The following is a short list of some of my favorite albums. Sadly, I am stuck with the compact disc format (or cassette), no vinyl, so I do miss out on the ambience of the original sound of a lot of this music. Truly a drag. Luckily vinyl is not dead and has even made a comeback in the last few years, so who knows .... On the positive side, the advent of compact discs gave the labels a reason to re-release some classic albums, even adding material that never made it onto the original releases.

Some quick notes about record labels: There are some fantastic releases coming from Joel Dorn's 32 Records/32 Jazz/32 Blues. Rhino Records has put together some terrific compilations by a number of artists. Knitting Factory Records, which grew from the great jazz club in New York City, releases some of the best avante-garde and experimental jazz anywhere. And Bill Laswell's Black Arc and Axiom Funk releases are absolutely out of this world, and even though only a few are jazz, they are all funkin' hot.

Of course, it should be said that the leaders in jazz for the last several decades -- Blue Note, Verve, Impulse, Columbia, and Fantasy (OJC/Prestige/Debut) are still pumping out incredible new music, as well as re-releasing some classic albums. For a fairly good list of links to record labels, check out the Yahoo listing, or use your favorite search engine. You might also check out Interjazz, or Jazz Central, which are internet jazz sites.

Ah, well just one or two other things ... Speaking of Interjazz, they are working along with the Blue Note Cafe to feature live jazz concerts on the web. They even have an archive of past concerts -- not just clips, but entire hour-long shows. The archive from Blue Note Cafe is actually made available through Broadcast.com, a major site featuring audio and video feeds from several sources.

There are times when I find this World Wide Web stuff to be almost equal to the hype ALMOST, that is . . . but anyway . . . Check out the selection sometime at Liveconcerts.com, they feature not only jazz, but also blues, reggae, world, rock, and a whole bunch more. In fact, that archive is a real treasure.

And now, on to the albums. These are listed by artist, alphabetically, and this list is CONTINUALLY under construction, so please, don't be surprised or offended by the gaps. I'll get more time for this soon enough.

Classic Jazz Artists:

Louis Armstrong
 

Kenny Barron
 

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
 

Hamiet Bluiett

Hamiet Bluiett was a member of Julius Hemphill's World Saxophone Quartet, and works with the Mapleshade label out of Maryland, among others. In addition, he performs some truly fine music. I can easily recommend anything on which he plays, but here are a few.
Hamiet Bluiett & Concept: Live at Carlos I; Live at Carlos I: Another Night; Live at Carlos I: Last Night.  These recordings are from a week at the club Carlos 1 in New York City, 1986. They feature Hamiet Bluiett on baritone sax, Chief Bey on African percussion, Don Pullen (on the first two) and Mulgrew Miller (on Last Night) playing piano, Fred Hopkins on bass, and Idris Muhammad on drums.
Young Warrior, Old Warrior is one of those Mapleshade releases, from 1995. It features Bluiett on bari sax, Jack Walrath on trumpet, Mark Shim on tenor sax, Larry Willis on piano, Keter Betts on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums.
Bluiett's Barbeque Band is a more eclectic mix of styles than the other albums I've listed here, mixing in some r&b and gospel elements to the jazz mix. This one features Bluiett on bari sax, Donald Blackman on keyboards, Kenny Davis on electric upright bass, Calvin Jones on electric bass, Ronnie Burrage on drums, Chief Bey on hand drums, Amba Hawthorne doing vocals, and Shirley LeFlore reading poetry.
Bluiett Baritone Saxophone Group: Live at the Knitting Factory, from Knitting Factory Records, is straight ahead jazz, unique in that it's almost exclusively a bari sax group, with James Carter -- see below -- Patience Higgins, Hamiet Bluiett, and Alex Harding all on baritone saxophone, and Ronnie Burrage on drums.
 

