The Recommend Me Some Jazz Thread![merged]

RobY

There are few more albums/collections I would add to this thread:

Louis Armstrong - Ken Burns Jazz Collection
Best of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
Blues & Roots - Charles Mingus
Chet Baker Sings
Giant Steps - John Coltrane
Ballads - John Coltrane
Coltrane's Sound - John Coltrane
Ole Coltrane

Once you get into those, try:

First Meditations - John Coltrane
Stellar Regions - John Coltrane
Ptah, the El Daoud - Alice Coltrane
Hot, Cool & Latin - Eric Dolphy
The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings - Louis Armstrong

Setun

RobY wrote: »

There are few more albums/collections I would add to this thread:

Louis Armstrong - Ken Burns Jazz Collection
Best of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
Blues & Roots - Charles Mingus
Chet Baker Sings
Giant Steps - John Coltrane
Ballads - John Coltrane
Coltrane's Sound - John Coltrane
Ole Coltrane

Once you get into those, try:

First Meditations - John Coltrane
Stellar Regions - John Coltrane
Ptah, the El Daoud - Alice Coltrane
Hot, Cool & Latin - Eric Dolphy
The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings - Louis Armstrong

What's that Dolphy album like?

RobY

It's pretty cool(!).

15 tracks, consisting of two sessions. Hollywood 1959 and NYC 1960.

Two completely different sets of musicians; Dolphy is the only link between the sessions.

First session has guitar and no piano; Dolphy plays Alto and Flute.

Second session is with the Latin Jazz Sextet; he plays mostly flute and bass clarinet and one track on alto.

All in all it's pretty interesting - cuban tinge with some beautiful flute and bass clarinet.

As far as I can recall, I picked it up on CD about 7 or 8 years ago in Tower Records. It's on the Blue Moon label - not something I had ever heard of before buying.

Hermy

Tzetze wrote: »

That vid won't load for some reason.
How about this one? Check out how he finally resolves the piece at the end. Legend!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0SPttqD2JE

That's a great post Tzetze. It's from Young and Fine Live, recorded in 1978, if anyone doesn't know. I have a rough copy but would love to get my hands on the DVD which is available from HMV Japan.

duffman90210

Some Ibrahim Ferrer or Buena Vista Social Club can be a nice change of style in Jazz. It maintains that laid back feeling, but with a cuban vibe.

Buena Vista Social Club - Buena Vista Social Club

Ibrahim Ferrer - Buena Vista Social Club Prensents Ibrahim Ferrer

markesmith

Some recommendations I'd give are:

- Mingus: Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Mingus Ah Um, Blues & Roots
- Coltrane: Love Supreme (obviously), Giant Steps, My Favourite Things
- Davis: Kind of Blue, Birth of the Cool, Sketches of Spain

You can't go wrong with any of those. I'd say, start with 'Kind of Blue', it's a real classic of the 'cool jazz' genre.

Interestingly, just wrote a blog post today about 'So What', the first song on Kind of Blue. Here's a link. </plug> There's a link at the end of it to a barnstorming version of 'So What', complete with Fast Show-style jazz announcer.

shatners basoon

^Hope to god that you've got Miles' Birth of the Cool as well then, gotta be his quintessential album (well besides all the others), filled to the brim with excellent melodies.

Surprised so few ppl have recommended any Bill Evans. Everyone should own a copy of the complete live at the village vanguard recordings (his trio featuring the late Scott LeFaro in all his brilliance on bass and Paul Motion on drums). Its an accessible album but contains loads of depth and works perfectly as background music too.
(edit just saw daddio's post above, so scrap the first few words of this paragraph!)

Tzetze

How about some jazz-funk... fusion.

Weather Report (Jaco Pastorius)
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (Victor Wooten)
Marcus Miller
Stanley Clarke

(Heavily bass-biased )

Herbie Hancock (Check out Chameleon on the Head Hunters album)
Gil Scott-Heron

And, definitely not fusion, but well worth a listen to...
Lee Morgan
Charles Mingus (Theme from Charlie Brown!)
John Pattituci (more bass bias)

Edit: Hermy - thanks for the link above - looking forward to getting myself a copy!

shatners basoon

The Flecktones are a band i've yet to hear actually, where should i start?

Also i agree that everyone should listen to Lee Morgan (newcomers should start with 'the sidewinder' or 'the gigolo'); damn all those stupidly talented young musicians that were about back in the day.

