Wait.. Come back…
Rather than the crazy world of rock’n pop lists which I skim through with the “like/don’t like/not interested” filter on full, this one has a lot which hit the “must check that out” button. So I’m sharing it.
https://www.jazzwise.com/features/article/the-100-jazz-albums-that-shook-the-world
salwarpe says
Click here
Twang says
Beat you to it.
salwarpe says
I guess. But what beat was it?
Twang says
The down beat, obvs.
Moose the Mooche says
Nice to see Brilliant Corners doing so well.
fentonsteve says
Brian Rix was my fave.
David Kendal says
I’m not sure anybody really had lists of best records before Nick Hornby invented them, but that is great. It’s taken me about forty years to hear the majority of that stuff, and if I was now a 16 year old who’s heard about jazz but didn’t know what what it was about, that would be the perfect introduction.
Tiggerlion says
I agree.
The top half has the usual suspects but the quality is inarguable. Plenty of interest in the bottom half.
deramdaze says
Doesn’t matter what the subject is… it’s always Golden Age at the top.
Funny that, who knew!
Greatest custards ever made:
1. Chipping Sodbury fete, 1966
2. Chipping Sodbury fete, 1965 – the one I prefer
3. Epping Forest Scout Camp, 1958
4. London Welsh R.F.C., 1969 – still disputed by London Scottish
5. Chipping Sodbury fete, 1959
fitterstoke says
6. The one that was poured into Spike Milligna’s sock…
duco01 says
I’m rather disappointed to see that I only own 45 out of those 100 albums.
Oh well.
At this point, one normally says “[insert album name here]” should’ve been higher.
So, here we go.
“The Blanton-Webster Band” (no.14) should’ve been higher (and there should’ve been a lot more Ellington in the hundred!).
mikethep says
39 here. But: no guitar players, eg Grant Green, Barney Kessel, no Charlie Parker (really? did I miss him?), no Chet Baker, no Gerry Mulligan, no Dexter Gordon…that’s lists for you, I suppose.
duco01 says
Charlie Parker is at no.8 !
fitterstoke says
Wes Montgomery at 24;
Django at 87;
McLaughlin at 52;
Metheny at 31, so there are a few guitar players….
…and Gerry Mulligan at 65.
mikethep says
Oops…I’ve had a word with myself.
Harry Tufnell says
I was disappointed not to see any Grant Green, I could understand a top 20 records list without him but 100? Shurely shome mishtake!
duco01 says
Yes, the list definitely needs some Grant Green.
You’re probably wondering “Which are duco01’s favourite Grant Green albums? Can’t he tell us what they are, in a ranking order from 1 to 6?”
No sooner said than done:
1. Matador
2. Feelin’ the Spirit
3. Idle Moments
4. Street of Dreams
5. Green Street
6. Born to be Blue
fitterstoke says
That’s precisely what I was wondering…
Paul Wad says
Wes Montgomery is in there, so that’s one guitar player, with, funnily enough, the last album I listened to today, because the CD arrived this morning.
Mike_H says
Plenty to get one’s teeth into, should one be so inclined. A list I’ll return to.
Haven’t counted up the ones I have/know. Quite a few, but there are gaps to fill.
I was a Jazzwise subscriber for a few years. In the days when I had more money than I have now.
Timbar says
They do cheat a bit with some of the older artists who were pre LP days, using a compilation instead.
It’s the “usual suspects” in there, but if it gets more people discovering, or reacquainting with jazz, that’s great.
Twang says
Just loving the Bill Evans at no. 4 which I hadn’t heard and is stunning. CD to be ordered.
fitterstoke says
It’s superb – I picked up a box of the complete recordings from the weekend residence at the VV – they’re all great!
Tiggerlion says
I told you about Bill Evans in one of the podcasts!!
Moose the Mooche says
Awks!
duco01 says
Twang – if you’re just getting into the live recordings of Bill Evans, you have a wonderful journey ahead of you.
For what it’s worth, these are my fourteen favourite Bill Evans live albums. Dive in – you can’t go wrong.
