100 INESSENTIAL, but rather enjoyable, Jazz Albums

[Hot Ptah]

The Magnificent Goldberg, with his great list of 100 Inessential Soul Jazz albums, inspired me to create a list of 100 jazz albums, which are inessential, do not appear on lists of the Greatest Of All Time, but are merely enjoyable to listen to. (In my opinion, of course)

Muhal Richard Abrams--Blues Forever

--Afrisong

Cannonball Adderley--Nippon Soul

George Adams--Paradise Space Shuttle

--Sound Suggestions

Henry "Red" Allen--1929-36 (Robert Parker Series)

Louis Armstrong--Swing That Music (1936-38, MCA)

Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt--Jug and Sonny

Rabih Abou-Khalil--Blue Camel

Count Basie--Chairman of the Board

Chu Berry--Chu

The Jaki Byard Experience

Art Blakey--The Big Beat

Carla Bley--European Tour '77

Anthony Braxton--Creative Orchestra Music 1976

Dave Brubeck--Brubeck Plays Brubeck (solo piano)

Don Byron--No Vibe Zone

Sidney Bechet-- Volume 2 (Blue Note LP)

Steve Bernstein with Sam Rivers--Diaspora Blues

Kenny Barron--Maybeck album

Mario Bauza--944 Columbus

Lester Bowie--The Fire This Time

Brother Ah--Sound Awareness

Donald Byrd--Free Flight

Dave Burrell--Windward Passages

Sonny Clark--Sonny's Crib

Avishai Cohen--Adama

Benny Carter--A Gentleman and His Music

Roy Campbell--New Kingdom

Uri Caine--Toys

Betty Carter--Now It's My Turn

Paul Desmond--Pure Desmond

Richard Davis--Philosophy of the Spiritual

Jack DeJohnette--Tin Can Alley

Gil Evans--Individualism of

Duke Ellington--Jazz Party

--New Orleans Suite

--70th Birthday Concert

--Historically Speaking

Booker Ervin--The Space Book

Johnny Frigo--Live at the 1997 Floating Jazz Festival

Chico Freeman--Spirit Sensitive

Tommy Flanagan--Jazz Poet

Ella and Louis (all 3 volumes)

Ricky Ford--Flying Colors

Dexter Gordon--Stable Mable

Johnny Griffin--Return of the Griffin

Dizzy Gillespie and Machito--Afro Cuban Jazz Moods

Stan Getz--Anniversary

Benny Goodman--On The Air (1937-38)

Charlie Haden--Closeness

--The Golden Number

Lionel Hampton--My Man

John Hicks--Inc.1

Heath Brothers--Live at the Public Theater

Coleman Hawkins--Meets the Big Sax Section

--Rainbow Mist

Abdullah Ibrahim--Ekaya

--Ode to Duke Ellington

James P. Johnson--Original 1942-45

Eddie Jefferson--The Main Man

Keith Jarrett--La Scala

Elvin Jones--The Ultimate

Barney Kessel--Easy Like

Lee Konitz with Warne Marsh

Rahsaan Roland Kirk--Bright Moments

The Leaders--Mudfoot

Yusef Lateef--Eastern Sounds

--The Three Faces of

--Cry!/Tender

Ronnie Matthews--Roots, Branches and Dances

Pat Metheny--80/81

Charles Mingus--Tijuana Moods

Modern Jazz Quartet-- The Last Concert

Thelonious Monk--5 By Monk By 5

Jay McShann--Kansas City Hustle

Bheki Mseleku--Celebration

David Murray--Holy Siege on Intrigue

Phineas Newborn--The Great Jazz Piano of

James Newton--Paseo Del Mar

Eddie Palmieri--Palmas

Duke Pearson--Wahoo

William Parker--O'Neal's Porch

Joe Pass--Portraits of Duke Ellington

Art Pepper--Today

Sam Rivers--Waves

Sonny Rollins--Alfie

Archie Shepp and Horace Parlan--Goin' Home

Zoot Sims--Hawthorne Nights

Eddie South--In Paris 1929 and 1937

Jess Stacy--Stacy Still Swings

Sun Ra--Cosmos

--Unity

--St. Louis Blues

Skatalites--High Bop Ska

Clark Terry--Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival (Arrangements by Ernie Wilkins)

