Best Jazz Albums Ever?

Similarly electric 70's funky goodness would be Roy Ayers - 'he's coming', Donald Byrd's 'Spaces & Places' and Bobbi Humphry - 'Blacks & Blues'.

Mingus is particularly good too: 'Pithecantrupus Erectus' and 'Ah Uhm' are both great albums. Thelonious Monk's Myseterioso is lovely and also quite a distinctive musical voice. Some people I know have come to jazz and bought some Miles Davis and found that "it all sounds like jazz" which is why I recomend those 2 artists in particular as they had a wayward and distinct vision.

Charlie Mingus - Tijuana Moods
Grachan Moncur III - Evolution
Eric Dolphy - Out To Lunch
Shorty Rogers et al - Collaboration West
Dave Brubeck - Greatest Hits....& I really defend that one ...'safe' my arse...Paul Desmond's style is quite unique!

Looking in the index to the Penguin Jazz Guide, I find that Moncur I played bass w/ ppl like Bunny Berigan and Mildred Bailey. There is no mention of Moncur II.

That's not exactly true. There were segments on Coltrane, Ornette, Miles's fusion work, Mingus, etc. The best-of series includes CD's by all of these artists.

I'm always amused by those that think only pre-1960 is real jazz. My late granny would give out about all that post-bop shite they love and say that it isn't real jazz either.

i think bbc rationale for editing was that 12 hours was more palatable than 20, or something: the actual voiceover was so AWFUL (like badly written use-other-cliches the-nme-is-smarter DUMM) that i couldn't watch it and threw a cushion at the screen during the billie holiday bit

I never know whether jazz newbies coming from rock will react better straight-ahead bop stuff like Bird and first quintet Miles or to the more bombastic Trane style of things.

Crouch used to have something to do w/ the Lincoln Center Jazz Program, along w/ Marsalis. Dunno if he still does...

However, I've often been surprised when they like the straight ahead stuff better. I think it's because it's closer to their mental image of what jazz sounds like, and since they're trying to 'get into jazz' the more laid back standards-oriented material does the trick.

Personally, I got into jazz through first big band and then Coltrane, since it had that 'rock' energy and I felt I could understand what was going on a bit...it took me a longer to hear and understand rhythm changes, standards, etc.

Also regarding Coltrane, I must say DO NOT buy the Ken Burns compilations, as certain tracks are heavily edited... for instance, the mix of "Afro-Blue" discussed above loses around two minutes of McCoy Tyner's solo, which lessens the impact of Coltrane's arrival significantly. Other tracks may be edited too (I didn't listen to the whole comp.)

As for Charlie Parker copms, I have the "Yardbird Suite" 2-disc comp. on Rhino and I heartily recommend it.

I have heard the rumor that Stanley Crouch was punched by legendary Avant-Garde saxaphone player Sam Rivers over a business dispute, and that since that moment, Crouch has been a partisan of the anti-AG... anyone else heard this?

Bad first jazz album: "Kind of Blue". This is a great album but despite it's simplicity, harder to like that its reputation suggests. I have a theory that thousands of people have bought this album - "the jazz album rock fans like" -and decided, first, that they don't get it and second, if they don't like this one they won't like any other jazz album.

Live at Birdland was the first Coltrane album I ever bought, and Afro-Blue did indeed change my life.

I agree with ArfArf regarding Kind of Blue. It is hard not to be distrustful of those who would sum up jazz, nevermind Miles' career with that record. As much as I like it, I never listen to it except when I am in certain moods, and even then, when I am searching for melancholy, I turn to Sketches of Spain instead.

If you, Craig, are coming from a rock standpoint, and want to hear classic pre-fusion Miles, I would recommend Milestones from the earlier sextet with Coltrane, and I would especially recommend The Complete Concert 1964 double CD. The band is the classic '60's quintet, except that George Coleman is still on saxaphone (Wayne Shorter would later arrive, completing classic lineup) The first disc is ballads, and the second disc is much faster. Tony Williams plays his ass off on drums, and there is a certain joy to hear the band play songs from Miles' stadard repetoire with a completely different approach. On some days, I think Complete Concert is the best introduction Miles because of the diversity of tempos and the fact that it is transitional, which means that earlier and later aspects of Miles' playing are both present. That is not to the that Complete Concert is THE definitive Miles Davis record, because no such thing exists.

