not Good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTloZPT62IM

Kamaal Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmGe8n_8Za0

Yussef Dayes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLWygV_OGc0

The Comet is Coming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpfpYTmohAk

Vijay Iyer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGb1etHM3Sk&list=PL9coQz2INo...

Terrace Martin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqHAeaCHHkY

Maybe there will be something palatable in that for you... maybe not :)

I discovered Chick only a couple of years ago, through a segue from Miles Davis and then the band Return to Forever (you must listen to Romantic Warrior). My wife who is more of a classic pianist, and didn't like to many of my jazz explorations, recently had embarked on trying her hand at jazz harmonies. I ended up finding that we both quite liked listening to Erroll Garner and Bill Evans.

Chick Corea cooperated with a great many people. My personal favourite is the album “Crystal Silence” with Gary Burton, recorded in 1972 I believe.

You have plenty of great recs at this point so there's no point to regurgitate what has already been said. (Definitely check out the late McCoy Tyner rec.)

For those who haven't listened to Musicmagic before, that whole album is criminally underrated. Seriously, the name says it all. Been bumpin' to it all day!

I saw McCoy Tyner in the early 90's at Blues Alley, and sat maybe 4 feet from the piano.

Absolutely amazing experience, seeing his hands fly over the keys.

More than just slightly jealous here.

I highly recommend compositions from Maria Schneider.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Schneider_(musician)

Something I just learned about her:

> Schneider's advocacy against big data companies and their impact on music, culture and privacy is reflected in some of her compositions of the late 2010s, including pieces entitled "Data Lords", commissioned by the U.S. Library of Congress (2016);[16] "Don't Be Evil";[17] and "Sputnik". Several of these compositions appeared on the 2020 album Data Lords.

Many excellent musicians and albums mentioned already, but here are a few others.

Piano: Thelonious Monk - any album, Michel Camilo - Thru My Eyes

Guitar: Pat Metheny - Orchestrion and Unity Band, Bela Fleck - Outbound

Bass: Victor Wooten - Trypnotyx, Marcus Miller

Sax: Michael Brecker - Tales From the Hudson, Grover Washington Jr. - Winelight, Chris Potter - Ultrahang

Trumpet: Roy Hargrove - Earfood and RH Factor, Arturo Sandoval - Live at the Blue Note

I saw Chick most recently at Blues Alley in DC. Amazing show and always accompanied by world class musicians. RIP

And Chris Potter on West of Hollywood

This was a Hungarian jazz trio lead by the keyboardist (Kaltenecker Trio):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl647liv4_M

He played in the Miles Davis masterpiece Bitches Brew, that is mystical, eternal and mind-bending trip. Might be hard to grasp first, but when you get it... you'll really get it.

The entire Bill Evans.

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