Ever listen to Medeski, Martin & Wood? Some damn good funk/jazz, their new album with Scofield is particularily good, otherwise try combustification (sp?).
Elsewhere the Tito Lopez Combo are about the funkiest thing going!

Setun

Checked out Tito, he's a damn fine player. Recommend an album?

I'd nearly go as far as saying some of Lee Morgan's best playing was on other people's records (but having said that, the Sidewinder is a classic). Lee Morgan on Blue Train/ most of the Messenger's records = Wow! Firecracker trumpet playing.

shatners basoon

To be honest I've found the albums are pretty hard to get so i'd grab what you can really. All of the combo's stuff is good solid acid jazz that you can't help but strut to if you're listening with headphones.

To be honest i can rarely keep track of who plays on all the records i have though i admit that Morgan's playing on Blue Train and Hard Bop are both exceptional, that being said i don't think i've much Morgan where he's been anything other than great - not fond of digging deep to find albums where my favourite musicians play badly!

Elsewhere I got the new Brad Mehldau Trio album recently enough and i must say its brilliant! Great place to start if one's never heard him plus its about 150 minutes long! Bought the album in the Hague which had the best record store in the world - Called the jazz centre and it was HUGE!!!! Too many albums, too little time and definately too little money!!!

Setun

shatners basoon wrote: »

Elsewhere I got the new Brad Mehldau Trio album recently enough and i must say its brilliant! Great place to start if one's never heard him plus its about 150 minutes long! Bought the album in the Hague which had the best record store in the world - Called the jazz centre and it was HUGE!!!! Too many albums, too little time and definately too little money!!!

I was in that last summer actually, fantastic place.

Who would win in a trumpet fight though, freddie hubbard or lee morgan?

shatners basoon

Thats a pretty damn tough question, actually its a horrible question as there's really nothing between them. Morgan would possibly shade it as Hubbard went a bit crap for a while (relatively anyway) whilst Morgan was fairly consistent and at such a young age too, maybe if he'd lived longer he would have diminished but tragedy is a bitch huh?
Persobally though i feel that Hubbard in his prime (Hubtones especially) displayed possible the finest trumpet playing i've ever heard so i'd have to say i prefer Hubbard's playing.

/off topic though i'd recommend the whole line up
Been pondering over the idea of going to the north sea jazz festival with a mate. Tickets are pretty expensive but the lineup is awesome. Anyone been to one previously? Is it ultra commercial and pretentious?

cavedave

I was in Cuba recently and ended up on the beer with a Cuban pianist. I promised him I would send him some music. I am looking for around seven albums of jazz piano with a world music leaning. Make no assumptions about having heard someone already (Marvin Gaye "whats going on" brought looks of unknowing then of delight). I have four albums i am already sending

1. Christopher O'Riley
2. Jerry Lee Lewis
3. Kila
4 Goldberg variations by Gould
5...10?

Albums with sheet music available would be better. So what jazz piano albums would you recommend?

Hermy

First thing that comes to mind is Keith Jarret - Koln Concert.
There's some great playing from McCoy Tyner on Coltrane's A Love Supreme.
For a World Music leaning try Bheki Mseleku - Timelessness.

Setun

Look for a Jobim record, he's a brazilian pianist who wrote a lot of really nice jazz-samba standards.

Also purchase some Horace Silver maybe? He was influenced by the music of Cape Verde, I think his father was from there.

cavedave

Thanks Daddio and Hermy for the advice. Just to push my luck could you recommend some jazz drummers as well? I'm going for konono no 1 and the bad plus. Who do you like (for a Cuban drummer as well)?

Hermy

Jazz drummers...where do you begin?
Tony Williams
Billy Cobham
Art Blakey
Krupa and Rich
Elvin Jones
Another World Music leaning...Trilok Gurtu
And his Indian compatriot Zakir Hussain

dasdog

cavedave wrote: »

Albums with sheet music available would be better. So what jazz piano albums would you recommend?

Try Lennie Tristano maybe?

dasdog

shatners basoon wrote: »

/off topic though i'd recommend the whole line up
Been pondering over the idea of going to the north sea jazz festival with a mate. Tickets are pretty expensive but the lineup is awesome. Anyone been to one previously? Is it ultra commercial and pretentious?

