50 Essential Jazz Albums
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- Опубликовано: 13 окт 2024
- Narrowing it down to 50 was no easy task, and some albums that I wanted to include, just couldn't be included. Watch this follow-up video where I discuss how I made the list and what these albums mean to me. 50 Essential Jazz Albums FOLLOW UP
• 50 Essential Jazz Albu...
A complete list of all of the albums, with links to purchase from Amazon can be found at this link: www.aimeenolte...
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I made a Spotify Playlist too: open.spotify.com/user/121243605/playlist/7sos7yWcZYDju17t8xDBBR?si=yRgcFL2AShuqnluIu4MRtw
@michael davino www.aimeenolte.com/essential-jazz-discography
Yay! Exactly what I was hoping for! Thank you!!!!
Here is a youtube list featuring alternate choices that are on the 50. None duplicate the Spotify list above (as I type this). I restricted it to one (or zero) from each album (e.g. why distract from Take Five with Blue Rondo?! :) ). Limiting to one was painful, such as on Joe Pass's Virtuoso and numerous others!
ruclips.net/video/2o9GKoYTagc/видео.html
Thank you Aimee!!!!
Hard to pick 50. for me miles quintett with Tony, Wayne Ron an Herbie is missing. And you skipped the 80ties and almost 90ties entirely. There were things happening and had big influence like the odd meters by Steve Coleman/ Dave Holland, or fusion (Steps Ahead, Chick Corea, John Scofield, Vince Mendoza) or all the ECM stuff, The Marsalis Brothers together with Jeff Tain Watts on drums. I assume you talk about influence and not about „proper way to learn jazz“. People were strongly influenced by those artists. Big band changed a lot too (Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Bob Brookmeyer, Maria Schneider ect)
Great albums. Some albums I missed: Maiden Voyage (Herbie Hancock), In a Silent Way (Miles Davis), Something Else (Cannonball Adderley), Go (Dexter Gordon), My Favourite Things (John Coltrane)
My Favourite Things (Coltrane) - yep definitely one that was probably accidentally overlooked. Brilliant album.
Nice to see some Clifford Brown getting some love.
Excellent! I think our lists would be about 70% inclusive. Mine would include more Charlie Parker, early Ellington, Trane & Hartman, Jimmy Smith, and "A Charlie Brown Christmas". :-)
Very well conceived, but some important omissions:
- Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
- Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
- Miles Davis - 'Round About Midnight
- John Coltrane - My Favorite Things
- Cannonball Adderley - Something Else
- Bill Evans - Portraits in Jazz
- Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage
"'Round About Midnight", "Somethin' Else" and "In A Silent Way" are so good, I'm frankly a bit disappointed Aimee left them off.
@@ursula3438 I think she did a great job Miles has representation Birth of Cool, Kind of Blue and Bitches Brew - you could just about do a top 50 of his albums -
@@shanjayaweera3036 people misapply democracy to everything. a real essential list is going to have a huge number of bird, miles, coltrane, monk, etc (other giants, too). life is not fair
There goes my Sunday! Thank you, Aimee! ❤️
All things considered i really think this is just an absolutely fantastic selection
The Joe Pass “Virtuoso” is great, but the album he did with Ella Fitzgerald is stupendous. Fantasitic example of top floor voice and guitar in the jazz idiom.
My favorite is Catch Me on pacific jazz with the great Albert Stinson on bass and Claire Fisher!..love the ella and joe albums.. especially the medley of beautiful standards.
Pass actually did three albums with Ella Fitzgerald. My favorite is called "Again"
Great suggestions, with a nice mix of eras and genres.
Late 50's definitely my favorite period
so happy to see concert by the sea and Elligton at Newport on the list - the whole list is awesome (Personally I love the Ellington and Coltrane collaboration Album just because of everything the two of the represent)
Just what I needed today!! Thank you, Aimee!! 😁👍🏼
My selection would have been a bit different, but I'm happy that Aimee included Brad Mehldau's "Songs: The Art Of The Trio Vol 3". I love that album.
I had precisely the same thought.
Thanks, Aimee. You have really narrowed it down to a manageable list. It can be a daunting task to listen to a lot of jazz. This is a good place to start, thank you!
Thank you so much! I have been searching for a credible "professional" jazz list to start my collection. This is just what we needed!
Great, simple format. I enjoyed it. Chet Baker got me into Jazz. No mention noticed even in comments??
Chet Baker's "My Favourite Songs, Vols. 1-2: The Last Great Concert" (practically just before his passing) was one of the most heart wrenching performances I've ever heard on record.
