Monty challenged me to come up with my own list of 50 personally indispensable jazz albums in response to the Amazon 100 list.
The criteria was simple, name the 50 jazz albums I personally could not live without. That’s it… a list of favorite albums (not necessarily the greatest albums either). Anyone who has followed this site knows my taste so most of these albums won’t come as much of a surprise anyway.
Monty’s list is posted here: http://rightheredude.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-top-50-jazz-albums-of-all-time.html
In the meantime, here’s mine…
01. Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
02. Duke Ellington – Money Jungle
03. Clifford Brown & Max Roach – A Study In Brown
04. Thelonious Monk – Monk’s Dream
05. Billie Holiday – Lady Day: The Master Takes
06. Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington – The Great Summit
07. Coleman Hawkins – Body and Soul
08. Ornette Coleman – At The Golden Circle
09. Miles Davis – In A Silent Way
10. Peggy Lee – Black Coffee
11. John Coltrane – Coltrane’s Sound
12. Alice Coltrane – Ptah, the El Daoud
13. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Like Someone In Love
14. Ahmad Jamal – The Legendary Okeh and Epic Recordings
15. Curtis Amy – Katanga!
16. Von Freeman – The Great Divide
17. Mary Lou Williams – Black Christ of the Andes
18. Paul Chambers – Bass on Top
19. Alice Coltrane – Journey in Satchidananda
20. Charlie Rouse – Bossa Nova Bacchanal
21. Thelonious Monk – Misterioso
22. Booker Ervin – The Freedom Book
23. Ike Quebec – Blue and Sentimental
24. Sonny Rollins – Saxophone Colossus
25. John Coltrane – A Love Supreme
26. Miles Davis – Ascenseur Pour L’echafaud (Lift to the Scaffold)
27. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Au Club St. Germain
28. Duke Ellington – Fargo, 1940
29. Coleman Hawkins – Night Hawk
30. Mal Waldron – The Seagulls of Kristiansund
31. Herbie Nichols – Love, Gloom, Cash, Love
32. Jimmy Smith – Back at the Chicken Shack
33. Pharoah Sanders – Jewels of Thought
34. The Jazz Crusaders – Freedom Sound
35. Django Reinhardt – Paris and London
36. Dexter Gordon – Our Man In Paris
37. Andrew Hill – Smokestack
38. Stanley Turrentine – Jubilee Shout!!!
39. Don Byas – Laura
40. Clifford Brown – With Strings
41. Grachan Moncur III – Evolution
42. Earl Hines – Once Upon A Time
43. Horace Parlan – Speakin’ My Piece
44. Lou Blackburn – The Complete Imperial Sessions
45. Sonny Rollins – East Broadway Run Down
46. Carmell Jones – Jay Hawk Talk
47. The Curtis Counce Group – Carl’s Blues
48. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Free For All
49. Paul Gonsalves – Boom Jackie Boom Chick
50. Kenny Burrell – Midnight Blue