1. Sunday at the Village Vanguard
2. Waltz for Debby
3. Since we met
4. On a Friday Evening
5. Consecration II
6. At the Montreux Jazz Festival
7. Highlights from “Turn out the Stars”
8. Behind the Dikes
9. The Tokyo Concert
10. The Paris Concert – Edition One
11. Time Remembered
12. On a Monday Evening
13. Montreux III
14. The Paris Concert – Edition Two
Twang says
I’ve got the Paris concert which is great.
Blue Boy says
Yes, it’s magnificent isn’t it? Just incredible playing. Would probably be my number one on the list.
Paul Wad says
Thanks Twang, you know not what you have done! I swore blind yesterday that I wasn’t going to look at any more jazz lists or blogs, because my shelves are full, my hard drive is almost full and, frankly, I really could do with getting on with the list of jobs that have been piling up for ages whilst I add more and more jazz CDs to my shelves and downloads to my iPods!
A quick nose through that list and I count 41 that I don’t have, although I think I have listened to a few of the 41, but wasn’t too bothered. I’m happy to give them another try though. Actually, 2 or 3 of the ones on there that I bought I’m not too bothered about, but they regularly appear on these lists and I love other work of theirs, so I shall persevere, as a certain amount of cloth clearly remains in my ears. As an example, I really enjoy listening to John Coltrane (although I don’t recall seeing my favourite, Blue Train, on the list, but I respect it’s not meant to be the 100 ‘greatest’ jazz albums), but I just cannot get on with Ascension. I guess it’s probably natural for jazz novices like me to struggle most with free jazz. Unit Structures by Cecil Taylor is another one I’m finding it difficult to get into.
But before I came up to bed I marked off a list of jobs that I absolutely must get round to tomorrow (signing and returning the final divorce agreement and finding a handyman to come and finish off the bathroom being top of the list) now that I have finished sorting out the absolutely, positively final batch of music I have imported into iTunes…well, apart from my Lou Donaldson boxed set that’s in the post…and the Three Sounds boxed set that’s coming next week (and that I’m really looking forward to, because I love every one of theirs that I’ve heard). And then, 5 minutes later, I turn on my iPad and there’s another sodding list that I won’t be able to resist going through, because I can never be sure that the best album I am ever going to hear won’t be one of those 41 albums*. Jobs first, list when jobs are done…
*it will have to go some to knock The Man-Machine off it’s perch
Twang says
Sorry Paul!
fentonsteve says
That list reminds me, Courtney Pine became deeply unfashionable for a while. Back In The Day, from 2000, is great.
And he played on Clint Eastwood & General Saint’s fantastic Stop That Train 12″.
Moose the Mooche says
And Fight the Power.
Tiggerlion says
Transition in Tradition: En Hommage a Sidney Bechet is absolutely superb.
Branford Marsalis is the maestro on Fight The Power, though.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Cracking list. I’m encouraged to see how many of those I already have, and that there are a further load where I have at least one album from the same artist, but not the one they have included. In some cases I don’t feel any need to acquire the one they’ve chosen. Jimmy Smith for example; I don’t have the debut LP, but I’ve got at least half a dozen others of his. There is still plenty of well-chosen material in this list to threaten my solvency for months to come!
Junior Wells says
Great list. Especially appreciated the band member lists. Keen to delve into a lot of the European listings.
Junior Wells says
@Pencilsqueezer. What do you think of the list?
pencilsqueezer says
Stating the obvious It’s a list and as with all lists the interest is often what has been excluded rather than what has been included. The ‘top’ albums are predictable but deservedly so I guess. Pretty hard to argue against them. As I’ve said on many occasions I have an aversion to ranking art in any form into ‘best ofs’ as it’s an inherently subjective matter. A matter of personal taste or preference. Objectification of it always strikes me as pointless. Especially as a particular take on any piece of art can change from moment to moment depending upon one’s mood, the set and the setting. However I suppose the stature of any piece of art is best measured by its durability, by time and many of these albums are of undoubted excellence if measured by that yardstick.
I’ve been listening to some of the recordings I haven’t heard before and it’s been and continues to be most enjoyable. That is the true worth of a list. It’s ability to point out the new or unheard/seen/read and that’s always welcome.
I agree about Grant Green btw however as I said above the interest in discussing lists of anything is often what’s been excluded and with a subject as large as Jazz there has been a great deal excluded. That is of course a completely subjective opinion.
