Here is a list by David Remnick, via Jason Kottke. It is good, albeit a bit mainstream for my tastes. I’m glad to see he likes Ascension. I would add more late Miles Davis (Live at Fillmore and In a Silent Way, among others), Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz, more Cecil Taylor, the Blakey/Monk album, Solo Monk (my favorite jazz album?), and some Stan Kenton as well. I’m due to cover a reader request for contemporary jazz soon, so I’ll leave the moderns out of it for the time being.
Solo Monk is a fabulous jazz piano album, possible the best.
Personally, I would have found room for Wayne Shorter’s “Schizophrenia”, Herbie Hancock’s … well, anything really, and Cannonball’s “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!”.
Perhaps a longer list would have included some Maynard Ferguson and Joe Zawinul.
It is a good starter list, though. Fats Waller is often overlooked.
How’s he not on there?
Stan Kenton is the first exposure I got to a jazz musician outside of the household names. I love his corny over-excitement.
It is good, albeit a bit mainstream for my tastes
Which jazz player was it who said, “The trouble with Jazz is that if more than nine people like you, you get called ‘mainstream’”?
I agree, I am shocked that Stan Kenton is not on there.
mainstrim-schmainstrim†¦ some names just slipped through the cracks over the years; some albums you had on vinyl, and didn’t bother/had time/forgot/neglected to reacquire on CD, some entries just†¦ how on earth I failed to spot Charlap-07?!
… And God Bless subscription services!!! (Personally – Rhapsody)
The more I listen to jazz, the more I realize that you could spend your whole life listening to nothing but Duke Ellington. The Blanton-Webster Years box set is inexhautible. I like his later stuff a lot: the Latin America suite especially.
Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father” is one of my top albums. It’s perhaps the warmest album I’ve ever heard. Silver’s love really comes through in his playing.
I’m surprised and pleased to see Nina Simone on the list.
Might have liked to see some of Herbie Hancock on there.
No Hancock on the list is inexcusable, especially when he finds room for Wynton Marsalis.
Ornette Coleman’s “Free Jazz” sessions are on the list as part of the box set “Beauty Is a Rare Thing: The Complete Atlantic Recordings†.
I am happy to see Charlie Haden and Hank Jones, “Steal Away† on the list. It is a very good underappreciated album.
No NORKS? None of the Chicago boys or the New York studio players of the 30s or Teagarden (except insofar as they appear with Bix or BG)? No Goodman small groups?
There’s a lot of Louis already: could any be suppressed to make room for his recordings of Waller tunes?
Herbie Hancock, Mwandishi
Herbie Hancock, Empyrean Isles
Herbie Hancock, Maiden Voyage
Herbie Hancock, My Point of View, Speak Like a Child, etc
Ron Carter, various
Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Inner Voyage
Chet Baker, Chet
Keith Jarrett, Standards, Changless, Whisper Not, The Melody at Night With You
Miles Davis ESP
Miles Davis, another dozen cds
Ben Webster?
Oscar Peterson?
Just ONE Bill Evans?
Stanley Turrentine?
A list is just a list…
I second Cannonball, seems that he always gets left out of these lists. Something Else is such a fun album. And in spite of what all the critics say, I think he did an amazing job on Kind of Blue, next best thing to Bird for my taste.
not bad. a little heavy on the polite, a little light on free, but from a particular point of view, a decent shot at least trying to be inclusive of the movers and shakers. a list with ra, ayler and andrew hill shows some hint of depth.
Listening to the Terry Gibbs Dream Band you can tell all the musicians were fired up and having a ball. Similarly with the
Herman Band which just shouts joyfully and makes the best
sound this side of heaven. Monk’s, Monk’s Dream is four guys
joyfully playing with rhythm, play Bright Mississippi and if
this does’nt cheer you up you need to consult a doctor right
away. When I depart this life I am taking The Buck Clayton
album, All the Cats join in, and Stan Getz, Storyville vol 1
& 2. plus any Shorty Rogers album. These are as much a part of
me as my head.
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