"The Greatest Jazz Piano Albums of All Time" & My Favorites

[HutchFan]

Yesterday, the pianist Ethan Iverson shared his list of "The Greatest Jazz Piano Albums of All Time" in a Substack post. 

I know many of you turn up your noses at these sorts of listicles.  But I enjoy them -- if only as a means of discovering new avenues to explore.  Plus, it's always fun to hear what & who resonates (and what & who doesn't) with working musicians whom we admire.

********************

As a sort of riff on Iverson's riff, I assembled a list of jazz piano recordings that are most important to me.  I'd be hesitant to call these the "greatest" jazz piano albums; I'm much more comfortable using a word like favorites.  By acknowledging the subjectivity of the enterprise, I feel like I have more "wiggle room" to make it personal.   

Anyhow.  Here's my list:

Geri Allen - In the Year of the Dragon (JMT/Winter & Winter)
Kenny Barron - New York Attitude (Uptown)
Richie Beirach - Elm (ECM)
Joe Bonner - The Lifesaver (Muse)
Joanne Brackeen - Keyed In (Tappan Zee/Columbia)
Dollar Brand/Abdullah Ibrahim - Ode to Duke Ellington (Philips JP/West Wind/Inner City)
Dave Brubeck - Jazz Goes to College (Columbia/Sony)
Ray Bryant - Here's Ray Bryant (Pablo)
Jaki Byard - Solo/Strings (Prestige)
George Cables - Why Not (Whynot/Trio/Candid)
John Coates, Jr. - In the Open Space (Omnisound)
Chick Corea - Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (Solid State/Blue Note)
Stanley Cowell - We Three (DIW)
Anthony Davis [with James Newton] - Hidden Voices (India Navigation)
Kenny Drew - Kenny Drew Trio (Riverside)
Duke Ellington - Piano in the Foreground (Columbia/Sony)
Bill Evans - Waltz for Debby (Riverside)
Orrin Evans - Flip the Script (Posi-Tone)
Clare Fischer - The State of His Art (Revelation)
Tommy Flanagan - Eclypso (Enja/Inner City)
Red Garland - Groovy (Prestige)
Erroll Garner - The Complete Savoy Master Takes (Savoy)
Michael Garrick - Cold Mountain (Argo/Vocalion)
Al Haig - Chelsea Bridge (East Wind)
Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage (Blue Note)
Sir Roland Hanna - Time for the Dancers (Progressive)
Barry Harris - Barry Harris Plays Tadd Dameron (Xanadu)
Hampton Hawes - Hamp's Piano [aka The Dynamic Hampton Hawes] (MPS)
John Hicks - Hick's Time: Solo Piano (Passin' Thru)
Andrew Hill - Dance with Death (Blue Note)
Earl Hines - Tour de Force (Black Lion)
Claude Hopkins - Soliloquy (Sackville)
Ethan Iverson [with Albert "Tootie" Heath & Ben Street] - Live at Smalls (Smalls Live)
Keith Jarrett - Treasure Island (Impulse)
James P. Johnson - Giants of Jazz: James P. Johnson (Time-Life)
Hank Jones - Bluesette (Black & Blue FR)
Wynton Kelly - Kelly Blue (Riverside)
Steve Kuhn - Remembering Tomorrow (ECM)
John Lewis [with the MJQ] - The MJQ Plays One Never Knows (Original Film Score for “No Sun In Venice”) (Atlantic)
Harold Mabern - Rakin' and Scrapin' (Prestige)
Marian McPartland - Ambiance (Halcyon/Jazz Alliance)
Jay McShann - Kansas City Hustle (Sackville)
Mulgrew Miller - Live at the Kennedy Center, Vol. 2 (MaxJazz)
Thelonious Monk - Monk's Dream (Columbia/Sony)
Phineas Newborn, Jr. - A World of Piano! (Contemporary)
Herbie Nichols - The Prophetic Herbie Nichols, Vol. 1 & 2 (Blue Note)
Walter Norris - Stepping on Cracks (Progressive)
Oscar Peterson - The Sound of the Trio (Verve)
Michel Petrucciani - Oracle's Destiny: Big Sur, California (Owl)
Enrico Pieranunzi - Perugia Suite (EGEA)
Jean-Michel Pilc [with Mads Vinding & Billy Hart] - Open Minds (Storyville)
Don Pullen - Healing Force (Black Saint)
Michelle Rosewoman - Contrast High (Enja)
Renee Rosnes - Kinds of Love (Smoke Sessions)
Jimmy Rowles - We Could Make Such Beautiful Music Together (Xanadu)
Masahiko Sato [with Attila Zoller] - A Path Through Haze (MPS)
Martial Solal - Nothing But Piano (MPS)
Bobo Stenson - Serenity (ECM)
Art Tatum - The Complete Capitol Recordings, Vols. 1 & 2 (Capitol)
Cecil Taylor - The Cecil Taylor Unit (New World)
Mickey Tucker - Mister Mysterious (Muse)
McCoy Tyner - Sama Layuca (Milestone)
Mal Waldron - Moods (Enja)
Fats Waller - Piano Solos 1929-1941 (RCA Bluebird)
Cedar Walton - The Trio, Vol. 1 (Red)
Kenny Werner - Unprotected Music (Double-Time)
Randy Weston - Blues to Africa (Freedom/Arista-Freedom)
James Williams - Magical Trio 2 (EmArcy)
Mary Lou Williams - Free Spirits (SteepleChase)
Larry Willis - Steal Away (Audioquest)
Yosuke Yamashita - Clay (Enja)

