Guybrush

The classics already mentioned are great like Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk etc. To those I could add that I quite like Oscar Peterson who was a brilliant piano player and that I these days also often like to listen to collaborations by Bill Evans (piano) and Chet Baker (trumpet) who together play some deliciously mellow takes on old classics.

What's with the fusion hate?

I love many flavours of 70s fusion rock, finding it exhilarating, beautiful and often challenging - in a good way of course. My favorite 70s fusion group may be Return to Forever. The band was at its best, I think, when its lineup consisted of Al Di Meola on guitar, Stanley Clarke on bass, Lenny White on drums and, of course, Chick Corea on keyboards. Here's an example song :



Gorgeous!

I also quite like a bit of gypsy jazz. My current favorite then is dutch guitar virtuoso Jimmy Rosenberg who is a guitar genius. Here's one of his more mellow tunes.

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Holerbot6000

Sorry - I was being a bit of a wise ass. There is indeed a lot of good fusion music, but I do think there is also a lot of BAD fusion music, probably more than in any other sub genre in Jazz. At it's worst, it's just a lot of virtuoso posturing, and I think that was very appealing - everyone wanted to be the next Jaco Pastorius - so, for every good fusion album, there were probably 10 bad ones. Just my opinion of course.

theylaughed

Eric dolphy

jimmyjkar

yeah you really cant go wrong with eric dolphy...
or monk. charlie rouse with monk especially. they were into each other so well they started to become each other's moods. or something... i dunno.. thats the cool thing about jazz is that its a great excercise for imagination... the best jazz imo is the jazz that stimulates your own playing. sonny rollins would do that a lot, and charlie parker too even though i could hardly touch anything he played. recently though the jazz ive been getting into is what jazz has turned into today, whether its jam sessions on the street with kenny g saxophonists or bitches brew miles davis samples in hip hop records... on that note i wanna talk about post bitches brew miles davis. theres alot of talk about how miles went bad after his second quintet with tony and herbie and ron. but although he started making bad music more FREQUENTLY, the good music he made in that era was IMO THE GREATEST THINGS IVE EVER HEARD. im talking about like... sivad on live evil, his triumphant trills on that jack johnson solo, the organ playing on that same song, who-ever-was-playing-that-sax-solo on "in a silent way - its about that time (i think its track 6), keith jarrett and chick playing with each other while they both sap influence from miles' immense swagger... john macghlaflin's perfectly chosen feelings that unfold and walk like a spider into your mind.... man jazz is some deep ****. i love jazz. maybe thats just because i took abunch of vivance. honestly i shouldnt do drugs as a jazz musician... drugs will eventually qw`1e45rtyqwerty678

MaximeM

In the "young" ones we have Roy hargrove. Less young we have Tom Harell he is stranged but really talented. Both are trumpeters.

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DirtyPop

Have you heard Robert Glasper Experiment's 'Black Radio' album?! Def one of the best jazz/soul/hiphop fusion albums in recent memory.

s_k

May I advice Kenny Dorhams' "Quiet Kenny" to you? It's a brilliant album.
Also Brubecks "Jazz Impressions of Eurasia" is quite something

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Guybrush

I'll check this one out as I love Brubeck's Time Out from 1959

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s_k

It's something quite different. Less easy listening, but definitely worth a listen.
And hard to get, as I found out. Have the record now, after three years...

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IvanMC

Ain't Stanley Jordan no good?