JAZZ. A Definitive List.

Porter · « **on:** 30 Jan 2007, 07:26 pm »

This growing list of albums will eventually constitute a definitive jazz collection. This is a work in progress. What you see is a framework for growth. Help me add to it... suggestions, AudioCircle?

NOTE: No compilations. Original albums only. Masterwork box sets an exception.

Al DiMeola

In The Flesh

Albert Ayler

Andrew Hill

Antonio Carlos Jobim

Stone Flower

Art Blakey

Art Pepper

Art Tatum

Barney Kessel

The Poll Winners

Ben Webster

With the Oscar Peterson Trio

Benny Carter

Further Definitions

Bill Evans

Bill Frisell

Billy Strayhorn

Lush Life

Bobby Hutcherson

Happenings

Bud Powell

Cannonball Adderley

Cecil Taylor

Unit Structures

Charles Mingus

Charlie Christian

Charlie Parker

Chet Baker

Chick Corea

Clifford Brown

Coleman Hawkins

Body & Soul

Dave Brubeck

Dave Holland

Dave Koz

Saxophonic

Dexter Gordon

Django Reinhardt

Don Cherry

Don Sleet

All Members

Duke Ellington

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella and Louis

Elvin Jones

Emily Remler

Eric Dolphy

Flip Phillips

Spanish Eyes

Freddie Hubbard

Gerry Mulligan

Grant Green

Hank Mobley

Soul Station

Herb Ellis

Nothing But The Blues

Herbie Hancock

Herbie Mann

Herbie Nichols

Horace Silver

Hubert Laws

Jack McDuff

Down Home Style

Jaco Pastorius

Jim Hall

Jimmy Smith

Joao Gilberto

Getz/Gilberto

Joe Henderson

Joe Pass

John Coltrane

John McLaughlin

John Scofield

Keith Jarrett

Kenny Burrell

Kenny Drew

The Kenny Drew Trio

Kenny Garrett

Lee Morgan

Lester Young

With the Oscar Peterson Trio

Louis Armstrong

Marcus Roberts

Maynard Ferguson

McCoy Tyner

Miles Davis

Milt Jackson

The Modern Jazz Quartet

Nels Cline

Hilly Terrain

Ornette Coleman

Oscar Peterson

Pat Martino

Consciousness

Pat Metheny

Paul Bley

Paul Brown

Up Front

Quincy Jones

Walking in Space

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Ray Brown

Summer Wind: Live At The Loa

Ray Charles

Ronny Jordan

At Last

Roy Haynes

The Roy Haynes Trio

Ryan Kisor

Minor Mutiny

Shelly Manne

Sonny Clark

Cool Struttin'

Sonny Rollins

Stan Getz

Ted Greene

Solo Guitar

Thelonious Monk

Wayne Shorter

Weather Report

Wes Montgomery

Wynton Marsalis

Porter · « **Reply #1 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 07:40 pm »

There we go, much better.

Looking forward to your input, folks!

robert1325 · « **Reply #2 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 07:48 pm »

One of my favorite jazz recordings is :

Ray charles - Milt Jackson

Soul Brothers/Soul Meeting

http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Brothers-Meeting-Ray-Charles/dp/B000002IO0/sr=1-1/qid=1170186472/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-3004845-4163144?ie=UTF8&s=music

Another one that is very good :

Flip philips - spanish eyes
http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Spanish%20Eyes:1921208905

BradJudy · « **Reply #3 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 08:22 pm »

I'm guessing you're not looking for a comprehensive collection across all jazz sub-genres. If you are trying to be comprehensive, where are all the great jazz vocalists? Or swing?

Porter · « **Reply #4 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 08:27 pm »

I was trying to confine the list to post-swing, postwar stuff. I.e., jazz as composition and free art form, rather than as dance hall music. I love swing, but there are two problems... the early stuff was never really intended as a recorded art form, and the quality of surviving recordings is typically not great. Later Basie, Ellington, Kenton, Herman etc do not suffer from this though, and I will include what I can.

The exclusion of vocal jazz artists is not intentional, but does represent a rather slippery slope. You start with Ella and Sarah Vaughan, and eventually end up with Tony Bennett and every other "jazzy" vocalist of the late 20th century.

Specific great recordings are what I'm looking for... I'm not a vocal jazz connoisseur though, so please make suggestions!

