Jazz albums that shook your world ...

[mikeweil]

Inspired by this thread,

Chuck Nessa showed interested in those that shook my world - I feel flattered and oblige. I have no idea if it's going to be 100, I will add more as soon as they come to mind. Feel free to add your own lists, from ten to one hundred albums.

Just off the top off my head, with no particular rating, but they all shook my world (in some way or another, in a positive sense):

Herbie Hancock - Mwandishi

Herbie Hancock - Crossings

Duke Ellington - New Orleans Suite

John Coltrane - Transition

Chick Corea - Is

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew

Miles Davis - Live-Evil

Tadd Dameron - Mating Call

Don Ellis - Shock Treatment

Don Ellis - Autumn

Elmo Hope - Trio/Quintet

Clare Fischer - Extension

Clare Fischer - Thesaurus

Count Basie + Lambert, Hendricks & Ross - Sing Along With Basie

Gil Evans - Svengali

Wayne Shorter - Adam's Apple

Eddie Harris - Silver Cycles

Andy Bey - Chliin' With Andy Bey

Geoff Keezer - Other Spheres

Duke Ellington - Piano Reflections

George Duke - Faces In Reflection

Jan Huydts - Trio

Baby Dodds - Talking & Drum Solos

Max Roach - Drums Unlimited

John Coltrane - Coltrane Plays The Blues

Ahmad Jamal - Chamber Music of the New Jazz

Kenny Clarke / Francy Boland - The Golden Eight

Alice Coltrane - Ptah The El Daoud

Stanley Cowell - Musa / Ancestral Streams

Webster Lewis - Live In Norway

Stanley Cowell - Illusion Suite

Paul Bley - Scorpio

Thelonious Monk - Big Band & Quartet In Concert

Modern Jazz Quartet - European Concert

Modern Jazz Quartet - The Comedy

Julius Watkins - Sextet

Kenny Burrell - Introducing

Chris Connor - A Jazz Date With Chris Connor

Keith Jarrett - Fort Yawuh

New York Repertory Jazz Company Plays The Music of Louis Armstrong

Jimmy Rowles - In Paris

Rahsaan Roland Kirk & Al Hibbler - A Meeting Of The Times

Wes Montgomery - Live At Jorgies

Bennie Maupin - The Jewel In The Lotus

Ralph Towner - Trios/Solos

Ray Crawford - Smooth Groove

Randy Weston - High Life

A.K. Salim - Afro-Soul Drum Orgy

Stone Alliance Con Amigos

Stome Alliance / Marcio Montarroyos

Some non-jazz albums:

Buffalo Springfield Again

Gentle Giant - In A Glass House

Foday Musa Suso - The Dreamtime

... more to come ...

Edited October 15, 2013 by mikeweil

[BillF]

I hope you don't expect 100! But, over 57 years, the following come to mind. (The earlier ones pre-date albums and many have been re-packaged and titles changed.)

Louis Armstrong Hot Seven

Jelly Roll Morton Red Hot Peppers

Jimmy Yancey

Albert Ammons

Meade Lux Lewis

Charlie Parker (Savoy)

Charlie Parker (Dial)

Miles Davis Modern Jazz Giants (1954)

Birth of the Cool

Ellington, Such Sweet Thunder

Marty Paich Quartet with Art Pepper

Bob Brookmeyer and Zoot Sims

Herman, The Thundering Herds

Gillespie Big Band late 40s

Gillespie, Have Trumpet Will Excite

Monk, Brilliant Corners

Mulligan Meets Monk

Rollins, Way Out West

Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker

Getz with Al Haig and Jimmy Raney

Getz and J J at the Opera House

Max Roach and Clifford Brown

Blakey Messengers with Monk

Messengers, Hard Drive

Messengers, Ritual

Atomic Mr Basie

Basie Decca sides

Lunceford Orchestra

Miles, Workin', Steamin', Cookin', Relaxin'

Coltrane (Impulse album)

Coltrane, Love Supreme

Coltrane, "Like Sonny" session (Roulette)

Ornette, This Is Our Music

Jimmy Reed

Muddy Waters

Mulligan Concert Band at Village Vanguard

Jones/Lewis, Horizon albums

Wes Montgomery, Incredible Jazz Guitar

Victor Feldman, Merrie Olde Soul

Shorty Rogers, Cool 'n Crazy

Eric Alexander, Nightlife in Tokyo

Edited October 14, 2013 by BillF

[brownie]

Armstrong Hot Five/Seven

Duke in the 20s, then 30s, then 40s and on...