Missed this yesterday - sorry. I went 12 years ago while living in Holland. Lots of people in nice suits carrying instrument flightcases floating about the place. We actually went down primarily to see George Clinton/Parliament Funkadelic and after much begging and blagging the door staff gave us free tickets (we were pretty poor working on a tulip farm south of Amsterdam planting bulbs for a living!). Not pretentious or overly commercial and from personal experience I would recommend it.

Ellechim

Hi guys

Curious to see that no-one yet has mentioned Count Basie! I would rate him above Ellington (even though Ellington won more grammies). Ellington is more polished, mainstream, Basie somewhat rawer.

Also, Ray Charles started out doing blues numbers - his early albums are really gospel/blues. Well worth exploring. I really struggle to see Glenn Miller as a jazz musician - sorry - but there is nothing improvisational or soulful about his music - and that to me sums up Jazz - Miller was really (sorry to offend anyone with this) the James Last of his era - bringing the orchestra to the populace - however the 'big bands' like those of Basie and Ellington did frequently see Basie & Ellington improvise at the piano and their musicians also improvised - the texture of their singing and playing is so heavily linked to gospel, which Miller's is clearly not......real Jazz focuses on that improvisation - and the joy of seeing/hearing a band play around that and come together is what makes it so exciting for so many.

Porgy & Bess is not jazz & blues! It is one of just two black operas. P&B by the Gerschwin brothers - and if you go see it live or get a recording with Willard White as Porgy you will really see the true P&B. (It's hard to see live as the Gerschwin foundation control rigidly who performs it, it must be performed by a completely black cast). Of course, P&B has given rise to many many jazz numbers - Summertime, it ain't necessarily so, etc however when performed as intended only really 'it ain't necessarily' could class as a popular piece of music. I've been lucky enough to see it live twice - once in the Royal Opera House in covent Garden with Willard White playing Porgy and Maria Ewing playing Bess and then the official Gerschwin foundation tour a few years ago in the helix - standard of performance at the ROH was light years better.

The other black opera is Tremonisha - by Scott Joplin - never performed any more and no 'famous' songs from it unfortunately - but very definitely a classical piece.

By the way, not many people know that many of the famed Jazz musicians played here in the late forties and fifties - Count Basie, the Duke, Ella Fitzgerald, etc. At the time they could not play in the UK as the UK had strict rules after WW2 that only performers with equity cards could play there. My dad saw them all in Dublin theatres - God, can you imagine those people playing here now! If you talk to people in their late sixties/seventies who were music fans you may well find some who saw these greats in person......

Anyway, having been brought up on Basie and Charles I had to throw those two guys into the mix - would be interested to hear other people's opinions. Personally, while a huge jazz fan I would not put on Glen Miller in a month of sundays!

Setun

Ellechim wrote: »

Hi guys

Curious to see that no-one yet has mentioned Count Basie! I would rate him above Ellington (even though Ellington won more grammies). Ellington is more polished, mainstream, Basie somewhat rawer.

Also, Ray Charles started out doing blues numbers - his early albums are really gospel/blues. Well worth exploring. I really struggle to see Glenn Miller as a jazz musician - sorry - but there is nothing improvisational or soulful about his music - and that to me sums up Jazz - Miller was really (sorry to offend anyone with this) the James Last of his era - bringing the orchestra to the populace - however the 'big bands' like those of Basie and Ellington did frequently see Basie & Ellington improvise at the piano and their musicians also improvised - the texture of their singing and playing is so heavily linked to gospel, which Miller's is clearly not......real Jazz focuses on that improvisation - and the joy of seeing/hearing a band play around that and come together is what makes it so exciting for so many.

Porgy & Bess is not jazz & blues! It is one of just two black operas. P&B by the Gerschwin brothers - and if you go see it live or get a recording with Willard White as Porgy you will really see the true P&B. (It's hard to see live as the Gerschwin foundation control rigidly who performs it, it must be performed by a completely black cast). Of course, P&B has given rise to many many jazz numbers - Summertime, it ain't necessarily so, etc however when performed as intended only really 'it ain't necessarily' could class as a popular piece of music. I've been lucky enough to see it live twice - once in the Royal Opera House in covent Garden with Willard White playing Porgy and Maria Ewing playing Bess and then the official Gerschwin foundation tour a few years ago in the helix - standard of performance at the ROH was light years better.

The other black opera is Tremonisha - by Scott Joplin - never performed any more and no 'famous' songs from it unfortunately - but very definitely a classical piece.