Henry Threadgill--Just the Facts and Pass the Bucket

--Too Much Sugar For a Dime

Lucky Thompson--Lucky Strikes

Art Tatum and Ben Webster

Cecil Taylor--Silent Tongues

McCoy Tyner--Trident

--Supertrios

Lew Tabackin--Rites of Pan

Cal Tjader--Soul Sauce

Sarah Vaughan--Live at Mister Kelly's

Dinah Washington--The Jazz Sides

Randy Weston--Tanjah

Fats Waller--Turn on the Heat

Kenny Wheeler--Gnu High

James Williams--Magical Trio 1

Teddy Wilson--Solo Piano: Keystone Transcriptions 1939-40

Phil Woods--Musique du Bois

Mary Lou Williams--Free Spirits

Lester Young Trio

Edited June 14, 2008 by Hot Ptah

[RDK]

I've come to believe that one's "inessential" lists are far more revealing and useful than the more typical "essentials."

That said, there are a couple on your list that I would deem "essential."

[Hot Ptah]

I've come to believe that one's "inessential" lists are far more revealing and useful than the more typical "essentials."

That said, there are a couple on your list that I would deem "essential."

Can't win 'em all!

[GA Russell]

HP, thanks for that effort!

I'm surprised you listed Charles Mingus - Tijuana Moods. I gather that a great many critics consider it to be his best album.

5xMonkx5 was my second Monk album. I've always loved it. I think that it is a lot more popular than the others on your list.

Now Soul Sauce is an example of what I think of as inessential recording but a great album nonetheless!

[WorldB3]

I would say these three deserve to be on the essentials list.

Kenny Wheeler--Gnu High

Charles Mingus--Tijuana Moods

Yusef Lateef--Eastern Sounds

Argument could be made for these as well.

Booker Ervin--The Space Book

Lee Konitz with Warne Marsh

Rahsaan Roland Kirk--Bright Moments

Pat Metheny--80/81

William Parker--O'Neal's Porch

The rest I agree or haven't heard.

[Peter Friedman]

Along with the Mingus already mentioned, I would put the Art Tatum/Ben Webster on the list of essential recordings.

[Quincy]

HP, thanks for that effort!

I'm surprised you listed Charles Mingus - Tijuana Moods. I gather that a great many critics consider it to be his best album.

I think Mingus Ah Um and The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady are usually mentioned 1st, though Tijuana Moods certainly makes some lists. The recent & annoying series "1001 _____ You Must ____ Before You Die" picked Black Saint.

Mingus is a funny one as far as the greats go & lack of agreement amongst the list makers, as along with Tijuana Moods there are 4 or 5 other albums not mentioned that'll pop up (though usually with Ah Um or Black Saint.) But what the heck, the guy did put out a lot of (understatement) high quality albums!

Thanks for the fun list. I'm adding Rainbow Mist to my hunting list along with some others to keep an eye out for.

Edited June 14, 2008 by Quincy

[papsrus]

That's a great list HP. Nice broad selection of stuff. As someone else stated, I'd bet a list like this would provide a wider sampling of music than many essential lists would.

[7/4]

For me, Creative Orchestra Music 1976 is an essential big band album.

But hey...that's just me.

[AndrewHill]

Nice list HP! A lot of stuff on there has caught my interest and I would like to check out.

Personal favorite: "Dave Brubeck--Brubeck Plays Brubeck (solo piano)"

Sonny's Crib though, I think, is an essential Clark date.

