Posted by Gelato at 8:28pm Nov 19 '09Here are a few suggestions...
For classics, I'm a fan of Miles Davis's Kind of Blue album. To give you an idea (since I don't know how well-versed in jazz you are), here's the first track from that album, "So What":
Next, we have the Bill Evans Trio, with Portrait in Jazz. A little "Autumn Leaves," perhaps? (Linked below, 'cause embedding is disabled.)
Then we have Dave Brubeck. If you don't know who he is, he's the guy who did "Take Five":
The Dave Brubeck Quartet did a live performance that got recorded called Jazz at Oberlin. It is not ideal for trying to fall asleep. You should still listen to it. (If you like jazz, anyway.)
Ah! Here's one that would be good for falling asleep: Concierto, by Jim Hall, a jazz guitarist. It's a good album--it's just very mellow. Here's the first half of the longest song on the album, "Concierto de Aranjuez," which clocks in at a total of 19 minutes and 14 seconds.
Speaking of jazz guitarists, Joe Pass is definitely somebody to look into if you're into jazz. The album of his that I own is called Blues Dues (another live album), but I imagine most of his stuff would be excellent. Here's a video of Pass playing "All the Things You Are" in 1991:
Keeping with the guitarist theme, we have [private] Carlton, whose only album I actually own is Fingerprints. This particular album is the closest to smooth jazz I have in my music collection. (I don't think he's strictly a smooth-jazz guitarist, though, so you may want to preview his albums before you decide on buying.) There is one track on this album that has vocals (Michael McDonald singing "'Til I Hurt You"), but the rest is instrumental. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any YouTube videos that feature songs from that album, so you'll have to preview it on Amazon or something.
And finally (for this post, anyways), we have Charlie Hunter. This guy plays an 8-string guitar--5 treble, 3 bass. In other words, he plays the guitar and bass parts all at once. Here's "Two for Bleu," a song from his self-titled album:
That should get you started, yeah? I have more jazz recommendations for general listening (that is, not necessarily for sleeping) if you'd like, but that would be for another post.
For classics, I'm a fan of Miles Davis's Kind of Blue album. To give you an idea (since I don't know how well-versed in jazz you are), here's the first track from that album, "So What":
Next, we have the Bill Evans Trio, with Portrait in Jazz. A little "Autumn Leaves," perhaps? (Linked below, 'cause embedding is disabled.)
Then we have Dave Brubeck. If you don't know who he is, he's the guy who did "Take Five":
The Dave Brubeck Quartet did a live performance that got recorded called Jazz at Oberlin. It is not ideal for trying to fall asleep. You should still listen to it. (If you like jazz, anyway.)
Ah! Here's one that would be good for falling asleep: Concierto, by Jim Hall, a jazz guitarist. It's a good album--it's just very mellow. Here's the first half of the longest song on the album, "Concierto de Aranjuez," which clocks in at a total of 19 minutes and 14 seconds.
Speaking of jazz guitarists, Joe Pass is definitely somebody to look into if you're into jazz. The album of his that I own is called Blues Dues (another live album), but I imagine most of his stuff would be excellent. Here's a video of Pass playing "All the Things You Are" in 1991:
Keeping with the guitarist theme, we have [private] Carlton, whose only album I actually own is Fingerprints. This particular album is the closest to smooth jazz I have in my music collection. (I don't think he's strictly a smooth-jazz guitarist, though, so you may want to preview his albums before you decide on buying.) There is one track on this album that has vocals (Michael McDonald singing "'Til I Hurt You"), but the rest is instrumental. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any YouTube videos that feature songs from that album, so you'll have to preview it on Amazon or something.
And finally (for this post, anyways), we have Charlie Hunter. This guy plays an 8-string guitar--5 treble, 3 bass. In other words, he plays the guitar and bass parts all at once. Here's "Two for Bleu," a song from his self-titled album:
That should get you started, yeah? I have more jazz recommendations for general listening (that is, not necessarily for sleeping) if you'd like, but that would be for another post.
Okay! - Gelato