By the way, not many people know that many of the famed Jazz musicians played here in the late forties and fifties - Count Basie, the Duke, Ella Fitzgerald, etc. At the time they could not play in the UK as the UK had strict rules after WW2 that only performers with equity cards could play there. My dad saw them all in Dublin theatres - God, can you imagine those people playing here now! If you talk to people in their late sixties/seventies who were music fans you may well find some who saw these greats in person......

Anyway, having been brought up on Basie and Charles I had to throw those two guys into the mix - would be interested to hear other people's opinions. Personally, while a huge jazz fan I would not put on Glen Miller in a month of sundays!

Well the Miles Davis/Gil Evans arrangements of the Porgy and Bess book is, in my opinion, jazz but in that inimitable Evans style: an intermingling of classical, swing, big band, and modal improvisation.

I'd agree with what you say about Glen Miller. His music is very polished, to the point of having written 'solos', and for this reason he doesn't rate as a jazz musician for me. Having said that, he used a lot of swing and jazz ideas in his songwriting, and his band leading and arranging abilities were fantastic. Not a great jazz band, but a fantastic swing band perhaps.

Maybe start a seperate thread if you want to discuss this further though

Ellechim

Sorry, my misreading - I have the Davis version of P&B and it is deffo jazz and a classic.

Curious about the lack of comments on Count Basie - maybe I will start another thread.

Hermy

Hi Ellechim,
Interesting post from you above.
I got to see Progy and Bess in the Helix and really enjoyed it.
I have a Decca recording of the opera featuring Williard White - great stuff altogether.
Regarding Count Basie what would you recommend?

Ellechim

Hermy, it does depends what you're into - there are umpteen collections from different periods - I do like his earlier stuff - any recording from the 30s or 40s. I'm less keen on some of the more polished recordings in the late 60s or 70s.

My favourite ever CBasie track is 'Money is Honey' with Jimmy Rushing on vocals - you will find it on 'The indispensible Count Basie' one of the Jazz Tribune series on RCA - my version is from 1992, not sure if it's still available. its a 2 cd collection from 1947-50. I would also recommend 'The Complete Original American Victor Recordings' on Definitive Records.

His band are still going and touring - at the end of 2006 I think a heap of Ray Charles songs were found and the Count Basie band recorded the backing to them and it was released and is called 'Ray Sings Basie Swings'. It is great fun, although more of a feature of Ray charles than Count Basie.

There are some reasonable clips on Youtube - see if you like this kind of thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUGwqRg0PBQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYiDlOP4q1A&feature=related

Enjoy!

DexterDarkly

These are only some personal likings of my own but everyone should check them out.

Wes Montgomery
Thelonious Monk
Kenny Burrell
Wynton Marsalis
Herbie Hancock
Gerry Mulligan
Dizzy Gillespie
Charlie Parker
Chick Corea
Stanley Jordan
Charles Mingus
Django Reinhardt
Stephane Grappelli

Vunderground

Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives And Sevens
Louis Armstrong plays W.C. Handy


Couldn't live without them!

stevejazzx

Daddio wrote: »

Look for a Jobim record, he's a brazilian pianist who wrote a lot of really nice jazz-samba standards.

Also purchase some Horace Silver maybe? He was influenced by the music of Cape Verde, I think his father was from there.

.

and a guitarist..he was big into villa lobos (a classical guitarist who grew up on the streets of brazil) apparently and you can see this in his songs. His compositions are wonderful, a great musical mind there. Even the cheesy girl from ipanema contains a fantstic bridge (hard to play over that bridge, changes key 4!! times...my favorite song of is how insenstive, theres a metheny version here that'll blow your socks off...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itF1OMeeCuQ

and theres an even better version on one of his dvds

Desmo

Stevejazzx: that is a fantastic song!! It is so melancholy and gentle with most of the melody just alternating sadly between 2 notes at a time. I have also heard a nice version of it on a fairly recent Tommy Halferty CD. That Metheny version is the dogs scrotum alright.

buck65

Got this album on I Tunes yesterday and I would seriously recommend it, not sure if it's Jazz more folky feel, something different but excellent - Erik Friedlander - Block Ice and Propane

http://www.blockiceandpropane.com/

Downbeat review
http://www.blockiceandpropane.com/pdf/downbeat.pdf

buck65

bought Pharoah Sander's Karma the other day
great stuff - certainly reminiscent of Coltrane and Bitches Brew

HalloweenJack

Just got around to this...