[Hot Ptah]

Thanks for the encouraging words. It is difficult to draw the line on essential and non-essential. I left off Oliver Nelson's "Blues and the Abstract Truth", all of Billie Holiday, all of Bessie Smith, and several Miles, Coltrane, Duke, Basie, Mingus, Clifford Brown, and Monk albums, because they were too "essential".

Edited June 14, 2008 by Hot Ptah

[A Lark Ascending]

I've come to believe that one's "inessential" lists are far more revealing and useful than the more typical "essentials."

That said, there are a couple on your list that I would deem "essential."

I agree. It's the byways of a person's interest that create a sense of their personality. And if you should find yourself straying in that direction it becomes a goldmine of information.

I always struggle with the idea of 'essential' as it suggests that there is some norm, some canon that everyone must have experienced. Most people would have 'Kind of Blue' in the essential list; yet I suspect someone interested more in blow-torch jazz could go through life without hearing it and be none the worse.

[jostber]

This would be essential if it was anywhere near available :

To me are these also pretty essential:

Art Tatum and Ben Webster

Cecil Taylor - Silent Tongues

[Big Beat Steve]

I always struggle with the idea of 'essential' as it suggests that there is some norm, some canon that everyone must have experienced. Most people would have 'Kind of Blue' in the essential list; yet I suspect someone interested more in blow-torch jazz could go through life without hearing it and be none the worse.

:tup :tup

As you say ... the byways off the trodden paths of "mainstream taste" provide the most enjoyable listening to us INDIVIDUALS.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I agree absolutely with everyone who's said that the material away from the "acknowledged masters" is both revealing and interesting in its own right.

I was surprised to see I have as many as 8 of those albums (plus probably quite a lot of the material on the Red Allen in a different form and maybe also some of the historical Ellington (I don't know what that album covers)).

Equally surprised to see that there are only two that I used to have and got rid of because I didn't enjoy them.

And REALLY surprised to see "Hi bop Ska" there I love that album, though I love "Greetings from Skamania" even more.

NG

[Hot Ptah]

This would be essential if it was anywhere near available :

To me are these also pretty essential:

Art Tatum and Ben Webster

Cecil Taylor - Silent Tongues

I agree with all of those as quite possibly "essential". To me, Unity is one of the few totally successful Sun Ra recordings. It is a shame that it is not available.

[Hot Ptah]

I agree absolutely with everyone who's said that the material away from the "acknowledged masters" is both revealing and interesting in its own right.

I was surprised to see I have as many as 8 of those albums (plus probably quite a lot of the material on the Red Allen in a different form and maybe also some of the historical Ellington (I don't know what that album covers)).

Equally surprised to see that there are only two that I used to have and got rid of because I didn't enjoy them.

And REALLY surprised to see "Hi bop Ska" there I love that album, though I love "Greetings from Skamania" even more.

NG

MG, I tried to steer away from anything resembling Soul Jazz, since you covered it so well. The jazz artists play so well with the Skatalites on High Bop Ska--so often those collaborations are an uneasy oil and water mix--not the case with High Bop Ska.

[RDK]

I would say these three deserve to be on the essentials list.

Kenny Wheeler--Gnu High

Charles Mingus--Tijuana Moods

Yusef Lateef--Eastern Sounds

Argument could be made for these as well.

Booker Ervin--The Space Book

Lee Konitz with Warne Marsh

Rahsaan Roland Kirk--Bright Moments

Pat Metheny--80/81

William Parker--O'Neal's Porch

The rest I agree or haven't heard.

Once again proving the power of subjectivity, while I often like Parker, I never really found the appeal of O'Neil's Porch

Edited June 14, 2008 by RDK

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

And REALLY surprised to see "Hi bop Ska" there I love that album, though I love "Greetings from Skamania" even more.

NG

The jazz artists play so well with the Skatalites on High Bop Ska--so often those collaborations are an uneasy oil and water mix--not the case with High Bop Ska.

