^^You, sir, are amazing. I took a listen to all four of your suggestions, and "Sing, Sing, Sing!" and "Jumpin' at the Woodside" are pretty much what I'm looking for! Please, feel free to name more musicians that play masterpieces like those. No need to put videos, I'll look them up myself.

Side question: Wasn't "Sing, Sing, Sing!" used in some TV commercial a few years back? I know it from somewhere, but I can't put my finger on it.

Some others you may like are Artie Shaw, Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Harry James, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey & Woody Herman.

I would suggest going to your local Library and see if they have the Ken Burns documentary "Jazz".

I will take note of these artists. I don't have the time to look them up at the moment, but I will in the very near future. Thank you again.

Help a guy out?
 

Because I really need it.

I like jazz. It's a nice, artistic, sensitive genre, and the instrumentation is great to get into(I'm a drummer mainly, and playing jazz is a thing I do for fun).

So, I decided to poll you who lurk in this part of the forum. Can you recommend me any good jazz? Anything a little more modern would be great, but I'm willing to take anything. Thanks.

Modern jazz for a drummer...let see....

Yup, this will make you throw your drumsticks in the closet for a couple weeks:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nVLGgp_W3T...0/scan-8oo.jpg

does anyone know any good contemporary jazz tunes which are purely instrumental...but with mainly piano in them...?

As a drummer you would probably like Tony Williams ~ Lifetime or any of the John Coltrane albums with Elvin Jones. also saxophonist Joshua Redman has an album called Compass that has tunes that have two drummers.

YouTube - Turnabout Jazz Soul - Track 8 - Godot - The Fragrance of Dark Coffee

^Can anyone help me find pieces like this? It helps a lot when going to sleep.

YouTube - BBC Big Band Orchestra- Sing, Sing, Sing

^Also looking for stuff like this.

I would recommend Dexter Gordon if you like the saxophone. There's a compilation called "Ballads" that's very good. allmusic ((( Ballads > Overview )))

some more mingus...

been lovin mingus ah um and the black saint.