7 Greatest Jazz CDs according to Time Magazine

[Lois Gilbert]

7 Greatest Jazz CDs
A fearless pick of the hippest and coolest ever. Let the arguments begin
By CHRISTOPHER PORTERFIELD

BILLIE HOLIDAY LADY DAY: THE BEST OF BILLIE HOLIDAY

Many other singers had better pipes or more agile techniques. But nobody transformed a song into something as deeply personal and affecting--and swinging--as Holiday. In these two discs, her reedy, frayed-at-the-edges voice, teasingly lagging the beat, instinctively breathes the bittersweet essence of the jazz life. What's more, she is surrounded by the finest sidemen of the era (1935-42), including pianist Teddy Wilson and her musical and emotional soul mate, tenor saxophonist Lester Young.

MILES DAVIS THE COMPLETE BIRTH OF THE COOL

In the late 1940s, Davis teamed up for the first of his epochal collaborations with arranger Gil Evans. They assembled an unusual nonet, including a tuba and French horn, and began experimenting with a new kind of writing. The goals: dense, rich sonorities, a "cool," vibrato-free style of playing and a tight meshing of the charts and soloists (among them baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and trombonist J.J. Johnson). Result: a reshaping of the modern jazz aesthetic.

JOHN COLTRANE A LOVE SUPREME

John Updike once said Vladimir Nabokov wrote prose the only way it should be written: ecstatically. That's the way the Coltrane quartet plays here. The four-part suite, composed to celebrate Coltrane's spiritual triumph over drug addiction, ranges hypnotically from a meditative murmur to fierce shrieks, with Coltrane's tenor sax surging to astonishing inventiveness and intensity. The 1964 album staked out frontiers of harmony, rhythm and structure that musicians are still exploring today.

CHARLIE CHRISTIAN THE GENIUS OF THE ELECTRIC GUITAR

In the years B.C. (before Christian), the jazz guitar was mostly a rhythm instrument. In his hands, it emerged as a brilliantly lyrical solo voice, one that echoes in virtually every electric guitarist who has followed. Christian's death from tuberculosis at 25 made him one of jazz's greatest might-have-beens. This four-disc package--largely his 1939-41 appearances as a precocious star of Benny Goodman's combos--proves that he was one of jazz's greatest, period.

CHARLIE PARKER COMPLETE JAZZ AT MASSEY HALL

Pianist Bud Powell was drunk. Parker was playing a plastic saxophone borrowed from a local music store. At one point, bassist Charles Mingus got so angry at trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's antics that he stomped offstage. Yet on this night of May 15, 1953, at Toronto's Massey Hall, the musicians, along with drummer Max Roach, somehow pulled together to give an incandescent, unforgettable performance. Captured in a low-fi taping by Mingus and Roach, the concert showed what bebop--and live jazz--was all about.

DUKE ELLINGTON NEVER NO LAMENT: THE BLANTON-WEBSTER BAND

It was already a superb band, featuring such Ellington stalwarts as Johnny Hodges, Cootie Williams and Juan Tizol. But after bassist Jimmie Blanton and tenor-sax man Ben Webster signed on in 1939 and '40, it became the leader's best ever. The compelling evidence is on these three discs, on tracks like Cotton Tail, Ko-Ko, Jack the Bear and Harlem Air-Shaft. Individual glories abound, but the band's chief glory remains the nonpareil jazz composer whose instrument it was: the Duke himself.

LOUIS ARMSTRONG HOT FIVES AND SEVENS Forget the Satchmo who sang and mugged his way through his later decades, wonderfully entertaining as he was. This is Armstrong the force of nature--exuberant, inspired, irresistible. His ringing, soaring trumpet improvisations in the 1920s not only established him as jazz's first pre-eminent and pervasively influential soloist but also propelled jazz from a shambling, collective folk music into an art form. Many versions of these indispensable sides are available; the four-disc set from London-based JSP offers the best remastered sound.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/pr...191822,00.html

[Ron Thorne]

Oh, man. The responses to this thread should be very interesting, to say the least.

I'm gonna sit back and watch the fireworks for a bit, but have a couple of innocent, rhetorical questions to begin the proceedings.

• Who is Christopher Porterfield? I mean, I know that he's a Time A&E contributor, but . . .