Clifford Brown
 

John Coltrane

The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings. November 1-3 & 5, 1961, the Village Vanguard, New York City. John Coltrane on tenor and soprano saxes; Eric Dolphy on alto sax and bass clarinet; Jimmy Garrison and Reggie Workman, basses; Elvin Jones and Roy Haynes, drums; joined on a few cuts by Garvin Bushell on oboe and contrabassoon, and Ahmed Abdul-Malik on oud. Just buy it.
Live In Japan, a four disc set from Impulse, was recorded in Tokyo on July 11, 1966 at Shinjuku Kosei Nenkin Hall (discs 1 & 2) and at Sankei Hall (discs 3 & 4). Trane on soprano, alto and tenor saxes, and percussion; Pharoah Sanders, alto and tenor saxes, bass clarinet, and percussion; Alice Coltrane, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Rashied Ali, drums. Again, don't think about it, just get it.
Lush Life. This disc features three cuts with Trane in a trio setting with Earl May on bass and Arthur Taylor on piano, from 1957; and two from 1958, one a trio with Albert "Tootie" Heath on drums, and his Miles Davis Quintet cohorts Red Garland on piano and Paul Chambers on bass, the other a quartet with Donald Byrd on trumpet and Louis Hayes replacing Tootie Heath on drums.
John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman. These are some of the greatest love songs ever recorded. Trane on tenor, McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, Elvin Jones on drums, and of course, vocals by the immortal Johnny Hartman. (Bridges of Madison County caused one good thing: inclusion of some Hartman tracks on the soundtrack renewed interest in his work.
 

Miles Davis

Miles Davis Quintet: Cookin'; Relaxin'; Workin'; Steamin'. These four albums are absolute musts in any collection. Miles on trumpet and John Coltrane on tenor sax, along with Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.
Kind of Blue. The 1959 album features Miles on trumpet, Trane on tenor, Julian "Cannonball" Adderly on alto on all but one cut, Bill Evans on piano (except for one cut with Wynton Kelly, the ultimate "Freddie Freeloader"), Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums. This superb group of musicians created some classic tracks for this album.
Live-Evil. This two-disc set features some studio tracks, and some live performances from The Cellar Door in Washington, DC, all recorded in 1970. Some purists don't like the electric phase of his music, but purists don't like a lot of things.
 

Duke Ellington

This is an artist whose contribution to music, along with his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn, is almost without parallel. Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was a genius showman as well as being a brilliant jazz pianist and composer. I don't have a lot of Ellington in my collection, but here are a few that I've found.
Money Jungle. This trio album with Max Roach on drums and Charles Mingus on bass is in constant rotation on my player. It's simply one of the finest albums I've ever heard. Duke's style of jazz was quite different from the team of Roach and Mingus, but on this they prove that whatever the flavor, jazz is jazz.
The 1956 Seattle Concert. This is a release of the Duke Ellington Big Band right after it reformed after losing some key players. Still, the band sounds at the top of form.
 

Dizzy Gillespie

One of the most beloved entertainers of the 20th century, John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was one of the founding fathers of the musical form known as Be-Bop. In addition, his work with the United Nations Jazz Orchestra, alongside Cuban artists Paquito D'Rivera and Arturo Sanchez (who were originally with the truly awesome Cuban band Irakere), made him an ambassador of good will and music to the world. His appearance with Charlie Parker at Massey Hall is mentioned above. A few more of the treasures he left include:
Dizzy's Big Four, a recording from 1974 out on disk that features Diz along with Joe Pass, guitar; Ray Brown, bass; and Mickey Roker, drums.
The Dizzy Gillespie Big 7 at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1975 features Diz on trumpet along with Milt Jackson on vibes, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Johnny Griffin on tenor saxes, Tommy Flanagan on piano, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen on bass, and Mickey Roker on drums.
Yeah, yeah, earlier stuff --
Like for instance the classic Sonny Side Up, recorded in December 1957, now on disk, featuring Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt on tenor saxes, Ray Bryant on piano, Tommy Bryant on bass, Charlie Persip on drums, and of course Dizzy on trumpet.
 

Joe Henderson
 

Charles Mingus

Revenge! This double disc set is the REAL, OFFICIAL and non-bootlegged version of the legendary Paris Concert with Eric Dolphy. Sue Mingus, Charles's widow, created a label (also called Revenge!) to produce this album in response to bootleggers who distribute poor quality versions of her husband's work, this particular concert being one of the most popular.
The Complete Town Hall Concert.
Charles Mingus and Friends.
 

Modern Jazz Quartet

These four produced a great body of work. I have only a few in my library, which I hope to correct over time. The collection thus far includes Modern Jazz Quartet Live and At Its Best, recorded in Ljubljana, (then) Yugoslavia, on May 27, 1960; Blues On Bach; and The Modern Jazz Quartet at Music Inn w/Guest Artist Sonny Rollins Vol. 2.
 

