A wise man (my Father in Law) once told me he’d read that, “To have a complete, basic Jazz collection, you buy every Miles Davis album from the 50’s 60’s and 70’sand then own one album by anyone that performed on those albums.”  Well Dad, this is darn near an impossibility, but it’s a great idea. (It’s a roundabout way of saying that Miles played with every jazz musician of note)

Miles Davis crossed over through many Jazz eras.  The Be-Bop Era;  The Cool Jazz Era; Modal, Fusion and Funk, to name a few.  How to categorize what Jazz you like, it could take a while (and a few thousand dollars purchasing songs online).  Duke Ellington summed it up by saying, “It’s all music.” I’m going to help you along to start a great Jazz playlist and point out some of the “must have” albums for your collection.

First off, arguably the greatest Jazz album ever made, Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue”.  Released in 1959, this album withstands the test of time.  I would suggest playing “Say What?” as the first song of the night.  Of course the song is “all Miles”, but Bill Evans’ touch on the keys is a thing of beauty.

Trust me.  You could just play this album on continuous play all evening and your guest would never be upset.

To put myself in the mood to write this article (and mostly to get Radio Disney out of my head now that the children are out of the house), I put Dave Brubeck’s “Time Out” on the record player.  Yes.  I’m 44 years old and I own this album.  In my opinion, there are a few albums that must be played from the original vinyl.  The timeless classic “Take 5″ is one of those songs.  Everyone knows this song.  Everyone may not know who plays it, but if you play this song at your shindig, I promise that you will look around and see people’s heads bobbing along.  It’s a tough one to tap your feet to, tho.  The song is in 5/4 time (probably only interesting to music theorists). However, this is why you’ll clap along and feel that something is “different.”  That’s jazz for you!

Oscar Peterson is one of the finest Jazz pianists you will ever hear.  Yes.  This is a personal opinion and not documented, but I just want you to take my word for it.  I know what I’m doing.  From his 1962 release, “Night Train”, the song not to be missed is “Happy-Go-Lucky Local”.  This is his take on the classic “Night Train”. As you listen to it, you’ll feel like you’ve just jumped on to a train with your napsack and are hitching a ride to Santa Fe.  You can feel Route 66 right next to you.

The 60′s brought along the Jazz periods of Fusion, Funk and Soul.  You can begin to hear where popular bands like Kool and the Gang, Earth, Wind and Fire, and even George Clinton were influenced.  One of the best artists to jump out on his own, Herbie Hancock (like many others) played with Miles Davis.  Most people under the age of 40 familiarized themselves with Hancock by his 1983 release, “Rockit” from Future Shock.  Don’t let this scare you; Herbie Hancock is a jazz master.  ”Cantaloupe Island” (sampled by US3 on their song “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)), “Watermelon Man” and “Maiden Voyage” are all amazing songs. However, if you want to impress your guests, pull out “Chameleon” from his album Head Hunters.  Along with Harvey Mason, you will be attempting to lip sync to the horn section.

Also getting his start in the 1960s was Quincy Jones.  You may only think of Q as a producer of some of the biggest artists of all time.  He was the mastermind behind Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall and Thriller.  However, Q made his mark in Jazz before having his fingers in everything else.  One song that everyone knows is “Soul Bossa Nova”.  Sure, the title doesn’t give the song away, but if you’ve seen any of the Austin Powers movies, you can only hear this song and smile.

The 70s brought some wonderful Soul Jazz.  Not only instrumental, but vocal.  One of the greatest guitarists is featured here.  George Benson.  For those familiar, you will also know that he sang on quite a few of his popular songs.  Everyone knows “On Broadway”, “Give me the night” and “This Masquerade.”  However, for a wonderful Soul Jazz feel, I would suggest “Breezin’” from his 1976 album of the same name. Light, happy and some wonderful “only George Benson could play this” licks.  Also, the perfect song to start slowing the evening down.  Upbeat, but you can also feel some of that love pouring through from the person you’ve been wanting to dance with all night.  Yeah.  You know what I’m talking about.

Some great vocal jazz from this era came from the versatile vocal chords of the man known as Al Jarreau.  His cover of Brubeck’s “Blue Rondo a la Turk” will leave you feeling “How can someone make his voice do that?”  For those of us in High School in the 80′s, I’m sure we’ve all slow danced to “We’re In This Love Together.”

Well, unless you were like me and I just observed.  I am a wall flower.  I made sure that my buddies knew that Julie wanted to dance with someone.  But I digress…

A perfect song to play right after Benson’s “Breezin’” would be Jarreau’s “Mornin’”.  Not only do both of these songs ignore the fact that the words should end in a “g”, but both songs are perfect to “set the mood”.  As a matter of fact, because I’m listening to this, I’m going to stop writing for a moment and spin my wife around a couple of times in the living room.  I’ll be back in a few…

Ok.  I’m back.

The 80′s ushered in the era of “Smooth Jazz.”  To an untrained ear, many people would categorize this as “elevator music.”  I will suggest some songs that will not be classified that way.  These are just great songs by great musicians.  (Although I know he’s an amazing saxophone player, I will not mention Kenny G.  However, I do own all of his albums.)

Bob James, Dave Grusin, Earl Klugh, Lee Ritenour and Fourplay.  If you grab any of these artist’s Greatest Hits packages, you will be happy as you can be.  As a matter of fact, Fourplay is made up of Bob James, Lee Ritenour (and was subsequently replaced by Larry Carlton), the aforementioned Harvey Mason and Nathan East.  A super group in the eyes of the smooth jazz world.  From their first album, the self titled Fourplay, the first track grabs you immediately.  ”Bali Run” shows off all four talents. The video above features Larry Carlton.

Well, there’s a little information behind some of what I consider some jazz masterpieces.

Here’s some albums that you should not live without.

Miles Davis “Kind of Blue”
Dave Brubeck “Time Out”
Django Reinhardt “Djangology”
Joe Pass “Portraits of  Duke Ellington”
Fourplay “Fourplay”

What about some great songs to throw on the iPod?  Well, along with the songs I listed above, here’s some more you can’t live without.

Dave Brubeck “Unsquare Dance”
Nina Simone “Feelin’ Good”
Sarah Vaughn “Summertime”
Dave Grusin “Satin Doll”
Duke Ellington and John Coltrane “In A Sentimental Mood”
Al Di Meola “Spanish Eyes”
Weather Report “Birdland”
George Benson Quartet “A Foggy Day”
Thelonious Monk Quartet “Monk’s Dream”
Chet Baker “Over The Rainbow”
Art Blakely “Infra-Rae”
Wynton Marsalis “Caravan”

Thanks for listening to me.  What are some of your favorite jazz songs and albums? Feel free to leave us a comment!