Your top five Jazz albums of all time.

[paul secor]

1 hour ago, The Magnificent Goldberg said:

To continue, by repeating the last half of album #1 (these are in chronological order of when I heard 'em first by the way)

 

S3 Phil Upchurch - You can't sit down pts 1 & 2

This one came out at the back end of 1961. This, and Ray Charles' 'One mint julep' were the first jazz organ instrumentals I ever got. Of the two, this made more impact; 'One mint julep' wasn't really a revelation; just Ray doing his thing differently. But Upchurch's record was chock full of exciting solos, trumpet (Mack Johnson), tenor (Bubba Brooks), organ (Cornell Muldrow), Upchurch on guitar and bass, and the great Joe Hadrick (Yusef Ali, later with Gator) on drums. I didn't at the time know who the players were but they ALL hit really hard and dirty.

 

MG

Great record! It always bugged me that even though it was a hit, the Dovells' vocal version was an even bigger hit (at least here in the States), when it wasn't nearly as good.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Thinking about my first response to this thread yesterday, I realised I HAD got it right - at least as far as I'm concerned; quality doesn't count for much. The only one of those recordings I've listed that I've said - and WOULD say - was a top whack masterpiece is the Alvin Robinson 45. Both sides.

How much difference to your lists would be made if quality didn't count?

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

2 hours ago, paul secor said:

Great record! It always bugged me that even though it was a hit, the Dovells' vocal version was an even bigger hit (at least here in the States), when it wasn't nearly as good.

I can't find the details anywhere on the web, but I pretty soon afterwards bought Bill Doggett's version on Warner Bros. That was pretty good too. They were, as I recall, both on Cash Box pop charts, getting up to the thirties/forties. Neither made the Billboard R&B charts. As you say, the Dovells was a VERY big hit. But what the hell can you expect. The Upchurch record was on Boyd, which I think was distributed by UA, the Dovells on Parkway, part of Cameo, which was a HOT label and commanded (ie paid for - don't care what they said about payola being dead) DJ plays like crazy.

Bobby Weinstock would have agreed. Juke boxes were the fourth most important way to get big record sales, he told Bob Porter. The top 3 were radio, radio and radio.

MG

[soulpope]

3 hours ago, The Magnificent Goldberg said:

To continue, by repeating the last half of album #1 (these are in chronological order of when I heard 'em first by the way)

A1 David Newman & Ray Charles - Fathead

I got this in summer 1960, when I was working in Harrods, so I got staff discount. I'd been nuts about Ray Charles since early 1959, when 'What'd I say' had come out. And Harrods had a good selection, so I bought lots. I thought it strange that Ray would make an album called 'Fathead'. I bought it the same day I bought Duke Ellington's 'Nutcracker suite'. Now THAT was conventional jazz as I knew it. 'Fathead' didn't sound anything like that, and nor did the MJQ albums I already had, or Ella Fitzgerald, George Shearing, Louis Armstrong or even Dakota Staton. (Duh! Of COURSE!) Yeah, it was jazz but it had the feel of R&B. Just as 'Ray Charles at Newport' which I'd bought a month before did, but MUCH more so. But I could tell Dakota wasn't that far away and started thinking about her a bit differently. And I found myself thinking about all the music I had a bit differently. I've never been able to 'follow' bebop - I can tell the difference between a b flat and a salt flat, but that's not terribly helpful. But I can hear ideas as sounds and melodies and rhythms OK. And this record, from start to finish, was ALL there.

S3 Phil Upchurch - You can't sit down pts 1 & 2

This one came out at the back end of 1961. This, and Ray Charles' 'One mint julep' were the first jazz organ instrumentals I ever got. Of the two, this made more impact; 'One mint julep' wasn't really a revelation; just Ray doing his thing differently. But Upchurch's record was chock full of exciting solos, trumpet (Mack Johnson), tenor (Bubba Brooks), organ (Cornell Muldrow), Upchurch on guitar and bass, and the great Joe Hadrick (Yusef Ali, later with Gator) on drums. I didn't at the time know who the players were but they ALL hit really hard and dirty.