Bechet with Tommy Ladnier

Basie with Lester Decca sides

Charlie Parker on Dial

Johnny Hodges Castle Rock

Bud Powell Un Poco Loco

Clifford Brown/Max Roach California Concerts

Jazz Messengers at Cafe Bohemia

Sonny Rollins at Village Vanguard

Coltrane Blue Train

Bill Evans/Scott LaFaro Village Vanguard

Barney Wilen/KD at Club Saint-Germain

The World of Cecil Taylor

Albert Ayler Bells

there was not much to be shaken out of me after I heard those Bells!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Offhand, I can only think of four.

in 1965

A love supreme

Good gracious - the first Patton/Green/Dixon I heard.

in 1991

Youssou N'doir - Immigres - Saprom

Sidiki Diabate, Batourou Sekou Kouyate & co - Cordes anciennes - Barenreiter Musicaphon

MG

[mikeweil]

Sidiki Diabate, Batourou Sekou Kouyate & co - Cordes anciennes - Barenreiter Musicaphon

MG

That's a beautiful record ... but if I listed albums beyond jazz ....

[Homefromtheforest]

I won't list 100, but I will list these albums as being ones that really made an impression on me and influenced my future listening directions

Miles Davis "kind of blue"

John Coltrane "a love supreme", "ascension"

Ornette Coleman "shape of jazz to come"

Eric Dolphy "outward bound"

Charles Mingus "presents Charles Mingus"

Jackie McLean "destination out"

Bobby Hutcherson "dialogue"

Andrew Hill "point of departure"

Grachan Moncur III "evolution"

Don Cherry "complete communion"

Albert Ayler "spiritual unity"

Art Ensemble of Chicago" "people in sorrow"

Dave Holland "conference of the birds"

Sun Ra "heliocentric worlds vol.1"

Anthony Braxton "five pieces 1975"

Marion Brown "in sommerhausen"

Jan Garbarek "Afric pepperbird"

Mal Waldron "one upmanship"

Wolfgang Dauner "output"

Miles Davis "agharta"

Terje Rypdal "Rypdal/vitous/DeJohnette"

Kenny Wheeler "deer wan"

Edward Vesala "nan madol"

Masahiko Togashi "we now create"

Albert Mangelsdorff "never let it end"

Peter Brotzmann "nipples"

Alexander Von Schlippenbach "the living music"

Instant composers pool "fragments"

Steve Lacy "morning joy" - the title that reintroduced me to Steve Lacy after hearing "stabs" as a late teen and thinking it was too dry...hearing this made me seek out nearly everything else and now he is one of my favorites

I could list way more but these titles are some of the key albums in my growth as a jazz fan/listener...and I still love them all

[erwbol]

I first bought the single disc Nefertiti (I wanted to familiarise myself with Miles Davis and read the back artwork notes to the 1998 CD at the local record shop) and then this box set. No release was more important to me early on. My admiration for this band hasn't diminished.

[danasgoodstuff]

Any list of Jazz Albums that Shook anything, really, that doesn't put the Armstrong Hot 5s & 7s (& w/Earl Hines, which is really a different thing even if the're all lumped together now), if it doesn't have that first, it's just WRONG!

[danasgoodstuff]

Oops! shoulda put that last comment in the other thread, or not...'my world' v. 'the world' would affect the rest of the list to be sure, but Louis is still #1...

