Recommendations for a dark, noir Jazz album or playlist?
Apologies if this doesn't belong in this community. I'm looking for something reminiscent of 40's detective dramas. You know, the black and white feature films with the gritty detective crawling through the grimy undercity chasing down a serial killer sort of vibe, or maybe the grizzled taxi driver smoking a cigarette waiting out the rain in a New York alleyway kind of vibe. Perhaps a steel worker walking the lonely way home from a long day at the factory type of vibe. Any time I look on Youtube I get tons of hits, most of which I'm certain are AI, and I'm just looking for something real in a sense. Closest I found was a playlist called doomer jazz.
Edit: Hey thanks to everyone for responding! Def gonna check these out the next time it's raining at night
Doom Jazz, as in Bohren & the Club of Gore maybe?
bohren and der club of gore- didn't know what pieces to pick from the artist so I went with the most recent album pushed (patchouli blue). I really really like it! Definitely giving "solving a brutal mystery vibe," the entire album. Quite the moody piece of work, I'm definitely going to check out more of their works.
My first thought was Tom Waits, Ninth and Hennepin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBkg77FT3Do
Or maybe you might like some Black Coffee with Peggy Lee?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_-eA5t_VxBuxcFDre2HS7GCETzEk5BdZ
Love me some Tom Waits, his spoken word pieces are some of my favourites of his works. What's He Building In There is a classic. Have you heard the Glitter and Doom version of 9th & Hennepin? Very cool different take on it.
Hey, thanks for the suggestions!
9th and Hennepin- well that was certainly a song. spoken word with jazz behind it? not terrible, i was passively listening to it though so i didn't pick up all the lyrics. it was... good i guess? I'm not entirely sure how to feel about it to be quite honest. The poetry (or what I picked up from it) fits the theme though, which leaves me starting to question if I even knew what I was looking for when I made this post.
Black Coffee album- fallout vibes like crazy, good album for that but idk if it quite scratches the itch i was looking for. Like, it sort of does but doesn't at the same time, if that makes any sense? Either way I'm definitely keeping this one in my back pocket for when I (inevitably) crave pretending I'm in the fallout universe again.
I have a detective noir themed playlist, instrumentals mixed with jazz standards:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ex76Qkdex9kNDAaFkKBTz
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn56l4bby8WR-zvZYM35ZLtMDqcjfvafK
I think linking that "doomer jazz" playlist would be the best bet, to give others some kind of idea of the sound you are looking for.
This is a total stab in the dark, but for me when I want that "coffee and cigarette in a New York apartment staring out the window at the rain in the early morning" vibe I usually go for Miles Davis' Nefertiti album. Especially the title track might fit your vibe? Or at least my idea of your vibe? I know this is 60s and not 40s but I assume we're not necessarily looking for something of the period?
Here's the playlist, I didn't listen too far into it, but the first song of the first video is precisely the genre of vibe I'm looking for. Thanks for linking the playlist, that's exactly the vibe I'm looking for!
Glad I could be of service!
Mingus, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.
Not jazz per se, but Japanese singer hyde’s new album Jekyll kind of has that vibe. I have a coworker who listen to jazz and I put the album on, she said it has a cool vibe but obviously couldn’t understand all the lyrics.
https://album.link/i/1881538105
Definitely different. Worth checking out if you like thinking outside the box.
If it’s not the right vibe, let me know. That’s how I describe this album to others. I don’t love it, but it’s certainly a conversation piece.
I'm not against Japanese jazz. Every single one of the followup links on that page require me to sign up for. From the 30ish seconds of a few songs that Tidal let me listen to, it sounds more like a groovy version of the noir jazz I'm looking for, but then again it's hard to tell with only 30 seconds of 4 minute songs.
Sorry about the link, I use Apple Music but I know most people don't use that. I have an alternative app (Marvis Pro) that shares via song.link. It basically tries to find the album on other services. I was surprised Spotify wasn't included, but I have no control over that. Still, I think song.link is better than music.apple.com, for sharing on public forums.
Anyway, it was worth a shot. I don't really know jazz. Aside from my coworker, my father was a fan.
I never would have thought Japanese jazz was a thing. hyde (typically stylised in lowercase) is a Japanese rock star; he previously fronted Japanese rock band L'arc
enCiel, and he's done some pretty heavy hard rock solo. So when I heard about his new album, I was very surprised to find it was this jazz sounding stuff. Still listened to the whole thing. His song Red Swan, that he did with Yoshiki, that was used in Attack on Titan... I will listen to that every single time YouTube recommends it. That is art. But I would not recommend it to you in the context of this thread.