Another Top 100 Jazz Albums List

[Guy Berger]

This comes from rateyourmusic.com's highest-rated jazz albums. Probably a bit of a popularity contest, but I was surprised by how reasonable the results came out. Vox populi, vox dei!

1. John Coltrane, A Love Supreme

2. Miles Davis, Kind of Blue

3. Charles Mingus, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

4. Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah Um

5. Miles Davis, In a Silent Way

6. Eric Dolphy, Out to Lunch

7. John Coltrane, Giant Steps

8. Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus

9. John Coltrane, My Favorite Things

10. Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come

11. Vince Guaraldi, A Charlie Brown Christmas

12. Charles Mingus, Blues and Roots

13. Miles Davis, Bitches Brew

14. Frank Zappa, Hot Rats

15. Frank Sinatra, Songs for Swinging Lovers

16. Art Blakey, Moanin'

17. Miles Davis, Miles Smiles

18. Frank Sinatra, In the Wee Small Hours

19. Getz/Gilberto

20. Wayne Shorter, Speak no Evil

21. Bill Evans, Sunday at the Village Vanguard

22. Thelonious Monk, Brilliant Corners

23. Bill Evans, Waltz for Debby

24. Duke Ellington, Far East Suite

25. Dave Brubeck, Time Out

26. Miles Davis, A Tribute to Jack Johnson

27. Herbie Hancock, Headhunters

28. Andrew Hill, Point of Departure

29. Louis Armstrong, Plays W.C. Handy

30. Frank Sinatra, Sings for Only the Lonely

31. Cannonball Adderley, Somethin' Else

32. Pharoah Sanders, Karma

33. Grant Green, Idle Moments

34. Antonio Carlos Jobim, Wave

35. Elis Regina and Tom Jobim, Elis and Tom

36. John Coltrane, Blue Train

37. Horace Silver, Song for My Father

38. Oliver Nelson, The Blues and the Abstract Truth

39. Andrew Hill, Black Fire

40. Duke Ellington, Money Jungle

41. Thelonious Monk, Monk's Dream

42. Billie Holiday, Lady in Satin

43. Charles Mingus, Mingus in Antibes

44. Albert Ayler, Spiritual Unity

45. Herbie Hancock, Empyrean Isles

46. Miles Davis, 'Round About Midnight

47. Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Inner Mounting Flame

48. Charles Mingus, Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus

49. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

50. John Coltrane, Ole

51. Herbie Hancock, Maiden Voyage

52. Art Ensemble of Chicago, Les Stances a Sophie

53. Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane

54. The Quintet, Jazz at Massey Hall

55. Peter Brotzmann, Machine Gun

56. Lee Morgan, the Sidewinder

57. McCoy Tyner, The Real McCoy

58. Keith Jarrett, The Koln Concert

59. Miles Davis, Sketches of Spain

60. John Coltrane, Ascension

61. Miles Davis, Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet

62. John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman

63. Sonny Sharrock, Ask the Ages

64. Wes Montgomery, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery

65. Charles Mingus, Pithecanthropus Erectus

66. Miles Davis, Nefertiti

67. Ella Fitzgerald, Sings the Cole Porter Songbook

68. Kenny Burrell, Midnight Blue

69. John Coltrane, Live at Birdland

70. Alice Coltrane, Journey in Satchidananda

71. Cecil Taylor, Unit Structures

72. John Coltrane, Live at the Village Vanguard

73. Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall

74. Ornette Coleman, Free Jazz

75. Sam Rivers, Contours

76. Miles Davis, Milestones

77. Miles Davis, Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet

78. Miles Davis, ESP

79. Miles Davis, Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet

80. Thelonious Monk, Monk's Music

81. Miles Davis, On the Corner

82. Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim

83. Cannonball Adderley, Mercy Mercy Mercy

84. Rahsaan Roland Kirk, The Inflated Tear

85. Sun Ra, Heliocentric Worlds Vol. 1

86. Mahavishnu Orchestra, Birds of Fire

87. Hank Mobley, Soul Station

88. Miles Davis, Filles de Kilimanjaro

89. Wes Montgomery, Full House

90. John Coltrane, Meditations

91. Yusef Lateef, Eastern Sounds

92. Miles Davis, Agharta

93. Alexander von Schlippenbach, Pakistani Pomade

94. Dexter Gordon, Go!

95. Bobby Hutcherson, Dialogue

96. John Zorn, Naked City

97. Charles Mingus, Tijuana Moods

98. Jackie McLean, Destination Out

99. Duke Ellington, Ellington at Newport

100. Sun Ra, Jazz in Silhouette

[Dan Gould]

As a popularity contest, the Lee Morgan album isn't surprising but I'd replace it with Search For The New Land.

[John L]

Interesting that "A Charlie Brown's Christmas" beats out everything by Ellington, Armstrong, Basie, Monk, Parker, Gillespie, etc. Good Grief! Then again, so does Hot Rats.

[brownie]

Lester Young is nowhere in sight

Vince Guaraldi is there but where is Bud Powell???

[John L]

Lester Young is nowhere in sight

Vince Guaraldi is there but where is Bud Powell???

He is probably in the 300s somewhere, along with Art Tatum, Fats Waller, Earl Hines, and company.

Should we interpret the Brotzmann, Schlippenbach, Art Ensemble, Sharrock, Zorn, Ayler, and Sun Ra entries as evidence that Penguin Guide crowns really do shape listerners' opinions about jazz? In that case, where is Evan Parker?

Edited August 21, 2006 by John L

[Guy Berger]

Lester Young is nowhere in sight

Vince Guaraldi is there but where is Bud Powell???

