Help me build up a jazz album collection. Can you suggest a must have album?


Just got back into analog after not having a turntable for 38 years. That was a Thorens TD 320. Now I have a VPI. Building a jazz album collection now since jazz seems to be what I enjoy now. I have barely 12 albums from Miles Davis, Art Blakey, King Curtis, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Ike Quebec and Illinios Jacquet. Can you suggest a must have album? I generally like great sax, and percussion and sometimes a good vocalist, but I am open to anything that sounds GREAT. Also, if there is a particular label, issue or type of album. Thanks in advance.

2psyop

Showing 4 responses by garybegd

I love threads like this. I use them to create playlists on my Amazon Music account. I already have a lot of these on vinyl, but new vinyl is way too expensive for me to load up on. Fortunately, I built most of my LP collection in the early CD days, when I could buy 20 good used records for $100. Those were they days!

So instead, I just copy the album name off the thread, paste it into the search box on Amazon Music and add it to the playlist. The one I've built off this thread is 35 hours long, all curated by Audiogon jazz fans. Thanks everybody for introducing me to a lot of great music...a lot of it in higher resolution than CDs.

Hardly a mention here of Count Basie. While best known as leader of his big band, towards the end of his career he made a number of outstanding small combo albums on the Pablo Label. Look for any that say Basie Jam or Kansas City. Great music and super high quality recordings.

My favorite album unmentioned so far is Mulligan Meets Monk. I read somewhere that Gerry Mulligan was awed at the idea of playing with Monk. But he would only do it they could play together on Monk's masterpiece "Round Midnight." It is probably the most recorded song written by any jazz artist, and this version is as good as any.

One of the great things about Jazz for audiophiles is that most of it was recorded live. So even on a studio recording, the entire band is in the studio playing at the same time. No overdubs. No solos dropped in by some star who was never in the same city as everyone else.  Many of the best albums were recorded before overdub technology even existed. before transistors replaced tubes. The recording equipment was simple and as a result, pure.

And except for an electric bass or an organ, almost all the instruments are acoustic and unamplified. Until the mid sixties, that's all there was. So the opportunity to recreate the event in your listening room is much better. Your brain can know what a real trumpet or piano or bass is supposed to sound like. Consequently, it can tell when any new tweak or piece of gear makes those instruments sound more real. By contrast, the sound of an electric guitar or keyboard is a combination of the settings to player choses, the amp, the speaker and the microphone placed in front of that speaker. Not to mention the choices the engineer and producer make to modify that sound.

And there is so much great jazz out there. Cheap in used record store bins, and almost free to stream. Right now I'm being blown away by a 24/96 recording of a piano trio I'd never heard of until this thread...Esbjorn Svevsson Trio. They have 7 albums I can stream. Miles Davis has more than 150. I prefer vinyl, but there is no way I could own 2% of what I can get on line from Amazon Music,  $9 a month if you already have Amazon Prime. 

Good jazz on a great stereo is the best bang per entertainment buck you can buy.

 

The 50 best jazz albums of all time

 

Thanks for posting this list. I already have about half of these on vinyl. Now I have the other half in a playlist on Amazon Music. Good news is most of them are hi-rez!