✨ Put 5 songs you listen to, post it, then send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers
Going to use this as an opportunity to shill some jazz fusion for fans of different genres
Blue Sky - Quail What if you made a pop song, played it with a big band/rock band hybrid, and filled it with jazz solos. This band is tragically underrated, they're like a tighter version of Sammy Rae & The Friends imo.
What's Going On? - J-Music Ensemble Jazz cover of a track from Persona 5 with all the acid jazz and funk leanings of the original, executed by the legendary Patrick Bartley himself on sax, complete with two separate solo-trading battles and finishing with an insane percussion solo. My favourite song of all time if I had to pick. If you like VGM or funk, you'll love this.
Strasbourg/St. Denis - Roy Hargrove One of the most legendary jazz performances of all time. If you're looking for 'classic' jazz to get into, this is the piece and, more specifically, the performance that got me into jazz (It had to be split into two parts to avoid the youtube censor gods)
Lingus - Snarky Puppy Do you like rock? Do you like funk? Do you like songs that sound like they could be in a really groovy but slightly sinister Mario or Sonic level? Do you like pieces of music that are so good they got a standing ovation in the middle of the song? Do you like synth solos so good that multiple famous pianists said it made them feel sufficiently inadequate as to want to quit entirely? Well, you should. Also featuring the legendary Larnell Lewis (my current pick for best drummer in the world, any genre), who had never heard this song until the plane over to the recording studio; this was recorded the next day.
Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 - Hiromi I wanted to showcase one of a whole subgenre of jazz interpretations of classical music, and while there are other individual pieces which stand out to me more, there are few performers with such incredible talent and virtuosity as Hiromi. While she does have a number of classical-inspired pieces, that's far from her one-trick, and her original work and in particular her Tiny Desk are well worth checking out (the first Tiny Desk song is so incredibly funky!). If you like this, please also check out Regina Carter, she is simply incredible.
There are literally dozens more I could mention, big and small: Chick Corea, Mulatu Astatke, Miles Davis, Avishai Cohen, Alfa Mist, Midorinomaru, Jacob Mann Big Band, Matthieu Fiset, Jesus Molina, Shubh Saran (massively recommend him if you like metal actually), the Mark Giuliana Jazz Quartet, Washington State University Big Band (also horrifically underrated, they've done some excellent versions of standards and some wonderful originals!), House of Waters, okay I could be here all day
that was a lot more than 5 songs and I know people are not likely to read this, let alone listen to those recommendations, but I had fun compiling and writing this, and that's what it's all about. Please anyone let me know if you listen to any of these!
