Greatest Jazz Album

[trish]

I used to listen to Monk for hours. The melodies and rhythms are so angular, and yet he swings so easy. Another M composer I adore is Mingus...already mentioned above. But nobody mentioned the Haitian Fight Song (on the Clown) or The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. Can't click submit without mentioning Triple Scoop by Brown, Alexander and Ellis.

[Dirky]

It took me awhile to get into The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady but now I'm hooked. It's not as accessible as some of his earlier stuff.

[rax123]

Bitches Brew.

[hippifried]

Wow! All these dead guys... Jazz is still around. It just drowned out by the money noise from the sales of rock n roll. We tend to think of jazz as a specific structured genre with a starting date in the '20s, but Beethoven was renowned in his time for his improvisations that never got written down. I can't help but think that musicians have been gathering together & creating all kinds of great jams for as long as there's been instruments. That won't stop, & jazz is just improvisation without regard to structure.

Anyway... I refuse to say best, but here's a couple of favorites in no particular order or style:

Charles Mingus - Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife

Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool

Miles Davis - Bitch's Brew

Gary Bartz - Red & Orange Poems

Pharoah Sanders - Karma

Spyro Gyra - Morning Dance

Les McCann - Swiss Movement

Thelonious Monk quartet with John Coltrane - at Carnegie Hall

[Dirky]

Wow! All these dead guys... Jazz is still around. It just drowned out by the money noise from the sales of rock n roll.

Rock and roll ain't too healthy either these days. Still more popular than jazz but both genres have peaked a long time ago.

[peggygee]

There is no such thing as "the best Jazz album". Jazz has no boundaries for experiments and innovations which is why you got Bebop, Hard Bop, Free Jazz, Fusion, Jazz-funk etc.
......
Other fav artists are Monk, Mingus, Charlie Parker, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Dizzy during his Afrocuban phase, Fusion stuff like Weather Report, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever, Al Di Meola etc. The list is endless. Btw, I think Miles´ best record was Bitches Brew. This record was the birth of Jazz-Fusion.

I'm inclined to agree with your sentiments that it's nearly impossible to
pin down a favorite jazz album, though you have mentioned a few of my
faves.

Others are Ramsey Lewis, Wes Montgomery, Horace Silver, Jimmy Smith,
Herbie Hancock, Trane, Bird, Miles, Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra, Cal Tjader,

I particularly love jazz vocalists: Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, Cassandra Wilson,
Dianne Schurr, Sarah Vaughn, Tony Bennett, Dinah Wahington, Peggy
Lee, no relation :P

Latin jazz, smooth jazz, fusion jazz, mainstream, etc.

I can get into Dorsey, Artie Shaw,, Gene Krupa.

The list is endless.....

[howdydoody]

I don't know about the GREATEST ever but...

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Dave Brubeck - Time Out

...are my favorite

[hippifried]

Wow! All these dead guys... Jazz is still around. It just drowned out by the money noise from the sales of rock n roll.

Rock and roll ain't too healthy either these days. Still more popular than jazz but both genres have peaked a long time ago.

Nah. It's just jam mediums. I even have a problem thinking about it as separate genres. When you think about it, the only difference is the consistency of the backbeat & progressions. There's a lot of great musicians out there. You never hear about them. They're doing session work, & jamming in the little hole in the wall clubs. Some are playing rock or country or whatever for a living, & jamming with the cats who can keep up in their off time. They'll be playing whether they get paid or not, but there's always a music scene. Everybody who can play wants to jam with somebody else.

"...& Harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene.
He's got a daytime job. He's doing all right..."

[El Nino]

dp

[El Nino]

Hippifried, have you heard Herbie Hanckock's album entitled "Sextant"? It came out in 1973, and is truly off the charts. You have to listen to it a few times before "it" hits you. Please people, listen to Sextant! Oh, I also like Ahmad Jamal's playing...