PhilNYC · « **Reply #5 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 08:33 pm »

I think this is an impossible task! But here are a couple off the top of my head that I think should be added to your list:

Stan Getz - Captain Marvel
Stan Getz - Bossa Nova
Kenny Burrell - Midnight Blue
Kenny Burrell - 'Round Midnight
Kenny Burrell - Soul Call
Wes Montgomery - Full House
Oscar Peterson - Oscar Peterson Live!
Weather Report - Heavy Weather
Weather Report - Black Market
Weather Report - Sweet Nighter
Weather Report - Mysterious Traveller
Jaco Pastorius - self-titled
Stanley Jordan - Magic Touch
Stanley Clarke - School Days
Michael Brecker - self-titled
Jean-Luc Ponty - Individual Choice

Porter · « **Reply #6 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 08:47 pm »

Thanks Phil... added most of those. Will do more when time permits.

Thanks for your suggestions! I also added a few more Jaco albums I had forgotten about.

kirch · « **Reply #7 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 09:39 pm »

Yikes! What a daunting task! Terrific list thus far.

I'd have to add one to the Miles section: "Seven Steps to Heaven". It really is . . .

Oliver Nelson - "The Blues and the Abstract Truth". Stolen Moments is an all-time classic. Great line up on this one, too -

I'd also add the Chick Corea/Gary Burton CD "Duet".

Good luck!

Kirch

jqp · « **Reply #8 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 09:55 pm »

Herbie Hancock - Dis Is Da Drum

I have Head Hunters - this one is a real fusion experience, and a Grammy Winner to boot! Not responsible for the hair standing up on the back of your neck...

Porter · « **Reply #9 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 10:08 pm »

Cool, added it along with a number of other things. I'll have to check out that album!

jermmd · « **Reply #10 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 11:49 pm »

My single favorite Jazz recording is Count Basie, St. Louis Blues. It is part of a Jazz collection I own called "The Very Best of the Jazz Giants." I'm sure it can be found on a Count Basie CD somewhere. It probably doesn't belong on your list but I thought my very favorite recording from an entire genre should be mentioned.

lcrim · « **Reply #11 on:** 31 Jan 2007, 01:28 am »

Duke Ellington-Three Suites-The Duke and ensemble translate Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker", parts of Grieg's "Peer Gynt" and Duke's collaboration w/ Billy Strayhorn entitled "Suite Thursday." Utterly accessible and a totally realized concept. Great music.

Antonio Carlos Jobim-Stone Flower-I hate the term masterpiece but this is on the level of "Kind of Blue"

Sweet Rain - I'm a big Stan Getz fan, and this is Stan's move into bebop after years of playing samba-my favorite Getz LP (you can find it on CD too) Chick Corea, Grady Tate and the ubiquitous Ron Carter. You can get lost in this one.

Ella And Louis- Fitzgerald and Satchmo Nothing else need be said

chadh · « **Reply #12 on:** 31 Jan 2007, 02:34 am »

What's this definitive list meant to define? Should I be writing in with 30 or 40 of my favorite jazz albums? Or is there some qualification other than being "good"?

Regardless, here are some names that perhaps could have been mentioned: Chick Corea (and w/ Akoustic Band, Elektric Band, Return to Forever), John McLaughlin (and w/ Mahavishnu Orchestra), Kenny Garrett, Marcus Roberts, John Patitucci, McCoy Tyner, Gary Burton, Roy Haynes, Frank Morgan, David Murray, James Carter, Lester Bowie, Joey DiFrancesco, The Bad Plus, Art Ensemble of Chicago etc etc etc

I have no idea how one draws the line.

Chad

Porter · « **Reply #13 on:** 31 Jan 2007, 03:16 am »

Chad,

Sorry to not have been more precise. I'm trying to assemble a list of albums that could be considered "essential" to a comprehensive jazz collection.

I'm not looking for every random album, but instead albums that represent a seminal work or a notable performance of some kind, especially ones that would be of historical significance. The list actually has too much Miles Davis and Coltrane at the moment, but it was just so hard to narrow it down, because both artists evolved so significantly over time, especially Miles.

Hope this helps.

Can you suggest any specific albums that I don't yet have on the list? Or albums that I have on the list that should be removed, or traded for other works by the same artist?

chadh · « **Reply #14 on:** 31 Jan 2007, 04:24 am »

This is hard.

Apart from some really obvious inclusions (Kind of Blue, Giant Steps, Bitches Brew, Birth of the Cool, Time Out, Impressions, Mingus Ah Um, Saxohone Colossus, that kind of thing), it's hard to justify most albums for such a list, simply because albums tend not to mark important events in jazz. So, for a "definitive" list, you end up wanting to include "really good" albums from artists whose work should be celebrated. For example, I couldn't point to a single McCoy Tyner album that I knew to be significant. But it just seems wrong for him not be be represented (except as part of Coltrane's band).