[mikeweil]

I found a 45 of some Armstrong All Stars live track in my brother's colelction, but it didn't shake my world back then. I must admit that I started exploring jazz' history backwards, it was Rahsaan Roland Kirk that alerted me of Duke Ellington through his LP with Al Hibbler, before that it just didn't stir my interest. And it was the New York Jazz Repertory Company playing Satchmo's transcribed solos with three trumpets in unison that made me realize what a great improviser he was. So that album shook my world more than listening to the Hot Five themselves.

In some sense, Ellington, Armstrong (to a lesser degree), Billie Holiday, Lester Young, and Thelonious Monk shook my world, but through their entire recorded legacy, not single albums.

Edited October 15, 2013 by mikeweil

[BeBop]

Expect additions later:

I started piano lessons at four, and saxophone lessons at eight. By junior high (age twelve) I was playing (badly) in the stage band. The usual stuff: Neal Hefti arrangements. Sammy Nestico. My first exposure to "jazz". At this point, the revelations begin.

Count Basie - Straight Ahead - Wow, that's what these charts are supposed to sound like! And swing. I wish we could swing. Maybe someday. But I really like that feeling: swing.

Maynard Ferguson - Early 70s stuff - M.F. Horn - "Dad, what's an M.F.?" Well, these albums defined it for me . Basie swung. Maynard soared. Or rather screeched. But it was impressive as hell all the same. Hey, I was twelve.

Anthony Braxton - For Alto - That's a saxophone? An alto like I play? (Still twelve years old at this point.) No swinging here...at least not like Basie. I really don't get it. But I can't stop listening. I guess it was a little like picking at a cut in your knee: painful, but irresistible. All these years later, I'm still working to fully "get it". I met Braxton when he was working at Mills College. I just chatted with him a bit. But I also tried to look into his eyes - into his soul - with the hope of fully getting it. For Alto was also important because it was the focus of many meaningful conversations with two alto-playing friends. We talked about it, analyzed it, alternately "accused" one another of liking it and hating it. Both friends have done well with their lives. I think of them and thank them (spiritually) often.

Charles Christopher "Yardbird" Parker - Dial sides - He's God. I call him by his full name. Yes, I think I heard Bird for the first time after For Alto. It was another revelation. I wanted to be Bird. I wanted to fly. I knew I never would, so I hocked my alto (just like Bird!) and I moved to tenor. Chickensh*t.

But who didn't marvel, the first time hearing Bird? My cynical answer would be "kids these days". I do encounter a lot of people who - having heard many technically proficient alto players who mimic Bird - don't give the original the respect that is due to him. Bird Lives.

Buddy Rich Big Band - Live Concert - This was my first live concert. (...followed by...Jean Luc Ponty?!). I suppose the revelation here was the live energy. It was a dynamic band. Pete Yellin, Bob Mintzer, Steve Marcus. Not his best band ever, but it was the roarin'. Time Check. I can still hear it. My head spun.

Stan Getz - Groovin' High - This one's more a story than a revelation. I'd heard of Stan Getz. Everyone had heard of Stan Getz. Even people who'd never come close to hearing Stan Getz had heard of him. So I'm at the flea market. Black and white cover with Getz. I'm thinking: yeah, I should buy this. Couldn't have been more than a quarter - just within my fourteen year old's budget. So I take it home and really like it. So I go buy another Stan Getz. It's okay, but it's not - like - as good. So I pick up another. And another. They're all fine. Even the weird bossa nova ones, but, they're not as good as the first one: Groovin' High. Well, as some of you have probably figured out, this was a "Crown Records" casserole of appropriated material from everyone but (probably) Getz. The tenor player that I loved I eventually identified as Wardell Gray.

Jones-Smith, Inc. - Swing almost too delicate and perfect to touch. Pres' Lady Be Good remains the absolute finest improvisation I've heard, but it's all a source of never-ending bliss and joy. KJAZ radio later had a show featuring "The Lester People", Pres' disciples. I listened to them all. None came close to the original, but some gave glimmers of Pres' perfect composition. I couldn't stand to listen to Paul Quinichette. Go figure.

