If you think it’s daunting (or, for the snobs, prestigious) to keep up with the ever-expanding world of indie rock then you haven’t yet approached the underground-of-undergrounds that is the jazz music scene. In record sales, availability of live venues, or general promotion/ public awareness, jazz is the superlative radar-dodging musical genre. So where does one begin their exploration? Below (after a severely truncated list of foundation-building albums) are profiles of several musicians that are shaping the current sound of jazz and whose music is well worth finding.

First, to contextualize, the novice should check out the following artists and albums. These are not necessarily the most historically-significant or easy-to-follow records, but they’re some of the best examples of the art form...

1. John Coltrane- “Coltrane’s Sound,” “Crescent,” and “Transition”

2. Wayne Shorter- “Night Dreamer”

3. McCoy Tyner- “The Real McCoy”

4. Clifford Brown and Max Roach- “Study in Brown”

5. the Miles Davis Quintet- “Nefertiti,” “Miles Smiles,” and “The Sorcerer”

6. Charlie Parker- almost anything, but be warned: there are a lot of nearly-inaudible way-lo-fi recordings out there.

7. Charles Tolliver- “The Ringer”

8. Thelonious Monk- everything!

9. Sam Rivers- “Fuchsia Swing Song”

10. Dave Holland- “Conference of the Birds”

11. the Bill Evans Trio- “Sunday at the Village Vanguard”

There. Now check these guys out:

David Binney - An innovative and eclectic alto saxophonist. His music is always melodic, even through screaming harmonies or metrically-dense rhythmic assaults. David is a searcher; exploring electronic and rock-ish elements without ever wandering close to the diluted banality of “fusion.” His music is always evolving, never static, and his technical skill is somewhere between stunning and ferocious.

Vijay Iyer - A piano player who could conceivably dabble in rocket science. Iyer’s compositions are full of mathematical beauty and driving rhythm. This is pure thinking-man’s music that somehow never seems void of passion. He shows that intricacy can coexist with expressivity; discipline with delight; intellect with emotion.

Gonzalo Rubalcaba - A unique and forceful voice with strong roots in the jazz tradition. His music has a delicious urgency that’s matched by his execution. Many songs combine precise melodies with thunder and fire- in a good way. Too many contemporary pianists seem interchangeable, but Rubalcaba commands attention with a sound that inspires many a ‘wow, what is this’-style comment.

Avishai Cohen - A bass player who has stretched the realm of jazz composition and sonority, Cohen brings his Israeli heritage and many other musical forms into the idiom. His songs can frequently invoke cloudy, epic-minded descriptors such as ‘sound-scape’ or ‘tone poem,’ but beneath the serenity is a sincere artist sharing, intimately, the personal ruminations of his quest. His virtuosity, for which he was first celebrated, is an exciting and noteworthy element of music too.

Dave Douglas - ‘Experimental’ falls far short of describing the range of sound that this trumpeter has produced. From his work in the free/ energy music ‘loft scene’ of New York in the late ‘70s through electronica, odd instrumentation, and various permutations of the classic jazz combo, Douglas continues to develop an impressively-swollen style of jazz. It might sound Frankensteinian if attempted by a lesser musician. As a political side-note, he’s one of very few to achieve Grammy-winning/ Barnes & Noble-grade success without ever catering to record label interests or losing sight of ‘the way music should be.’

by Craig Schum