Via largehearted boy, I see Time put out a 7 Greatest Jazz CD’s list. Not too bad, really. As far as jazz goes, my tastes are pretty strange, and not necessarily in a good way...basically, the less jazzy it sounds, the more likely I am to like it (think: Charles Mingus and all his craziness, Miles and his experimentation with funk and guitar). I just realized that this actually makes me a bit of a hypocrite because I always make fun of my wife when she comments that she only likes fish that doesn’t taste fishy. But I digress. This is still a pretty agreeable list.
Ones I’d keep on the list...
Birth of the Cool – not my favorite (too “jazzy”, of course), but it is still pretty monumental. I haven’t heard the “complete” edition.
A Love Supreme – phenomenal. Going back to the analogy with my wife, even if something tastes fishy, if it’s really really good fishy, it’s okay. This is really really jazzy (in fact, it pretty much set the template for most jazz for the next 40 years), but it is absolutely fantastic. Nobody’s ever made a sax sound happier than Coltrane did here.
Live at Massey Hall – even if it weren’t any good, it would probably make the list simply for the fact that the quintet consisted of Parker, Mingus, Powell, Roach, and Dizzy. That’s five first-ballot Hall of Famers within about 20 feet of each other. That, and the aforementioned tension makes for an interesting listen.
Hot Fives and Sevens – I don’t even own this one, but Louis Armstrong deserves to be on the list.
What I’d add to the list...
Charles Mingus, Black Saint and the Sinner Lady – absolute chaos with unique instrumentation and lots of deep sounds. The moment I heard this album, I went out and bought 3 other Mingus albums and his autobiography...which could possibly be the strangest autobiography of all time.
Miles Davis, A Tribute to Jack Johnson – this is jazz, but barely. Think 50% jazz, 40% funk, 10% rock. Crazy stuff. Two tracks, 50 (or so) minutes...and it keeps your attention anyway. I’ve always intended to get the “complete” edition of this one just because these two jams are so intriguing. Eh, it’ll happen someday I’m sure.
Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane – my all-time favorite jazz song is “Trinkle Tinkle”...I’m not totally sure why, but it is. But everything on this album is excellent, and Thelonious deserves a mention on the list.
I would have put Kind of Blue on here as well, but for whatever reason didn’t. You figure it out. Guess I didn’t want three Miles albums on the list...even though this is probably a better album than Birth of the Cool. I also failed to get Nina Simone on the list, but hey...7’s a pretty small number...
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