I didn't know that. That sounds like an excellent reason to stay away from that particular comp. I didn't buy that one, because I already had enough Coltrane albums in my collection that I didn't want to have too much overlap.

Sergey Kuryokhin - Some Combinations of Fingers and Passion DJ Shadow - Optometry Matthew Shipp - Nu-Bop Evan Parker - 50th Birthday Concert Marilyn Crispell - Live at Zurich Keith Tippett - Mujician 3 Sonny Sharrock - Ask The Ages Ground Zero - Plays Standards ;) Derek Bailey - Outcome Derek Bailey - Guitar Drum and Bass Anthony Braxton - Masada - Live In Sevilla John Zorn - Spy vs Spy John Zorn - The Big Gundown John Zorn - The Bribe John Zorn - News for Lulu John Zorn - Kristallnacht Naked City - Naked City

I could write for years, I really hate people who said Jazz died in the 70s, they obviously don't know jack.

best album is ct unit "One To Many Salty Swift _And_ _Not_ _Goodbye_" which was the last gig of the units '79 tour (so it just sneaks in) -- and even then ('79) it was a "protest gig" 'cause more good ole boys had heard cecil practising and had decided that this american black fag was going to destroy their precious bossendorfer, so he had to play second piano for these people in stuttgart (germany and austria, the "agreed source of all the grate music" of course)

and that makes it the best late example of black anger/temperence/power as event/album, but that's all before beginning to get into it musically

if you don't believe me ('cause for all of the above it still _rocks_ taylor's almost frightening work with r s jackson as music that blows your head off), downbeat (in '79) voted the 3lp set best record -- then a decade later downbeat voted it best 2cd re-issue (this time with the whole 150 minute "so mozart's where it's at, mr. promoter sir" gig beautifully restored)

I only haf one ct unit album (on hatology) and it does rock.

But in response to the original post can I just say Django Reinhardt can play the guitar quite well.

Pre-'80 it's vast--where to start? I believe that if you don't get with Ellington, Young, Basie, Christian, Armstrong, etc., then you might as well forget it. If you think that music is "old-fashioned" or unhip or whatever your little alternative-rock world has given you as your Cultural Behest, then rock on, gentlemen...

Anyway, Ellington, the Blanton-Webster band period, early '40s, is great.
Monk is always a good place to start, since the tunes are catchy and there's really no work involved in appreciating what he does. "Brilliant Corners" and "Monk with Coltrane" are obvious starting points.
The Ken Burns comps aren't terrible. The Coleman Hawkins is nice, and CH is as good as anybody to represent the progression of jazz from the '30s thru the '50s.
There's a very good 20-song comp of the best of Parker on Dial and Verve that came out last year, one of the best single-disc comps I've ever seen.
Sonny Rollins is the premier example of the eternally frustrated jazz musician, one of the most intellectual jazz players ever, and while none of his records really quite live up to what he himself wants, "Way Out West" and "Saxophone Colossus" are both classix. His recordings in the '70s, '80s and '90s are also good, interesting grapplings with the rock tradition or whatever.

I'm a big Wayne Shorter fan. "Juju" is as good a jazz album as any I know.

Miles Davis is such a cliché now, but one LP to check out is "Miles '58" with Adderley, Evans, etc. Great music, esp. the version of "Love for Sale."

Cannonball Adderley's "Somethin' Else" is also a classic that most folks like, nothing too hard.