• Why was the number 7 chosen?

Carry on.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Seems like a conservative list of fairly safe choices to me -- whoever the guy is, I'm not sure he's bringing anything new to the table.

He does need to check his arithmetic, though, as these are 15 CDs, not 7.


°°°°°°

My seven?


Mingus -- Black Saint & The Sinner Lady

Billie Holiday -- Billie's Love Songs (superior job of cleaning up the sound)

Coltrane -- Interstellar Space

Duke -- And His Mother Called Him Bill

Miles -- Jack Johnson (although I can live with their choice of TBOTC)

Cecil Taylor -- Indent

Sergey Kuryokhin -- Some Combinations of Fingers and Passion

[Ron Thorne]

Originally Posted by Squaredancecalling Steve

Seems like a conservative list of fairly safe choices to me -- whoever the guy is, I'm not sure he's bringing anything new to the table.

I agree, Steve.

Originally Posted by Squaredancecalling Steve

He does need to check his arithmetic, though, as these are 15 CDs, not 7.

I'm willing to cut him some slack for referring to 7 titles as 7 CDs.

How anyone could pare down a list of greatest jazz artists/recordings to seven is beyond my comprehension, frankly. The list of overlooked *greats* would be staggering.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Originally Posted by Ron Thorne

How anyone could pare down a list of greatest jazz artists/recordings to seven is beyond my comprehension, frankly. The list of overlooked *greats* would be staggering.

Of course! Remember Bob Dylan hammering that Time reporter in the movie "Don't Look Back!", explaining that people who read Time want their news (I'm paraphrasing) in small, neat packages. Same process of simplifying and dumbing down at work here, too.

I could see a list like this being interesting if the writer was going to surprise us and suggest a radical new addition to the jazz canon; but it's hard to know what might have motivated this same-old-same-old.

[John P. Cooper]

What's the point, anyway? Someone cancel an ad at the last minute and leave them with open space?

[mke]

I don't see how this list could be controversial, it's pretty insignificant. The inclusion of Charlie Christian is interesting though, as he's rarely discussed in these kinds of super-short lists.

The four-part suite, composed to celebrate Coltrane's spiritual triumph over drug addiction

I thought he kicked drugs (well, heroin) in the late 50s.

[chuckyd4]

Really, if you're going to try to fit it into the 7 best titles of all time in jazz, i don't think that's such a bad list. I would definitely change the Miles and Bird albums, though. If he's going to use best of boxes elsewhere, why not with them as well? Those two are definitely not my favorite work by either one.

[Gary Sisco]

BOTC would definitely not be my Miles pick for such a list.

[Hudson Boy]

It's a good list, but I'd substitute Kind of Blue for BOTC, and throw in an album by Lennie Tristano - bringing the total up to eight.

On second thought, Parker's Savoy takes might be a better choice than the Massey Hall concert - but it's a hard call to make.

[clinthopson]

How could there be a "Greatest" list without "groove Juice Special" by Slim Gaillard?

Huh????

[Gary Sisco]

Probably the only jazz discs he owns.

[crawjo]

Seven jazz albums, eh?

My personal choices would be: (oh, and choosing any "best of" albums is a fucking cop-out)

Miles Davis - Miles Smiles
Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz To Come
Albert Ayler - Spiritual Unity
Sun Ra - Cosmic Tones/Art Forms
John Coltrane - First Meditations
Charles Mingus - Presents Charles Mingus
Cecil Taylor - 3 Phasis

[Jon Abbey]

Originally Posted by Ron Thorne

Who is Christopher Porterfield? I mean, I know that he's a Time A&E contributor, but . . .

he's a long-time Time editor who's edited their arts section since at least the mid-eighties, now he's higher up than that. he was best friends with Dick Cavett back in the day, he co-wrote both his autobiographies. during the 10 years I worked at Time, I never noticed him knowing much about music past the perspective of an average listener, which is how this list reads.

I can't really disagree with his list, it's his opinion and I haven't heard all of his selections. It does seem like Mingus Presents Mingus ought to be there though.

....Coltrane's spiritual triumph over drug addiction, ranges hypnotically from a meditative murmur to fierce shrieks,......

Damned if I hear any shrieks in that recording.

