Ping: Music Fans (Jazz especially)
 

So a close friend of our family has had the misfortune of her husband being recently diagnosed with Leukemia. We don't know him all that well, as he's not very social. He doesn't like sweets, do my mom's specialty of baking isn't going to be very useful. We DO know that he loves music, and especially jazz music. I'm looking for recommendations for Jazz music that is perhaps a little off the beaten path that this guy may not be familiar with, so we can put together a little care package for him. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Vince, do you know any other details about the guy that might be useful? I can imagine a lot of suggestions that are off the beaten path from "jazz" but I'm not sure which direction to head.

Sadly no. I don't even know what jazz he knows/likes. Anything close should probably be good.

I'd assume he's in his mid-to-late forties, maybe early fifties, based upon his wife. I don't know much more than that.

Yeah... jazz is, as a musical genre, possibly more nuanced than any other. you have people that like "jazz" yet don't consider "smooth jazz" to be anything more than what their cat leaves in the box. Then you have people who love smooth jazz. There is avant-garde, which is the equivalent of musical masturbation (anybody care to hear a 27 minute oboe solo that has no discernible musical pattern?)

Even saying something like "He likes Miles Davis" isn't much help. Does he like Miles' classic bop period or his electric period? They are very different...

Just saying "put some jazz together" is practically asking for trouble.

+1 to what MGB just said.

Medeski, Martin & Wood would fall into the avant-garde/electric jazz categories.

If I were going completely blind I'd pick the Good Night, Good Luck soundtrack and hope he doesn't have it already.

I know. Pretty sure this will end up in the "well, it's the thought that counts" category, so I don't know that it's possible to "miss." So I'm just looking for a sampling of jazz options that has a chance to be something this guy doesn't know.

I guess you'd want to make sure the title of the Good Night and Good Luck CD doesn't feel like it would be taken the wrong way. The music is good.

Dianne Reeves. One of the Bela Fleck CDs with Edgar Meyer on double bass. Ry Cooder's Mambo Sinuendo. Or, here's an idea: Virginia Rodrigues "Nos." She's from Brazil, a protege of Caetano Veloso (sp?) Almost no way he knows about her and almost no way he wouldn't like it.

Pulled her up on YouTube. Very nice.