S4 James Brown - (Can you) feel it

This was the B side of 'These foolish things', which was one of James' takes on old Clyde McPhatter things. I didn't realise James Brown was an organist at that stage - 1963. This was absolutely FILTHY music. No matter WHAT great recordings JB made afterwards (and before) this is, to me, where it's AT with funk.

S5 Alvin Robinson - Fever/Down home girl

And now in 1965 the funk gets REEEEEAAAALLL deep! And NO ONE gave a damn about this great masterpiece of funk.

A2 John Coltrane - A love supreme

I got this one in 1965, as well (a good year for revelations )

At the time I was working night shift in a small anodising factory. It wasn't noisy work, and there were only four of us, so the foreman had the radio on. At 2AM, BBC closed down, so he turned to a French channel. You didn't listen to the announcements, so I didn't know what I was hearing when this came on. I'd never heard Trane before, though I'd read about him and guessed this HAD to be him. How? Dunno. And they played the WHOLE GODDAMN ALBUM!

It was a Friday night and I got paid, so I didn't go home for breakfast, just got a bus into town and went into a Joe Lyons café waiting for the jazz record shop to open. I had to get this album the first available minute. When Ken opened up, I rushed in and, after he'd made us coffee, I said 'I just heard something on French radio which HAS to be Coltrane. I don't know what it is, but it went on forever.' 'Oh, they all do', Ken said. (He was a bop-oriented vibes player when he put his vibes together.) But, together, we identified  the record and I rushed off home to play it. I fell asleep and DREAMED I was listening to it and think I got it even better when asleep than awake

A3 Lou Donaldson - Good gracious

I got this one in '65, too. I got it because it was going cheep, cheep, otherwise I might have got 'Natural soul', which is better. Because I had it, though, this one hit me first. It was the first album I had with Grant Green on it. It didn't hit me immediately; I had to be in the right frame of mind. But a few weeks later, listening while washing the dishes, 'The holy ghost' stood up and screamed at me.

A4 B B King - There must be a better world somewhere

This album just clicks with me. The band couldn't be improved upon. Hank Crawford (as), David Newman (ts), Ronnie Cuber, (Bars), Tom Malone, Waymon Reed & Charlie Miller (tp), Dr John (kbds), Hugh McCracken (g), Wilbur Bascomb (b), Bernard Purdie (d). The songs (all but one by Dr John & Doc Pomus) are great and REAL songs about real stuff. The arrangements are by Hank. And they're all done with complete feeling by B B King.

A5 Youssou Ndour - Gainde

I saw Youssou Ndour performing live on TV in the late eighties and was completely knocked out. He's one of those rare performers who truly lights up the stage. So I went in search of his albums, but after buying one of his Virgin and one of his Columbia albums, realised that it wasn't any good trying to find good Youssou Ndour on American or British labels, started looking at the racks of K7s that Virgin in Cardiff had started putting out. This was the first I got and it was everything I was looking for; music coming at you in several different rhythms and tempos and being sung in yet another rhythm, all together. It was THE most amazing dance music I'd ever heard. I think I must have played this one so much I ruined it; but I'm afraid to try. And it's never been reissued by anyone anywhere. And I've never seen it on any of the world music blogs, either.

Oh, two compilations.

C1 Fats Domino - Million sellers by Fats

Got this one in '64, but 'I'm in love again' was the first Rock and Roll I ever heard; and the first pop music I ever liked. I was twelve. I kind of attribute my preference for black music to that record and the fact that I hadn't heard Elvis Presley beforehand. But everything Presley, or even Jerry Lee Lewis, did didn't seem like the real thing. Because there was such ease in the way Fats sang and played and the way the band played, it seemed like the natural way to make music.

C2 James Brown - Mighty Instrumentals

I got this in 1967. A whole LP of instrumentals by James Brown, wow! Yeah, '(Can you) feel it' was in there, and so were about ten others covering all sorts of JB work over a period of several years.

MG

An entertaining read - thnx for sharing ....

On a personal note, I believe that Youssou Ndour never was - compared to the magic spread during his live performances (I was lucky enough to witness a couple of these @London in the late 80`s) - adequately documented on record/tape - a destiny he shares with a number of other African artists ....

[Peter Friedman]

On 10/13/2016 at 5:24 PM, paul secor said:

I'd have a tough time deciding on fifty top albums - forget five.