Twang says
Very well considered Pencil. I guess to the curious a list of what are generally considered to be important works give you a framework for your own exploration. Coming back to it is helpful too – as a teenager I thought Picasso was a charlatan and obviously landscape painting was good. Having continued to explore art generally you realise sometimes your eye or ear needs time to open out. And some things may be forever beyond you and that’s fine too.
pencilsqueezer says
I guess we all make our own lists either mentally or physically and they are bound to mutate and have things removed or added over time. I’m absolutely certain that the list of my favourite music when I was sixteen is radically different to a list I would make now. I’d prefer to imagine that my taste had evolved and was more mature but maybe it’s just that my perspective has changed. None of us stay the same, all of us have been very different people at different stages of our life. I have a few more people to be before I shuffle off this mortal coil I hope. Some things remain a part of my DNA others I can’t for the life of me understand how I ever enjoyed or at least tryed to enjoy. Set and setting had a part to play in that I confess. I’m younger than that now and where the hell is Alice Coltrane on that list!
Junior Wells says
@pencilsqueezer so what is your approach in traversing the byways of jazz?
pencilsqueezer says
I start at the head end and stop when I get to the bottom.
I’ve mentioned elsewhere that I grew up listening to jazz because of my dear old Dad’s passion for it. So I kind of had a head start. Nowadays I often try to follow a particular musician’s output from soup to nuts or at least as much as possible but I get waylaid and end up disappearing down rabbit holes. I may decide I’m going to spend an afternoon listening to Ralph Towner for instance on ECM or Jackie McLean on Blue Note but invariably I’ll not leave well enough alone and I’ll find myself wandering off in persuit Ornette Coleman because Billy Higgins is wielding the drumsticks on Jackie McLean’s Let Freedom Ring album from 1962 on Blue Note and as Billy Higgins played in Coleman’s free jazz quartet it’s almost inevitable that by the end of the afternoon I’ll end up listening to something I had absolutely no idea at the beginning of the afternoon I’d be even contemplating hearing.
I suppose I attempt to approach it in loosely methodical manner but just like jazz I always end up improvising.
I’m not cut out for reading dots. I prefer turning them into lines and taking them out for a walk.
Junior Wells says
So is that an also appears on function you are using?
pencilsqueezer says
Sometimes and sometimes I know beforehand. A little metadata can be a dangerous thing.
Morrison says
Interesting list with all the great and the good in their rightful places. But surely in a list of 100 albums that “shook the world” to have just the one album led by a woman jazz player is a little strange. And even the one they deign to include – Diana Krall’s “Love Scenes” – they fail to mention that she’s a very fine pianist.
When you look at some of the inclusions – Medeski, Martin and Wood, Steps Ahead plus other jazz fusion bores – and think of artists like Carla Bley, Mary Lou Williams, Alice Coltrane, Marion McPartland, Maria Schneider even Ivy Benson(!) amongst many other fine players who don’t make the cut it does make you wonder about the contributors who compiled the list. Oh I see – all blokes.
Mike_H says
The inclusion of female jazzers in this leader-based poll is hampered, as far as the earlier years are concerned, by the fact that hardly any of them got to record as leaders.
Agree that Carla Bley and Alice Coltrane are notable omissions. Both made significant contributions.Other female players you’ve mentioned are, while top-class musicians, principally notable only for breaking gender stereotypes, not for the progress of the music they’ve produced. That’s IMO of course. And also IMO, some of the males who WERE listed haven’t made such great contributions to the progress of the music either.
I had a count-up last night and discovered that I have 50 of the listed albums. There are some notable albums that have escaped my attention in the past. That gives me scope for some catching-up. Equally there are some that I just don’t fancy hearing and there are also a few amongst those I’ve got that I consider to be purchasing mistakes.
Junior Wells says
@Morrison also included are Cassandra Wilson, Betty Carter, Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday.
Mike_H says
I was referring more to female instrumentalists.
Plenty of notable female singers. More of them than notable males, in fact.
duco01 says
Nice to see the Modern Jazz Quartet’s “Fontessa” holding down the coveted no.25 spot. A fine album, recorded in the mid-fifties, and way before its time. The title track is a particular gem.
Mike_H says
Listening to it right now. Lovely stuff and one to get for sure.
