U-Discover Mag Lists The 50 Greatest Jazz Albums

I find it's much harder to find bad jazz recordings than good ones. Picking the best ones is nearly impossible. The most influential or best known, not so hard. Most will have been around for awhile. But I could make an argument for so many jazz recordings to be on that list, that's its not even worth the time to sort through and try to rationalize. It's the nature of the music where each work is unique but so many share so many similarities as well. Its one of those whole is greater than the sum of the parts kind of thing.

Mitch4t-

I own 35 of those 50-listed. Pretty accurate list and yes, there is still excellent Jazz in 2014. I was impressed w/ the Top-5 alone- nailed it! 1959 was the most important year for Jazz, IME. The albums released that year alone, would set the pace for Jazz music's future. As we know Jazz today, it has the richest treasures. I am proud to say that I discovered this incredible genre of music about 10 years ago. I am not stopping anytime soon...

Happy New Year

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oops! I forgot to leave the link to the page with the list!

The list is below in reverse order:

50. Thelonious Monk Genius of Modern Music vol.1 & 2.
49. Count Basie – the Original American Decca Recordings
48. Bud Powell – The Amazing Bud Powell Vo.1
47. Weather Report – Heavy Weather
46. John Coltrane & Thelonious Monk – At Carnegie Hall
45. Horace Silver – Song For My Father
44. Grant Green – Idle Moments
43. Count Basie – The Complete Atomic Basie
42. Hank Mobley – Soul Station
41. Charlie Christian – The Genius of the Electric Guitar
40. Art Pepper meets the Rhythm Section
39. John Coltrane – My Favourite Things
38. Benny Goodman – At Carnegie Hall 1938
37. Wes Montgomery – The incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery
36. The Mahavishnu Orchestra With John McLaughlin – Inner Mounting Flame
35. Clifford Brown and Max Roach – Clifford Brown & Max Roach
34. Andrew Hill – Point of Departure
33. Herbie Hancock – Head Hunters
32. Dexter Gordon – Go
31. Sarah Vaughan – With Clifford Brown
30. The Quintet – Jazz at Massey Hall
29. Bill Evans trio – Waltz For Debby
28. Lee Morgan – The Sidewinder
27. Bill Evans – Sunday at the village Vanguard
26. Thelonious Monk – Brilliant Corners
25. Keith Jarrett – the Koln Concert
24. John Coltrane – Giant Steps
23. Herbie Hancock – Maiden Voyage
22. Duke Ellington – Ellington at Newport
21. Cecil Taylor – Unit Structures
20. Charlie Parker – Complete Savoy and Dial Studio recordings
19. Miles Davis – Birth of the Cool
18. Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers – Moanin’
17. Albert Ayler – Spiritual Unity
16. Eric Dolphy – Out To Lunch
15. Oliver Nelson – The Blues and the Abstract Truth
14. Erroll Garner – Concert By the Sea
13. Wayne Shorter – Speak No Evil
12. Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto – Getz/Gilberto
11. Louis Armstrong – Best of the Hot 5s and 7s
10. John Coltrane – Blue Train
9. Miles Davis – Bitches Brew
8. Sonny Rollins – Saxophone Colossus
7. Cannonball Adderley – Somethin’ Else
6. Charles Mingus – The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
5. Ornette Coleman – The Shape of Jazz to Come
4. Charles Mingus – Mingus Ah Um
3. Dave Brubeck Quartet – Time Out
2. John Coltrane – A Love Supreme
1. Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
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ART TATUM!

Any such list can be nit-picked to death. It's a good list for someone starting a jazz collection. It's real light on vocalists (no Ella, Billie Holiday or Nat Cole?) and it favors the post WW2 era while managing to ignore the past 40 years.