This reflects my opinion completely.

I could mention a number of albums I love a great deal, but they would only be a very small percentage of the much larger number in that same category.

Here are  just a few that come to mind from that lengthy list. Many others are equally  favorites.

Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus

Charlie Parker - Dial & Savoy Recordings

Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin'

Dexter Gordon - Doin' Alright

Miles Davis - Milestones

Count Basie (Lester Young) -  Do You Wanna Jump? - (Hep Label)

 

[jcam_44]

20 hours ago, soulpope said:

Good to see this platter as one of the top choices ....

Handy's opening solo is incredible. I have listened to it on repeat for an entire commute before (1 hr + on the train)

[danasgoodstuff]

Hank Mobley , Caddy For Daddy - Not just generic BN, not to me.  Even if it is, how good is that?

Oliver Nelson, Blues and the Abstract Truth - Not just a formal exercise on two common forms, and even if it is...

Stan Getz, Captain Marvel - Not fusion to me, Don Wilkerson's Preach is my idea of fusion.  The last great record by Tony or Chick.

Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Collosus - Intelligent swagger. Just so right from first note to last.

Sonny Sharrock, Ask the Ages - Not just my fav SS, fav Pharaoh and Elvin too. Thank you Mr. Laswell.

I love Miles, Trane, Monk, Duke, Jelly, Bird, Frisell, Giufre, Papper, etc.  And have many favorite performances by them.  Same for less celebrated persons and organists I dig too.  But these are 5 that sprung to mind that are head and shoulders, reach for 'em all the time and strike me as being all of a piece.  Could  also do five live, or five pre-album, or five not jazz.

 

[Larry Kart]

One of mine would be either Rollins' "Saxophone Colossus" or "Way Out West"

Then either the Art Ensemble's "Congliptious," or "Old/Quartet," or Lester Bowie's "Number 1&2," or Roscoe Mitchell's "Sound"

The Art Pepper Quartet (Tampa)

Maybe "Jazz Giants '56" (with Roy Eldridge, Lester Young, Vic Dickinson, Teddy Wilson, Gene Ramey, and Jo Jones)

Either "Bird DC 1952" or the Uptown Bird in Boston album with Dick Twardzik and Mingus

I'm restricting myself to the LP era and later. Albums that compile 78s for me are a different animal. Individual 78s, even though I first encountered them on LPs -- that would be another list altogether.

 

[Scott Dolan]

Way Out West is one I need to revisit. I'm actually glad you mentioned it. 

I'm surprised his Village Vanguard date hasn't made an appearance here yet. 

[Larry Kart]

Could have added the Vanguard date. To me, that and "Saxophone Colossus" and "Way Out West" are close to all of a piece. What richness, power, and wisdom!  At that point, for me and some of my friends, Rollins was the most important living human being.

In that vein, and FWIW,  several months ago I was reading a nice coffee table book about the painter Alex Katz, and in it Katz mentioned that listening obsessively  to "Way Out West" at the time it came out had a huge effect on his thinking, his painting, his whole orientation toward the world. IIRC, Katz mentioned not only the sheer glory of the music but also how it took off from tunes like "I'm an Old Cowhand" and "Wagon Wheels."

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

23 hours ago, soulpope said:

On a personal note, I believe that Youssou Ndour never was - compared to the magic spread during his live performances (I was lucky enough to witness a couple of these @London in the late 80`s) - adequately documented on record/tape - a destiny he shares with a number of other African artists ....

Well, I hope you haven't got all the Youssou I have (47 albums, inc several 2 K7 or CD sets), or you wouldn't say that. I saw him in St Louis, Senegal, open air, in the square in front of the regional governor's mansion, in the late 90's and he was bloomin' incredible! And the audience was incredible, too!

I'd recommend, on CDs, some of the live Bercy albums he did eight-twelve years ago. The recording is a good deal better and the band were simply WAILIN'. They're very hard to get now, even in Paris. Those are probably better than 'Gainde', but I heard that first.

Quality doesn't interest me as much as impact. And certainly not as much as it interests Larry, who has (or had) a pecuniary interest in identifying it.