 

Whaddya think?

I'd love to hear from other forum members about their favorite jazz piano albums.

 

 

Edited yesterday at 05:45 PM by HutchFan

[T.D.]

I'm not sufficiently erudite to post lists, but some other names I'd consider are:

Muhal Richard Abrams

Sonny Clark

Gene Harris (not the first name that comes to mind, but his Maybeck solo album is great and displays serious chops)

Elmo Hope (!!)

Masabumi Kikuchi

Tete Montoliu

Sun Ra

Howard Riley

Horace Tapscott

John Taylor

I think your list is excellent, though.

Edited yesterday at 05:40 PM by T.D.

[HutchFan]

12 minutes ago, T.D. said:

Muhal Richard Abrams

Argh!  Abrams is an oversight for sure!   I'd likely pick Sightsong, a duet album with Malachi Favors.

 

12 minutes ago, T.D. said:

I think your list is excellent, though.

 

 

[Stompin at the Savoy]

Too many and hard to decide.  I like stride piano a lot, so that calls up a list by itself which I'm sure I needn't enumerate here.  One album I often go back to is Dick Hyman, Music of 1937.  He frequently plays the tune in several piano styles - Someday My Prince Will Come is a good example -  and it's fun to speculate which segment is whose style.

[HutchFan]

5 minutes ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

Too many and hard to decide.  I like stride piano a lot, so that calls up a list by itself which I'm sure I needn't enumerate here.

On the contrary, Stompin, I'd love to hear which stride piano albums are essential in your proverbial book.  Even if it's just a list of four or five.  

Focusing on a particular style or time period is just fine.

No pressure, of course.  I'm just sayin'.

 

10 minutes ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

One album I often go back to is Dick Hyman, Music of 1937. 

An excellent one, for sure! 

 

[Stompin at the Savoy]

5 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

On the contrary, Stompin, I'd love to hear which stride piano albums are essential in your proverbial book.  Even if it's just a list of four or five.  

Focusing on a particular style or time period is just fine.

No pressure, of course.  I'm just sayin'.

 

Gee that's a tough order and there are folks here who could do a far better job of it.  I play around with piano but am basically a guitar player.  Piano is kind of unique in that the two hands can pursue independent musical thoughts.  I try to simulate that by moving toward independent bass and treble voices on guitar but under the hood they are necessarily both a combination of the efforts of both hands.  I like Fats Waller and wish his stuff would get a better remastering.  There's a Centenary Collection (or something) volume where they did a beautiful job remastering.  Count Basie as a piano player is a big favorite of mine.  He tended to be a little shy as a soloist so it's hard to point to single albums.  I have a nice playlist with Basie piano features like Kid from Red Bank.     So many great players!

[Dan Gould]

A full list is beyond my capacity but as the former GHF I will always rank this one at or near the top:

 

[HutchFan]

20 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

A full list is beyond my capacity but as the former GHF I will always rank this one at or near the top:

 

I have a couple albums by The 3 Sounds -- but I've never heard that one.  I will check it out! 

