Greatest Jazz Albums of All Time - Ranker

[joshuakennedy]

  On 8/6/2016 at 2:22 AM, jlhoots said:

Earlier you said it's all subjective. That's why I find lists like this a waste of time. Is the list supposed to convince someone about what is "great"??

Expand  

It's just for fun. Something to pass the time. Sorry you felt it was a waste of your time. 

[joshuakennedy]

  On 7/25/2016 at 7:15 PM, CJ Shearn said:

Good list:  just some of my personal favorites, worth the add I think.  Mostly post 60's and into the jazz rock, jazz funk, avant garde and mainstream areas.

Ray Brown Trio: Bam! Bam! Bam! (Concord Jazz, 1988)

 

Expand  

I'm not a huge fan of most of the post-60s jazz rock/funk/fusion/avant garde stuff, but I did like the Ray Brown album. I also discovered Soular Energy and really enjoyed that one. Any other Ray Brown stuff that you would recommend?

Edited August 21, 2016 by joshuakennedy

[David Ayers]

  On 8/6/2016 at 2:27 AM, Steve Reynolds said:

[...] the greatest of them all, Dahabenzapple [...]

Expand  

 

So great.

 

[CJ Shearn]

  On 8/21/2016 at 1:36 PM, joshuakennedy said:

I'm not a huge fan of most of the post-60s jazz rock/funk/fusion/avant garde stuff, but I did like the Ray Brown album. I also discovered Soular Energy and really enjoyed that one. Any other Ray Brown stuff that you would recommend?

Expand  

I really love the Milt Jackson/Ray Brown: "Montreux '77" disc on Pablo/OJC. There's so much good music in that post 60's area, maybe down the line you'll enjoy more of it. I used to be a hard bop snob when I was a kid into my teenage years then getting into Pat Metheny's mussic changed all that, it opened me to ECM, the avant garde, everything

[joshuakennedy]

  On 8/25/2016 at 11:59 PM, CJ Shearn said:

I really love the Milt Jackson/Ray Brown: "Montreux '77" disc on Pablo/OJC. There's so much good music in that post 60's area, maybe down the line you'll enjoy more of it. I used to be a hard bop snob when I was a kid into my teenage years then getting into Pat Metheny's mussic changed all that, it opened me to ECM, the avant garde, everything

Expand  

Thanks. I'll check that one out. 

[joshuakennedy]

Hi, guys. I took some of your feedback into consideration. I've added a decent number of albums from every decade, and tried to make the list less Blue Note-centric. Feel free to go through the list and vote on the albums you like/dislike. 

https://www.ranker.com/list/the-greatest-jazz-albums-of-all-time/joshua-kennedy?publish=true

[Milestones]

Subjective for sure, and I'm personally more about the great jazz artists.  The greatest ones often record one fine album after another.

The list indicates that most selections come from 1955-1970.  That makes sense to my ears.  So many of the all-time great (as innovators, players, band leaders, etc.) were at their peaks in these years.  To be sure, you need to know the earlier figures like Louis, Lester, Hawk, Duke, etc. 

Has there been great jazz music since 1970?  Sure, a great deal.  But among the absolutely greatest?  That's a hard argument to make.  There are central figures in jazz music that people will generally agree upon.  You can't diminish Monk, Miles, Duke, Trane--no more than you can diminish Bach, Mozart, and Schubert in Classical.

 

[Guy Berger]

  On 8/2/2018 at 9:15 PM, Milestones said:

Subjective for sure, and I'm personally more about the great jazz artists.  The greatest ones often record one fine album after another.

The list indicates that most selections come from 1955-1970.  That makes sense to my ears.  So many of the all-time great (as innovators, players, band leaders, etc.) were at their peaks in these years.  To be sure, you need to know the earlier figures like Louis, Lester, Hawk, Duke, etc. 

