While finishing “Bird-Watcher," a Profile of the jazz broadcaster and expert Phil Schaap, I thought it might be useful to compile a list of a hundred essential jazz albums, more as a guide for the uninitiated than as a source of quarrelling for the collector. First, I asked Schaap to assemble the list, but, after a couple of false starts, he balked. Such attempts, he said, have been going on for a long time, but “who remembers the lists and do they really succeed in driving people to the source?" Add to that, he said, “the dilemma of the current situation," in which music is often bought and downloaded from dubious sources. Schaap bemoaned the loss of authoritative discographies and the “troubles" of the digital age, particularly the loss of informative aids like liner notes and booklets. In the end, he provided a few basic titles from Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Miles Davis, and other classics and admitted to a “pyrrhic victory."
What follows is a list compiled with the help of my New Yorker colleague Richard Brody. These hundred titles are meant to provide a broad sampling of jazz classics and wonders across the music's century-long history. Early New Orleans jazz, swing, bebop, cool jazz, modal jazz, hard bop, free jazz, third stream, and fusion are all represented, though not equally. We have tried not to overdo it with expensive boxed sets and obscure imports; sometimes it couldn't be helped. We have also tried to strike a balance between healthy samplings of the innovative giants (Armstrong, Ellington, Parker, Davis, Coltrane, etc.) and the greater range of talents and performances.
Since the nineteen-seventies, jazz has been branching out in so many directions that you would need to list at least another hundred recordings, by the likes of Steve Coleman, Stanley Jordan, Joe Lovano, Jacky Terrasson, John Zorn, David Murray, Avishai Cohen, Bela Fleck, Eliane Elias, Roy Hargrove, Dave Douglas, Matthew Shipp, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Fat Kid Wednesdays, and many, many others. There is a suggestion below of the dazzling scope of contemporary jazz, but the focus is on the classic jazz that is Schaap's specialty.
What follows is a list compiled with the help of my New Yorker colleague Richard Brody. These hundred titles are meant to provide a broad sampling of jazz classics and wonders across the music's century-long history. Early New Orleans jazz, swing, bebop, cool jazz, modal jazz, hard bop, free jazz, third stream, and fusion are all represented, though not equally. We have tried not to overdo it with expensive boxed sets and obscure imports; sometimes it couldn't be helped. We have also tried to strike a balance between healthy samplings of the innovative giants (Armstrong, Ellington, Parker, Davis, Coltrane, etc.) and the greater range of talents and performances.
Since the nineteen-seventies, jazz has been branching out in so many directions that you would need to list at least another hundred recordings, by the likes of Steve Coleman, Stanley Jordan, Joe Lovano, Jacky Terrasson, John Zorn, David Murray, Avishai Cohen, Bela Fleck, Eliane Elias, Roy Hargrove, Dave Douglas, Matthew Shipp, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Fat Kid Wednesdays, and many, many others. There is a suggestion below of the dazzling scope of contemporary jazz, but the focus is on the classic jazz that is Schaap's specialty.
- Fats Waller, Handful of Keys (Proper, 2004; tracks recorded 1922-43).
- King Oliver, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band: The Complete Set (Challenge, 1997; tracks recorded 1923).
- Louis Armstrong, The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings (Sony, 2006; tracks recorded 1925-29).
- Louis Armstrong, The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (RCA, 2001; tracks recorded 1932-33 and 1946-47).
- Louis Armstrong, Louis Armstrong Plays W. C. Handy (Columbia, 1954).
- Fletcher Henderson, Tidal Wave (Verve, 1994; tracks recorded 1931-1934).
- Bessie Smith, The Essential Bessie Smith (Sony, 1997; tracks recorded 1923-33).
- Bix Beiderbecke, The Bix Beiderbecke Story (Proper, 2003; tracks recorded 1924-30).
- Django Reinhardt, The Classic Early Recordings in Chronological Order (JSP, 2000; tracks recorded 1934-39).
- Jelly Roll Morton, Jelly Roll Morton: 1926-1930 (JSP, 2000).
- Sidney Bechet, The Sidney Bechet Story (Proper, 2001; tracks recorded 1923-50).
- Duke Ellington, The OKeh Ellington (Sony, 1991—tracks recorded 1927-31).
- Duke Ellington, Golden Greats (Disky, 2002; tracks recorded 1927-48).
- Duke Ellington, Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band (RCA, 2003; tracks recorded 1940-42).
- Duke Ellington, Ellington at Newport 1956 (Sony, 1999).
- Duke Ellington, Money Jungle (Blue Note Records, 1962).
- Coleman Hawkins, The Essential Sides Remastered, 1929-39 (JSP, 2006).
- Coleman Hawkins, The Bebop Years (Proper, 2001; tracks recorded 1939-49).
- Billie Holiday, Lady Day: The Master Takes and Singles (Sony, 2007; tracks recorded 1933-44).
- Teddy Wilson, The Noble Art of Teddy Wilson (ASV Living Era, 2002; tracks recorded 1933-46).
- Lester Young, The Lester Young/Count Basie Sessions 1936-40 (Mosaic, 2008; available direct through Mosaic).
- Lester Young, Kansas City Swing (Definitive, 2004; tracks recorded 1938-44).
- Count Basie, The Complete Decca Recordings (Verve, 1992; tracks recorded 1937-39).
- Count Basie, The Complete Atomic Basie (Blue Note, 1994; tracks recorded 1958).
- Benny Goodman, At Carnegie Hall—1938—Complete (Columbia, 1999).
For more information contact All About Jazz.