 

[Dub Modal]

Iverson's list has some gems but good lord it's maddening to read his articles. Anyway, he was spot on with the selection of Ellington's Piano Reflections and many others. The article's selections and the ones listed here will be fun to explore. 

[clifford_thornton]

I got pretty annoyed with Iverson's list as it touched on anything after about 1959. It *seemed* fine where earlier recordings are concerned.

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, Dub Modal said:

...he was spot on with the selection of Ellington's Piano Reflections...

Sure, but that's one of those safe/easy/lazy choices that I can't really take seriously.

Let's do Live At The Whitney and see how that goes.

 

[Ken Dryden]

I feel like Art Tatum's Pablo Solo Masterpieces blow away the Capitol recordings.

[Dub Modal]

10 hours ago, JSngry said:

Sure, but that's one of those safe/easy/lazy choices that I can't really take seriously.

Let's do Live At The Whitney and see how that goes.

 

Great pick. 

[John L]

That is a nice list but I would have expected to see some Bud Powell.  

[Dan Gould]

10 minutes ago, John L said:

That is a nice list but I would have expected to see some Bud Powell.  

Did you miss this subsection? A Bud selection was at the very top of it.

BY “BEBOP,” I MEAN BUD POWELL

Edited 4 hours ago by Dan Gould

[John L]

42 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

Did you miss this subsection? A Bud selection was at the very top of it.

BY “BEBOP,” I MEAN BUD POWELL

I was referring to Hutchfan's list, which includes many of Bud's musical children but not Bud Powell himself.  

[Dan Gould]

Gotcha.

[HutchFan]

1 hour ago, John L said:

That is a nice list but I would have expected to see some Bud Powell.  

Doh!  Another oversight on my part, John.  My first choice would be The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1.

 

12 hours ago, Ken Dryden said:

I feel like Art Tatum's Pablo Solo Masterpieces blow away the Capitol recordings.

I need to listen to those Pablo recs some more.  Which volume do you like best, Ken?

 

Edited 2 hours ago by HutchFan

[jazzbo]

Here are a few of my favorite trios:

Money Jungle

Piano in the Foreground

Happy Moods

Changeless

Bud Powell in Paris

Duke Ellington Presents the Dollar Brand Trio

Explorations

Eliane Elias plays Live

 

Edited 2 hours ago by jazzbo

[relyles]

I am curious how "jazz piano albums" is defined? It seems to be albums where the leader/coleader is a pianist, but where would this put albums where piano is the featured soloist, but the leader is another instrumentalist? How would this impact the lists?

Edited 51 minutes ago by relyles

[HutchFan]

20 minutes ago, relyles said:

I am curious how "jazz piano albums" is defined? It seems to be albums where the leader/coleader is a pianist, but where would this put albums where piano is the featured soloist, but the leader is another instrumentalist? How would this impact the lists?

For the purposes of this discussion, it doesn't matter whether the pianist is the leader or not -- as long as the pianist plays a prominent role.

For example, my list includes an album by the Mads Vinding Trio, Open Minds, that features pianist Jean-Michel Pilc in a sideman role.

Similarly, Ethan Iverson selected Miles' Round About Midnight as his album to represent Red Garland.

So there's no need to restrict your choices to pianists who happen to be leaders or co-leaders.

 

Edited 31 minutes ago by HutchFan

[Rooster_Ties]

Herbie’s playing on *The Trainwreck* is — imho — phenomenal (or phenomenally interesting)… …and somewhat in the vein of his contributions to *The All Seeing Eye*.

A really visceral side of Herbie we didn’t get to hear all that often.

[Niko]

43 minutes ago, relyles said:

I am curious how "jazz piano albums" is defined? It seems to be albums where the leader/coleader is a pianist, but where would this put albums where piano is the featured soloist, but the leader is another instrumentalist? How would this impact the lists?

In Iverson's list, it's completely subjective, if you pull it out to listen to piano, it's a piano record... Like, for me, Up in Volly's Room by Art Hodes is clearly a piano record despite the horns, just like Tales of Another by Gary Peacock despite the leader... But the typical piano record is solo or trio and the pianist is the leader...