I'd recommend Sun Ra, especially Futuristic Sounds and Space Is The Place. Two very different albums but both very good.

Futuristic Sounds is clearly influenced by the kind of classical jazz of the 40's and 50's (it was recorded in 1961) but it also has a bit of Sun Ra's own innovation and expansion of his own jazz sound.

Space Is The Place is totally different. It's a completely new approach to jazz and sounds more like Fela Kuti than old Sun Ra, although some of the songs seem to be development of themes he started on Futuristic Sounds.

buck65

Any chance of an album of the month here?
I guess a weely one would be a waste as there is very little traffic here.

herbieflowers

buck65 wrote: »

bought Pharoah Sander's Karma the other day
great stuff - certainly reminiscent of Coltrane and Bitches Brew

yeah, he played the tripod there not long ago, great player but the band didn't seem too fussed. Oh, and there were plenty of Trane covers!

Setun

buck65 wrote: »

Any chance of an album of the month here?
I guess a weely one would be a waste as there is very little traffic here.

I think that's a good idea, have been thinking about doing it for a while. But what album to start with? /strokes chin

By the way Marcin Wasilewski's new-ish ECM recording is fantastic if you like ambient piano jazz with a bit of drive.

Zumpel

Thanks to all you guys posting in this thread.

Found this session recording one to be very relaxing:
John Coltrane - "Stardust"

Amazing how it works on me when I get in the car after a bad day at work.

anti-venom

buck65 wrote: »

can I ask if anyone can recommend any "smooth jazz" (something for the wee hours that isn't -We have all the time in the world etc)?

Tomasz Stanko from Poland. Velvety. If you want to really fire up your blood after that then try some Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Inner Mounting Flame album especially.

anti-venom

HalloweenJack wrote: »

Just got around to this...

I'd recommend Sun Ra, especially Futuristic Sounds and Space Is The Place. Two very different albums but both very good.

Futuristic Sounds is clearly influenced by the kind of classical jazz of the 40's and 50's (it was recorded in 1961) but it also has a bit of Sun Ra's own innovation and expansion of his own jazz sound.

Space Is The Place is totally different. It's a completely new approach to jazz and sounds more like Fela Kuti than old Sun Ra, although some of the songs seem to be development of themes he started on Futuristic Sounds.

Have you ever listened to Brother Ah? He was with Sun Ra for ages and his music is quite similar. Really interesting take on Jazz imo.

funky penguin

anti-venom wrote: »

Tomasz Stanko from Poland. Velvety. If you want to really fire up your blood after that then try some Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Inner Mounting Flame album especially.

+ 1 on Stanko. Music to get lost in.

I'm also going to add Tord Gustavsen to that.

brosps

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=7sei-eEjy4g

this is good jazz, trust me i am profeser

Rigsby

brosps wrote: »

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=7sei-eEjy4g

this is good jazz, trust me i am profeser

It's good alright................. for MTV or "Top of the Pops".


BTW you dont need to be a "professor" to enjoy jazz.

Tzetze

Caught these guys on 'Later with Jools' a few months back, and they knocked me for six.

The Neil Cowley Trio. Neil describes the sound on his youtube page as 'Jazz, but the dog ate our homework'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9S--20Q9CQ

funky penguin

Yes! I remember watching them!

Couldn't remember the name though! Thanks!

anti-venom

Here's a link to the insanely and phenomenonally talented Hiromi Uehara from Japan. This girl can play some serious piano, you might be impressed with this.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6pgM-NVfWg

Setun

brosps wrote: »

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=7sei-eEjy4g

this is good jazz, trust me i am profeser

Tbh that really belongs in the hip-hop forum.
Read the thread title please.

Now that's a fine record. Listen to Ron Carter's bass line, very slick

Zumpel

in my first post in was looking for
"instrumental bands/anthologies that play a slow, laid back type of sound
for which I don't really have the frame of reference to describe it properly.. "

Collected some under this tag, nice to kick back and relax to:
http://www.last.fm/user/Zumpel/library/tags?tag=schweine+jazz

before anybody asks re the tag : it's how some ol' folks (including my gramps) refer to that kind of sound cause you can smooch so nicely to it in a dark corner in a smokey bar ... i hadnt heard the term jazz ballad yet and it somehow got stuck in my mind

democrates

Thanks all for reccies, the to hear list has expanded.