Has there been great jazz music since 1970?  Sure, a great deal.  But among the absolutely greatest?  That's a hard argument to make.  There are central figures in jazz music that people will generally agree upon.  You can't diminish Monk, Miles, Duke, Trane--no more than you can diminish Bach, Mozart, and Schubert in Classical.

 

Expand  

LPs didn't exist for the first 31 years of recorded jazz; a lot of the greatest recordings by Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins and Duke Ellington were not made in the "album" format and any list like this would eliminate them.

[joshuakennedy]

  On 8/2/2018 at 9:24 PM, Guy Berger said:

LPs didn't exist for the first 31 years of recorded jazz; a lot of the greatest recordings by Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins and Duke Ellington were not made in the "album" format and any list like this would eliminate them.

Expand  

Yeah, that's true. It was really difficult to find actual albums of a lot of those early artists besides "greatest hits" stuff. I did try to include the pioneers though.

[Milestones]

A "compilation" album is still an album in my book.  That's how I first heard Louis, Duke, Bird, Lester, etc.   

[joshuakennedy]

  On 8/2/2018 at 9:27 PM, Milestones said:

A "compilation" album is still an album in my book.  That's how I first heard Louis, Duke, Bird, Lester, etc.   

Expand  

True. I did include a few. It's just tough to decide which ones when so many of them have some of the same songs overlapping. 

[Guy Berger]

  On 8/2/2018 at 9:27 PM, Milestones said:

A "compilation" album is still an album in my book.  That's how I first heard Louis, Duke, Bird, Lester, etc.   

Expand  

Yes, but in my experience they nevertheless tend to get underrepresented in this context for a variety of reasons

[Gheorghe]

I think the list is not so bad. In general I hate rating but here I saw really some albums that might be representative for our music.
About compilations, that Bird compilation is quite ok, since during that time the LP format was not invented. And Savoy-Dial Master Takes is the most durable Bird .

And of course the Blue Note albums. I think there couldn´t be a "best" list without Blue Trane, Cool Struttin, Sidewinder, Song for my Father, etc....,

As for the bass I was quite astonished to see "Bass on Top" in the list. It took me years to get that rare album, but more than 1 or 2 listenings I didnt give it, though its fantastic bass, but not as exiting as "Whims of Chambers". Same with Griffin, I wouldn´t have chosen his first BN album , but the second "Blowin Session".

  But as I said, that list is quite representative, good work

[joshuakennedy]

  On 8/3/2018 at 4:54 AM, Gheorghe said:

I think the list is not so bad. In general I hate rating but here I saw really some albums that might be representative for our music.
About compilations, that Bird compilation is quite ok, since during that time the LP format was not invented. And Savoy-Dial Master Takes is the most durable Bird .

And of course the Blue Note albums. I think there couldn´t be a "best" list without Blue Trane, Cool Struttin, Sidewinder, Song for my Father, etc....,

As for the bass I was quite astonished to see "Bass on Top" in the list. It took me years to get that rare album, but more than 1 or 2 listenings I didnt give it, though its fantastic bass, but not as exiting as "Whims of Chambers". Same with Griffin, I wouldn´t have chosen his first BN album , but the second "Blowin Session".

  But as I said, that list is quite representative, good work

Expand  

Thank you. Part of the input for the list was scouring AllMusic ratings. Bass on Top had more ratings and slightly higher ratings than Whims of Chambers. There were three Johnny Griffin albums on the list (Introducing..., A Blowin' Session, and The Little Giant). I'm not sure which album you're referencing with the second Blowin' Session. 

[CJ Shearn]

  On 8/3/2018 at 4:02 PM, joshuakennedy said:

Thank you. Part of the input for the list was scouring AllMusic ratings. Bass on Top had more ratings and slightly higher ratings than Whims of Chambers. There were three Johnny Griffin albums on the list (Introducing..., A Blowin' Session, and The Little Giant). I'm not sure which album you're referencing with the second Blowin' Session. 

