Having recently completed a survey of the Best Live Rock Albums, I have learned a couple of valuable things. One is a list of this sort should be presented in descending order starting with number 10 and descending to number 1. Second, it is better to poll a group for their opinions and develop the list from an analytical (or pseudoanalytical) evaluation of the results. This is how the Top Ten Best Live Jazz Recordings (1953-65) were selected. I polled the writership of All About Jazz, combined the results and ranked the recordings. For recordings that tied in number of votes, I arbitrarily selected the order (I had to exert editorial control somewhere!).

Live Jazz is perhaps the most natural creative state in music. Performing jazz means a musician must create a work of art on the spot, composition in real time. In this series, I hope to highlight historic events where this invention has not been merely successful, but transcendent.

#1 At The Village Vanguard Bill Evans (1961) #4 At Antibes Charles Mingus (1960) #7 At Birdland John Coltrane (1963) #10 At Massey Hall The Quintet (1953)

#2 At The Village Vanguard John Coltrane (1961) #5 At Newport 1956 Duke Ellington (1956) #8 At The Half Note Wes Montgomery (1965)

#3 At The Plugged Nickel Miles Davis (1965) #6 At The Village Vanguard Sonny Rollins (1957) #9 Concert By The Sea Erroll Garner (1955)

#11 - The Best of the Rest ...