Hot Fives and Sevens - They're naked. Every man (and Lil Hardin) utterly exposed. Showing whatever they have. Masculinity, sex, pain, joy, bit of anger. This was it, before the whole jazz thing got big and "refined". Louis did it best. He could talk - tell a story. (Bonus Choice: Louis and Earl Hines)

Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch - I'd grown accustomed to "hearing" the sax player, so Dolphy's unusual (to me, at age fifteen or so) style caught my ear. Or, for a while, fought my ear. But I always recognized its uniqueness. Pres, Bird, Trane, even Hawk had their imitators and disciples. Dolphy was almost the beginning and end of his thing. (Ornette had the same effect on me.) What really "got me" about Out to Lunch was Bobby Hutcherson. That vibe sound. Not like Lionel Hampton or Red Norvo - my vibe touchstones at that point. Not like Milt Jackson. A sound like a high-pitched, tuned gong.

Archie Shepp and Nils Henning Orsted Pederson - For Bird - At this point, I was playing mainly duos with a guitar player (RIP, Pierre) and a pianist and, once in a while, a bass player. I was exploring how much could be done with just two people. Could I "comp" on saxophone for the guitar playing single-note lines? Shepp showed me more. I played better duos. I went on to like Shepp in many other contexts, but still, the duos are the best - Parlan, Richard Davis, Tchangodei. And that grew to a much larger interest in duo play. Still on my "controlled obsession" list. (see Braxton, Anthony)

Bud Powell and Johnny Griffin - Idaho and Perdido - The duo thing looped back to my piano hero, Bud Powell. Johnny Griffin I'd heard several times at the Keystone. I liked him. A lot. He was technically impressive and played well. He didn't often really "touch me", but when he came to town, I was there. But the stuff with Bud just worked for me. Bare bones recording had a lot of immediacy and energy. I'd play that cut over and over. After hearing the Paris recordings, Griffin became my link back to Bud. Griffin humored that odd kid. Thanks.

　

[jeffcrom]

Started making a list, but it got huge pretty quickly, especially with my comments. Maybe I'll post after trimming it down to a dozen or so.

[colinmce]

I won't list 100, but I will list these albums as being ones that really made an impression on me and influenced my future listening directions

Yes, this seems more like it. I daresay I've never related to the notion of "albums that changed your life!" I wouldn't describe any of my very favorite albums that way. That said, one of the first jazz albums I listened to in a committed way was Out To Lunch! and it completely rearranged my thinking about music and sound and the way it's organized. It totally flossed my brain and opened it up for all the listening that's come since. I can listen to that album a hundred different ways, for a hundred different things. See also: Anthony Williams - Life Time and Dolphy's "God Bless the Child" from In Europe Vol. 1

A few other ones I'd say had that special effect on me:

Anthony Braxton - Solo (London) 1988 & Quartet (Coventry) 1985

Joe McPhee - Topology, Old Eyes & Mysteries, Oleo, Linear B

Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come, Change of the Century, At the Golden Circle Vol. 2

Ran Blake - Realization of a Dream

Cecil Taylor - Unit Structures

Duke Ellington Orchestra - The Complete Standard Transcriptions

Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners

Sonny Rollins - A Night at the Village Vanguard

Tim Berne - The Shell Game

Andrew Hill - Smokestack

Mal Waldron w/ Eric Dolphy & Booker Ervin - The Quest

Miles Davis - In Europe & Nefertiti

Jimmy Giuffre - Free Fall

Gil Melle - The Complete Blue Note Fifties Sessions

John Surman - :rarum

Clusone 3 - I Am an Indian

Gerry Mulligan & Chet Baker WCC 2xCD

Peter Brotzmann & Han Bennink - Schwarzwaldfahrt

Joe Maneri - Dahazenbapple

Surely more, these are just off the top of my head.

[JSngry]

I'm having a hard time choosing between things that shook my world and whether or not the shakes are still shaking as much as they used to, if at all.

Keep in mind, it's is the nature of a shake to eventually more or less even out. But some take longer than others.

Two individual cuts that are still tremoring rather strongly, though, are "Transition" by Trane, & "The Egyptian" by Blakey. Ok, add "Somebody Loves Me" by Prez/Cole/Rich.

