Greatest Jazz Albums of All Time - Ranker

[sonnymax]

On 8/3/2018 at 6:36 PM, Chuck Nessa said:

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.

Good advice, or as another wise old teacher might say:

"This stuff and make your own lists ignore. Then on your list ask yourself why stuff other folks love is not.  Sample, study and grow."  

[Big Beat Steve]

On 3.8.2018 at 0:36 AM, Chuck Nessa said:

Then ask yourself why stuff other folks love isn't on your list.

Simple. Because tastes differ. Luckily.

 

Which should not prevent anyone from exploring what he may have heard on others' turntables or playlists but makes this kind of LISTS just irrelevant. They are not nearly as "greatest" in a universally applicable way as anyone would think.

[Brad]

1 hour ago, joshuakennedy said:

Added that one to the list. 

In other words, you’ll just take any old album and add it to the list and let people vote on it?

[joshuakennedy]

20 minutes ago, Brad said:

In other words, you’ll just take any old album and add it to the list and let people vote on it?

Sure. Why not? 

[Brad]

If you’re trying to establish a list of the best or perhaps essential jazz albums, that just strikes me as unusual. 

[medjuck]

I just looked at this thread.  Shocked to see how many of my favorites are on the original list.  (Also a couple of selections I just never liked.)  I'd agree with all  who suggested that were some compilations of 78s  that made their mark when they were first issued  and mainly I'd add some Gil Evans. I also must admit that many of my choices are because they were the first Lps I bought of particular musicians.  Hence, for example, I'd take Mingus Ah Um over The Black Saint or Tijuana Moods.   

[JSngry]

No Bill Barron?

[joshuakennedy]

22 minutes ago, Brad said:

If you’re trying to establish a list of the best or perhaps essential jazz albums, that just strikes me as unusual. 

Well, unless a bunch of people vote for it (which seems unlikely), it will remain in relative obscurity toward the bottom of the list. 

5 minutes ago, JSngry said:

No Bill Barron?

I'm not familiar with him. Any particular albums you'd recommend?

21 minutes ago, medjuck said:

I just looked at this thread.  Shocked to see how many of my favorites are on the original list.  (Also a couple of selections I just never liked.)  I'd agree with all  who suggested that were some compilations of 78s  that made their mark when they were first issued  and mainly I'd add some Gil Evans. I also must admit that many of my choices are because they were the first Lps I bought of particular musicians.  Hence, for example, I'd take Mingus Ah Um over The Black Saint or Tijuana Moods.   

Glad you enjoyed the list. 

[JSngry]

As much a it pains me to recommend this label...

But if you want one record from within that set, go for Hot Line.

[felser]

Billy Harper - Capra Black?  Charles Tolliver - The Ringer? McCoy Tyner - Sahara?

Edited August 8, 2018 by felser

[Brad]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

As much a it pains me to recommend this label...

But if you want one record from within that set, go for Hot Line.

Did you ever listen to Live at Cobi’s on SteepleChase?

[JSngry]

Both volumes, yes.

[CJ Shearn]

13 hours ago, joshuakennedy said:

Added that one to the list. 

Cool. An all time great album? I'm not sure, when I really think about it but I always found it enjoyable with excellent performances from Bags, Clark Terry and Lockjaw Davis.

Edited August 9, 2018 by CJ Shearn

[Scott Dolan]

I don't like this list. It does not cater directly to my tastes and sensibilities. 

[GA Russell]

I have been giving thumbs up to the albums I think are underrated, and thumbs down to the overrated.  That's the idea, right?

[JSngry]

No list complete without these:

[Steve Reynolds]

I think more historical lists just further marginalize phenomenal current improvised music even if that is even possible. How about discovering Rodrigo Amado or Mat Maneri or Ches Smith or Matt Mitchell or Darius Jones or even William Parker who is over 65 years old?

[felser]

36 minutes ago, Steve Reynolds said:

I think more historical lists just further marginalize phenomenal current improvised music even if that is even possible. How about discovering Rodrigo Amado or Mat Maneri or Ches Smith or Matt Mitchell or Darius Jones or even William Parker who is over 65 years old?

I give a second  on Parker, who has done some phenomenal work in recent years,

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

On 05/08/2016 at 7:10 PM, joshuakennedy said:

If it's one of your favorites, why can you not consider it great? 