If anyone's interested in Afro-Cuban/Mambo or generally Latin Jazz then a few I've liked are
Chico O'Farrill & his Orchestra - Manteca, Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite, Castigala, Havana Special
Cal Tjader - Soul Sauce
Luiz Arruda Paez - Upa Neguinho
Donald Byrd - Ghana
Horace Parlan - Congalegre

Noro Morales and his Orchestra - 110th st. and 5th Avenue
Horace Silver - The Cape Verdean Blues

Particularly Moorish/Eastern:
Machito and his Orchestra - Desert Dance
Machito Orch. & Mario Bauza - Gone City, Asia Minor

To a lesser extent but food for the soul nonetheless
Duke Pearson - Sandalia Dela
Cal Tjader - Descarga Cubana
Cal Tjader and Eddie Palmieri - Guajira en Azul
Luiz Henrique - Mas Que Nada

Maybe more latin/folk than jazz but I'd have to commend
Cesaria Evora - Bia d'Lulucha

And mental/bizarre but somehow enduring curiosities (wouldn't shell out for these at the expense of good stuff, got them on experimentally purchased compilations upstairs in tower records)
Harold Ousley - El Exi Henti
Machito Orch. & Flip Phillips - Bucabu, Tanga

Even if they're not all strictly jazz the patterns are interesting.

buck65

Got Jose James The Dreamer recently - really good jazz singer from the states, some great music on there too.
Ordered Drawn Inward by Phil Evans - I think it is jazz/ electric acoustic vibe.

Desmo

Recent purchases:

John Scofield Uberjam (or Ueberjam); bought abroad but you can get on-line.
Wild loud funky electric jazz (or jazz rock or I do not know what it is but it is best album I have heard in 2 years). Excellent rhythm guitar and red hot bass and drums with Scofield playing loud on top.

Louis Stewart I wished on the moon. Bought in Tower in Wicklow St. This is one of his 2 guitar (plus bass and drums) records with Heiner Franz and is from late 90s. Impeccable playing of jazz standards; note perfect bebop.

Louis Stewart and Knut Michalsen Paradoxical Interventions. Bought in Paul Ryans shop in Eustace St. Guitar duets from a few years ago recorded in Norway (very nordic sound; you can feel the fjords;
very accoustic; you can hear heavy breathing throughout, literally). Beautiful guitar playing of mainly standards.

The Jimmy Cake Crown and Spectre (Tower Records Wicklow St.). Weird and wonderful 9 piece band play music that is probably not jazz but I do not know what else it is. They are playing 2 gigs over next few months. Bizarre and hypnotic music with strings and saxes and clarinets and accordions and stuff. Check out their myspace or youtube stuff to get an idea. Play it loud to get full impression (lap top speakers will not do justice).

herbieflowers

Desmo wrote: »

Recent purchases:

John Scofield Uberjam (or Ueberjam); bought abroad but you can get on-line.
Wild loud funky electric jazz (or jazz rock or I do not know what it is but it is best album I have heard in 2 years). Excellent rhythm guitar and red hot bass and drums with Scofield playing loud on top.

Louis Stewart I wished on the moon. Bought in Tower in Wicklow St. This is one of his 2 guitar (plus bass and drums) records with Heiner Franz and is from late 90s. Impeccable playing of jazz standards; note perfect bebop.

Louis Stewart and Knut Michalsen Paradoxical Interventions. Bought in Paul Ryans shop in Eustace St. Guitar duets from a few years ago recorded in Norway (very nordic sound; you can feel the fjords;
very accoustic; you can hear heavy breathing throughout, literally). Beautiful guitar playing of mainly standards.

The Jimmy Cake Crown and Spectre (Tower Records Wicklow St.). Weird and wonderful 9 piece band play music that is probably not jazz but I do not know what else it is. They are playing 2 gigs over next few months. Bizarre and hypnotic music with strings and saxes and clarinets and accordions and stuff. Check out their myspace or youtube stuff to get an idea. Play it loud to get full impression (lap top speakers will not do justice).

ah Uberjam - Funk central! Check out Medeski, Martin and Wood (if you haven't already!), they're definitely worth listening to if youlike your funk.

The only Louis Stewart I have is a record he did with Martin Taylor back in the 80s. Has some phenomenal interply between the two. That Nordic one you mentioned sounds interesting alright.

Recent purchases sounds like a good idea for a thread...