And ok, yeah, this damn thing. Such a tremor that at age 15, it didn't really get the shakes a-goin' for a year or so. But damned if I know now when they'll begin to slow down, much less stop.

[JSngry]

Mingus, "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting", had/have it on an Atlantic 45 (45s were my generation's 78s, except that we also had LPs, so maybe not exactly the same thing overall...but in terms of living and breathing a whole world in right around 3 or so minutes, yes), hotter than hell, still is, the music, and the sound of the 45.

[Larry Kart]

Roscoe Mitchell, "Sound"

[xybert]

Al Di Meola - Casino (bridged the gap between jazz and the Estradasphere/Secret Chiefs 3/Farmers Market type stuff i was listening to at the time, lead me to a lot of other fusion which lead me to acoustic jazz).

Ben Allison - Little Things Run the World (opened my ears to poppier jazz at a time when i was mainly listening to free improv/noise stuff. Challenged my preconceptions of what was hip).

Cecil Taylor - The Willisau Concert (my entry into Taylor's sound world... and he literally creates a habitable world that i've loved visiting ever since. Was so out there but made perfect sense, blew my mind how listenable this was).

Charle Mingus - Mingus Ah Um (one of the first acoustic jazz albums that i enjoyed in the same way that i genuinely enjoyed metal and hip hop etc, rather than as a novelty or as music to drive around and pretend i was in a cartoon to).

Chick Corea - Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (see Mingus Ah Um).

Dave Holland - Extended Play (opened the door to contemporary jazz for me).

Duke Ellington - Money Jungle (not my favourite Ellington but it opened my ears to him).

Harris Eisenstadt - Guewel (blew my mind)

Henry Threadgill - This Brings Us To Vol 1 (those massive, catchy hooks... and yet it sounded like it was from another planet. Really unlike anything else i'd heard. In a league of it's own).

Joe Morris - Age Of Everything (my first Joe Morris... it blew my mind. It was like i was hearing the guitarist that i'd always wanted to hear without knowing it. With his playing it was like he was creating an itch and scratching it simultaneously).

John Coltrane - Interstellar Space (had never heard anything like it, it made perfect sense).

John Hollenbeck - Eternal Interlude (my all time favourite album, nuff said).

John McLaughlin - Extrapolation (see Mingus Ah Um).

John Zorn - Naked City (knew John Zorn's name from Mr Bungle, blew my mind when i saw that he had his own section at the music store. Was surprised years later to find out he was a big name in the jazz sphere).

Keith Jarrett - Belonging (my first Jarrett, opened my mind to look beyond superficial 'gross, smooth jazz' knee jerk reactions in myself).

Kenny Wheeler - Gnu High (just loved it so much).

Miles Davis - Miles Smiles (see Mingus Ah Um... also going from thinking "man, this group is sloppy, is that the thing?" on initial listens to "this is the greatest shit of all time" on subsequent listens).

Muhal Richard Abrams w/ Malachi Favors - Sightsong (just loved it).

Pat Metheny - Bright Size Life (just loved it).

Steve Lacy/Roswell Rudd - Monk's Dream (My first Lacy, and when Irene Aebi's vocals hit it was like i was tripping aurally).

Steve Lehman - Travail, Transformation, and Flow (shook my world).

Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners (shook my world).

Tony Williams - Emergency! (shook my world).

Interesting how many artists that i love that don't really have a particular album that shook my world. Ornette for example; his greatness dawned on me across a number of albums. Paul Bley too: no one particular album shook my world. Sun Ra... Wayne Shorter... Anthony Braxton...

