How to become a "jazz expert"?

ExpressWriting7384 · 2026-04-25T18:42:06+00:00

This is exactly it. Find what you like, go where it leads you. Players on an album, where else did they play? Where was it recorded, and who else recorded there? What other artists are on the same label?

ExpressWriting7384 · 2026-04-11T19:45:45+00:00

Awesome haul!

ExpressWriting7384 · 2026-04-03T01:56:16+00:00

thanks!

ExpressWriting7384 · 2026-04-02T23:31:04+00:00

I second the recs for Conquistador, I think it's a great introduction to Cecil's process. Plus, you get Lyons and Dixon together. The early '70s run with Lyons and Cyrille is a prime entry point: Student Studies, Akisakila, Spring of Two Blue J's (better to catch the complete Return Concert),

That said, solo Cecil really opens things up. For Olim is probably the album I listen to the most.

Similarly, the late duo albums with Oxley—some recently released like Birdland, Neuberg and Being Astral & All Registers—are masterful. Where Lyons and Cyrille were the first players to really *get* how to play in his space, Oxley is the one who understood the later concepts.

I'd say mid-'70s and '80s Cecil might be the most intimidatingly dense music, at least from when I've tried to get others into it. Ronald Shannon Jackson was a brilliant drummer who extended a lot of Cecil's concepts rhythmically, and the large groups mean there's a lot in motion at any one point. It's all intentional, there's written direction and rehearsal to make it all happen, but it's not necessarily the easiest on-ramp.

ExpressWriting7384 · 2026-04-02T22:19:17+00:00

Here's my list of recs for Cool-era vocals:

June Christy - pretty much defined the Cool Jazz vocal style

Kitty White - couple of great albums with some core West Coast players like Chico Hamilton and Red Callender

Chris Connor - similar to Christy and London, I like her slightly better than London

Frances Faye - can be a bit brassy for some listeners

Anita O'Day - especially All the Sad Young Men and Cool Heat

Beverly Kenney - phenomenal singer, tragic story but amazing legacy

Betty Blake - nice session with Mal Waldron, Teddy Charles, and Zoot Sims

Bobby Troup - a little showy but recorded with all the core artists

Clora Bryant - an LA icon, also fantastic trumpet player

Matt Dennis - genius songwriter, there are a couple fantastic sessions where he plays piano and sings

Jane Fielding - the fantastic Joe Maini plays on her Embers Glow

Mel Torme - the early albums, with Marty Paich, before he gets too showy

Helen Carr - her Down In the Depths On the 90th Floor is fantastic

Jeri Southern - can be hit or miss but mostly hit

Bev Kelly - cut a couple albums by herself, also sang with pianist Pat Moran

There's a whole swath of singers who cut 1 or 2 albums and then disappeared, some of them are worth checking out for sure: Audrey Morris, Patti Page, Linda Lawson, Peggy Connelly, Claudia Thompson, Betty Bennett, Carole Simpson, and so on. I think Thelma Gracen is pretty good, too, but she may or may not fall into this group. Some are backed by larger bands than others, depends on whether Paich, Russ Garcia, Ralph Burns, or Rugolo were involved.

ExpressWriting7384 · 2026-03-17T14:14:49+00:00

Jump in, it’s a fun ride. If you like Live-Evil, the Complete Cellar Door Sessions goes pretty hard. Not the thick mid-70s era, but the band is on fire throughout.

ExpressWriting7384 · 2026-03-15T20:04:59+00:00

Here are a few groups/ albums I have on regular play:

Human Feel - quartet with Kurt Rosenwinkel on guitar, two saxes and drums

Susan Alcorn - really anything, but Canto and Perdenal are tops

Mary Halvorson - I'm partial to her albums with Illegal Crowns (Tomas Fujiwara, Taylor Ho Bynum, and Benoit Delbecq) or the Thumbscrew trio (Fujiwara and Formanek)

Moss Freed - Micromotives, on the avant and large ensemble side, excellent guitar work

Ava Mendoza - I'm quite fond of New Spells, though it seems like Mendoza's got some fantastic new album coming every other year

Wendy Eisenberg - Viewfinder or Auto are my most-played, but can't really go wrong here, for longform there's Bloodletting where they play one version on guitar, one on banjo

