What are the best jazz albums?

me ^ | now | me

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

my choices in no particular order:

miles davis - kind of blue
charles mingus - black saint and the sinner lady
john coltrane - a love supreme
duke ellington - the webster-blanton years
the quintet - live at massey hall
sonny rollins - saxophone colossus
bill evans - live at the village vanguard

[BluesDuke]

The Dizzy Gillespie proper album by which I would swear would be his late-1950s bop orchestral set, Gillespiana. The pleasing surprise: the compositions by Lalo Schifrin, who was a pure jazz composer/experimenter before going to film music and, among other things, composing - Gawd help us - the theme from Mission: Impossible!
McCoy Tyner has always been a very colouristic pianist, but I have always thought he never quite delivered as strongly as with his earlier work with John Coltrane (before, of course, Coltrane went right off his crumpet). Freddie Hubbard I can take in supporting dosage only; I could never really make myself comfortable with his punch-and-stab style of soloing in his own settings as when he would work it deftly within work by Art Blakey or Horace Silver or Herbie Hancock (he was brilliant on Hancock's Maiden Voyage album). And as for Django Reinhardt, I'm still waiting for someone to clean up the mess that has been made of his catalogue and put the Quintette of the Hot Club of France back where it belongs: complete, up front, and available in a set worthy of the man's art.

I swear by Ella and Louis's Porgy and Bess as (sorry, Miles) the best you will ever hear of that seminal work. Then again, I also swear that the best of the Songbooks was The Duke Ellington Songbook, though any of the ones she did with Nelson Riddle's orchestra are always worth hearing. And I still love to listen to the one record she did get to cut with Benny Goodman (who actually wanted to hire her, before Chick Webb locked her in - and whose death turned her into his orchestra's bandleader), "Goodnight, My Love".

[BluesDuke]

What other albums would any of you suggest for that crossover sound of hard bop and free jazz?

Albert Ayler Trio, Spiritual Unity
John Coltrane, Coltrane and Impressions
Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come and Ornette!
Miles Davis, ESP

[A Navy Vet]

Anyone heard of a '60's eastern fusion guitarist Gabor Zabo? Use to like his stuff...or Wes Montegomery. Then I digressed back to RnR.

[RIGHT IN SEATTLE]

Countrypolitians

[petbop]

Go here: "http://www.doubletimejazz.com/index_new.htm
Click on 100 historically significant jazz albums. Great list and great prices.

[Lower55]

You're still here? Let's put it this way. You know what you know, I know what I know, but you don't know what I know.

[Lower55]

Oh, and speaking of newbies, you're brand spanking newbie, huh?

[Lower55]

Oh my! Are you Elvis??????

[AmericanVictory]

A lot of good listening, but here are a few odd balls that many years ago I listened to over and over.

Don't know if there was an album, but Jimmy Giufre playing "The Train and the River" was a great. Also the early Mose Allison. Charlie Byrd did some great things, especially with Keeter Betts on bass.

[willyboyishere]

The Artistry of Mark Murphy(vocal)
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
Ornette Coleman live at the Golden Circle
"The String Project" (unofficial title of yet-to-be-released album by Steve Kuhn)--my wife, who is a good friend of Kuhn's has heard this and thinks it will make Jazz history.

[Lower55]

I believe I'd play a little Garth Brooks over that mess....lol