Lovely list. Here's some of my favs that aren't mentioned:
Bill Evans - Portraint in Jazz/ Explorations/ You must believe in Spring/ Conversations with myself
John Coltrane - My Favorite things/ John Coltrane with Jonny Hartman/ Soultrane/Ballads
Miles Davis - Round Midnight/ E.S.P/ Miles Smiles
Stan Getz - Sweet Rain/ Focus
John Surman - Upon Reflection
Krzysztof Komeda - Astigmatic
Charles Mingus -The Black Saint and the sinner lady
Cannonball Adderley - Know what i mean (with Evans)
John Coltrane and Duke Ellington - self-titled
Thelonious Monk - Misterioso
Sonny Rollins - The Bridge
Paul Desmond - Take Ten
Wayne Shorter - Adam's Apple
Alice Coltrane - journey in satchidananda
...and many others
Enjoy!
Stan Getz "Sweet Rain" is incredible.
A great list. I will enjoy checking out some of these. Finding the time to listen is the issue. Cheers.
Great list.
For the next: Lennie Tristano.
Maybe "The New Tristano"...
"Upon reflection" is a great album, hardly mentioned, good to see it on your list!
Great selection! Looking forward to the why-video! I did not know all of them...
Wow! What a beautiful list!!! Thank you, Aimee!
My hero Paul Chambers is on so many of those albums, even though he had such a short career. RIP Mr. P.C.
Am already looking forward to exploring these 🎶😊
Hey Aimee, I have a few to add for the top 100!
Mike Clark - Carnival Of Soul 2010
John Scofield - A Go Go 1998
Billy Cobham - Spectrum 1973
Eddie Harris - Mean Greens 1966
Jimmy Smith - Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf 1964
Lee Konitz, Brad Mehldau and Charlie Haden - Alone Together 1997
Maceo Parker - Mo’ Roots 1991
Really nice list! I’ll check out the few I only sort of know. It’s fun to see people chime in with suggestions in the comments too.
Personally, the Keith Jarrett Trio would be on my list. Maybe the Blue Note concerts. Glad you had the Koln Concert.
when you thought this was some random youtube compilation and it was actually Aimee Nolte. Nice!
Great list! I would have found room for Conference of the Birds, Midnight Blue and Miles Smiles but I can't fault any of you choices.
Comprehensive and interesting list. Some absolute classics.
This is fantastic, thank you very much for the upload! I’ve been watching the Ken Burns docu-series on Jazz and listening to the albums in this video and together they’ve thought me tons!!
This is awesome! Just finished running a jazz festival and this is a perfect way to end it! Thank you!
You have all four albums featured in "1959 The Year that Changed Jazz".
Well call me a music ignoramous, but was jazz 'unchanged' prior to 1959? Hadn't jazz been regularly changing since it's birth? Wouldn't the after hours midnight/early morn jam sessions at Mintons or Monroes in the early 1940s, by 'bebop' luminaries such as Dizzy, Parker, Monk, Charlie Christian and others be considered a pivotal period in jazz? Wasn't Coleman Hawkins improvisation on the tenor, especially after hearing Louis in the mid 1920s, be considered important in jazz? What about the 'cool school' that emerged with the likes of Bix and Tram in the lat e1920s - they certainly influenced many jazz musicians of future decades.. I'm sure post the 1960s/1970s, there must be some important changes in jazz (I stopped following, not for lack of quality music). I don't get ''jazz fans'' obsessive preoccupation with just a narrow period in jazz, focusing on the usual must-have albums from the mid 1950s to late 1960s - I mean even Duke Ellington's greatest band the Blanton-Webster of the early 1940s is totally ignored.
Newyork Filharmonik YES! A truly pivotal and incredible year in the history of jazz. I was waiting for 1959 anticipating they would all be there.
Ken Lee There’s a lot that you fail to understand about what happened in the world of jazz in 1959. Did you even watch the documentary?
Love it! No Hancock's Maiden Voyage, Griffin and Coltrane's Blowin Session, Henderson's Inner Urge or Webster's Soulville though?? I know I'd find it hard narrowing it down to 100 let alone 50!
Wow! I'll check those albums out. Especially Wayne Shorter. Thanks! Great video. Watching from London UK 9
𝙔𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 daunting ! This is quite comprehensive . I appreciate the effort . I think you are a very thorough educator . You also seem pretty chill , like human chamomile tea . I'm not even '' into '' jazz , but I still know that this is a good list . Thanks .
