The First Jazz Albums We Owned

[Teasing the Korean]

16 minutes ago, Jason Bivins said:

I hear that, Steve. RTF never clicked for me either.

+1

[DMP]

Right, ‘Ring-a-Ding Ding,’ Sinatra. 
 

[DMP]

And, its coming back to me, Mundell Lowe’s “More TV Action Jazz,” of course. 

[Teasing the Korean]

On 9/5/2022 at 1:44 PM, DMP said:

Right, ‘Ring-a-Ding Ding,’ Sinatra. 
 

His first for Reprise.  Johnny Mandel's arrangements are fantastic!

[Ken Dryden]

I’m not 100% sure, as that was a half century ago. I know Eric Dolphy, either Outward Bound or Last Dste, we’re very early purchases. My father gave me a copy of Duke Ellington Jazz Party.

[mikeweil]

Also not sure, but some of these were among them:

[Big Beat Steve]

Your listing brings up funny reminiscences, Mike ...

As I mentioned in a much older thread, when I got into jazz (through early exposure to jazz on the radio where regular "Swing Souvenirs" et al. broadcasts immediately hit a chord with me and had me hooked), I explored jazz more or less chronologically, and Swing soon became a focus.
But my mother had a couple of jazz records of the "Third Stream" variety that she considered "this is what jazz is all about" (small wonder with that generation where classical music was the beginning and end of about all music worthy of consideration). Most noticeably the MJQ (a couple of the Prestige/Metronome EPs as well as the Fontessa LP on Atlantic) and George Gruntz's early LPs - all of which I initially found exceedingly odd and bewildering by MY jazz yardsticks and certainly not the typical fare that REALLY can get a newbie into "jazz", regardless of whether in its contemporary form (as some of my classmates who were somewhat into jazz rock and/or fusion - which to my disgust THEY considered "the begining and end of all jazz" ) or of the classic and swing variety that had immediately grabbed me.

Reading this thread, I've tried to recall what my first jazz record purchases were (at not quite 15 in the spring of 1975) but except that the RCA twofer of the ODJB recordings (now how's that for chronological exploration? ) must have been among the very, very first ones, all the other early purchases I remember are a blur somewhere happening in my first year and included a twofer of Fats Waller piano rolls, Muggsy Spanier's Ragtime Band, King Oliver, NORK, James P. Johnson, and compilations of the Duke Ellington and Artie Shaw bands.
Obviously I must have done a lot of reading to learn more (Berendt's "Jazz Book" was one eye and ear-opener) because what I do remember is that within the first 2 years of my jazz record buying my purchases (often dictated by sheer availability and affordability to my student's purse, of course ) ranged from Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, the Blind Lemon Jefferson Milestone twofer, the Kent/United blues/R&B anthologies from the Modern/RPM label up to Clarence Gatemouth Brown's "San Antonio Ballbuster", through Django Reinhardt on Vogue, a Luis Russell twofer on CBS, Count Basie OT band airshots reissued on Musidisc (a label that was a godsend for the limited funds of 70s students ), the Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall Concert, Lionel Hampton's 1945 concert, the Earl Hines "The Father Jumps" Bluebird twofer (still one of my all-time desert island discs), Lester Young's Keynote reissues on Mercury, more 30s Duke Ellington a.o ...
During this very early period I one day cautiously took the plunge into modern jazz, starting with Dizzy Gillespie's "In The Beginning" Prestige twofer (again the chronologically logical introductory listening), immediately found it a totally natural continuation of what 40s swing I had been aware of, and the Dexter Gordon Dial sides reissued on Storyville followed not much later, soon to be joined by Clifford Brown's 1953 Paris sessions, two Bird LPs of his Dial masters and airshots, early Sonny Rollins on Prestige, Miles Davis at the 1949 Paris Festival, an LP of Red Norvo on Brunswick and Decca, Lars Gullin's "Danny's Dream", ...

As for the MJQ, within a couple of years I warmed up to them sufficiently to buy my own copy of "Fontessa" (as well as "No Sun In Venice" and "Pyramid"), and when I took over my mother's Third Stream LPs several years ago I realized I had done well buying my own copy of Fontessa because the vinyl of her original Atlantic black label DG pressing in fact was not much better than a "cared for but very much enjoyed" VG.

[mikeweil]

Nice read, Steve. The above were my first LPs bought from pocket money when found in the cutout bins. My introduction to jazz was a bunch of 45s my brother's fiancée had brought home from her job in a record shop, among them  a Metrome EP with the first four MJQ tracks from Prestige, which I did not really understand but were fascinating, so I listened to them again and again. After two or three pop LPs I started buying jazz. that must have been sometime around 1967/68.

Now that I remember .... this Ramsey Lewis Greatest Hits compilation my have been the first buy:

Edited September 12, 2022 by mikeweil

[BillF]

On 03/09/2022 at 4:25 PM, BillF said:

I seem to think we've talked about this before, but anyway the first jazz album I bought - and the year was 1957 - was this 10" LP:

 

Not the first I owned, but the first I was lent and told to listen to at the age of 17 was this:

 

 

[randyhersom]

Big Fun - Miles Davis

From there to Keith Jarrett and Oregon.

 

[Rabshakeh]

6 minutes ago, randyhersom said:

Big Fun - Miles Davis

That's a great first jazz record. The big dubby pound of it.

[Rooster_Ties]

2 hours ago, randyhersom said:

Big Fun - Miles Davis

Holy shit! How’d that happen? 

[Teasing the Korean]

On 9/11/2022 at 10:47 AM, mikeweil said:

Just when I think I've seen every variation on this album.

[randyhersom]

2 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Holy shit! How’d that happen? 

Rolling Stone Review.  Also, a clerk at the record store was also a WRTI DJ and helped my jazz interest along.

[Rooster_Ties]

1 hour ago, randyhersom said:

Rolling Stone Review.  Also, a clerk at the record store was also a WRTI DJ and helped my jazz interest along.

You need this. I bought this exact shirt from this exact seller, and the quality was outstanding — and I can recommend it unconditionally. Excellent quality shirt, and the transfer looks and feels great!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/314003187004

[optatio]

 

Edited November 10, 2022 by optatio

[Pim]

The first jazz cd I bought was Lee Morgan's 'The Sidewinder'. I bought it because he looked.... jazzy and it was practically the only jazz cd that store in my hometown sold. I didn't even knew the guy or what he meant for jazz. I must have been twelve years old or something like that.

My first LP was Johnny Griffin's Introducing..... on Blue Note. A Rainbo pressing with quite some damage but that record still has a special place in my heart

[John Tapscott]

[optatio]

6 hours ago, optatio said:

 

I bought this EP vinyl in 1955 when I read about Charlie Parker's death in the newspaper. I was 16 years old.

[Ken Dryden]

On 9/5/2022 at 12:16 PM, Teasing the Korean said:

+1

Me, too.