[BeNice]

I'm trying to get into some older music. So much is forgotten today. Everybody I know seems to listen to angsty "I hate my mom/girlfriend/life" modern rock/new metal. Sometimes I just need to put on Booker T. and the MG's or something classic just to keep me in a good mood, but I keep playing the same stuff over and over. I've listened to some old, old stuff like Fats Waller, Scott Joplin, Blind Blake, Blind Boy Fuller, Rev Gary Davis, Django, etc and 50's-60's R&B a little bit... but not much more than Booker or Al Green and Coltrane..and some other stuff. I'm just trying to keep busy with listening to music. Anybody have any suggestions?

 

[donniedarko]

Wes Montgomery
George Benson

 

[Melusine]

The Moody Blues

 

[Stargazer]

If it's jazz you want (in no particular order) :

Thelonious Monk - Underground
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue ; *****es Brew
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
Herbie Hancock - Headhunters
Pat Metheny Group - The Way Up

Kind of Blue it's sort of a calling card for Jazz as a whole so you might as well start from there.

Alternatively, you could try some classical, but in that case i need to know what your musical sensibilities are before i suggest anything. Classical comes in many different genres and styles that are worlds apart from each other and some of them are a little too complex without some formal understanding of the music...

 

[mranonhello]

Try these muscians they all create music related to what you are asking but they are recent muscians.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Troublemakers
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Blue+States
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Xploding+Plastix
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Deceptikon
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Skalpel

 

[Amande]

My classic blues favorites are Janis Joplin, Muddy Waters, BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker

My more current blues favorites are Susan Tedeschi (particularly "Just Won't Burn") and Kelly Joe Phelps.

The Blind Boys of Alabama have an intense southern blues/gospel sound...Their renditions of "I Shall Not Walk Alone" and "Amazing Grace" (set to the tune of "House of the Rising Sun") are just...wow. They teamed up with Ben Harper for last years album "There Will Be A Light" and it continues to astonish me. Love. Massively.

Jazz - Madeleine Peyroux is the only jazz type music that has affected me so far. She is so moody, sultry and slow-burning. Some say she is identical in style to Billie Holiday; perhaps so, can't say for certain as I have yet to truly listen to her stuff. Blues is more my thing.

 

[Maslow]

These are some of my favorite blues artists:

Albert King (had Booker T and the MGs backing him)
Albert Collins
Luther Allison
Otis Rush
Freddie King
Junior Wells w/Buddy Guy
Muddy Waters
Magic Slim
Magic Sam
Hound Dog Taylor
Butterfield Blues Band w/Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Biship

 

[Zephyr]

Blues....let's see. If you want something a little weird, try Captain Beefheart's first album 'Safe As Milk'. Quite bluesy and weird. Then you have the blues-based British invasion bands, a la The Animals and Rolling Stones. The Stones started off very blues influenced, then kind of followed the Beatles into a psychedelic style that they weren't as suited for, then found the way back to their roots with Beggars Banquet. That album through Exile on Main Street is probably their peak; after that they became much less interesting. In fact, with Exile, you have a great album based on American music, like blues, country, rock n roll, even gospel. It's like they threw all regards to commercial senses to the wind and just went for the real, raw, stuff. If you like real blues I'd recommend that first.

With R & B you have Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Otis Redding I guess, and a lot of stuff like that. The site http://www.allmusic.com is good for finding out this kind of stuff....

 

[sadpanda]

I'm trying to get into some older music. So much is forgotten today. Everybody I know seems to listen to angsty "I hate my mom/girlfriend/life" modern rock/new metal. Sometimes I just need to put on Booker T. and the MG's or something classic just to keep me in a good mood, but I keep playing the same stuff over and over. I've listened to some old, old stuff like Fats Waller, Scott Joplin, Blind Blake, Blind Boy Fuller, Rev Gary Davis, Django, etc and 50's-60's R&B a little bit... but not much more than Booker or Al Green and Coltrane..and some other stuff. I'm just trying to keep busy with listening to music. Anybody have any suggestions?

if you want some newer stuff that ISN'T "i hate my mom/girlfriend/life" i have a huge amount of recommendations... try me, i'm like a dictionary

sticking with the jazz theme... you should try out jazzanova, de-phazz and st germain... also, take a look at the ninja tune website (they're a record label)... they have a huge pile of amazing artists, most of which build on classic jazz they're all electronic tho... just a warning heheh... and keep an eye out for things in and around the "acid jazz" genre if you're at all into that... it can be a mixed bag but every now and then i find a massive gem

if you like any of that let me know, i could keep you busy for years but a lot of people don't like it just because it's "electronic" (heaven forbid)