Your top five Jazz albums of all time.

[rostasi]

Oh, man... that Transition album ... I named my first radio show after that.
... and, not mentioned, but Kulu Sé Mama (along with the Transition album) 
actually became one of those "let's go over to Rod's house" kind of exigencies
for at least a couple of junior-high friends - one of whom made off with my original copy
of Kulu and the soundtrack to The Andromeda Strain (Gil Mellé) - both, since recovered.

[Scott Dolan]

Yeah, as I noted earlier, I could make an argument for every '65 Coltrane album as being my all time favorites. Hell, two of them are my top two! 

[danasgoodstuff]

On 10/15/2016 at 7:21 PM, danasgoodstuff said:

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.

 

Struck me afterwards that I'd picked one each by my 5 fav drummers - Billy, Roy, Tony, Max, and Elvin.  Only thing missing is Art Blakey - make and album of the first side of Moanin' and the 2nd side of the Big Beat (the one that starts with Dat Dere, did I remember the name right?) and that's in there too then.  Not usually consciously drummer centric, but there it is.

[Peter Friedman]

Among the earliest things that grabbed me were:

Stan Getz EPs (1952/53) Norgran

Shorty Rogers EPs  (1953) RCA

Jazz Messengers at Cafe Bohemia (1955) Blue Note

Horace Silver Quintet (1954/55) Blue Note

Jackie McLean Quintet (1955) Ad Lib

Hampton Hawes - The Trio (1955) Contemporary

Dave Brubeck - Jazz Goes To College (1954) Columbia

 

[GA Russell]

In regard to the "What qualifies as an album?" discussion, the first time I ran across the idea that "some LPs don't count" was in Rolling Stone ca. 1969.

My attitude was, and still is, that if I could enter a record store and find an album that I wanted and paid for it, then it is as legitimate an album as all its neighbors in the bins.

I think that means that I'm with Paul on this, but I've lost track!

[Scott Dolan]

Seriously?!

What was the gist of their argument? 

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

20 hours ago, JSngry said:

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.

 

That's what I meant. And see? You get a totally different list and one which doesn't look anything like I'd thought it might look like.

Thanks Guv!

MG

[JSngry]

From fall of 1970 to spring of 1974, ages 14-18...man, talk about an explosion in the mind...I could easily add another 50+ albums to that "early grabbers" list, because it seemed that everything was new and major. Some of it was just part of the overall music scene of the time, shit was WIDE open on ALL fronts, some of it was a function of records being damn near everywhere, seriously, everywhere. New records, old records, none of them excessively expensive either.

I mean, you read about Thelonious Monk and a week or two later find this in the cutout bin, and, you know, those type of albums were goldmines for new listeners, because look at everybody who is on there, you have names to go by and sounds to associate with the names, you can't help but feel the good, live-giving warmth of the sunshine as all those doors and windows keep opening and opening and opening...

[John L]

Louis Armstrong, yes.  I got interested in jazz just about the time of Louis Armstrong's death.  RCA put out a memorial 2-lp set of his recordings on that label.  That music just blew my mind completely.  There was no going back from being a hard core jazz fan after that.  

[Teasing the Korean]

On October 17, 2016 at 9:26 PM, GA Russell said:

In regard to the "What qualifies as an album?" discussion, the first time I ran across the idea that "some LPs don't count" was in Rolling Stone ca. 1969.

My attitude was, and still is, that if I could enter a record store and find an album that I wanted and paid for it, then it is as legitimate an album as all its neighbors in the bins.

I understand why some would want to differentiate between a "real" album and a compiled album, but that does not mean that the latter cannot have just as much of an impact on a listener. 

[John L]

7 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I understand why some would want to differentiate between a "real" album and a compiled album, but that does not mean that the latter cannot have just as much of an impact on a listener. 

I think that there are two primary issues.  First, compiled 78s were often not meant to be packaged as an album.  Second, 78s can be compiled in many different ways, and often have been.   So what is a better "album?" - a three LP set that compiles most of Armstrong's best Hot Fives and Sevens (The Columbia series), a three or four disc set that compiles all of them (JSP, Columbia CD), a single LP that gives a best of perspective?   It is much easier just to speak of the single 78s themselves.   The albums were afterthoughts.

[Scott Dolan]

3 hours ago, John L said:

So what is a better "album?"

The one that speaks the most to you. 

This isn't a competition. 

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

But there are two very different things about compilation albums and I concatenated them in my earlier post that listed 'Million sellers by Fats' (Domino) and James Brown's 'Mighty instrumentals'.

Most of the Fats Domino LP came at me 45 by 45, months or maybe a year between, but all impacting me as contemporary singles. And so did most of the singles in the 5 Ace CDs compiling all his Imperial singles. And I kind of react to those albums as collections of singles I enjoyed like hell in the past and learned stuff from.

