I’m not the biggest jazz fan, but I think I know enough to name the essentials, and to pick (for myself) what really suits my taste. In the case of Brad Mehldau, of course it was because of his Radiohead jazz covers.
But then comes Pat Metheny, jazz-guitar juggernaut. I remember trying a few of his older albums, and have only regarded the first as important. Well, its really more than important: it is an essential jazz record, notable for Jaco Pastorius doing bass duties, and just an awesome fusion of instruments conversing with each other.
Then if you get these two modern jazz masters, well you get, for the not very hardcore jazz fan, modern jazz music that is really no different from what was offered a decade or two before, formula-wise. This is no revolutionary adventure, nothing that goes against the grain of tradition. But then listening to this stuff is akin to travelling with giants.
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Personal note: jazz was music that got me adventurous with my listening habits, not rock. I think I was 6th grade then, when the olden radio station Citylite, the only bastion of radio-friendly jazz then, had become part of this wondrous trek to music my family and/or friends never listened to. That was when Side A was still with a different vocalist, and Boy Katinding was promoting a new record.
This is considering that a year before, my ears were all stuck to Jose Mari Chan’s Constant Change record.
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Oh and cleansing? I need to get out Japanese music and thinking of songs that will sound apt on the ukulele for now. Have been listening to lots of The Magnetic Fields lately, so expect a post about them soon.