Listening Guides · Jazz
Jazz Essentials
4 tiers, 64 albums: start with Tier 1, then follow what you love. The Foundations cover the records that came before the LP.
TIER 1 · BEGINNER
The Beginner's Listening Guide
16 entry-point albums, in release order · swing to fusion · start anywhere, then follow what you love
-
Ellington at Newport
Duke Ellington
Paul Gonsalves' 27-chorus solo revived Duke's career; Time cover soon followed.
ListenOn our playlist -
Ella and Louis
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
Two great voices backed by the Oscar Peterson Quartet.
ListenOn our playlist -
Saxophone Colossus
Sonny Rollins
Cut in one day, June 22, 1956, with Max Roach on drums.
ListenOn our playlist -
-
-
Somethin' Else
Cannonball Adderley
Miles Davis as a rare sideman; he wrote the title track.
ListenOn our playlist -
Moanin'
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
Bobby Timmons' gospel-blues title tune named the album.
ListenOn our playlist -
Kind of Blue
Miles Davis
Recorded in just two sessions in 1959. The gateway album.
ListenOn our playlist -
Time Out
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
First million-selling jazz LP; "Take Five" swings in 5/4.
ListenOn our playlist -
-
The Shape of Jazz to Come
Ornette Coleman
No piano, melody first. Opens with "Lonely Woman".
ListenOn our playlist -
Getz/Gilberto
Stan Getz & João Gilberto
"The Girl from Ipanema"; won Album of the Year in 1965.
ListenOn our playlist -
A Love Supreme
John Coltrane
A four-part devotional suite cut in one session, Dec 1964.
ListenOn our playlist -
Song for My Father
Horace Silver
Brazil-inspired; the cover shows his Cape Verdean-born father.
ListenOn our playlist -
Speak No Evil
Wayne Shorter
Cut Christmas Eve 1964 with Hubbard, Hancock, Carter, Jones.
ListenOn our playlist -
Head Hunters
Herbie Hancock
Jazz-funk goes mainstream: No. 13 on the Billboard 200.
ListenOn our playlist
Years are original U.S. release years. Sources: Wikipedia album pages (recording dates, personnel, chart and award facts) · RIAA · Blue Note, Columbia, Verve, Impulse! liner notes
TIER 2 · ADVANCED
The Advanced Listening Guide
16 deeper cuts, in release order · bebop to fusion · none repeated from Tier 1
-
Study in Brown
Clifford Brown & Max Roach
Brown's "Cherokee" solo is among jazz's most acclaimed.
Listen -
Brilliant Corners
Thelonious Monk
No full take of the title tune: it was edited from several.
Listen -
-
-
The Blues and the Abstract Truth
Oliver Nelson
Opens with "Stolen Moments", now a jazz standard.
ListenOn our playlist -
Sunday at the Village Vanguard
Bill Evans Trio
Bassist Scott LaFaro died in a car crash 11 days later.
ListenOn our playlist -
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
Charles Mingus
One continuous work, partly written as a ballet.
ListenOn our playlist -
The Sidewinder
Lee Morgan
The title track reached No. 81 on the Billboard Hot 100.
ListenOn our playlist -
-
-
-
-
-
Journey in Satchidananda
Alice Coltrane
Mostly recorded in her home studio in Dix Hills, New York.
ListenOn our playlist -
-
Heavy Weather
Weather Report
Opens with "Birdland"; the band's best-selling album.
ListenOn our playlist
Years are original U.S. release years (Köln Concert: original West German ECM release). Sources: Wikipedia album pages (recording dates, personnel, chart facts), citing Penguin Guide, Billboard, liner notes
TIER 3 · EXPERT
The Expert Listening Guide
16 cult classics, in release order · 1949 sessions to 2008 · Latin, loft, free and ECM
-
-
The Prophetic Herbie Nichols Vol. 1
Herbie Nichols
A 10-inch Blue Note; Vol. 2 was cut a week later.
Listen -
-
Jazz in Silhouette
Sun Ra
Cut in Chicago at the session that also yielded Sound Sun Pleasure!!
Listen -
-
Evolution
Grachan Moncur III
His debut, with Jackie McLean, Lee Morgan, Hutcherson, Tony Williams.
Listen -
-
-
Emergency!
The Tony Williams Lifetime
With John McLaughlin and Larry Young; an early fusion landmark.
Listen -
The Rubáiyát of Dorothy Ashby
Dorothy Ashby
Harp and Japanese koto, in originals inspired by Omar Khayyam.