For starters, I can't believe there hasn't been more mention of Louis Armstrong -- the Complete Hot Fives and Sevens box from a couple of years ago might be a good place to start. And, as a dabbler, I think the Ken Burns Jazz singe-disc series are pretty good.

but, anyway, for the crossing-over-from-rock listeners, these are also choice:

Black Saint and the Sinner Lady -- Charles Mingus
G-Man -- Sonny Rollins
The Roots of Jazz-Funk, Vol. 1

I agree, Chris Harrington, Hot Fives/Sevens is the logical place to start with jazz. My advice, by the way, is to get the JSP box of the Fives/Sevens and not the more recent Columbia thing. Sounds better.

One I forgot to mention is David Murray's "Shakill's Warrior" from 1991, a very good post-hard-bop organ-trio honkin' avant blues record. Don Pullen. In my opinion a real "jazz" record that would be pretty accessible to post-rock ears.

Paul Motian's "Monk in Motian" is also fine, w/Frisell, Lovano, Geri Allen. Jerry Gonzalez' "Rumba Para Monk" ditto, one of the better of the innumerable Monk LPs.

By my lights the more I think about it, Monk is the one jazz artist I would unequivocally say to any person even vaguely interested in "jazz" coming from a rock background--listen to this. It doesn't get too much more bedrock than Monk, and it's such tuneful music. Plus he's more out there than 99% of rock artistes. More than Davis or anyone he's the one I rank as the greatest and most "universal" jazz artist post-Parker--as composer, player and conceptualist, and heck, just plain fun to listen to even as he essays "Coming on the Hudson" or "Epistrophy" for the millionth time with reliable Charlie Rouse right there once again.

Eric Dolphy Out to Lunch - music doesn't get better.
Johnny Dyani Quartet Song For Biko is my favorite jazz record of all time as I sit here right now. Mainly due to personal associations.
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers Moanin' - really all the Blakey groups are mindlowing collections of talent. Anything with Shorter or Bobby Timmons highly recommended. People who don't like this stuff but claim to like jazz are just dead as far as I'm concerned.
Joseph Jarman Song For - essential Chicago document.
Dexter Gordon Go
Art Farmer - Benny Golson Jazztet Meet the Jazztet - another mindblowingly fabulous group w/ Curtis Fuller, McCoy Tyner, etc. Timeless compositions debut here - "I Remember Clifford", "Killer Joe"
Pharoah Sanders Tauhid
Thelonius Monk Monk's Dream Columbia era yes, but the first Monk I heard and I just love the relaxed, stretched out quality of the playing.
Art Tatum Decca Presents Art Tatum
Bill Evans Waltz For Debby
Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus
Lionel Hampton Flying Home
Arthur Blythe Metamorphosis and The Grip
John Coltrane Giant Steps
Duke Ellington At Newport
Wynton Kelly Trio w/ Wes Montgomery Smokin' At the Half Note
Clifford Brown and Max Roach At Basin Street - w/ Rollins in tow, wonderful stuff.

Ah fuck it this is too silly. Too me it's like "Best Rock Albums Ever?" There's just tons of them really...

Randy Weston -- Marrakech in the Cool of the Evening
Keith Jarrett -- Changes, At the Deerhead Inn, etc.
Dexter Gordon -- The Other Side of Round Midnight

-- Jordan (jordancohe...), August 12th, 2002.

I definitely initially came to jazz from a rock-oriented listening background. Kind of Blue always gets pushed on newbies, but it did nothing for me. I enjoy it now, of course, but at first it just got played twice and filed onto the shelf.

The stuff that really got me into jazz was Impulse! era stuff, specifically Alice and John Coltrane, and Mingus.

Also been working my way through the Blue Note and CTI (!) catalogues for the better part of a year now. good stuff, bros.

I think the late 60s freedom jazz appeals to alt-rock-types because it's untethered to traditional form and structure for the most part, making it more approachable once you get past the daunting facade.

Thankfullys there are some contemporary performers who have reclaimed the original melodics impetis, such as Georg Benson, Al Jarrow, Whitney Houston (before she had the drugs and women) and the super king of all jazz saxophone, Kenny Gee.