Favorite jazz albums?

[EricP]

For those of you into jazz, what are your all-time favorite jazz albums?

Here are mine:

1. "Giant Steps" -- John Coltrane
2. "Birth of the Cool" -- Miles Davis
3. "The Shape of Jazz to Come" -- Ornette Coleman
4. "Out to Lunch" -- Eric Dolphy
5. "Mingus Ah Um" -- Charles Mingus
6. "Brilliant Corners" -- Thelonious Monk
7. "Kind of Blue" -- Miles Davis
8. "Moanin'" -- Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
9. "A Love Supreme" -- John Coltrane
10. "Sax Colossus" -- Sonny Rollins

[Virgil]

The reputation of jazz albums seems to be geared to bebop and its aftermath. Just look at the list you have there, Eric. I find my favorite jazz is Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong and their contemporaies, and they didn't put out jazz in album format. So I don't know of great jazz albums they put out, but they certainly put out in what I consider the greatest jazz.

[EricP]

Because I listed my favorite albums and not what I consider the greatest albums of the genre, my bebop bias can be easily seen. That being said, I think that several of the titles on my list could safely be ranked among the best of any time period in jazz. A list of the greatest would obviously include names like Ellington, Basie, Armstrong, and their contemporaries. You are also exactly right about the "jazz album" as a relatively recent phenomenon which arrived after several of the earlier greats.

[Virgil]

Don't get me wrong Eric, I like those very artists you listed too. I happen to think Miles's Kind of Blue is an awesome album. And while I like individual stuff from the bop artists, I can no longer say I truely like bop as a form. I did at one time. Don't forget Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gilespie (sp?) on that list. After listening to bop for a while, it seems very formulaic to me. Everyone takes a turn at a solo and they sort of have this sort of baroque phrasing that tends to get stressed to uncomprehension. But perhaps me not being a musician doesn't allow me to really pick up on the complexity and nuances, I don't know. For me in jazz these days i just want a comprehensable melody with virtuosic playing. (Sorry about my spelling this morning, I'm pressed for time. ;) ) Oh and don't forget Stab Getz too. :)

[crisaor]

* Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
* Miles Davis - Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud
* John Coltrane - Blue Train
* Wes Montgomery - Ultimate
* Astor Piazzolla & Gerry Mulligan - Reunión Cumbre (I consider it to be Jazz with bandoneon)
* Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto - #2: Live At Carnegie Hall

[EricP]

Don't get me wrong Eric, I like those very artists you listed too. I happen to think Miles's Kind of Blue is an awesome album. And while I like individual stuff from the bop artists, I can no longer say I truely like bop as a form. I did at one time. Don't forget Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gilespie (sp?) on that list. After listening to bop for a while, it seems very formulaic to me. Everyone takes a turn at a solo and they sort of have this sort of baroque phrasing that tends to get stressed to uncomprehension. But perhaps me not being a musician doesn't allow me to really pick up on the complexity and nuances, I don't know. For me in jazz these days i just want a comprehensable melody with virtuosic playing. (Sorry about my spelling this morning, I'm pressed for time. ;) ) Oh and don't forget Stab Getz too. :)

Dizzy, Bird, and Getz are all great. :) I'm not a musician, either, but I don't find bop formulaic. As a matter of fact, one of the elements of bop that I most enjoy is the improvisation. When I hear a bop musician covering a jazz standard, I'm always surprised at how original and creative they can be with the familiar source material. What it all comes down to, though, is that good music is good music, regardless of genre and time period. :D

crisaor, nice list! I haven't heard the Astor Piazzolla & Gerry Mulligan album. I'll check it out as soon as I can. Thanks!

[stlukesguild]

Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong and their contemporaies, and they didn't put out jazz in album format.

Virgil, Virgil! What are you saying?! What of Money Jungle, Masterpieces by Ellington, Ellington Uptown, Piano in the Foreground, Piano in the background, First Time!: The Count Meets the Duke, and Ellington at Newport? All stunners. Then you can always select a solid "best of..." collection. And as for Armstrong, check out Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy, The Great Chicago Concert, and the great boxed set: The Hot Fives and Sevens. I do understand where you are coming from. Bebop was packaged for LPs from the start. Of course any of these above albums or any number by Basie and Goodman give evidence that the earlier Jazz innovators were just as capable of producing extended improvisational music... and would have probably produced more of it had the recording technology existed at the time. My personal giants are Ellington, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, followed by everybody else.

The best jazz albums... a top ten? Off the top of my head in no specific order:

Miles Davis-Kind of Blue
Thelonius Monk- Monk's Music
Thelonius Monk- Monk's Dream
Duke Ellington- Live at Newport
Count Basie-Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings
Art Blakey- A Night in Tunisia [Blue Note]
Dizzy Gillespie- Birk's Works (Verve)
Charlie Parker-Confirmation: The Best of the Verve Years by Charlie Parker
Louis Armstrong- Plays W.C. Handy
Miles Davis- 'Round About Midnight (or anything with The Miles Davis Quintet: Relaxin', Cookin', etc...)

