Top 50 jazz albums of 1974

[ghost of miles]

Burning Ambulance just posted this list to their Bluesky account. A good overview!

50 best jazz albums of 1974

Edited December 4 by ghost of miles

[felser]

I saw that. Also available through his Substack (I have a free subscription).  I own 43 of them, as my collection/taste/knowledge is so concentrated on that era.   Pick a random year in the 2000's, and I probably have like 5 of the best 50 from that year.   What I don't have - the two Braxton's, the Humphrey, the Mitchell, the Rivers Hues (would pick up a CD release of it in a heartbeat), and the two Rypdal's.

[Peter Friedman]

I only have 4 or 5 from this list.

I am certain that my list of the 50 Best Jazz Albums of 1974 would look dramatically different.

The difficult part would be to be able to identify the jazz albums that were recorded or issued in 1974. 

[mjzee]

2 hours ago, Peter Friedman said:

I am certain that my list of the 50 Best Jazz Albums of 1974 would look dramatically different.

Same here.  Using iTunes, I also have the following recorded in 1974 that I like:

Chet Baker - She Was Too Good To Me

Dexter Gordon - The Apartment

Don Sebesky - Giant Box

Gary Burton & Steve Swallow - Hotel Hello

Gerry Mulligan & Chet Baker - Carnegie Hall Concert

Joe Pass - Live At Donte's

Miles Davis - Dark Magus

Pat Martino - Consciousness

Paul Desmond - Pure Desmond

Ralph Towner & Gary Burton - Matchbook

Randy Weston - Carnival

Sonny Rollins - The Cutting Edge

(I track albums in iTunes by recording date; the Burning Ambulance list probably uses release date.)

[HutchFan]

Thanks for sharing that list, @ghost of miles.  It's always big fun to see what others put together.  

 

Here are 25 more -- all released in 1974 -- that I would want to include on my list:

Marion Brown – Sweet Earth Flying (Impulse)
John Lee & Gerry Brown – Infinite Jones (Keytone); reissued as Bamboo Madness (Limetree)
Maynard Ferguson – M.F. Horn 4 & 5: Live at Jimmy's (Columbia)
Dudu Pukwana & Spear – In the Townships (Caroline)
Don Patterson – These Are Soulful Days (Muse)
Dave Liebman – Lookout Farm (ECM) 
Duke Jordan – Flight to Denmark (SteepleChase)
Charles Earland – Leaving This Planet (Prestige)
Eric Kloss – Essence (Muse)
The Descendants of Mike and Phoebe – A Spirit Speaks (Strata-East)
Jackie Cain & Roy Kral – A Wilder Alias (CTI)
Pat Martino – Consciousness (Muse)
Teddy Wilson – Striding After Fats (Black Lion); reissued as Blues for Thomas Waller
Hubert Laws – In the Beginning (CTI)
Idris Muhammad – Power of Soul (Kudu)
Dee Dee Bridgewater – Afro Blue (Trio)
Willis Jackson – Headed and Gutted (Muse)
The Ensemble Al-Salaam – The Sojourner (Strata-East)
Kenny Drew Trio – Dark Beauty (SteepleChase)
Astor Piazzolla – Libertango (Carosello)
Oregon – Winter Light (Vanguard)
Budd Johnson & Earl Hines – The Dirty Old Men (Black & Blue); reissued as Mr. Bechet
Makaya Ntshoko – Makaya & the Tsotsis (Enja)
Bobby Jones – Hill Country Suite (Enja)
Harold Vick – Don't Look Back (Strata-East)

Edited December 5 by HutchFan

[Gheorghe]

Dave Liebman Drum Ode I think, 

And Miles Davis Dark Magus, and all stuff by Hancock or Chick Corea of that time. 
From the acoustic field most of what where Milestone-Artists.... each of them is great ! 

And Mingus who just became one of the top acts of all tours, festivals, just like Miles .....

I know what I don´t want to hear from 1974: So paradox that "Drum Ode" is one of my favourite albums from that year, it´s the only ECM album I like. I hear all those ECM names and I just can´t manage to get into that stuff. 

[felser]

Bottom line:  1974 was a spectacular year for jazz releases!

[soulpope]

 Bennie Maupin "The Jewel In The Lotus" ....

[JSngry]

1974 was 50 years ago.

When it's 2074, will we get a list of 100?

[soulpope]

Fritz Pauer Trio "Power by Pauer" (MPS Records) ....

[jlhoots]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

1974 was 50 years ago.

When it's 2074, will we get a list of 100?

😜

[clifford_thornton]

I have eighteen of those that Freeman lists.

Weird that the only European artists he mentions are a couple of ECM stalwarts. I'd hoped for at least one Brötzmann or Alex von Schlippenbach album at the very least...

1974 was also an incredibly fruitful year for Japanese jazz releases.

[danasgoodstuff]

Gato had two albums out that year that I liked, Latin America Chpt 3 with a big band and Yesterdays.

[danasgoodstuff]

I'm hard pressed to think of 30 albums of any kind from that year that I'd put on a list.

[Ken Dryden]

20 hours ago, JSngry said:

1974 was 50 years ago.

When it's 2074, will we get a list of 100?

Given the age of many of us, we won’t be around to see a list in 2074…

[JSngry]

For God's Sake Man, Think Of The Children!!!

[Patrick]

Does anyone have a top 100 list for 1924? 

[rostasi]

I could come up with maybe a top 50 list, but it would have to be divided up into lots of different categories
(Film Scores, Experimental, Popular Jazz and Blues, Vaudeville, and so on...)

[Д.Д.]

Yeeey, the list game.

That Burning Ambulance list does not suck. 

Here is what I would put for the albums recorded (not necessarily released) in 1974:

• Lee Konitz - "Lone-Lee"
• Amalgam - "Innovation"
• Earl Hines - "West Side Story"
• Mine Kosuke - "Out of Chaos"
• Toshiko Akiyoshi - Lew Tabackin Big Band - "Kogun"
• Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky; Konrad "Conny" Bauer; Ulrich Gumpert; Günter Baby Sommer - "Synopsis"
• Ella Fitzgerald - "Fine and Mellow"
• Zoot Sims; Bucky Pizzarelli; Buddy Rich - "Nirvana"
• Toshinori Kondo; Kazutoki Umezu; Toshi Tsuchitori - "Live Concert Tokyo 1974"
• Fred Frith - "Guitar Solos"
• Hans Koller - "Kunstkopfindianer"
• Dewey Redman - "Coincide"

Edited Thursday at 10:20 PM by Д.Д.

[mikeweil]

The fact that all of this music was released 50 years ago shows me how old I have grown with it. Or aged well, at least some of it.