No Art Tatum ... 😭
Such a cool list. Chick Coreas beneath the mask is my favorite album of all time because it really shifted my perspective on music but glad to see he made it on the list, after I heard him I got obsessed, now its Guthrie. Sorry for the rant, this stuff just makes me so exited. Cant wait for the discussion.
Excellent choices! Thanks for putting in the work!
So glad that Speak No Evil was on the list!
Aimee this is a great, great list! I own almost all of these on LP and/or CD, although a few of the compilation LPs are somewhat different but have (more or less) the same material. However, I don't have the King Oliver, Errol Garner, Cannonball/ Nancy Wilson, that exact Oscar Peterson (although I have some of its tunes on a compilation), the Cecil Taylor , the MJQ, the Brad Mehldau, or the Michael Brecker albums you listed.
One correction re: "The Complete Birth of the Cool" by Miles Davis. While the 33 &1/3 RPM LP album itself was indeed first issued in 1957, the tunes were recorded in 1949 and 1950 and most, if not all, were released as 78 RPM "singles" (two tunes, one on each side) in '49 or early '50s.
Again a GREAT LIST!!!. I think anyone that went and got these records would have the start of a well rounded jazz collection with no duds!! I'm more of a rabid fan/record collector than a musician although I played harmonica in a blues band for a while (many years ago) and was a live sound engineer in the late 80s through the 90s. If I put together a similar jazz list it would include AT LEAST 30 of the same titles! My list would have a few more Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins records, an Art Tatum solo piano compilation, a Dexter Gordon record, "Sing a Song of Basie" (1957) by Lambert Hendricks and Ross, "Undercurrent" (1962) by Bill Evans & Jim Hall, "Conference of the the Birds" (1972) and "Prime Directive" (1999) by Dave Holland, and something by Regina Carter like "Free Fall" (2000) which is a duet with Kenny Barron.
Sorry for all the exclamation marks! (LOL), but I got very excited by this list.
Cannonball Adderly: Live in SF
Maynard Ferguson: Live at Jimmy's.
Phil Woods: Floresta Canto...gonna keep adding as titles come to me.
My father was a jazz pianist. We wuz poor...but So much richer than everyone else.
He was inducted into the Kansas City Jazz Hall of Fame in 1996.
what is your fathers name?
I do a jazz radio show, and the 50's--60's portion of this could be my playlist; really well-done list. Of course some things are missing for everybody, how could they not be? For me some Dex, Go or Biting the Apple; either an early or late Joe; Zoot with Rowles (how does a piano player not have Jimmy somewhere--the Billie sessions with Ben W., or The Peacocks with Getz, or the first album with Zoot, or the duo with Al Cohn...); some Detroit piano--Hank, Tommy or Barry. Barry plays Tadd Dameron is so perfect as relaxed bebop playing. I could go on. But a lot of this list had me saying "yep, yep", as it went by. Thanks!
The first Album I purchased in 1958, 'Jazz Impressions of Eurasia'. It was a good start.👍
So I went through the list with my collection and was actually missing quite a bit more than I thought. Thank you for introducing me to these new albums that I might have never found.
There are just so many classic albums.
Thanks a lot! Great list, this will support me the next couple of years.
Three suggestions:
1. Following many comments where we get several other Miles Davis records, we could give Miles the ‘Sinatra c.s. approach’ with a) MD collected Blue Note (‘49-‘54), b) MD collected Prestige (‘54-‘56), c) MD collected Columbia (‘49-‘89) and d) collected WarnerBros (‘86-‘91), together ‘MD Collected ‘49-‘91’;
2. John Scofield has to be here. My personal choice is Still Warm, but with my first bullet being supported, I’m fine with John playing on Miles’ Star People (great blues album, also with Mike Stern), Decoy and You’re under arrest (also John McLaughlin), here we also get Darryl Jones from / for the ‘80’s;
3. Lennie Tristano (album same name) I would love on this list.
As Clare Fischer and a Monk album with ‘Round Midnight.
Brad Mehldau allready included is great! And well deserved.
Glad I can see him nearly every year in The Netherlands. John Scofield idem. Thank you guys!
Thanks aimee, happy that i know a lot of those, and a whole other lot to listen to
In the voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame there's always one person who will never vote for ANYONE first ballot. This accounts for the one do not like. There's always one.
This is an AWESOME list. I don't see how any well listened jazzhead can disagree.
Excellent job.
"Excellence does not require perfection."
I usually don't see "At the Pershing: But Not for Me" on top 50 lists but I completely agree. It was the first Jazz album I bought. Nice list in general.
funny - Amad never made mainstream for me but he was certainly great...