[stlukesguild]

Virgil... if you are an Ellington fan you should really get his Columbia LP Materpieces by Ellington, recorded in 1950. I'm listening to it right now. I almost forgot how stunning it is. Starts out with a magnificent 15+ minute version of Mood Indigo scored fresh for his orchestra. It's like a taste of what his band must have sounded like live without out the limitations of 3-4 minute recording time.:thumbs_up :nod: :cool:

[djy78usa]

Where's the love for Latin Jazz? I love all the albums listed above (esp. Kind of Blue), but what about Sergio Mendes (Confetti) and Tito Puente (Dance Mania)? I do have to admit I am somewhat biased, I was raised in southern Florida :)

[EricP]

Where's the love for Latin Jazz? I love all the albums listed above (esp. Kind of Blue), but what about Sergio Mendes (Confetti) and Tito Puente (Dance Mania)? I do have to admit I am somewhat biased, I was raised in southern Florida :)

My personal Latin jazz fave is Poncho Sanchez's "Latin Soul". Great album! :thumbs_up

[Virgil]

Dizzy, Bird, and Getz are all great. :) I'm not a musician, either, but I don't find bop formulaic. As a matter of fact, one of the elements of bop that I most enjoy is the improvisation. When I hear a bop musician covering a jazz standard, I'm always surprised at how original and creative they can be with the familiar source material.
I've always wondered how improvised is improvised. Does the musician just create it on the spot (inspiration and all) or was it roughly laid out in his head and then it's a question of how he executes it? And frankly I'm not overly thrilled by improvisation. True art requires a rational process, thought, and refinement. Pure improvisation in a completely romanticized sense isn't really art but pure chance. Anyway that's not waht I believe happens. I think a musician has in his head mostly what he will attempt to do. By the way there is improvisation in cadenzas in classical music too. What I meant by formulaic is we already know the musician is going to take a theme and then each member of the band will take a turn on a variation. It's sort of like theme and variation form in classical music. But with bop that's all it ever is, theme and variation. I could be wrong. I'm not a musician. But that's how i see it.


Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong and their contemporaies, and they didn't put out jazz in album format.

Virgil, Virgil! What are you saying?! What of Money Jungle, Masterpieces by Ellington, Ellington Uptown, Piano in the Foreground, Piano in the background, First Time!: The Count Meets the Duke, and Ellington at Newport? All stunners. Then you can always select a solid "best of..." collection. And as for Armstrong, check out Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy, The Great Chicago Concert, and the great boxed set: The Hot Fives and Sevens. I do understand where you are coming from. Bebop was packaged for LPs from the start. Of course any of these above albums or any number by Basie and Goodman give evidence that the earlier Jazz innovators were just as capable of producing extended improvisational music... and would have probably produced more of it had the recording technology existed at the time. My personal giants are Ellington, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, followed by everybody else.

But aren't the pre-bop albums mostly compilations or live recordings? I think what Eric meant by an album is where the album itself is a crafted work. That notion of an album started happening in the 1950s I believe.


Virgil... if you are an Ellington fan you should really get his Columbia LP Materpieces by Ellington, recorded in 1950. I'm listening to it right now. I almost forgot how stunning it is. Starts out with a magnificent 15+ minute version of Mood Indigo scored fresh for his orchestra. It's like a taste of what his band must have sounded like live without out the limitations of 3-4 minute recording time.:thumbs_up :nod: :cool:
Thanks. I think I used to have one of those Masterpieces and did love it. I think it was a cassette and have never picked up the CD version. But I'll keep it in mind.

[thelastmelon]

My all time favorite must be Louis Armstrong. Lately I've been listening a lot to African music and grown to like Bembeya Jazz National as well. :thumbs_up

[addictedtobooks]

B .B King greatest hits

[papayahed]

A very snoopy christmas - vince guarldi

[stlukesguild]

But aren't the pre-bop albums mostly compilations or live recordings? I think what Eric meant by an album is where the album itself is a crafted work. That notion of an album started happening in the 1950s I believe.

Virgil... certainly there are numerous compilations... even into the Bop-era. Parker, for example, was never really an album man. But the pre-Bop jazz giants were still active well into the album era and most certainly recorded some solid albums meant to be taken as a unified artistic whole. Ellington especially had any number of fine albums: Masterpieces, Piano in the Foreground, Piano in the Background, Ellington Uptown, Money Jungle, Ellington and Coletrane, First Time! Count Meets the Duke, etc... This doesn't even touch upon his great live albums. Benny Goodman had the famous Carnegie hall Concert. Armstrong had several great live albums as well as Satch Plays Fats, Satchmo Plays King Oliver, and the fabulous Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy. Of course Basie worked well into the LP era and recorded such stunners as Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings and The Atomic Basie and Gillespie, in spite of his links with Bop, continued in the great big-band tradition with his absolutely scorching Birk's Works.

