The Jazz Information Resource. Jazz Discography Project. Jazz In America. Ken Burns - Jazz. Jazz History Online. New Yorker - 100 Essential Jazz Albums. While finishing “Bird-Watcher,” a Profile of the jazz broadcaster and expert Phil Schaap, I thought it might be useful to compile a list of a hundred essential jazz albums, more as a guide for the uninitiated than as a source of quarrelling for the collector. First, I asked Schaap to assemble the list, but, after a couple of false starts, he balked. Such attempts, he said, have been going on for a long time, but “who remembers the lists and do they really succeed in driving people to the source?” Add to that, he said, “the dilemma of the current situation,” in which music is often bought and downloaded from dubious sources.
Schaap bemoaned the loss of authoritative discographies and the “troubles” of the digital age, particularly the loss of informative aids like liner notes and booklets. What follows is a list compiled with the help of my New Yorker colleague Richard Brody. What follows is a list compiled with the help of my New Yorker colleague Richard Brody. All About Jazz. Rolling Out - 20 greatest jazz albums of all time. Sat., Apr. 6, 2013 12:45 PM EDT Jazz is often called the one truly American artform. Unfortunately, for a generation reared on pop music; R&B, rock, dance pop and hip-hop may be a lot more ubiquitous. Nevertheless, jazz remains the genre of refined style, the genre of unfiltered expression, the genre of defiant artistry; and names like Miles Davis, Max Roach, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker continue to resonate generations after their music was recorded and released because fans often turn to jazz when looking for an alternative to more commercially-driven musical spheres.
But many have no idea where to start. Jazz, even more than other, more commercially-oriented genres, has a wide range of variations. Big band, vocal jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, smooth jazz, jazz fusion–all have added to the musical lexicon over the last several decades. But for a genre that can be notoriously restless, there tends to be something for everyone–if you’re willing to look. RateYourMusic - Best Jazz Albums. Jazz History Time Line. Pre-1850 Though jazz and classic blues are really early twentieth-century black music innovations, certain characteristics found in jazz do have their roots in much earlier musical traditions.
Call and response, improvisation, the appropriation and reinvention of elements from Western art music: black music in the twentieth-century has never held a monopoly on these musical practices. For instance, the era American historians call "antebellum" (roughly 1815-1861) holds much of interest to researchers looking for the deep roots of jazz. There was one condition that had to be met for a black tradition unique to North America to develop. There had to be a creole population in place, i.e. a population of blacks born not in Africa but in America. But the North American variation and reinvention of African tradition in the early nineteenth-century was not monolithic. Despite the fact that the vast majority of blacks lived in the South, there were some freemen and women in the North. A history of jazz. 100 Greatest Jazz Albums. Paul Scaruffi - A History of Jazz Music.
Bibliography (in order of relevance): Gioia, Ted: "The History of Jazz" (Oxford Univ Press, 1997) Shipton, Alyn: "New History of Jazz" (2001) Southern, Eileen: "The Music of Black Americans" (Norton, 1971) Gridley, Mark: "Jazz Styles" (Prentice Hall, 1991) Hardy, Phil & Laing Dave: "Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music" (Faber, 1990) Clarke, Donald: "Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music" (Penguin, 1989) Hodeir, Andre: "Hommes et Problemes du Jazz" (Flammarion, 1954) Polillo, Arrigo: "Jazz" (Mondadori, 1975) Roberts, John-Storm: "Black Music of Two Worlds" (1972) Lord, Tom: "The Jazz Discography" (Lord Music Reference, 2007) Discography: Jazzdisco Biographies: Almost a Preface Most books on the history of jazz music, even the ones published very recently (see the bibliography), tend to devote 80-90% of the pages to jazz before the Sixties, and then to quickly summarize (with countless omissions) the last 40 years.
This is now a dangerous book. Piero scaruffi, 2006 Notes Disclaimer. Paul Scaruffi - 100 Greatest Jazz Albums. The Jazz Resource - Best Jazz Albums. Jazz music is a wonderful artform that is a true window into the human spirit. The best jazz albums can be listened to time and time again and with each listen it's possible to hear something new in the music. Much consideration has gone into these lists and they are a great place for jazz fans to discover some of the finest masterpieces from the jazz era. If you are learning to play jazz, then listening is essential to progress.
Though it's a cliche, but jazz really is a language and immersing yourself in the language is the best way to improve. There are as many different styles and ways of playing as there are players. Top 25 Jazz Albums part 1 and part 2 - This is a list of the 25 most influential and popular jazz albums of all time. Best Jazz Albums 2013 part 1 and part 2 Here are the best jazz albums of 2013 showing that jazz is alive and flourishing today. Return to The Jazz Resource Home Page. Jazz 100. Jazz History Database. NPR.