Our Favorite Jazz Instruments

[twich54]

Curious........ there seems to be a fair number of "Jazz-o-philes" on this board, so I'm wondering what are your three favorite "Instruments of Jazz" ??

I'll lead off with mine.....

Piano
Sax
Drums

 

[Satch]

What about acoustic bass from somebody like Ray Brown...

 

[Bernard]

Voice (female)
Sax
Piano

 

[risabet]

Only three huh?

Sax (of any range)
Trombone
Piano

but I love them all

 

[amey01]

Flute
Piano
Double bass

hard to stop there......two extras

Violin
Voice (female)

[EDIT] - two more I can't ignore...

Drums
Cello

 

[amey01]

Come to think of it - a sextet with those instruments I just listed would sound insane bloody amazing.......

 

[twich54]

Flute
Piano
Double bass

So amey, with those being your three favorite....again I'm curious, what trio of musicians do they represent ??

 

[Audioseduction]

Mine are: alto saxaphone, piano, string bass, trumpet and drums.

 

[Robin]

Jazz Instruments of Pleasure...

I love in oder of perferance ~ Vocals (Male and Female), Guitars (Lead/Rythm/Bass), Piano and Vibes... :music:

 

[SundayNiagara]

Vibes
Female voice, Ella - Joni - Judy + Annie Haslim & many others
Sax - The late Paul Desmond

 

[taylode]

For me they must be acoustic with my preference being trumpet, piano, sax, base, drums. Good jazz requires no vocals.

 

[risabet]

For me they must be acoustic with my preference being trumpet, piano, sax, base, drums. Good jazz requires no vocals.

But vocals don't make it bad jazz, do they?

 

[Bernard]

But vocals don't make it bad jazz, do they?

They make it badder jazz

 

[taylode]

But vocals don't make it bad jazz, do they?

Of course not, I love vocals, but I have to say my favorites are ones without any vocals.

 

[slowGEEZR]

Trumpet
Sax
Piano
Clarinet
Trombone
Drums
Bass

Sorry, couldn't list just three.

 

[risabet]

Of course not, I love vocals, but I have to say my favorites are ones without any vocals.

On that note, my favorite vocal jazz artist is Ella ( Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie; Mack the Knife: Ella in Berlin; and any of the songbook series Gershwin , Porter, etc.) with Sarah Vaughan and Mary Stallings in hot pursuit. On the male side Jimmy Rushing is great and so is Mel Torme.

 

[amey01]

So amey, with those being your three favorite....again I'm curious, what trio of musicians do they represent ??

I WISH it did represent a trio!! Unfortunately I am not aware. James Morrison and Don Burrows (Australian Jazz musicians) pick up the flute from time to time (and of course, I love it), but I am not aware of any trio. (or for that matter, sextet (including violin, female voice and drums)!

So that is from where flute comes. Piano comes from Jessica Williams (among others) and bass from Ray Brown (you should hear the "Super Bass" album with Christian McBride and John Clayton)!

James Morrison is as much an arranger as a player and has put together some amazing combinations over the years, so I really like the more "unusual" jazz instruments such as flute, violin, cello, etc. Oh - and the digital trumpet is another one that sounds out of this world, but I've never heard it on a recording. Not sure if I'd want to.

 

[jk319]

Flute
Piano
Double bass

hard to stop there......two extras

Violin
Voice (female)

[EDIT] - two more I can't ignore...

Drums
Cello

I don't know of a trio, let alone sextet, for you amey. However, I would look towards flutist James Newton as he played with all kinds of ensembles. The problem is that some of his recordings can be very tough to find.

The only cello stuff I've really ever seen was by Ray Brown. I'd imagine with some digging around you might find him playing cello with Ellla, since they were married for a while.

Violin? I still remember the day Stefan Grappelli died, sad to lose such a charasmatic musician. The old Hot Club stuff has really awful SQ, but he does have a much more recent 85th bday concert at Carnegie Hall, with the Rosenberg Trio as the opening act. The Rosenberg brothers were cloned from Django, no doubt about it, freaking shred-mongers. Anyways, Grappelli first learned to play violin in a movie theater!

For male vocalists, Im a little surprised Kurt Elling has not been mentioned. I don't know of any peers.

My favorite insturments? hmrz... today I would say...
Piano
Sax (all of them)
Bass

my favorite jazz musician of all time, period, is Charles Mingus. If only because he is the most contrapuntal jazz musician that I know of. Favorite sax player is tougher, Id probably say Michael Brecker, who I was fortunate to see during a Coltrane tribute with Han****, Patatucci, Hargrove, Blade (one of my favorite drummers) before his unexpected and sad death. He's just ridiculous. Pianist? hmmmrrzz maybe the Duke.

p.s. funny that Herbie Han****'s name is censored...

 

[twich54]

Interesting replys, keep them coming !

FWIW, I find it interesting that no one, except me, has listed drums/percussion in their top three ! Is it because Jazz tends to 'showcase' so many other instruments with drums being the 'background fill' keeping time and tempo ?

 

[Dreamer]

Saxophone (Parker, Watanabe, Barbieri)

Trumpet (Armstrong, Gillespie, Clifford Brown)

Double Bass (Mingus)

with female vocals bringing up a close fourth... (Rickie Lee Jones, Krall, Etta James, Nina Simone, Diana Washington)

--Richard