Bop and Beyond’s 50 Personally Indispensable Jazz Albums:

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

Amazon’s 100 Greatest Jazz Albums of All-Time

Amazon has posted their “100 Greatest Jazz Albums of All-Time” and it is an interesting list to say the least. Ornette Coleman tops out at number one with…

A controversial pick to be sure, though I love the ballsiness of it. I’m also impressed with any list smart enough to include such under-valued virtuosos as Alice Coltrane, Ahmad Jamal, and Andrew Hill.

You can view the list here:

Amazon’s 100 Greatest Jazz Albums of All-Time

Download last night’s Andrew Hill Tribute (plus his last concert)

(Show here) http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q6X9TRFH 

(Concert) http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/calendar/index.php?event_id=39988

(Richard Davis, Hill’s longtime bassist, reflects on Hill here) http://www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD11/PoD11AndrewHill.html

Andrew Hill Remembered

EDIT~! This show has been rescheduled for 04/02/08!

March 29th, 2007, Andrew Hill gave his last public performance at Trinity Church in New York City. Less than a month later, on April 20th, 2007, he passed away at the age of 75.

It is only since that performance, and his passing, that I have become submerged in his musical world. I feel blessed that I was given a chance to see him. Andrew Hill was a phenomenon and this week’s episode of Bop and Beyond is dedicated to his memory.

Mosaic Records has finally succeeded in issuing everything that Andrew Hill has ever recorded. We will be hearing from their Mosaic Select box the “string and organ” sessions, as well as tracks from his more famous Blue Note albums. Also, I tracked down an ultra-rare date by Jimmy Woods featuring Andrew Hill as a sideman:

The line-up is ill:

Jimmy Woods – alto sax / Harold Land – tenor sax / Carmell Jones – trumpet / Andrew Hill – piano / George Tucker – bass / Elvin Jones – drums

Bop and Beyond, Wednesdays from 6pm to 8pm

http://www.prattradio.com

(Download to follow)

Ladies and Gentlemen, Carmell Jones!

EDIT~! Here is the download for this program:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9OOUBA7N

“After listening to jazz all my life, it is amazing to listen to a reissue from many decades ago and realize I’m listening to a major jazz artist who is totally unknown to me.”

The above quote is from a customer review of the Mosaic Select: Carmell Jones set collecting all of Carmell’s dates as a leader and sideman for Pacific Jazz in the early 1960’s. Since ordering this set three months ago, I have tracked down every single session, currently available, that Carmell Jones performed on. Why? Because, without question, Carmell Jones is one of the greatest jazz trumpeters to ever have existed. A musician “beyond category” as Duke Ellington would say. Someone whose name deserves to be spoken in the same breath as a Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, or Lee Morgan. In fact, Carmell’s style excapsulates the best elements of those three while still cultivating a voice that is distinctly his own.

I am dedicating the entirety of my program on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 to the recorded legacy of Carmell Jones. From his early work for the Pacific Jazz label to his session work with Horace Silver, Gerard Wilson, Jimmy Woods, and Harold Land, I hope to paint as complete a picture of man as I can. Carmell Jones, a name that should no longer belong to obscurity.

Bop and Beyond / Weds, 6pm to 8pm

http://www.prattradio.com