Hello Aimee I’ve just come to say I love you! Thanks by all from Brazil
I love you too!
Nice solid selection.
Love Paul Desmond sax 🎷 style.... Top mate
Great list and i have many of them but have some work to do thanks
Hella list here. So many left out. But none can argue with these. I have about 28 of the ones listed here. Will get the others.
Wonderful list aimee! Ive had these albums in my years of collecting. We are so lucky to have been given these gifts from these incredible artists and for having you share your talent with us!! Thank you Aimee.
Thanks a lot😋. I'll discover jazz history thanks to you and this video😀
Ditto! Aimee is lovely as she educates without being condescending. Many jazz aficionados I find very snobby and elitist. I have no time for those people. It's those who will give everything a chance and try to grow their musical tastes I admire. That obviously would include you.
Saludos y BENDICIONES desde Puerto Rico
good Monk pick. The blossoming of Monk to the world, all original compositions after the Ellington and standards albums.
The most balanced list I´ve seen. Personally, I do not enjoy fusion so much, but I understand that all styles should be represented. I missed Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Andrew Hill, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, and Kenny Dorham. There are some (great ) albums that could fill two of these gaps simultaneously: say, "Art Tatum and Ben Webster", "Coleman Hawkins encounters Ben Webster", "Our Man in Paris"( D. Gordon, B.Powell and also Kenny Clark), and "Point of Departure"( A.Hill, K.Dorham and also Joe Henderson). The last one is one of my all time´s favourite, and a good point of departure to enjoy "modern jazz". Personally I would like to see Dorham also represented as a leader ( "Quiet Kenny" perhaps), but this is probably a too personal choice.
Thanks Aimee!! Building my Apple Music “Aimee Nolte Jazz Essentials” playlist right now!
Excellent list! I'm surprised how many of these I own or have owned in one medium or another -- almost all from the fifties and sixties. Thank you for sharing this.
Many that I have and many that I’ve not heard (or heard of!) Awesome! Looking forward to your follow up video(s).
Of course you invite the “but what about...?” So here’s mine - but what about something from Miles Davis’s second great quintet?😁😁
I have 50 or Bird CDs and I didn't have the Massey hall album shown here. STELLAR Pick!
Of course an impossible task to please everyone. Well done. Some of my personal considerations: Frank Rosolino, Carl Fontana , Bill Watrous, Maynard Ferguson, Clark Terry, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Chicago…. You get the idea. Lot’s of love, thanks always .
Great choose!!
Thanks Aimee!!
Thank you so much for this video amie
Thanks for the recommendations, Aimee!!!
Definetly I'm gonna check for the ones that I haven't heard yet.
I'd like to mention the:
Ella Fitzgerald - Mack the knife: Live in Berlin
Ella is superb in that album that I love and probably you already know but, if you haven't, please check it out totally worth it.
Love your channel, Aimeel!! 🤗 Jazz, Jazz, Jazz!!!
great selection aimee! thanks for providing us such an invaluable list!
www.aimeenolte.com/essential-jazz-discography
These are great selections. Just a few more things people should really check out. Somethin’ Else, Phenix and almost anything by Roy Hargrove. I would recommend Earfood as my personal favorite but he was simply fantastic.
Big fan of your teaching videos and esp. Aimee's Riffing-While-Skating videos! And even though I agree with (and own) at least 35 of these 50, I think the 80's and 90's are far enough away to know if there was anything essential (20-30yrs). It seems like you don't care for W. Marsalis, but I'd argue that either "Black Codes..." or "Majesty of the Blues" or "Citi Movement" should be up there - even by the standards often used by the straight-up (and sad) Wynton Haters Club, Inc. (not saying you're in that tribe).
Thanks for all you do!
Great list. Thank you for this. I'll be checking them out. :)
I've owned a lot of those instrumental albums. I would have dropped Headhunters and added Dexter Calling. And squeezed Betty Carter in there for a vocalist. All in all, great taste displayed.
Cool. I have a few of these albums.
I listened to Virtuoso by Joe Pass for the first time last night. Holy crap! I don't know how I completely missed this album.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for introducing me to Ahmad Jamal!!!! I thought maybe I was going to run out music that just blows me away from the first listen. Apparently not yet. The use of dynamics in his music is so addicting.
Awesome list!
I will nominate Wynton Marsalis' Black Code from the Underground as an essential album for representing the " revival " period of jazz during the early 80's
No argument with any of these, but I would like to add a shout out to Dave Holland's Conference of the Birds and Julian Lage's Gladwell. Also Kenny Burrell's Midnight Blue.