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - this group is an exeption, I think. The band was a training ground for so many great players, I think that MANY of their albums highlight significant moments in jazz. So, I'd include

Art Blakey: "A Night in Tunisia" and "Free For All" as representative of Wayne Shorter's tenure there. They're both wonderful.

"The Quintet at Massey Hall" deserves inclusion, simply for the fact that it's a recording of what is arguably the greatest band imaginable.

There needs to be some Dizzy Gillespie included - but I don't know what.

John McLaughlin deserves to be there. How about "Friday Night in San Francisco", with Al DiMeola and Paco deLucia, The John McLaughlin Trio "Live at Festival Hall", Mahavishnu Orchestra "The Inner Mounting Flame" and "Birds of Fire."

Kenny Garrett may be the most explosive, impassioned sax player since Coltrane (okay, so this is sheer subjectivity. But I won't apologize for loving this guy), and I think he deserves inclusion. "STandard of Language" is certainly a phenomenal album, as is his Coltrane tribute album("Pursuance"), which also features Pat Metheny.

I think some albums take on some kind of importance because of the collaborations that they represent. I agree that the Chick Corea/Gary Burton collaborations are spectacular: "Crystal Silence" was the first one of these. Then there's also "Like Minds", which brought Corea and Burton together with Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes and Dave Holland, and is just awesome. I'd also vote for "The Roy Haynes Trio" (Roy Haynes with John Patitucci and Danillo Perez) for the same reasons.

Marcus Roberts made his first appearance as band leader on "The Truth is Spoken Here". It won a bunch of awards, and rightly so. It was a fabulous album, with loads of good performances. I think he marked himself as a truly stupendous pianist, if anybody had been unsure after his work with Wynton Marsalis. His first completely solo work ("Alone with Three Giants") was even better though.

I think The Bad Plus deserve a mention too, as my feeling is that they are striking out in quite a new direction. "These are the Vistas" was the first album, and so is notable, although many seem to prefer "Suspicious Activity".

Chad

ZLS · « **Reply #15 on:** 31 Jan 2007, 04:35 am »

If nothing else the list is fun to argue about.

1.Bird & Diz on Verve
2. Count Basie trio-For the Second Time on OJC
3. Duke Ellington Orchestra-and his mother called him Bill
4. Johnny Hodges Small Group Sessions on Mosaic (2 Box Sets)
Some of the Albums listed I totally agree with, others I can't stand. I think a fun offshoot would be to list significant events in Jazz

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #16 on:** 31 Jan 2007, 06:13 am »

Good list....here's a few to add :

McCoy Tyner - New York Reunion (Chesky)

Kenny Drew - Kenny Drew Trio (Riverside/OJC)

The L.A.4 - Live At Montreux (Concord)

Jack McDuff - Down Home Style (Blue Note)

Joe Pass - Virtuoso (Pablo)

Herb Ellis - Nothing But The Blues (Verve)

Barney Kessel - The Poll Winners (OJC)

Ray Brown - Summer Wind : Live At The Loa (Concord)

Billy Strayhorn - Lush Life (Blue Note)

Monty Alexander - Triple Treat, Vol.1 (Concord)

Gabor Szabo - The Sorcerer (GRP/Impluse)

Billy Cobham - Spectrum (Atlantic)

Tony Williams - Emergency (Polydor)

RoadTripper · « **Reply #17 on:** 31 Jan 2007, 06:29 am »

A name that should be listed and I didn't see it is Gonzalo Rubalcaba. He is a Cuban, monster pianist.

alan m. kafton · « **Reply #18 on:** 31 Jan 2007, 07:38 am »

Another great Cuban pianist, Chucho Valdes....great facility like Oscar Peterson.

Some great horn players:

Branford Marsalis
Miguel Zenon
Yosvany Terry
Steve Lacy
Art Pepper
Johnny Hodges
Prez
Roscoe Mitchell
Arthur Blythe
Steve Coleman

Whitese · « **Reply #19 on:** 31 Jan 2007, 10:51 am »

Most of my Jazz is modern jazz.

so my essential will be few:

Billy Cobham's Spectrum
STanley Clarke's first self titled LP
Allan Holldsworth's live CD "All Night Wrong"
Bill Bruford's Feels Good To Me
Bill Bruford and Patrick Moraz's "Flags"
Al DiMeola's "In The Flesh"
Andy Summer's pair of CD's covering two masters but I forgot this early who they are...great solo guitar.