Jazz You May Not Have Heard

Posted on September 25, 2008
Filed Under Chief Blogging Officer

I have played guitar for a long time, and about nine years ago or thereabouts I got bored with the place where I was on the instrument, and I decided that I needed to get better, and the best way to do that was to learn to play jazz. So I taught myself some theory, and I came to understand how chords are constructed theoretically, and I learned about the history of jazz. I fell in love with it, and I traded in most of my rock CDs for credit and used it to buy jazz records.

I read a few books on jazz. I specifically remember reading the Mingus autobiography Beneath The Underdog, and the Miles Davis autobiography, as well as books on Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Parker, Dizzy, Louis Armstrong, and other things, books on the history of jazz in general. I also learned a lot by watching the Ken Burns Jazz series in its entirety three or four times.

Of course, I learned the most by actually listening to jazz. We are blessed here in Las Vegas with KUNV, which is 91.5 on your FM dial, a public radio station that plays an excellent array of jazz during the week, and very cool, eclectic music on the weekends.

I was originally going to offer my picks as the ten greatest jazz musicians of all time, but I thought I’d switch that up and recommend a few artists that everyone may not have heard of in the hope that I can perhaps turn an ear or two on to some interesting music that is new to them.

Check out these vids:

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey