Greatest Jazz Albums of All Time - Ranker

[Dave James]

Speaking of Jackie Mac, if you haven't seen the 1979 mini-bio called "Jackie McLean On Mars", it's worth a look.  Pretty interesting.

 

 

[Holy Ghost]

On 7/28/2016 at 3:59 PM, clifford_thornton said:

same.

Agree. Same here. I love Miles Smiles more than Kind of Blue; Ole Coltrane more than a Love Supreme. No Ayler, M. Brown, Shepp, Roach on that list lends credence to subjectivity. I like a lot of things too, hardly anything that will make any list: Just enjoy what hits the ears, lists won't matter afterwards.

[Holy Ghost]

12 hours ago, Dave James said:

Speaking of Jackie Mac, if you haven't seen the 1979 mini-bio called "Jackie McLean On Mars", it's worth a look.  Pretty interesting.

 

 

Yup. And some great vintage footage too,

[joshuakennedy]

On 8/9/2018 at 8:53 AM, GA Russell said:

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

You got it! 

[CJ Shearn]

On 8/10/2018 at 11:10 AM, Scott Dolan said:

Made it as far as the backup singers chiming in. 

That’s truly awful shit. I need to listen to listen to some Chuck Mangione to cleanse the palette. 

Monuments sucks.  Certainly an album I like that many people would find questionable would be The Main Event by Herb Alpert and Hugh Masekela, but I bought the reissue from the Herb Alpert Presents series.  I have little interest in Alpert otherwise I had the album growing up and I like it for what it is, the studio album is ok too.  An example of commercial jazz I never got into but relaxed my stance on was the Mizell stuff, it's funky, well played, my taste exactly? No, it just is what it is.  I also get a kick out of listen to Blue Note Live At The Roxy for how dated it is, it's hilarious in that aspect.  The list could have a bit more post 70's albums on ECM, Billy Cobham at least thru Total Eclipse and Shabazz, Lyle Mays  from '86, some of Steve Coleman's albums including The Tao of Mad Phat, there were a bunch of Coleman albums he used to have for download for free on his website, Til We Have Faces by Gary Thomas, all of the John Abercrombie Quartet's albums, Jack DeJohnette Special Edition, Kikuchi, Hino and Henderson  in concert.

Edited August 11, 2018 by CJ Shearn

[joshuakennedy]

On 8/9/2018 at 2:33 PM, JSngry said:

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.

Sure. I've tried to listen to most of the albums on the list, and found quite a few that I enjoyed and some that I purchased. 

On 8/9/2018 at 2:30 PM, king ubu said:

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)?

A) I don't know of any way to even discover every jazz album ever made, nor do I have time to create that list. Help yourself if you want to do that. 
B) The albums that you see listed twice are a glitch that happens occasionally while adding votes. It's very annoying. As far as I know, no albums are actually on there twice. 

On 8/11/2018 at 4:36 AM, Holy Ghost said:

No Ayler, M. Brown, Shepp, Roach on that list lends credence to subjectivity. 

There are 5 Max Roach albums on the list. 1 Ayler and 1 Shepp. 

[joshuakennedy]

I have been continuing to work through this list, taking recommendations, and trying to make it more diverse and less "BlueNotecentric." Thanks to all who gave input. I added quite a few albums from the suggestions in this thread. What albums am I still missing? 

 

http://www.ranker.com/list/the-greatest-jazz-albums-of-all-time/joshua-kennedy

Edited April 9, 2021 by joshuakennedy

[mikeweil]

Such a list will never do justice to music recorded in the pre-album era.

But I dislike such an endeavour. Always too subjective.

[Brad]

10 minutes ago, mikeweil said:

Such a list will never do justice to music recorded in the pre-album era.

But I dislike such an endeavour. Always too subjective.

+1

[Pim]

Of course lists are always subjective but they could still be inspiring. The unfortunate thing with this one is the ability to vote which leads to a top 100 of the usual suspects.

[joshuakennedy]

34 minutes ago, Pim said:

Of course lists are always subjective but they could still be inspiring. The unfortunate thing with this one is the ability to vote which leads to a top 100 of the usual suspects.

Wouldn't you rather know what the collective public thinks of albums than read one person's opinion? 

Edited April 9, 2021 by joshuakennedy

[Pim]

2 minutes ago, joshuakennedy said:

Wouldn't you rather know what the collective public thinks of albums than read one person's opinion? 

To be honest: I don’t. Now that I am a more experienced listener is strikes me that most of those ‘top 100 albums’ are not among my favorites. In fact it’s the other way around in a lot of cases and I still find music that is so incredibly good but never to be found in a list. 
 

I like the Rateyourmusic feature where you could compose a top list with high votes but not a lot of voters.

[Dan Gould]

2 hours ago, joshuakennedy said:

Wouldn't you rather know what the collective public thinks of albums than read one person's opinion? 

When you consider what the "collective public" generally holds in high esteem, not in the slightest.

A mindful consideration of "all-time" with space to discuss and engage?  That has potential, and I'd suggest a deep perusal of this, even though its limited in scope:

https://jazzinthe70s.blogspot.com/2020/01/

and this:

But a simple list with album covers? Sorry, no, I am not your target. 

Edited April 9, 2021 by Dan Gould

[Brad]

2 hours ago, joshuakennedy said:

Wouldn't you rather know what the collective public thinks of albums than read one person's opinion? 

No. 

[joshuakennedy]

2 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

When you consider what the "collective public" generally holds in high esteem, not in the slightest.

A mindful consideration of "all-time" with space to discuss and engage?  That has potential, and I'd suggest a deep perusal of this, even though its limited in scope:

https://jazzinthe70s.blogspot.com/2020/01/

Haha, good point. By "collective public" in this case, I was referring to jazz fans. I would assume people who aren't into jazz aren't spending any time voting on this list. I'll check out some of the albums from that blog. Thanks!

[JSngry]

 

[Dan Gould]

32 minutes ago, joshuakennedy said:

Haha, good point. By "collective public" in this case, I was referring to jazz fans. I would assume people who aren't into jazz aren't spending any time voting on this list. 

No but I'm not that interested in what people with slightly better than average taste think, either.

 

[mikeweil]

16 hours ago, Pim said:

To be honest: I don’t. Now that I am a more experienced listener is strikes me that most of those ‘top 100 albums’ are not among my favorites. In fact it’s the other way around in a lot of cases and I still find music that is so incredibly good but never to be found in a list. 

Same here. I generally do not like ratings. That is not to say that such lists cannot spark interest in an album. But sometimes I love music that almost everybody else dislikes. After all, we all have our individual tastes.

12 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

No but I'm not that interested in what people with slightly better than average taste think, either.

[John L]

I just looked at this list for the first time - mostly all harp bop from the 50s and 60s, interestingly enough.  

For consistency, I would suggest excluding music from the pre-album era as a rule.   It is a bit ridiculous to see a few collections of early Armstrong and Ellington turning up toward the end of the list.  The selections are quite curious too.   Most fans would not choose those as examples of their greatest work.