He is probably in the 300s somewhere, along with Art Tatum, Fats Waller, Earl Hines, and company.

Keep in mind that this is a list of "albums", which unfortunately omits recordings from the pre-album era.

Guy

[tjobbe]

Interesting that "A Charlie Brown's Christmas" beats out everything by Ellington, Armstrong, Basie, Monk, Parker, Gillespie, etc. Good Grief! Then again, so does Hot Rats.

I signed in with about 1000+ accounts in one go and did the voting than.... so no surprise

Cheers, Tjobbe

[RDK]

Obviously any Top 100 list will omit at least a handful of one's personal favorites, but that's not a shabby list of jazz albums. I have (or at least heard) about 90 of the 100. As someone else noted, this is a list of LP-era albums, so don't let the elimination of so much "early" jazz bother you.

[Soulstation1]

i guess JOS was a bum.......

where's the MF greazzzzeeee???

[scottb]

Two quick thoughts

1 Someone was a big mingus fan.

2 On the Corner?

[Guy Berger]

Two quick thoughts

1 Someone was a big mingus fan.

A lot of someones -- this is an agglomeration of hundreds of music fans' tastes. FWIW, the Mingus albums in question are fully worthy of their placement.

2 On the Corner?

A very popular album.

Guy

[Guy Berger]

As a popularity contest, the Lee Morgan album isn't surprising but I'd replace it with Search For The New Land.

I would too.

Guy

[BruceH]

What, no Tina Brooks?

[kh1958]

John Zorn? Now that's ludicrous.

[B. Clugston]

Not bad list. I'd certainly agree with the first three. The rest is a bit heavy on the adventurous, but usually these lists are so predictable or banal.

Hot Rats is an oddity. It's not a bad album, but I could name 100 jazz records that are better.

Sam Rivers' Contours wouldn't be my first pick.

I wouldn't replace Sidewinder with Search For the New Land. They both should be on there.

No problems seeing Zorn and Naked City. Fun album.

[ep1str0phy]

I'm psyched that the Schlippenbach sneaked its way on there (and yeah, this is a substantially more balanced list than we usually see--though it's got it's share of flaws. I mean, Zappa? Really?).

[montg]

I have 'Somethin' Else' spinning at this very moment--for me, this may be the jazz album closest to perfection. It's well above #31 on my list.

A lot of jazz greats from the 20s & 30s made albums in the 50s. I think the absence of early jazz stars on this list just reflects a contemporary indifference toward pre-Bird jazz. Too bad.

[Ken Dryden]

This top 100 list represents a rather myopic view of jazz history, with far too many listings by the same artists and non-jazz artists like Frank Sinatra and Frank Zappa (yes, I've owned a copy of Hot Rats for over 3 decades, but it doesn't crack the top 100, even if it is a memorable jazz-rock disc).

Edited August 25, 2006 by Ken Dryden

[ep1str0phy]

Another reason (not the reason, mind you) I've always maintained for the dearth of pre-50's jazz on lists of this type regards the inception of the LP (and, on a similar level, close-to-album-length EPs)--which, however you look at it, changed the game for the proliferation of recorded jazz. It's both a matter of ethos (i.e., your average Classics album--or any sheer compilation, for that matter--is of a different aesthetic than your set of Blue Notes, Impulses, etc.--any record initially conceived of as an 'album') and accessibility (the lack of 'definitive,' unduplicated albums for important pre-LP artists) as well as generational disconnect and ignorance. My two cents, anyway.

Edited August 26, 2006 by ep1str0phy

[Guy Berger]

with far too many listings by the same artists and non-jazz artists like Frank Sinatra and Frank Zappa (yes, I've owned a copy of Hot Rats for over 3 decades, but it doesn't crack the top 100, even if it is a memorable jazz-rock disc).

(1) The Sinatra and Zappa are there because I picked the 100 highest-rated jazz recordings from a more generic highest-rated recordings list on rateyourmusic. I could have omitted them, making space for a few more recordings. Nevertheless, I felt they were close enough to jazz to merit inclusion.

(2) I don't understand the "too many listings by the same artists" argument. Some artists recorded a lot of classic albums.

Guy

[Ken Dryden]

with far too many listings by the same artists and non-jazz artists like Frank Sinatra and Frank Zappa (yes, I've owned a copy of Hot Rats for over 3 decades, but it doesn't crack the top 100, even if it is a memorable jazz-rock disc).

(1) The Sinatra and Zappa are there because I picked the 100 highest-rated jazz recordings from a more generic highest-rated recordings list on rateyourmusic. I could have omitted them, making space for a few more recordings. Nevertheless, I felt they were close enough to jazz to merit inclusion.

(2) I don't understand the "too many listings by the same artists" argument. Some artists recorded a lot of classic albums.

Guy

Sorry, I don't think any well thought out top 100 jazz list is going to have so many recordings by any one artist as this one does. My two cents...

[Spontooneous]

I guess everything recorded before 1955 sucks too much to be on the list.

[GregK]

I guess everything recorded before 1955 sucks too much to be on the list.

Obviously Ken Burns had nothing to do with it!

[Ken Dryden]

If you list ten Miles Davis albums in a list of top one hundred albums, then obviously you haven't listened to the amount of jazz that many of us have (my jazz collection is well over 12,000 and I know of several people with larger collections). I tend to avoid creating this type of list as I consider it an exercise in futility, as it is hard enough to pick top tens by favorite artists who record (or did record) prolifically.

[Rooster_Ties]

I guess everything recorded before 1955 sucks too much to be on the list.

Lard knows if I had posted this, I'd have gotten it with both barrels from you-know-who.