Expand  

He's just referencing that A Blowin Session was Griff's second BN album.

[joshuakennedy]

  On 8/3/2018 at 5:02 PM, CJ Shearn said:

He's just referencing that A Blowin Session was Griff's second BN album.

Expand  

Oh, gotcha. 

[Brad]

  On 8/3/2018 at 4:54 AM, Gheorghe said:

I think the list is not so bad. In general I hate rating but here I saw really some albums that might be representative for our music.
About compilations, that Bird compilation is quite ok, since during that time the LP format was not invented. And Savoy-Dial Master Takes is the most durable Bird .

And of course the Blue Note albums. I think there couldn´t be a "best" list without Blue Trane, Cool Struttin, Sidewinder, Song for my Father, etc....,

As for the bass I was quite astonished to see "Bass on Top" in the list. It took me years to get that rare album, but more than 1 or 2 listenings I didnt give it, though its fantastic bass, but not as exiting as "Whims of Chambers". Same with Griffin, I wouldn´t have chosen his first BN album , but the second "Blowin Session".

  But as I said, that list is quite representative, good work

Expand  

Generally, I agree with Georghe.  You could do worse than this list and for an incipient fan, it’s a good guide to what to listen to. I thought Leapin and Loping and Cornbread were unusual additions, not that they’re fine albums.  I would have thought the list included a Jimmy Smith album or some of Bird’s Verve recordings. 

[joshuakennedy]

  On 8/3/2018 at 9:45 PM, Brad said:

Generally, I agree with Georghe.  You could do worse than this list and for an incipient fan, it’s a good guide to what to listen to. I thought Leapin and Loping and Cornbread were unusual additions, not that they’re fine albums.  I would have thought the list included a Jimmy Smith album or some of Bird’s Verve recordings. 

Expand  

There are 3 Jimmy Smith albums on there (Midnight Special, Back at the Chicken Shack, Dynamic Duo w/ Wes Montgomery). Also a couple Charlie Parker Verve albums (S/T and Complete Verve Recordings). You gotta dig through the whole list.

[Chuck Nessa]

Ignore this stuff and make your own lists. Then ask yourself why stuff other folks love isn't on your list. Sample, study and grow.

 

[optatio]

howgh!

[Brad]

  On 8/3/2018 at 10:16 PM, joshuakennedy said:

There are 3 Jimmy Smith albums on there (Midnight Special, Back at the Chicken Shack, Dynamic Duo w/ Wes Montgomery). Also a couple Charlie Parker Verve albums (S/T and Complete Verve Recordings). You gotta dig through the whole list.

Expand  

I just looked over the top 100 list twice and didn’t see those mentioned. 

[joshuakennedy]

  On 8/4/2018 at 12:48 AM, Brad said:

I just looked over the top 100 list twice and didn’t see those mentioned. 

Expand  

They are not in the top 100. They are further down. There are more than 600 albums on the list.

[Brad]

I only looked at the top 100. I just looked at the next 100. I find it even stranger that Bird’s Verve recordings are not in that group, unless I missed it. 

At any rate, I agree with Chuck. Make your own list, although the list is a useful guide. 

[joshuakennedy]

  On 8/4/2018 at 5:31 PM, Brad said:

I only looked at the top 100. I just looked at the next 100. I find it even stranger that Bird’s Verve recordings are not in that group, unless I missed it. 

At any rate, I agree with Chuck. Make your own list, although the list is a useful guide. 

Expand  

The albums are in order based on user votes. So until people vote for Jimmy Smith, Charlie Parker, etc., they will be lower on the list. There should be a search option on there to search for certain artists if you don't want to scroll through the whole list.

And I did make this list. 

[joshuakennedy]

  On 8/25/2016 at 11:59 PM, CJ Shearn said:

I really love the Milt Jackson/Ray Brown: "Montreux '77" disc on Pablo/OJC. 

Expand  

Added that one to the list.