I'll definitely check out Art Pepper; and Charlie Hunter, I love Jazz Guitar (especially the ones The P samples). That Medeski, Martin, and Wood sounds cool too. I really don't know much modern Jazz.
Dexter Gordon is awesome, should've mentioned him. And I LOVE Lou Donaldson but his good albums seem to be hard to find. Been on the lookout for Blues Walk and The Natural Soul.
A La Carte said:
Medeski, Martin and Wood are LARGE
^THIS^
over the past 20 years (holy sh!t, am i that old?) i've seen these guys at least 17 or 18 times and got to hang out with them on several occasions. IMO the single best jazz/fusion outfit operating today, hands down... and hella nice guys to boot.
i still rank the first of 2 shows of theirs i saw in Barcelona back in 2004 as one of (if not 'THE") best live shows i've ever seen.
they don't tour as much as they used to, but they should be on all of your 'do not miss' lists. hell, i would go see Billy Martin plays drums by himself for that matter. beyond sick.
here's their tune 'Dracula' from their 2011 Halloween show in NYC that The Missus™ & i attended (and had a f***ing blast- Halloween is her Bday)... backed up by ANTIBALAS (all of 'em)... nothing like a 17 piece rip-yer-face-off fusion group.
don't be scared to check out the Hey-Hee-Hi-Ho video next on that playlist either.
for some reason my other post didn't take (or if it did and i just can't see it, sorry for the double post)
but, speaking of Billy Martin, dude dropped some serious live drums Breaks records several years ago under the title Illy B Eats Vols 1-3 (although it doesn't seem that Vol 3 is listed on Discogs for some reason)
well worth checking out if you're one of those producer types, some seriously sick ass sh!t
they played the huge jazz & blues festival near here back in 2011...
my wife and i are tight with the then-organizers (i think us along with others pressuring them were the main reason MMW were booked!) and for my birthday later that year they gave me a DVD of the 6 cam video footage they used for the jumbo-trons under strict orders to not share or upload it...
so here's the dilemma:
neither of those 2 women work for the Festival anymore, and i know MMW are down with taping/uploading video