[Jim R]

Listing 100 in a truly sincere attempt to display which albums had the biggest impact on me would take many hours, if not days. I'm way too lazy to attempt that. So... off the top of my head (and I'm focusing on the earliest examples that got me going):

Jimmy Smith - At The Organ (BN 1551, with Burrell, Donaldson, Blakey)

BIrd: The Savoy Recordings (Master Takes)

Art Tatum Is Art (trio with Grimes & Stewart)

Kind Of Blue

Miles - "Tune Up"

Coltrane - "Ballads"

Wes Montgomery - "Beginnings"

Sonny Rollins - "More From The Vanguard"

Monk - "The Complete Genius"

Eddie Davis & Johnny Griffin - Live at Minton's

Kessel Plays Standards

Clifford Brown - "New Star On The Horizon"

Jimmy Raney Quartet

Chet Baker Sings

Dexter Gordon - "Our Man In Paris"

Grant Green - "Nigeria"

Art Blakey - "Moanin'"

Benny Golson - "The Modern Touch"

Max Roach - "Jazz In 3/4 Time"

Hank Mobley - "Messages"

Horace Silver And The Jazz Messengers

Rene Thomas - "Guitar Groove"

Milt Jackson - "Bags' Opus"

...

[TedR]

It's nice, as I get older, that my world can still get shaken (in a good way): From a recent purchase of Roscoe Mitchell's Nonaah (nessa cd) is the saxophone quartet version of Nonaah and A1 TAL 2LA.

[robertoart]

All at roughly the same time or within 18 months of each other,

Wes Montgomery - a dynamic new sound (the one with Mel Rhine)

Music revelation ensemble - no wave

Grant Green - the one with My favourite things (sonny Clark)

And Coltrane - Meditations

[king ubu]

Not sure about "shaking my world" (or ass or brain) and "most beloved" ... guess there must be some kind of difference, since you can be shaken by stuff that hardly ever will grow a favourite?

Anyway, some that shook me world and guts for sure, were:

Jimmy Smith - Groovin' at Smalls' Paradise (RVG 2CD)

John Coltrane - Blue Train

Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus

Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet

Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um

Charles Mingus - Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

Miles Davis - In a Silent Way

Duke Ellington - Money Jungle

Charlie Parker - the Savoy 5LP box

Eric Dolphy - Out ot Lunch

Thelonious Monk - the Blue Note recordings, Brilliant Corners, Misterioso

Herbie Nichols - the Blue Note recordings

Ornette Coleman - the Atlantic box

Andrew Hill - the Mosaic Box (1963-67)

Cecil Taylor - Nefertiti

Albert Ayler - Spiritual Unity ... or maybe it was the Hilversum recording that fist shook me ...

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Les Stances à Sophie

Von Freeman - Serenade and Blues

there must be more ...

as far as favourites go, I posted a top-200 list where much consideration went into stuff like: is there enough Coltrane in there (or too much) and it was quite a big of work to get it evened out ...so in the end it might not really be my top-200 (hell, who can sort out more than 25 things anyway ... I certainly wouldn't claim this to be an exact ranking, after the thirtieth or so rank it's more like "in that region" than "on number 68") - have a look here if you feel like (comments in German):

http://forum.rollingstone.de/showthread.php?27-Eure-Album-Top100&p=3012746&viewfull=1#post3012746

Edited October 15, 2013 by king ubu

[Larry Kart]

It's nice, as I get older, that my world can still get shaken (in a good way): From a recent purchase of Roscoe Mitchell's Nonaah (nessa cd) is the saxophone quartet version of Nonaah and A1 TAL 2LA.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Well, if we go beyond albums (and several people have) and beyond jazz (and, as for Bev, other things were also important in conditioning my jazz listening), there are two:

The Drifters - There goes my baby - Atlantic (London) (Note the date published, the year before the record was made )

In the summer of '59, I resolved that buying records licensed from Atlantic was a sure way to find great music that wasn't played on the BBC, and this was the first I ordered knowing nothing about it apart from the Atlantic source. When I got it home on the day of release and put it on the record player, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The sound - the combination of Ben E King's voice, the background singing and the orchestration (an early Phil Spector effort) - that was the first thing that hit me. But, on the immediate second play, I realised that the song didn't rhyme. What? Never heard of any song that didn't rhyme. But it was right. Because the third thing, it FELT absolutely right.

Ray Charles - What'd I say - Atlantic (illustrated isn't an original pressing, that had a triangle, like the Drifters' single.)