MG

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, The Magnificent Goldberg said:

Well, I hope you haven't got all the Youssou I have (47 albums, inc several 2 K7 or CD sets), or you wouldn't say that. I saw him in St Louis, Senegal, open air, in the square in front of the regional governor's mansion, in the late 90's and he was bloomin' incredible! And the audience was incredible, too!

I'd recommend, on CDs, some of the live Bercy albums he did eight-twelve years ago. The recording is a good deal better and the band were simply WAILIN'. They're very hard to get now, even in Paris. Those are probably better than 'Gainde', but I heard that first.

Quality doesn't interest me as much as impact. And certainly not as much as it interests Larry, who has (or had) a pecuniary interest in identifying it.

MG

Honestly can`t match the number of recordings you have  - will take a look on the Bercy albums, thnx for the recommendation .... my overall impression with African music was that some of the "edges" btw roughness the music still had in the 80`s somehow got lost in "world music jungle" and so also my interest step by step vanished .....

[Scott Dolan]

3 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

Could have added the Vanguard date. To me, that and "Saxophone Colossus" and "Way Out West" are close to all of a piece. What richness, power, and wisdom!  At that point, for me and some of my friends, Rollins was the most important living human being.

In that vein, and FWIW,  several months ago I was reading a nice coffee table book about the painter Alex Katz, and in it Katz mentioned that listening obsessively  to "Way Out West" at the time it came out had a huge effect on his thinking, his painting, his whole orientation toward the world. IIRC, Katz mentioned not only the sheer glory of the music but also how it took off from tunes like "I'm an Old Cowhand" and "Wagon Wheels."

Very interesting! 

Now I know I must revisit it. I think I've listened to it all of two times since I bought (which was actually within the past two or three years, IIRC), it simply didn't grab me (for whatever reason), and I never returned to it. 

I almost wonder if there is some latent genetic code that's triggered once you decide on either Coltrane or Rollins. You know, similar to "having to choose"between The Beatles and the Stones. An when that code is triggered you subconsciously develop a slightly dismissive attitude towards "the other". Perhaps that's too harsh, but I think you can get where I'm coming from. 

Either way, Way Out West will be next up in my queue. Maybe I'll spend some quality headphone time with it in the morning before the sun comes up. 

[Teasing the Korean]

I find it interesting that anyone is actually able to do this. I couldn't even list my five favorite Sun Ra albums. I suppose I could list five early jazz purchases that hooked me at an impressionable age and stayed with me, but buying five completely different albums may have accomplished the same thing. 

Edited October 15, 2016 by Teasing the Korean

[Aggie87]

2 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

Very interesting! 

Now I know I must revisit it. I think I've listened to it all of two times since I bought (which was actually within the past two or three years, IIRC), it simply didn't grab me (for whatever reason), and I never returned to it. 

I almost wonder if there is some latent genetic code that's triggered once you decide on either Coltrane or Rollins. You know, similar to "having to choose"between The Beatles and the Stones. An when that code is triggered you subconsciously develop a slightly dismissive attitude towards "the other". Perhaps that's too harsh, but I think you can get where I'm coming from. 

Either way, Way Out West will be next up in my queue. Maybe I'll spend some quality headphone time with it in the morning before the sun comes up. 

 

Why is it an "either/or" decision?  I love both Coltrane AND Rollins.  

[Dan Gould]

Stanley Turrentine with The Three Sounds, Blue Hour (the original issued session)

Three Sounds, Moods

Dexter Gordon, One Flight Up

Jackie McLean, Bluesnik

Hank Mobley, Workout

I'm thinking of the top five I listen(ed) to compulsively.  There are others that could replace the bottom three but I can honestly say the top two would be in any list I ever try to compile. And the bottom three feel pretty good to me right now.

[Peter Friedman]

10 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

Could have added the Vanguard date. To me, that and "Saxophone Colossus" and "Way Out West" are close to all of a piece. What richness, power, and wisdom!  At that point, for me and some of my friends, Rollins was the most important living human being.

In that vein, and FWIW,  several months ago I was reading a nice coffee table book about the painter Alex Katz, and in it Katz mentioned that listening obsessively  to "Way Out West" at the time it came out had a huge effect on his thinking, his painting, his whole orientation toward the world. IIRC, Katz mentioned not only the sheer glory of the music but also how it took off from tunes like "I'm an Old Cowhand" and "Wagon Wheels."