Thelonious Monk

Genius of Modern Music Volumes 1 and 2. Okeh, so best-of compilations aren't the best way to go as a collector; if you're just starting to listen to jazz, compilations are an excellent choice.
Live at the It Club (Complete), a 2-disc set recorded in performance on October 31 and November 1, 1964, at The It Club. Monk was playing at the time along with Charlie Rouse on tenor sax, Larry Gates on bass, and Ben Riley on drums.
Misterioso is a classic live album by the Monk Quartet at the Five Spot Cafe in New York in August, 1958. Another disc of material from those performances is Thelonious In Action. The quartet at the time featured Monk on piano, Johnny Griffin on tenor sax, Ahmed Abdul Malik on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums.
Live at the Five Spot was recorded sometime in late summer, 1957, with one different player in the quartet: on tenor sax, John Coltrane. The sound quality of this disc is not great, but it was recorded on a portable tape recorder with a single microphone. And it is history ...
 

Charlie Parker

There's an excellent 2-disk set called Yardbird Suite: The Ultimate Charlie Parker Collection from Rhino Records that is definitely worth getting, covering the period 1945 through 1952 in the career of the greatest alto sax player in history. Just buy it.
Jazz at Massey Hall, featuring The Quintet: Charlie Parker, alto sax; Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet; Bud Powell, piano; Charles Mingus, bass; and Max Roach, drums. No more need be said, really, but I should mention this was recorded live at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada, on May 15, 1953, and is a release on the Debut/Fantasy Records label.
 

Sonny Rollins

Saxophone Colossus with Tommy Flanagan, Doug Watkins, and Max Roach.

Sonny Rollins & Co. 1964 with Herbie Hancock, Jim Hall, Ron Carter, and Bob Cranshaw.
 

Pharoah Sanders

Thembi is a cool album. Sanders on sax is joined by Lonnie Liston Smith on keyboards and percussion, and Cecil McBee on bass, as well as Clifford Jarvis on drums and percussion, and James Jordan on ring cymbals on one of these three; and Roy Hanes on drums, and Chief Bey, Majid Shabazz, Anthony Wiles and Nat Bettis on African percussion, on three others.
Karma. This release from 1969 features the original recording of The Creator Has a Master Plan.
Message From Home is a 1996 Verve release produced by Bill Laswell. Pharoah Sanders is one of the greatest living musicians, period, and this album helps prove it.
 

Horace Silver

This pianist and composer is the man who made funky jazz respectable, or at least popular. There is a fine set of discs available from Blue Note, The Best of Horace Silver Volumes 1 and 2. These feature a number of cuts from several of his albums, two of which I have: Horace Silver Trio, featuring Art Blakey on drums and Gene Ramey, Curly Russell, and Percy Heath playing bass; and Blowin' the Blues Away, by the Horace Silver Quintet, featuring Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Junior Cook on tenor sax, Eugene Taylor on bass, Louis Hayes on drums, and of course Horace Silver on piano.
 

Cedar Walton

Naima
 

The Young Lions:
 

Teodross Avery

A young sax player, his quartet album In Other Words features guest trumpet player Roy Hargrove.
 

James Carter

Jurassic Classics. This is, as the title more or less implies, an album of classic jazz tunes including "Take the 'A' Train", "Epistrophy", and "Oleo", among others. This one features James Carter on soprano, alto, and tenor saxes; Craig Taborn on piano; Jaribu Shahid, bass; and Tani Tabbal, drums. My copy of this is a 1994 American release on Columbia, but the executive producer listed is Disk Union, which is an eclectic Japanese label.
Conversin' with the Elders is another album with a self-explanatory title. This one features Carter, playing bari, tenor and alto saxes as well as bass clarinet, along with the rest of his quartet from the Jurassic Classics album. Each guest artist performs on two cuts; guests are Hamiet Bluiett, bari sax; Harry "Sweets" Edison, trumpet; Lester Bowie, trumpet; Larry Smith, alto sax; and Buddy Tate, tenor sax and clarinet.
In Carterian Fashion is the 1998 release, this time from Atlantic Records, features Carter with a host of guests, and a few different collections of musicians. This album's theme: organ jazz, featuring Henry Butler, Cyrus Chestnut, and Craig Taborn, all taking their turns at the Hammond.
 

Cyrus Chestnut

Revelation. This trio recording is one of my all-time favorites.
 

Roy Hargrove

Roy Hargrove's Crisol: Habana. This album is a beautiful and creative nod to the Cuban influence on jazz.
 

