Now I know artists such as Kenny G and Boney James would be considered Jazz music and yes they are, in the same way that say um Insane Clown Posse is considered rap music, bastardizations of an ever evolving musical style. Seriously most have no idea what Jazz sounds like outside of Miles Davis's seminal "Kind Of Blue" which is like a Jazz for dummies, but if only all music cliff notes sounded so damn righteous!!! But the music has many assorted sounds, styles, and players in the game.
So here are three albums by prominent Jazz musicians that will give you a broader foresight of what the music can be. No there is no Miles, Thelonious, or Coltrane that would be too easy now wouldn't it? Kinda like going on Celebrity Rehab to promote your new book that further ruins an already shattered family name for the sake of getting more drug money to keep yourself relevant in another ten years, McKenzie Phillips do you hear me????. But rather guys who are more of a musician’s type man, meaning if you ever read the credits on your albums these names would pop up on alot of stuff you have heard about knucklehead.
Now don't get it twisted these albums do not represent the full spectrum of Jazz music, but are some model examples of the possibilities of Jazz and well frankly their just good music lint licker! I mean you could just go ahead and listen to dudes who think from the elevator stylings of Kenny G but it would be like eating Olive Garden instead of an authentic Italian restaurant.
First up we have the 1976 album by jazz pianist McCoy Tyner "Fly with the Wind". His ninth with label Milestone Records and 21st overall. With this album McCoy Tyner and producer Orrin Keepnews added a string section to the arrangements to flush out a more complete sound. The band itself was packed with greats of the point in time such Billy Cobham, Hubert Laws, and Ron Carter but the addition of the orchestra was the missing link in a series of great Tyner albums' (Atlantis 1974 on Milestone Records, Trident 1975 on Milestone Records). Great track is the powerful thump of "Salvadore de Samba" but each track will find its way into your ears and stay there.
McCoy Tyner "Fly with the Wind" 1976
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Next up we have the 1960 album that further pushed your endurance for sound tolerance and mental stability long before Bill Laswell, John Zorn, or Merzbow, "Free Jazz" by Ornette Colman. Now I could try and explain this on to you but it would be like trying to explain the Big Bang Theory, how the pyramids were built, and why people watch Harry Potter movies in one sentence. But to keep things in a technical aspect let me just show you what wikipedia.org has to say about this album that is not for the weak of heart and if you make it through the journey your ears will never be the same.
From wikipedia.org "Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation is an album by jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, recorded in 1960. The original release embodied a painting by Jackson Pollock, on the front of the cover, and its title gave the name for the whole free jazz movement. It involves two separate quartets, one to each stereo channel; the rhythm sections play simultaneously, and though there is a succession of solos as is usual in jazz, they are peppered with freeform commentaries by the other horns that often turn into full-scale collective improvisation. The pre-composed material is a series of brief, dissonant fanfares for the horns which serve as interludes between solos. Not least among the album's achievements was that it was the first LP-length improvisation, nearly forty minutes in length, which was unheard of at the time". For myself I think of this as a class to take after you have experienced and understand something like Miles Davis' monster work "Bitches Brew".
Ornette Colman "Free Jazz" 1960
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And last we have the 1977 album by Jazz Drummer great Roy Haynes. Once again unless you are serious about your Jazz or a drummer you probably haven't heard this name but have heard his work on albums from McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Gerry Mulligan, Art Pepper, and Sonny Rollins. Roy Haynes is a power house on this being his 16th album as a bandleader. His band including such luminaries of the time like John Klemmer, Bobby Hutcherson, Stanley Cowell, and Ron Carter do a good job of keeping up Roy Haynes unique rhythmic approach. I recommend the track "Quiet Fire" with its Cuban-Salsa rhythms and the way Roy Haynes beats the skins authority. "Now go forth and preach the gospel"- Tony Wilson
Roy Haynes "Thank You Thank You" 1977
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