jazztalk.net

I don't think I have such a thing (borrowed the thread idea from 'O').

Do you?

I go on binges every once in a while on a whim, or when a great musician dies.

Barry Harris. I've studied his method for years and written on his theory and have come to realize he is a beautiful fruitful player with distinctive sound, sophisticated harmony, can make me cry on a ballad and also burns at tempo. A nice thoughtful man too.

miles

Interesting question--I certainly have my favorites and the fact that loading new music into my iPod is usually a frustrating process slows my explorations down a little. I have lots of Bill Evans, Brad M, Pat Metheny, Scofield, Manhattan Jazz Quintet, Peter Erskine, Steps and Steps Ahead, Mike Stern, Keith Jarrett, Brazilian artists, Bill Stewart...but I think it's probably Scofield I listen to with the most frequency. He's got such a wide range of styles on CD that sometimes it doesn't even feel like I'm listening to the same artist from project to project.

I never get tired of Ellery's sound, ideas and he is involved with so many different groups that the context is also always fresh.

I also function by surges of enthusiasm that are more or less quickly replaced. But there are musicians I come back to regularly: Ellington, Miles, Armstrong, Lester, Lee Konitz... no doubt a few others. I used to cycle through Mingus quite a bit, but haven't been back to him in quite some time. Hmmmm....

So much depends upon my mood or the kind of day I've had, but there surely are musicians who are in my "rotation" more often than others... Joe Williams, Diz, Miles, Dexter, R. Malone, Bill Evans, B. Green, Basie.

Straight ahead - it doesn't get any better than that.

I just realized that top honors should probably go to Weather Report, and close behind Michael Brecker. Then Scofield.

There is no musician I listen to most but is sure ain't the fusionists. Give me the Blue NOte catalog from the 50s and I could listen all the time.

I go through periods of listening intensely to one particular jazz artist. Over the years, there are a few that I keep coming back to. The answer to the question of this thread is certainly Lester Young.

I'm going through a "no music" spell - hopefully long but hopefully short too...a long story.

Just reading the names here - Barry Harris, Ellery Eskelin, Dex, Basie, Pres - makes me grateful for the ability to conjure up the sounds in my head.

On repeat now in the mental nightclub: Bud Powell and Hampton Hawes.

Just coming out of a no music spell.....

In the last week lots of Mehldau, Jarrett, and Metheny.

On my commute to work, the iphone shuffles, but seems to have favorites too.

Wayne Shorter, Kevin Eubanks, and Kurt Elling seem to come up in the rotation a lot.

Miles, all periods. There's a Miles for any mood.

Possibly because I used to hear his version of "Peace" at least three times a week when it was the theme of Eric Jackson's show on WGBH in Boston: Tommy Flanagan. Followed closely by Mulgrew Miller--If I've listened to the original Wingspan session once, I've listened many hundreds of times. I can't say why exactly, but every time I put together a new playlist for the iPhone, those two show up. I do go through obsessions, too. For a while there, no day was complete without a listen to Elvin Jones's "Genesis." And after Jim Hall died, I went on a Scofield binge. Not sure what that was about.

Hard to say. As far as listening to full albums, so far this morning I've listened to Cedar Walton Plays, Ron Carter Stardust, and it's only 8 A.M. Late last night I listened to early Betty Carter Round Midnight...

Today: Franklin Kiermyer
This week: Cootie Williams or Bubber Miley (and, by extension, if accidentally, Duke Ellington)
Past year: Archie Shepp, James P Johnson
Lifetime: Bud Powell, Count Basie, Charles Christopher Parker, Anthony Braxton

Lately its been Paul Bley (surprise), Miles, and Cecil Taylor's FMP cds, which are really astounding when heard repeatedly.

I never go more than a week without Monk. Seems I lean toward piano players, apparently.

Monk, Coltrane, and Paul Desmond.

I don't ever remember having a "no music" spell ... ever.

Among those I listen to most frequently are Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Gary Burton, Jim Pepper, Charles Mingus and Wayne Shorter.

I forgot JJ Johnson.

At the moment, Mingus. I'd been in a no music lull, but heard a phrase walking down the street, stopped in my tracks and said "Moanin" and when I got home the dam was broken.

I have had "no music" spells

one was from ~ March 2006 through December 2006.

It wasn't a conscious decision - I had no car for that period and I wasn't in a mental space to be able to listen at home.

what happened is I learned to hear music from an altered and maybe a deeper perspective. As sme know I used to listen to vast quantities of music - 95% plus of which was jazz - probably for a 10 year period from ~ 1992 through 2002 or so. During that time I came to be familiar with many/most aspects or styles of jazz from the past up through the current with the major exceptions being my limited interest in pre 1950 music - probably somewhat due to my closed mind to the sound quality and my thirst to hear as much as I could from the musicians that I had come to be enamored or even obsessed with - so a drop-off in my listening might have been inevitable.

what I have reaped from listening to much less music - mostly in the car and at live shows (which I attend far more than I ever did - I probably see 25 - 35 nights of music a year for the past few year), is a heightened awareness and enjoyment of the music I do listen to - and most importantly for me - a much less jaded viewpoint of the state of music, etc.

so historically, I used to listen more to Miles, Monk, Trane, Mingus than anyone else - then I added the musiciI discovered as the year went by - Ellery Eskelin, Dennis Gonzalez, Thomas Chapin, Gianluigi Trovesi, etc. In more recent years, I would say that my go to jazz artists would include Evan Parker (and all the improvisors associated with et sort of thing - Lovens, Moholo, Guy, Edwards, Beresford, Sanders, Noble, Hawkins), Mat Maneri, Joe Maneri, Tony Malaby, Hank Mobley, Sonny Clark, Monk, ICPish stuff, Fred Anderson, Joe McPhee, Joe Henderson, etc.

Lately I've been starting to listen to a bit more Miles, Trane and Mingus - been great to hear the music I started with when it comes to jazz from a fresh perspective

I have become a big fan of Not Two records - so I have been listening to recent Vandermark releases with the Resonance ensemble, the great Mad Dogs box set with Barry Guy's Orchestra Small Formations.

Also some great recordings that include a very fine tenor player Rodrigo Amado - and many recordings that feature some of the musicians from NYC that I see quite often and I look for recordings with the younger generations from Chicago (Frank Rosaly, Tim Daisy, Josh Abrams, Jason Adaciawicz, etc.)

Also been listening much to the wonderous William Parker Quartet (+) 8 CD box Wood Flute Songs

Alas, I can almost say that rather than having "no music" spells, I have "music" spells. ("I'm too depressed to listen." "But music would cheer you up!" "But I'm too depressed to listen." . . . )

However, I just broke a "no music" spell, albeit with nonjazz. And I'm looking forward to seeing this show in Baltimore tomorrow night:

Bradford - Gjerstad Quartet
Bobby Bradford - cornet, Frode Gjerstad - reeds, Ingebrigt Haaker Flaten - bass, Frank Rosaly - drums.

Come to think of it, I'm never too depressed to go hear appealing live music if I can.

(Right now, I don't know which jazz musician I listen to most frequently.)

Edit: Besides "I'm too depressed to listen," there's "My tinnitus is too bad" as well as other reasons.