Really appreciate this, fantastic list!
Gracias
This honestly shows how underrated Joe Henderson is. I really believe that Page One or Inner Urge should be in this list. I still really enjoyed the video! Thanks!
He’s on The Real McCoy. I feel you tho. It’s one of the things I’ll discuss in the next video.
I saw him play at Ohio State University a few years before he passed away. He came out on stage alone at first, just him and his horn, and proceeded to levitate the entire auditorium about three feet off the ground. The most amazing display of musical talent I ever witnessed.
I don't remember seeing Duke Ellington on the list, (as an example) it's a matter of musical perspective.
Aimee's primarily a pianist singer and it reflects her ear. People listen towards their training. Had the multi-talented author spent more time (I think she has some type of sax knowledge) she might have been more inclined to include him, but I agree, he does go under the radar.
Gonna go play me Joe right now. :)
Can’t argue with anything on your list.
Good list!
This is an amazing list, to be sure, but mine would include more ECM artists like Jan Garbarek and Eberhard Weber. Also: Oregon, an amazing quartet from the 70s (who are still around, minus the original sitarist Collin Wallcott who tragically died young).
Personal taste of course - I would include Ahmad Jamal “Ahmad’s Blues”, Charlie Byrd “By the Sea”, Duke Ellington “The Pianist”, Paul Desmond - various, Zoot Sims - various, Wynton Marsalis, James Morrison - huge job - well done!!
Great list thanks for taking the time to compile. Have you listened to Sonny Clark "Cool Struttin".You know you're jazz thanks
YES! What an absolute fantastic listening experience that album is. Great pick!
Thanks for Django!
Thank you for this. I can now fill in the gaps. I was curious when I saw the video link what you were going to choose as I am always wary of 'essential' lists. Yet certainly from both a historical and learning perspective the ordering and choices are impeccable IMO. Maybe these lists could b entitled 50 essential jazz albums selection one leaving you space to do another fifty that you couldn't fit kin to the first round? I noticed not many singers on the list. I doubt others will agree with me but Lambert, Hendrick ad Ross I'd love to see on the list or at least Jon Hendricks.
Only two albums from 2000 onwards is both curious, interesting and possibly concerning. Maybe it takes time like a fine vintage wine for greatness to be appreciated?
I have a couple of those albums, the Dinah Washington one and Oscar Petersen. So much great music out there.
Interesting. I've made a note of the small handful don't have already.
This feels very much like everyone's list of top fifty jazz albums. Most of these records belong on a list of 50 records you should get to know very well while you are learning about listening to Jazz. I would expect that a person who had listened to jazz for many years would have a certain percentage of these on their list, maybe 50%, but I would also expect an experienxced listener, someone who's been listening for thirty, forty or fifty years, even a short ten years to have a much more personal list. When I saw your followup video it did explain alot. This is, it seems a list of the top 50 best selling, most hyped jazz records of all times. Anyway, a great list, one which by now, four years after this post could have evolved quite a bit by now.
Thank you Aimee!!!!!
Great selection, and many here that I need to acquire. One of my favorites, "Concierto" (Jim Hall and pals) didn't make the list, but maybe when you do the next fifty?
Well this is going to take time, it takes me a month to get over an album or two
It's very telling how many of the great Jazz albums are from the 1957 - 1963 Era, A Golden period. And you could have included a lot more ( Sketches of Spain)
Great list. I would've included Miles' sketches of Spain, Herbie's maiden voyage, Mahavishnu's inner mounting flame, and Oregon's winter light.
But if your list is 50, which ones are you excluding?
Wonderful list - as is always the case, and should always be the case, there are some artists where I might choose one album over another ... but that comes with the joy of having these amazing artists with such a breadth and depth of work where we can have a spirited debate about album X or Y while ultimately agreeing that BOTH are excellent! I was actually a little saddened that I own all of these ... had my pen and paper ready :). I know that ‘lists’ tend to get people upset if their pet choice isn’t represented, but in my case I was hoping to learn stuff I have missed through the years!
50 Mainstream Jazz Lps here, the 'magic' tends to escape the masses in Jazz and other genres. Some great efforts in the Jazz field, very broad soundscape, but mostly 70's onwards, many on ECM. 70's was a seminal time for Clasical, Rock, Soul, 'World', Ambient....as well as Jazz. I own about 500 Jazz Lp's but only the Shorter and Jarrett from this list might be ''essential''.
*Ferb, I know what we’re gonna do today*
Good choices..
Thank you so much for this!
Great! Thanks!
Brilliant!
Thank you so much!!!..)