More Recommended Listening: On the Jazz Periphery
Maybe not jazz for the "purist," but the following recordings warrant a closer look. There is enough jazz (or jazz influence) that make them worthy of mention!

Jazzmando Simple Selection Criteria:
1.) CD has to be jazz-mandolin relevant. (Must have jazz; must have prominent mandolin)
2.) CD has to be commercially available. (Nothing against out-of-print recordings, but what's the point if you can't find them easily?)

Indicates a "Must Have"

INTO THE CAULDRON | Mike Marshall & Chris Thile
Release Date: May 13, 2003; Genre: Progressive Acoustic
Genius meets genius. No other way to describe it, and the unbelievable result of its "sum being greater than its part"s will leave virtually ever mandolinist recovering from bruises on the jaw from hitting the floor. The rendition of "Scrapple from the Apple" itself is enough to own this CD. If their isn't a Grammy nomination in the hopper on this, their truly is no justice.

BRAND NEW CAN | Anger-Marshall Band
Release Date: Jul 25, 2000: Genre: Progressive Acoustic
Veracity in variety, Marshall's greatest virtue is also his vice. Walk into any record store and you'll have to look in 5 different areas to find his music. Newgrass, jazz, choro, acoustic, he's hard to classify, but his partnership with musician Darol Anger is some of his best stuff. Throw in Derek Jones and Aarron Johnston, and you've got a mandolin environment that rocks.




JAM | Anger-Marshall Band
Release Date: Apr 20, 1999; Genre: Progressive Acoustic
Any album that covers Jimi Hendrix (Purple Haze) and follows with Bach's Sarabande in B Minor leaves no doubt in the extreme diversity of its artist. Aleatoric, tempestuous, yet virtually "danceable," the rhythmic Fab Four take the mandolin out of the folk, into the funk, and beyond...



NOT ALL WHO WANDER ARE LOST | Chris Thile
Release Date: Oct 9, 2001; Genre: Progressive Acoustic
Since the early 90s, you can't even mention the mandolin in a paragraph without some reference to one of it's most current geniuses, Chris Thile. Though the album is lush with experimental textures in Prog-Grass, the single jazz cut Club G.R.O.S.S. offers a tantazing glimpse of Thile's dangerously potent jazz capability



SHIFTING SANDS OF TIME | The Wayfaring Strangers
Release Date: Aug 7, 2001; Genre: Progressive Acoustic, Newgrass, Cerebral Folk
Four measures of jazz comping behind Mountain Music Giant, Ralph Stanley is enough to entice you to hear out the rest of the project. Like nothing you'll hear anywhere else, the merging of folk, bluegrass, fusion, Klez, and straight-ahead jazz by this acoustic ensemble retains the identity of each ingredient, without beating the cake batter into tasteless pulp. Flavorful. Captivating. I want more!

HILLBILLY JAZZ | various artists
Release Date Jan 1, 1978 Genre: Country Blues
Aside from the informal "yipping" and banter (it is "Hillbilly" after all), the playing here is exemplary and stylish. Duke Ellington it ain't, but if you like something that's a cross between early swing and Bluegrass, this might be your taste. Worth it, just to hear the late Vassar Clements.

Also available:

Additional recordings with a Gypsy/Choro twist.