I just wish Milt Jackson’s vibraphone wasn’t quite so high in the mix. John Lewis’s piano seems a bit overwhelmed at times.
Or perhaps it’s just that I’m listening on Spotify, with it’s well-known sound quality limitations.
Twang says
One of my favourite Milt tracks – the playing on the turnarounds is just exquisite.
duco01 says
Favourite Milt Jackson album:
Sunflower (1972).
The one with the ostriches on the cover.
It had the archetypal CTI Records sound.
Nice.
Timbar says
I’ve taken a quick look at the numbers to see if it tells us anything about how/when the world was shaken.
The 3 most popular lead instruments were Sax: 30, Piano: 24 and Mixed (group/orchestral): 19
17 of the saxophone albums were in the 60s, 11 of them 60-64
By decade. Pre 50: 12, 1950s: 23, 1960s: 39, 1970s: 11 1980+: 15
The fifteen years of 1955 to 1969 account for 57 of the albums
(55-59: 18, 60-64: 22, 65-69: 17).
Having a “core repertoire” so firmly date stamped like this, does make it harder for newer albums to shake the world. – I would be interested to see 100 albums post 1980.
Mike_H says
Perhaps we should have an AW Jazzbos 1980+ poll, to see what we can come up with along those lines.
Podicle says
I only have 14, and most are in the lower reaches, betraying my dilettante status with jazz. I do recall, as a teenager, thinking that I had better get some John Coltrane in my collection and buying a double CD called ‘The Major Works of John Coltrane’, which sounded like a good place for a beginner to start. It had two versions of Ascension, plus Om and a couple of other free-form toe tappers. I think it took 20 years before I’d built up the nerve to buy A Love Supreme.
Twang says
I was lucky, the only Coltrane they had in my local shop age 17 was “Live at the Village Vanguard” which I’d still argue is a perfect ‘Trane intro. Bit of everything there.
Junior Wells says
I always think the best intro to Coltrane is Ole. The African influence the driving grooves propelled by 2 bass players is fantastic.
mikethep says
Definitely one of my faves too, but the one I always go back to is Lush Life. The pianoless tracks are fascinating, but the title track is 15 minutes of sheer genius, with Red Garland and Donald Byrd playing their part too. I never cease to be fascinated by the chords of Lush Life.
I’ve been listening to a lot of Coltrane recently, because I’m reading Ben Ratliff’s Coltrane: The Story of a Sound. It’s about the music, but inevitably about the man himself. Highly recommended if you haven’t read it.
Tiggerlion says
Thanks for the book recommendation. I’ll buy that in hard copy.
IMO, the easiest way in to Coltrane is via the first great Miles Davis Quintent 1955-9. Those four Prestige albums (Workin’, Relaxin’, Steamin’, Cookin’), recorded over just two days to fulfil a contract, are extraordinarily comfortable in the ear.
Moose the Mooche says
This
https://www.discogs.com/release/9403323-John-Coltrane-The-Best-Of-John-Coltrane
is one of the best 2-CD intros to any major artist you could wish for. There’s nothing from his time with Miles or his two Prestige albums (or indeed his later skronky stuff) but you do get A Favourite Giant Train Alabama Africa India Supreme…. tremendous.
Junior Wells says
But nothing from Ole. Given the breadth of his music an album purporting to be a Best Of seems , shall we say, ambitious.
Moose the Mooche says
It’s Greatest Hits, really. There’s nothing from Ascension either, not even the one that goes BLAAAAAAAAAAA
Tiggerlion says
Yerbut two My Favorite Things. Olé could have replaced the live one.
What a year he had in 1961! Coltrane Jazz, My Favorite Things, Africa/Brass, Olé plus two Prestige cash in LPs and it was the year he recorded At The Village Vanguard.
Moose the Mooche says
MFT was his Stairway or his Bo Rap. I think he came to hate it. The two versions are very different, illustrating quite nicely how much wilder the JCQ were in a live setting. You can practically hear the steam coming off Elvin’s bonce.
Junior Wells says
speaking of live stuff, this:
https://www.theage.com.au/culture/music/after-56-years-buried-in-a-box-new-version-of-a-masterpiece-appears-20211007-p58y1p.html