Really they do! They seem so much an integral part of the band that, until you mentioned it just now, I'd forgotten that David Murray, Lester Bowie, Steve Turre and Monty Alexander were on this. None of those guys are exactly central to my jazz appreciation, of course, so I don't hear them in the way I would if, say, Hank Crawford were in the band. But they do fit in so well!

MG

[Hot Ptah]

Another album like that is bluesman Johnny Copeland's "Copeland Special", where Byard Lancaster, George Adams and Hamiet Bluiett fit in really well into the blues music, playing their uncompromised solos but working as seamless parts of the blues band too.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Another album like that is bluesman Johnny Copeland's "Copeland Special", where Byard Lancaster, George Adams and Hamiet Bluiett fit in really well into the blues music, playing their uncompromised solos but working as seamless parts of the blues band too.

Wow! I've got three tracks from that LP on a Copeland sampler, but never looked at the personnel until just now. Yeah, you can't tell.

MG

[Hot Ptah]

Another album like that is bluesman Johnny Copeland's "Copeland Special", where Byard Lancaster, George Adams and Hamiet Bluiett fit in really well into the blues music, playing their uncompromised solos but working as seamless parts of the blues band too.

Wow! I've got three tracks from that LP on a Copeland sampler, but never looked at the personnel until just now. Yeah, you can't tell.

MG

Does your Copeland sampler include "St. Louis Blues" (excellent George Adams work) and the rousing "Claim Jumper"?

"Copeland Special" is an album which REALLY needs to be reissued on CD.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Another album like that is bluesman Johnny Copeland's "Copeland Special", where Byard Lancaster, George Adams and Hamiet Bluiett fit in really well into the blues music, playing their uncompromised solos but working as seamless parts of the blues band too.

Wow! I've got three tracks from that LP on a Copeland sampler, but never looked at the personnel until just now. Yeah, you can't tell.

MG

Does your Copeland sampler include "St. Louis Blues" (excellent George Adams work) and the rousing "Claim Jumper"?

"Copeland Special" is an album which REALLY needs to be reissued on CD.

No; the three cuts are:

Down on bended knee

Everybody wants a piece of me

I wish I was single

MG

[Hot Ptah]

Another album like that is bluesman Johnny Copeland's "Copeland Special", where Byard Lancaster, George Adams and Hamiet Bluiett fit in really well into the blues music, playing their uncompromised solos but working as seamless parts of the blues band too.

Wow! I've got three tracks from that LP on a Copeland sampler, but never looked at the personnel until just now. Yeah, you can't tell.

MG

Does your Copeland sampler include "St. Louis Blues" (excellent George Adams work) and the rousing "Claim Jumper"?

"Copeland Special" is an album which REALLY needs to be reissued on CD.

No; the three cuts are:

Down on bended knee

Everybody wants a piece of me

I wish I was single

MG

I am without a turntable for a few weeks, so I can't confirm my impressions of those songs, but any Copeland compilation which omits "Claim Jumper" does not do his fans any favor, in my opinion.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Another album like that is bluesman Johnny Copeland's "Copeland Special", where Byard Lancaster, George Adams and Hamiet Bluiett fit in really well into the blues music, playing their uncompromised solos but working as seamless parts of the blues band too.

Wow! I've got three tracks from that LP on a Copeland sampler, but never looked at the personnel until just now. Yeah, you can't tell.

MG

Does your Copeland sampler include "St. Louis Blues" (excellent George Adams work) and the rousing "Claim Jumper"?

"Copeland Special" is an album which REALLY needs to be reissued on CD.

No; the three cuts are:

Down on bended knee

Everybody wants a piece of me

I wish I was single

MG

I am without a turntable for a few weeks, so I can't confirm my impressions of those songs, but any Copeland compilation which omits "Claim Jumper" does not do his fans any favor, in my opinion.

Well, it's a cheapo sampler by Rounder; intended to spark sales of the other albums (all listed with catalogue numers in the sleeve). If you're doing that kind of thing, it would probaby be foolish to put all the best cuts on it.

MG