That's a strange thing to say. It implies (perhaps unintentionally) that you try only to listen to records you think are great.

I think one joy of collecting music is to collect a lot of the rubbish people do, as well as their good stuff. You get a balanced view of their work then.

But, to me, the other joy is to deliberately seek out and find among the not terribly good, or even the pretty awful, albums I greatly love. But I don't feel it would be honest of me to think that, because they're favourites, they're good. They hit the spot for me, for reasons I frequently can't be bothered to explain to myself, and keep on doing so for years and years. Good VFM, is all I can say.

On 05/08/2016 at 7:10 PM, joshuakennedy said:

Music is very subjective and I don't think anyone can definitively say anything is "great" or "not great." 

Yes. Well, maybe. Er, probably no.

You have to have an objective for making any kind of judgement. That objective is the one YOU set, or the one you're TOLD to use (if for example you're a judge in a court).. But with the objective in mind, you can construct objective criteria. Then you set what you're judging up against those criteria.

Well, that's OK if you earn your living doing that, or get paid on the side for it. For just plain guys, it's all a bit bothersome.

 

As others have done, I think this list is greatly overloaded towards Blue Note. I have a lot more Prestige albums (483) than Blue Note (333) ones. Also it's a bit light on Atlantic, Argo/Cadet and Muse - don't think I saw even ONE Muse album in there. Those are the five biggest jazz labels in my collection.

I'm definitely not saying they're better than Blue Notes, but you need criteria. Read the sleeve notes for Gene Ammons' 'The happy blues' for an insight into what Bob Weinstock was trying to do as compared with what Alfred Lion and Francis Wolf  were up to. In particular, you know that Lion used Ike Quebec to supervise rehearsals then, after Ike's death, Duke Pearson. Prestige didn't have rehearsals. There are relatively few alternative takes for Prestige sessions. If a take was OK, Bob wouldn't get them to redo it perfectly; he wanted to capture moments of inspiration. You DON'T get that with Blue Note - you get remembered music, and remembered inspiration. But you get perfect stuff. OK, if that's what you want... 

MG

[king ubu]

Not sure what that list is about ... if you want people to vote, why not compile a list of (fasten yer seatbelts!) all jazz albums (and compilations if you want to include jazz before 1950 as well) ever released? Obviously no one would go through the pains and vote then, but like this it suggests a kind of poll/majority thing, but the basis for it is totally botched.

Also, several albums are listed twice it seems (or the list keeps morphing while you add votes)?

[JSngry]

Just wondering - is the list going to drive your future purchases in any way, or does that list exist separate from this one?

Personal opinions aside, no real wrong answers here.

[Dave James]

On 8/8/2018 at 11:24 AM, medjuck said:

I just looked at this thread.  Shocked to see how many of my favorites are on the original list.  (Also a couple of selections I just never liked.)  I'd agree with all  who suggested that were some compilations of 78s  that made their mark when they were first issued  and mainly I'd add some Gil Evans. I also must admit that many of my choices are because they were the first Lps I bought of particular musicians.  Hence, for example, I'd take Mingus Ah Um over The Black Saint or Tijuana Moods.   

I suppose you could argue that Evans is reasonably well represented since so much of cool '50's jazz can be traced back to his influence.  

Edited August 9, 2018 by Dave James

[felser]

37 minutes ago, Captain Howdy said:

So, what's the Plan 9 From Outer Space of jazz?

 

Edited August 10, 2018 by felser

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

4 hours ago, Captain Howdy said:

So, what's the Plan 9 From Outer Space of jazz?

If I get you right, that film was so amateurish and badly put together it became a classic - a classic of crapness.

I don't think there CAN be such a thing as a jazz equivalent, because without exception jazz musicians can play - even Kenny G can play. If I were to make a jazz album, it would be Plan 9 stuff, because I can't play thou, like the director of the film, I've got terrific hackneyed ideas.

But if you don't really mean that, a couple of albums I really love, that are by bands that are not generally thought of, even by me, as being much better than about eighth class are

Jackie Ivory - Soul discovery

and

MG

 

[JSngry]

Not Plan 9, but...Plan 18, maybe?