Larry, interesting comment about the painter Alex Katz. When I was living in the Rochester, NY area, I knew a terrific painter named Tom Insalaco. Tom spent almost every bit of his free time painting, and while painting listening to jazz. The record he played most often was Sonny Rollins - "Way Out West".

 

[xybert]

Planned to do 5 new and 5 old, ended up doing 4 and 6:

Post 2000: 

Henry Threadgill - This Brings Us To Volume I 

Joe Morris - Today On Earth 

John Hollenbeck - Eternal Interlude

Steve Lehman - Travail, Transformation, And Flow

 

Pre 2000: 

Bud Powell – The Amazing Bud Powell Vol. 1 (2001 CD reissue) 

Bill Evans - Sunday At The Village Vanguard 

Chick Corea - Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (2002 CD reissue) 

John Coltrane - My Favorite Things 

Miles Davis – Sorcerer (CD with Bob Dorough bonus track) 

Wayne Shorter - Introducing Wayne Shorter 

 

[Scott Dolan]

20 hours ago, Aggie87 said:

 

Why is it an "either/or" decision?  I love both Coltrane AND Rollins.  

It doesn't have to be. I was simply making a point that sometimes lines are drawn between two contemporary heavyweights. It's far more pronounced between Stones and Beatles fans, not to mention the Brian Wilson accolytes who think the Beach Boys crush both of them, but I have also noted it between hardcore Coltrane and Rollins fans. 

I, myself, am heavily in the Coltrane camp, for example. And I've always found Rollins' playing to be a half notch below Coltrane's. So if someone made the argument that Rollins was the superior player, well (!!!), I simply wouldn't stand for it.  

[Scott Dolan]

8 hours ago, xybert said:

Planned to do 5 new and 5 old, ended up doing 4 and 6:

 

Post 2000: 

Henry Threadgill - This Brings Us To Volume I 

Joe Morris - Today On Earth 

John Hollenbeck - Eternal Interlude

Steve Lehman - Travail, Transformation, And Flow

 

Pre 2000: 

Bud Powell – The Amazing Bud Powell Vol. 1 (2001 CD reissue) 

Bill Evans - Sunday At The Village Vanguard 

Chick Corea - Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (2002 CD reissue) 

John Coltrane - My Favorite Things 

Miles Davis – Sorcerer (CD with Bob Dorough bonus track) 

Wayne Shorter - Introducing Wayne Shorter 

 

 

Not only a great list, but an interesting twist on the subject. 

I'm too lazy to check to see if each of these are post 2000, but:

Painter's Spring - William Parker

The Peach Orchard - In Order To Survive

NY Midnight Suite - Dennis Gonzalez's NY Quartet

Surrendered - David S. Ware

Other Dimensions In Music - Other Dimensions In Music

 

[sonnyhill]

By "top," I am listing the the records that I am sure that I have listened to the most.   Most of the listening occurred when I was first getting acquainted with the music. I listed to Rollins borderline obsessively for a while; I also listened to Miles's "Second Great Quintet" in the same fashion.

Miles Davis - Milestones

John Coltrane - Crescent

Sonny Rollins - A Night at the Village Vanguard (this could be any one of the Rollins led sessions from '55 to first retirement, except Blue Note Vols. 1 & 2)

Miles Davis - Sorcerer (this could be any one of the pre-electric studio albums of the "Second Great Quintet": E.S.P., Miles Smiles, Nefertiti, but I always liked the incongruity of the Bob Dorough vocals on "Nothing Like You")

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I listened to the four above a great deal more than the other recordings in my collection.  But for the purpose of getting to five, I will go with:

Charles Mingus - Mingus at Antibes

 

Mine is a pretty standard list - Miles (x2), Coltrane, Rollins, and Mingus.  Limiting the choices to post-2000 like Xybert did in part of his post would probably result in more interesting lists. 

 

Edited October 16, 2016 by sonnyhill

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

On ‎15‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 2:49 PM, Teasing the Korean said:

I find it interesting that anyone is actually able to do this. I couldn't even list my five favorite Sun Ra albums. I suppose I could list five early jazz purchases that hooked me at an impressionable age and stayed with me, but buying five completely different albums may have accomplished the same thing. 