ListenOn our playlist -
Les Stances à Sophie
Art Ensemble of Chicago
A Paris film score, with Fontella Bass on vocals.
Listen -
-
Conference of the Birds
Dave Holland Quartet
Holland's leader debut, with Braxton, Sam Rivers and Altschul.
Listen -
-
Wildflowers: The Loft Jazz Sessions
Various Artists
Recorded in 1976 at Studio Rivbea, Sam and Bea Rivers' loft.
Listen -
Years are original release years (Stances: French release). None repeated from Tiers 1–2. Sources: Wikipedia album pages (recording dates, personnel, labels), citing AllMusic, Penguin Guide, liner notes
TIER 4 · MASTER
The Master Listening Guide
The hardest records by names you know, plus a few deep finds · 1945 to 2021
-
-
-
-
-
Astigmatic
Krzysztof Komeda
Penguin Guide: "one of the finest jazz albums ever made in Europe".
Listen -
Ascension
John Coltrane
AllMusic: the record that put Coltrane "firmly into the avant-garde".
ListenOn our playlist -
-
People in Sorrow
Art Ensemble of Chicago
AllMusic: "not for everyone's taste... but worth the struggle".
Listen -
Universal Consciousness
Alice Coltrane
Her first album on Wurlitzer organ; string parts transcribed by Ornette.
Listen -
Let My Children Hear Music
Charles Mingus
Mingus called it "the best album I have ever made".
Listen -
Sextant
Herbie Hancock
Early synths; a commercial flop, after which Hancock formed the Headhunters.
Listen -
Mannenberg – Is Where It's Happening
Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim)
The title track became an anthem of the anti-apartheid struggle.
Listen -
-
-
Song X
Pat Metheny & Ornette Coleman
Three days at the Power Station with Haden, DeJohnette, Denardo.
Listen -
Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album
Hasaan Ibn Ali
Cut in 1965, shelved by Atlantic; a tape copy surfaced in 2017.
Listen
Original release years. Zodiac Suite pictured: Mary Lou Williams c. 1946, photo William P. Gottlieb (public domain). Sources: Wikipedia album pages (dates, personnel, labels), citing AllMusic, Penguin Guide, NYT, liner notes
FOUNDATIONS · 1920s–1950s
The Foundations
Pre-LP jazz came out on 78s, so each pick is a reissue album · "rec." = recording years, in era order
-
-
Birth of the Hot
Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers
"Black Bottom Stomp", cut Sept 15, 1926 at Chicago's Webster Hotel.
Listen -
Vol. 1: Singin' the Blues
Bix Beiderbecke
The title track (Feb 4, 1927) is in the National Recording Registry.
Listen -
Piano Starts Here
Art Tatum
His 1933 solo studio sides paired with a 1949 Gene Norman concert.
Listen -
Lady Day: Complete on Columbia
Billie Holiday
230 tracks in a box styled as a 78s album; a 2002 Grammy winner.
Listen -
The Original American Decca Recordings
Count Basie
The band's first 63 recordings: all of its Decca sides.
Listen -
1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert
Benny Goodman
Among the first LPs to sell over a million copies.
Listen -
The "Kansas City" Sessions
Lester Young
Rare Lester on clarinet, with Basie men Buck Clayton and Jo Jones.
Listen -
Body and Soul
Coleman Hawkins
Title track, Oct 11, 1939: two choruses that barely state the melody.
Listen -
Never No Lament
Duke Ellington
The Blanton–Webster band: bassist Jimmy Blanton, tenor Ben Webster.
Listen -
The Charlie Parker Story
Charlie Parker
Every take from Bird's Nov 26, 1945 session, including "Ko-Ko".
Listen -
Groovin' High
Dizzy Gillespie
Key small-group and big-band bebop sides, some with Charlie Parker.
Listen -
Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1
Thelonious Monk
Blue Note sides including "Round About Midnight" and "Ruby My Dear".
Listen -
Birth of the Cool
Miles Davis
A nonet's 12 three-minute sides, mostly first issued on 78s.
ListenOn our playlist -
Djangology
Django Reinhardt & Stéphane Grappelli
Their last recordings together, made in Italy in 1949.
Listen -
The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1
Bud Powell
Three takes of "Un Poco Loco" with Curley Russell and Max Roach.
ListenOn our playlist
Photos (public domain): Morton, Bloom Studio c.1927 · Bix 1924 · Lester Young, Gjon Mili 1944 · Tatum, W. P. Gottlieb c.1946–48 Sources: Wikipedia album/artist pages; AllMusic and library catalogue data for Birth of the Hot, Bix Vol. 1 and the Kansas City Sessions