Loston Harris III
 

Donald Harrison
 

Antonio Hart
 

Robert Hurst

Presents ... Robert Hurst
 

Christian McBride
 

Marcus Miller

Live and More
 

Joshua Redman

Spirit of the Moment/Live at the Village Vanguard. This double disc set features Dewey's son Joshua Redman on saxes, Peter Martin on piano, Christopher Thomas on bass, and Brian Blade on drums.
Wish. This album is so hot. Redman on tenor, Pat Metheny on guitars, Charlie Haden on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums.
Freedom in the Groove.
New York Stories. This album is an excellent and little-known major label release featuring the late Danny Gatton on guitar alongside Redman.

And of course, with their own section:
 

Wynton Marsalis
 

Branford Marsalis

I Heard You Twice the First Time is his 1992 release, with guest appearances by among others BB King and John Lee Hooker. Okeh, this is kind of a blues album, but it's jazz.
The Dark Keys. The 1996 trio release finds Branford on tenor and soprano saxes with Jeff "Tain" Watts on drums and Reginald Veal on bass, and guest appearances by Joe Lovano and Kenny Garrett.
Buckshot LeFonque is THE album of the 90s for Branford. It mixes reggae, hiphop, blues, pop, and poetry along with good, straight-ahead jazz. The result is one of the best albums I have ever heard. The followup, 1997's Music Evolution, followed the same formula, and managed to come close to the mark set by the first Buckshot album. They're both must-haves. I realize that purists of all stripes would be offended by that paragraph. At least, I hope so.
 

Ellis Marsalis (the Patriarch of the Marsalis Dynasty, New Orleans piano player, composer, arranger, and band leader -- okeh, he's not quite a "young lion" but eh, family and all, and he IS one of the best jazz teachers in the country)

Whistle Stop is the 1994 release which features son Branford on sax, Robert Hurst on bass, and "Tain" Watts on drums, with an appearance by son Jason on drums for two cuts.
A Night at Snug Harbor, New Orleans is a live disc on Evidence Records, released in 1995. It features Ellis in a quintet setting -- with none of his kids.
Twelve's It is the newest release (1998), with son Jason on drums, Roland Guerin on bass on all live tracks, and Bill Huntington playing bass on the studio cuts.
 

Two excellent boxed sets:
 

The Verve Story 1944-1994, a four-disc box set that contains some of the very finest tracks laid down over the last fifty years from one of the greatest record labels in the world. From Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Count Basie, to Charlie Haden, Stan Getz, and Joe Henderson, jazz is alive and well at Verve. This is a great set for a beginning collector who wants to explore the sound of classic jazz.
 

The Playboy 40th Anniversary Box Set, a four disc box set that covers a decade per disc, from 1953 to 1993.
 

Other Stuff
 

James Blood Ulmer

Music Revelation Ensemble. This 1997 Japanese import is one of the best albums I've heard this decade. James Blood Ulmer on guitar, Calvin "Hassen Truth" Jones on bass, and Cornell W. Rochester on drums; along with Pharoah Sanders playing tenor sax on tracks 2, 4, 6 and 7, and John Zorn, on alto sax on tracks 1, 3, 5 and 8.
Odyssey was recorded in May 1983 with Blood Ulmer on vocals and guitar, Warren Benbow on drums, and Charles Burnham on violin. This album was ahead of its time, and stands as a masterpiece.
Odyssey The Band: Reunion was released on Knitting Factory Records in 1998, with the same personnel as on the original 15 years earlier (though the drummer's name is now spelled Warren Benbrow, on the back cover and in the liner notes). They're still ahead of their time, and this is another masterpiece.
 

Bill Laswell

There are TOO MANY albums by Bill Laswell to list my favorites, but a few of the projects he's been involved with that are just way cool include:
Arcana: Arc of the Testimony. This features the late drummer Tony Williams, with Bill Laswell on basses, Pharoah Sanders on tenor sax, Byard Lancaster on alto sax and bass clarinet, Graham Haynes on cornet, Nicky Skopelitis on guitars, and Buckethead on guitar.
The Last Poets: Holy Terror (1993) and Time Has Come (1997). These albums feature Umar Bin Hassan and Abiodun Oyewole, who became part of the group in the 1970s and have carried the banner together since 1993. On the earlier album, Laswell teamed the pair up with Grandmaster Melle Mel, who delivers some of the albums best raps; Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, and Aiyb Deng; George Clinton and Don Babatunde make an appearance on one cut. Time Has Come has a much more spare sound, going back more to the voice and percussion which the Last Poets have always relied upon.

 
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