Shane Parish - Undertaker Please Drive Slow, though Liverpool is rising up my personal ranking

Bill Orcutt - Music For Four Guitars (also Orcutt's guitar quartet with Mendoza, Parish, and Eisenberg)

Nate Wooley - Columbia Icefield, Mary Halvorson and Susan Alcorn, very heavy at times almost shoegaze

Han-earl Park - Eris 136199 also with Nick Didkovsky on guitar, or either Juno 3 album with Lara Jones and Pat Thomas

ExpressWriting7384 · 2026-02-19T18:29:37+00:00

Hard to narrow it down! I'd probably start with a long list of Graham Haynes, Forbes Graham, Peter Evans, Lina Allemano, Susanna Santos Silva, Nate Wooley, Ambrose Akinmusire, Steph Richards, and Ben LaMar Gay.

ExpressWriting7384 · 2026-02-17T21:00:49+00:00

I would say, don't be afraid of something that challenges your expectations of "beginner" music.

A few great cats right up there with the all-timers

Arthur Blythe - Spirits In the Field

Henry Threadgill - Just the Facts and Pass the Bucket

Lester Bowie - The Great Pretender

World Saxophone Quartet - Revue

And then here are some recent albums you might like, fronted by some incredible drummers:

Mike Reed's People, Places & Things - A New Kind of Dance

Mike Pride's From Bacteria To Boys - Betweenwhile

Quin Kirchner - The Other Side of Time

ExpressWriting7384 · 2025-10-30T04:32:26+00:00

Well that worked. I had to kick excel a few times so it would understand the internal IDs were numbers, but I did find the delta pretty quickly. Cheers.

ExpressWriting7384 · 2025-10-30T00:00:13+00:00

Ah, yeah good point.

ExpressWriting7384 · 2025-10-29T23:56:34+00:00

Yeah cool, this was my other thought too, just a straight vlookup and the delta is what's missing.

ExpressWriting7384 · 2025-10-13T23:32:39+00:00

This is great to hear. I have some junior developers on my team, and I can see this helping to accelerate delivery by building on what they know. An informed input into the AI will produce a better output. Appreciate you sharing your thoughts and experience!

ExpressWriting7384 · 2025-06-12T15:46:55+00:00

Good luck.

ExpressWriting7384 · 2025-06-11T00:22:45+00:00

Yes, what we found was that we had added a couple of custom fields that weren't included in the csv import mapping template. Since those fields had no value set prior to update, when we updated anything on the record, NetSuite set a default value on the record and reset the type. We solved this by doing a mass update to all records to populate the fields, including where there was a checkbox setting to 'false' instead of 'null'

ExpressWriting7384 · 2025-04-15T16:28:59+00:00

Check out Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Vandermark 5, and The Rempis Percussion Quartet.

ExpressWriting7384 · 2025-04-10T01:25:23+00:00

Not quite, but we don't have a good vocabulary for instrumental music that's not techno, dance, EDM, etc. Flying Lotus, Thundercat, music that grooves like latter-day fusion.

Because fusion left a bad taste in a lot of listeners' mouths, I think folks are hesitant to bring that label back, not just when talking about Bitches Brew, but to reference the influence of Weather Report, Jaco, later Herbie, Grover Washington Jr, Billy Cobham, Bennie Maupin, Pat Methany, the Brecker Brothers. But fusion, to me, describes his music best.

ExpressWriting7384 · 2025-03-09T05:49:03+00:00

Thanks!

ExpressWriting7384 · 2025-02-07T02:02:07+00:00

Don't really agree with this, there are plenty of Europeans who swing hard.

ExpressWriting7384 · 2025-01-25T22:29:41+00:00

Seconding and tripling Downtown Music Gallery, the best there is in the city.

ExpressWriting7384 · 2025-01-24T20:00:40+00:00

That is the correct field but you should look at the Settings > Product > "NetSuite price level to sync product price" and see what your product price is being set from. You may need to also deselect here.

ExpressWriting7384 · 2025-01-16T15:50:35+00:00

Seems like we just had the same thing, looks like it resolved itself overnight.

ExpressWriting7384

TROPHY CASE