I've always wondered how improvised is improvised. Does the musician just create it on the spot (inspiration and all) or was it roughly laid out in his head and then it's a question of how he executes it? And frankly I'm not overly thrilled by improvisation. True art requires a rational process, thought, and refinement. Pure improvisation in a completely romanticized sense isn't really art but pure chance. Anyway that's not waht I believe happens. I think a musician has in his head mostly what he will attempt to do. By the way there is improvisation in cadenzas in classical music too. What I meant by formulaic is we already know the musician is going to take a theme and then each member of the band will take a turn on a variation. It's sort of like theme and variation form in classical music. But with bop that's all it ever is, theme and variation. I could be wrong. I'm not a musician. But that's how i see it.

You are right in that "improvisation" as an artistic means is somewhat romanticized. From what I know of improvisation in jazz, in most instances the general tune and its orchestration are worked out and mapped out on scores often referred to as "boards". These then spell out the order of solos: trumpet 12 bars, clarinet 12 bars, etc... Big Band era music (and even Big Band performances by Basie, Gillespie, etc...) tend to be more plotted out and rehearsed, while the smaller groups allow for more improvisation as the musicians can read each other better. A soloist can improvise withing the set chord structure... not unlike what was allowable for the baroque musician in concert where the composer would often leave large areas of the score open for such. I imagine such improvisation as being not unlike that of the Asian Chen/Zen painters or the Abstract Expressionists. In both instances there is a great value placed upon the "spontaneous" gestural brushwork... but this brushwork is achieved through years of discipline and numerous trial and error. It is also balanced with very deliberate thought or contemplation of the work in process.
There is a great story about William DeKooning, who was imagined as something of the wild enfant terrible, throwing paint about madly. At some point in his career, a young film-maker sought to make a documentary film of his working process, not unlike that made by Hans Namuth of Jackson Pollack. On the day of the filming DeKooning was working on a large abstract painting which he repeatedly attacked slashing paint... slathering it and scraping it off in a sort of frenzy. After a few hours the film-maker had enough footage and he thanked the artist and went on his way. Some few months later the two ran into each other in Central Park. DeKooning asked how the film was coming, to which the young directed gushed that it was almost complete... just a little more editing to go. The film-maker then asked DeKooning, "How did that painting turn out?" DeKooning was somewhat taken aback, and replied, "That? Oh I threw that away the moment you left." The film-maker was incredulous, "Why?" he asked. DeKooning replied, "You don't really think I paint like that, do you? Do you remember that large green chair in the back of my studio? Well I spend most of my time sitting in that chair and staring at the work. Every now and then I get up and make a mark or two and then return to the chair." The film-maker was puzzled, and asked, "then why did you put on such a show?" DeKooning replied, "because I didn't think anyone wanted to watch a film of me just sitting in a chair.":lol:

[Virgil]

Thanks for all that StLukes. I guess I'm just not aware of those albums. I'll have to look into it. :)

[_Shannon_]

I think for sure my very favorite jazz record is Heart is a Melody by Pharoah Sanders....followed very closely by Mingus' Black Saint and The Sinner Lady

my favorite rainy day record is Bill Evans' Waltz For Debby

my favorite making dinner record is Saxophone Colossus by Sonny Rollins

my favorite eating dinner record is Ellington's Carnegie Hall Concerts...unless it's taco night and then my favorite this record called: The Original Mambo Kings-AN Introduction to Afro-Cubop...which has Machito and his orchestra featured.

My favorite cleaning up from diner record is Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus tied with Cannonball Adderley Quintent- Mercy, Mecy, Mercy (lol! maybe it's something about repetiive names)

[ctalerico]

Some of my favorite (but not necessarily all-time favorite) albums are:

Winelight - Groover Washington, Jr. (Best mellow jazz album of all time!!!)

Tatum Group Masterpieces (Vols 7 & 8) Art Tatum, Ben Webster, Bill Douglas, and Red Callender

A Single Woman - Nina Simone

The Swingin' Miss "D" - Dinah Washington (with Quincy Jones)

Astrud for Lovers - Astrud Gilberto

The Best of Chet Baker Sings

Bill Evans Plays for Lovers

Night Sessions - Chris Botti

Ben Webster For Lovers

[NickAdams]

I'm a miles davis fan and three at random would be Kind of Cool, *****es Brew and On the Corner. 'Round Midnight from the Colombia sessions with John Coltrane is my favorite Jazz number. I dig Herbie Hancock's HeadHunters too.


The reputation of jazz albums seems to be geared to bebop and its aftermath. Just look at the list you have there, Eric. I find my favorite jazz is Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong and their contemporaies, and they didn't put out jazz in album format. So I don't know of great jazz albums they put out, but they certainly put out in what I consider the greatest jazz.

Duke Ellington's Three Suites? I'm not sure if it was made as an album, but I can't get enough of the Nutcracker adaptions.