The James Brown, although it's also a collection of 45s, came at me almost as a complete package. I think I had one track already. And of course, it's got an aesthetic angle; not just a bunch of James Brown singles, but instrumental ones, featuring his organ playing and his band. So it felt like a complete experience in itself.

It's not so much how a bunch of music was conceived to be listened to, it's how you experience it that's important in determining the various impacts on any particular listener, and a person's age is key in that, as far as compilations are concerned.

MG

[JSngry]

Perceptions of "albums" as it relates to a person's age...as time goes by, it's fair to consider how many compilation/collation albums of the LP era have been or will be reissued as those same albums. Is there a continuity of identity as those being an "album" today? The King Of The Delta Blues Singers LPs resist giving up their LP faces, probably a few others. But mostly?

Of course, we're not that far from the whole concept of "albums" being more or less obsolete.  PD compilations, cuts and playlists, the future is yours until otherwise directed.

[danasgoodstuff]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

Perceptions of "albums" as it relates to a person's age...as time goes by, it's fair to consider how many compilation/collation albums of the LP era have been or will be reissued as those same albums. Is there a continuity of identity as those being an "album" today? The King Of The Delta Blues Singers LPs resist giving up their LP faces, probably a few others. But mostly?

Of course, we're not that far from the whole concept of "albums" being more or less obsolete.  PD compilations, cuts and playlists, the future is yours until otherwise directed.

There's many regular people (as opposed to record collectors) who want, say, High Tide & Green Grass and not just any damn RS hits collection, either because it's got exactly the tunes they want, or they can't remember which tunes they want but they remember that album, or just because....

[JSngry]

Sure. Pop/Rock albums are a different thing. The overall audience has imprinted with certain items, spanning several generations. Pre-LP jazz, not so much?

[Roundsound]

Kind of Blue

Bill Evans- Complete V V live

Hank Mobley- Soul Station

Coltrane- V V live

Monk and Trane Live

 

 

 

[Scott Dolan]

1 hour ago, Roundsound said:

Kind of Blue

Bill Evans- Complete V V live

Hank Mobley- Soul Station

Coltrane- V V live

Monk and Trane Live

 

 

 

Wow!

That is an outstanding list! 

I have to admit that I neglected the whole Bill Evans Village Vanguard thing until just a few years ago, and I went ahead and got the box set of the complete recordings. 

LaFaro...holy shit... What a fucking monster! My first time through the box I found myself concentrating almost exclusively on his playing. The cat truly had a style all his own. What a grievous loss to the Jazz community. 

[Teasing the Korean]

20 hours ago, John L said:

It is much easier just to speak of the single 78s themselves.   The albums were afterthoughts.

I agree.  But those "afterthoughts" can have just as much impact and feel just as authentic as a "real" album. 

[John L]

12 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I agree.  But those "afterthoughts" can have just as much impact and feel just as authentic as a "real" album. 

That's true, and which afterthought on the same music has the impact can depend on which generation you are from.

[Teasing the Korean]

3 hours ago, John L said:

That's true, and which afterthought on the same music has the impact can depend on which generation you are from.

Agreed.  In another thread, I mentioned that I was perplexed at the exclusion of the Milt Jackson Monk tracks from the Blue Note Genius of Thelonious Monk CDs.  The fact that those may have been Milt Jackson sessions was irrelevant to me, as they were part of the LPs that I grew up with.  

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Agreed.  In another thread, I mentioned that I was perplexed at the exclusion of the Milt Jackson Monk tracks from the Blue Note Genius of Thelonious Monk CDs.  The fact that those may have been Milt Jackson sessions was irrelevant to me, as they were part of the LPs that I grew up with.  

And I don't know that I ever bought the contemporaneous Milt Jackson LP that had those tracks...definitely didn't have a need after the BN Two-fer.

[Simon8]

Same here. My top 5 would include that album/compilation:

in large part because of the (immortal) Milt/Monk quartet tracks. I later got the the BN Genius of... but this remained the key "album" for me.  

Edited October 20, 2016 by Simon8

[John L]

8 hours ago, JSngry said:

And I don't know that I ever bought the contemporaneous Milt Jackson LP that had those tracks...definitely didn't have a need after the BN Two-fer.

This was the way that I first got the Blue Note Monk as well.  A lot of my introduction to classic jazz came from 2-fers on Blue Note, Prestige, Savoy, and Verve. 

[JSngry]

I had red & green, but jumped on brown because it was both complete AND  grouped by session. Finally. And then, Mosaic, game over then, for me.

But yes, vinyl 2-fers, crazy mad skills in compiling most of those, occasionally/rarely still superior to later CD efforts, maybe?