[Enforcer]

I was just thinking the other day, "What are the seven best jazz records of all time?" It just so happens I wrote down a list, and those are the seven I chose.

Lying,
Larry

[Gary Sisco]

It's the seven part that makes me wonder if it's his whole jazz shelf. Why seven?

[rollhead]

Originally Posted by Squaredancecalling Steve

Seems like a conservative list of fairly safe choices to me -- whoever the
My seven?


Sergey Kuryokhin -- Some Combinations of Fingers and Passion

Thanks, SDS, always appreciate what you listen to.

I plan on picking something by Sergey Kuryokhin. I am afraid "Some Combinations of Fingers and Passion" is going to be hard to find though.

[mke]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

It's the seven part that makes me wonder if it's his whole jazz shelf. Why seven?

Because he figured the article needed all the luck it could get.

Obviously, the list brings no insight to this gathering of jazz specialists, but, so what? Should it? Are we looking to Time for insightful jazz coverage? We would have yawned when Time put Monk on its cover, so even barely a page of posts on this issue seems like an overreaction.

[Uli]

A top 7 list ain't that strange. It's like Ollie's top 10 without shilling.

[Jon Abbey]

[Surfer]

Originally Posted by Jon Abbey

Top 7 big game pitchers of all time?

[MRS]

He can fellate me.

[Surfer]

1. People in Sorrow - AEC
2. Homage to Charles Parker - George Lewis
3. Conference of the Birds - Dave Holland
4. Black Saint and Sinner Lady - Mingus
5. Spiritual Unity - Albert Ayler
6. Supersonic Jazz - Sun Ra
7. Minimalism of Eric Satie - VAO
8. Astigmatic - Krystof Komeda
9. Shape of Jazz To Come - Ornette Coleman
10. Ezzthetics - George Russell
11. Rara Avis - Clusone 3
12. Gaslini Plays Monk - Giorgio Gaslini
13. Complete Savoy Masters - Charlie Parker

The first seven, plus the next six on the bench for pinch hitting duty, or in case of injury.

[Jon Abbey]

I got a picture of one of those Sun Ra Evidence discs into Time when I was there, in a pictorial feature on art on CDs. I also got Gate-The Dew Line (Table of the Elements) into the same piece, Keith from No Neck Blues Band still introduces me to people as the guy who got Gate into Time Magazine.

[Surfer]

Top 7 big game pitchers of all time?

1. Mariano Rivera
2. Curt Schilling
3. Jack Morris
4. Josh Beckett
5. White Sox's 2005 rotation
6. Dave Stewart
7. John Smoltz / Andy Pettite

[Jon Abbey]

I'm not so sure that's really "all time", dude. Bob Gibson sends his love, for instance.

[Surfer]

Originally Posted by Jon Abbey

I'm not so sure that's really "all time", dude. Bob Gibson sends his love, for instance.

I know, look at my jazz list. I'm a "last 20 years" type of guy.

What has Bob done for me lately? Besides send his love, lol.

[Sergio Zamora]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

It's the seven part that makes me wonder if it's his whole jazz shelf. Why seven?

It does seem like the kind of list somebody with only a superficial interest would make. I bet he has his ALS right next to 'The Best of the Eagles' or the original cast recording of 'Phantom of the Opera'.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Except for the Charlie Christian I've heard all the rest and about the only one I really agree with is the Coltrane.

Holiday? I own the Complete Columbia recordings so I have a problem with a compilation being considered among the greatest recordings of all time. I guess I could say the same for the Blanton-Webster band. But in both cases I guess I'm bitching about format more than anything else.

Another thing. The Armstrong recordings. As jazz history their importance can't be disputed. They revolutionalized jazz. But I've often wondered when lists like these are being made are we celebrating the music or their historical importance?

For instance, I don't know how many people I've played sections of, or the complete recording of KOB for, but they've all seemed to have dug it whether they were jazz fans or not. Could the same be said for the Hot Five's and Seven's.

I guess what I'm saying is that the inclusion of recordings of historical importance may be a form of political correctness. I've done it myself. When I first got into jazz I got deep into the history of the music myself. So it almost becomes a responsibility to list the Hot Five's and Seven's, but how many times have I listened to those records compared to KOB or ALS?