Well, that's true for me, too. But I bought the ones I bought and, even though some of them I can comfortably say aren't as GOOD as others I heard later, they still do it for me, which is part nostalgia I know, but part... dunno, just something. And that's the point of this thread, for me, anyway. Who cares who's best, what's best? But what does it for you, now that's the real thing.

MG

 

[rostasi]

1 hour ago, The Magnificent Goldberg said:

...And that's the point of this thread, for me, anyway. Who cares who's best, what's best? But what does it for you, now that's the real thing.

That's where I stand too. I can't say that the 5 or 6 I mentioned are the best "of all time,"
but they certainly gave my ears a Capital hubbub of the extremely incorrigible kind way back then.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Thank you Rod.

I tried to edit my post but it wouldn't produce the edit page. I wanted to add, 'and why' to that sentence.

MG

[JSngry]

If we're playing the First Things That Really Gripped You In A Lasting Jazz Way game, then here's what I got, not in any order, but all within the first six months of my trug jazzzbug bitten-ness, late 1970-early 1971

• Coltrane - Transition
• Blakey - Indestructable
• Benny Goodman - In Moscow
• Glenn Miller Story OST (Parent's record) - Particularly the Louis Armstrong cuts at the end of each side
• Some Dave Brubeck Crown LP, the side that had the long ass version of "At A Perfume Counter).
• A set of Atlantic Jazz 45s by Mingus, Ornette, MJG, Slide Hampton, & Herbie Mann that I got in a way that is of no concern other than arcane family history

That's six, sorry, so if you must, I guess, drop the 45s. Or the Miller OST, since I had pretty much heard that my entire life, just not with jazz ears. But what they all have in common what that they held sustained interest over either a side, or as an entire album, just like the Hendrix/Zappa albums that I had been into before did, but almost strictly though storytelling by instrumental music. all these instruments, I heard them in terms of sounds, of voices, a muted trumpet section sounded like a different group of people than did a full shouting brass section. Coltrane hitting those high notes with the growly mutiphoncs underneath,  that sounded like a voice to me, same thing with Wayne SCREAMING that repeated phrase on "The Egyptian". and Louis, my god, what WAS that? And the Goodman/Moscow thing, four LP sides (a 1-4, 2-3 setup), it took time to get through that from beginning to end, and the pacing/programming, by the time it was over, you went to a LOT of different places. It wasn't four sides of the same thing, no, nothing like that. And the Ornette 45, I had started reading old magazine & book pieces, and Ornette was supposed to be this wildly futuristic outcat, and "Una ?Muy Bonita", on a 45, parts 1 & 2, hell, that sounded like something that had been there forever without me noticing it. NOT weird or strange at all! Mingus, otoh, was supposed to be this tightly strung angry genius virtuoso, and "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting" did not disappoint, it stoked the fires for r more, which ended up being Let My Children Hear Music, and/or then the Everest LP of the Period sides, so...pretty broad picture pretty quickly formed.

Honorable Mentions for Pre-JazzEars childhood Impact would be Benny Goodman's' Texaco record & The Glenn Miller AAF box set on RCA Victor. those got played a lot in the house all during childhood, and both still hold some interest, and for a few things therein, more now than ever.

And of course, the Smithsonian Collection Of Classic Jazz, first edition, which sent me of to college (and properly stocked record stores) with actual shopping lists instead of randomly wandering into any place that had records just to see what was there. Of course, that behavior hasn't stopped to this day, but it was nice to have some focus for a change! Still, it was a day when record stores and pretty much any other store, would carry new releases, recent jazz hit LPs, and cutout items with some really choice items in amongst some really bizarre wtf/ items. I bought the Brubeck album at a Firestone store in Gladewater, that's how easy it was to go anywhere and find something, somewhere.

Hell, without knowing it, I had been hearing Bud Freeman years before I first heard Sonny Rollins! These cats they WENT THERE!!!!! So, yeah, Jazz, thanks for stopping by, please c'mon in, if you ever leave, it'll not be because I ask you to, friends for life here.