A couple of weeks later, I brought the Ray Charles home and that just completely laid me out. And Ray inevitably led to Fathead and Hank Crawford... But it was this that put me on the trail.

MG

[paul secor]

These shook my world in different ways during the first years I listened to jazz:

Clark Terry: Duke with a Difference - Probably didn't shake anyone else's world but mine. It was one of the first jazz records that I bought when I was seventeen years old. My introduction to Johnny Hodges (and Paul Gonsalves) and actually my introduction to Ellingtonia (even though Duke wasn't present).

Sonny Rollins: Our Man in Jazz and Charles Mingus: Mingus Ah Um - Bought these two on the same day shortly after the Terry. I looked forward to hearing the Rollins, partly because there had been a fair amount written in the jazz (and non-jazz) press about his hiatus from public performances. I didn't find copies of his first two RCA LPs, but this one was on the racks. My first listen was a disaster. I'd never heard anything quite like this record and I was lost and depressed that I was in way over my head.

I played Mingus Ah Um and felt an immediate sense of relief. This was music I could relate to and feel. Soon after, I came back to Our Man in Jazz and was able to understand at least some of what was going on. I learned the lesson that listening has to be an active as well as a passive activity.

Louis Armstrong: "Skid-Dat-De-Dat" - I was watching a television program hosted by Ralph J. Gleason, and his guest was Louis Armstrong. At one point, Mr. Gleason played a record (unusually enough, since this was television). That record was "Skid Dat De Dat". I'd never heard anything quite like it and I knew that the music wasn't what I'd come to expect from the Louis Armstrong I'd seen at that point in my life. I got hold of the four volumes of The Louis Armstrong Story on Columbia as soon as I could.

The Ellington Era Volume 1 (Columbia) - Bought this shortly after the Armstrongs, and I realized right away this wasn't the Duke Ellington that I'd seen on TV. My real introduction to Ellingtonia.

Duke Ellington at His Very Best came shorly after that and introduced me to the early 1940's Ellington Orchestra. I was hooked.

Ornette Coleman: Ornette! - I'd read about Ornette, but I hadn't heard him. Picked this up on my way home from a summer job and played it immediately. On my first listen, I couldn't hear what was happening, so I took the record off. The next evening, I played it again. I was tired and listened as I was half awake/half asleep. Maybe it was because I was relaxed, but I was able to hear the music and never had a problem hearing Ornette again.

Charlie Parker: Bird at St. Nick's and Jazz at Massey Hall - I'd read about Charlie Parker and wanted to hear his music. Bird at St. Nick's was the only Bird record I could find. Probably not the best into to Bird's music, but it worked out for me. Hearing Jazz at Massey Hall a little later helped out.

Thelonious Monk: Criss Cross, Brilliant Corners, and Monk's Music - Criss Cross came first because it was readily available. The two Riversides came about a year later.

Billie Holiday: Lady Day - Billie and Pres. Nothing more needs to be said.

Sidney Bechet: "Summertime" - I'd heard "Summertime" before, but not the way Sidney Bechet played it.

Albert Ayler: Spiritual Unity - I'd never heard any sound like Albert Ayler's before. Still haven't.

Cecil Taylor: Into the Hot - I listened to this every day for about two weeks to try and and prepare myself for an upcoming Cecil Taylor concert at the college I was attending. Of course, when the concert happened, what Cecil was playing was very different from the record. Still, Into the Hot got me through the door and Cecil has been an important part of my life since then.

Bud Powell: "It Never Entered My Mind" - It took me a long time to truly hear Bud Powell's music - probably because there were so many pianists playing in his style that it was hard for me to discern what was unique about his playing. Then I heard "It Never Entered My Mind", and it was, "WHOAHHH. I'd better pay attention to what's going on here and find out everything I can about it."

Most of these records came fairly early in my listening days, but they did shake my world and paved the way for today.

[BeBop]

Chuck Nessa may have inspired this discussion, but now seems to be no more than a voyeur. How 'bout it, Mr. Nessa?