Please list jazz albums which you would qualify as "sleepers"

While the OP gave a decent definition of a "sleeper" I wonder if the defintion needs a little refinement for the concept to be useful. This is just a suggestion, wondering what the rest of the brethren think about this.

In my mind the following would not qualify as a sleeper.

-Any record by an iconic musician. Thus, anything by Duke, Miles, Trane, Pops, etc made during their productive years... cannot by a sleeper. If anybody got a chance for their records to have a fair hearing during their lifetimes and beyond, it is these icons.

-Any record by a major musician (and most of the ones mentioned on this board are) that is the first or maybe second most famous recording by that musician. Thus, Moanin' by Art Blakey,Work Song by Nat Adderly Out of the Cool by Gil Evans, and Blues and the Abstract Truth by Oliver Nelson are all classics rather than sleepers.

So what is left? Recordings made by musicians who recorded very little or who were better known as sidemen or session players, recordings done very early or late in a good career that nonetheless got overlooked, modern recordings from young lions that failed to get the marketing support that the level of playing deserved, and recordings that represent a one time peak in an otherwise undistinguished career.

 

I would say all of Bobby Hutcherson's stuff with Harold Land that appeared on Blue Note in the late '60s. So much great music was being recorded at the time and jazz itself had at least partially moved on to fusion, but in retrospect the Land-Hutch collaborations stand as a monumental achievement--spacey, advanced, earthy and highly tasteful--especially Total Eclipse and Medina.

 

great stuff, it's strange how most of these Blue Notes were listed as Hutcherson releases, when the '69 touring band was named The Bobby Hutcherson / Harold Land Quintet:

Harold Land – tenor sax
Bobby Hutcherson – vibes
Stanley Cowell – piano
Reggie Johnson – bass
Joe Chambers - drums

 

Another series of recordings that were sleepers (for me) is John Zorn's 10 original Masada titles from the mid '90s. I personally snoozed on these until very recently and am discovering them over the past few months. Listening to the fifth in the series, Hei, right now and it is just so tasty and bridges classic jazz with avant garde, Eastern European/klezmer and middle eastern scales brilliantly. Wish I had been more aware of this at the time of its release. I'm not sure it is a sleeper for others, but it is for me!

Well recorded, too. I collected the Japanese releases.

 

GregM I only have the first in the series, Aleph, but I agree it is a real mind blower. I need to catch up with the rest of the titles eventually. These was a lot of buzz about these in jazz circles at the time but I agree now they could be considered "sleepers" especially to new jazz fans. Very accessible yet boundary pushing at the same time.

 

Heck, depending on the target audience, anything but Kind of Blue would qualify.

But the first title that comes to my mind is Curtis Amy's Katanga
All the rest of his solo jazz albums are pretty pedestrian organ groove records- not bad, but nothing special. After jazz he made a living playing with pop musicians and the like.
But before that he managed to make this one masterpiece, a vicious blowing session with killer tunes and awesome playing.

I don't even think it's available by itself without having to fork over a fortune. I got it as part of Mosaic's mini-box set.

 

Whoa I listened to David Fathead Newman Tonight. Only the LP was "Keep The Dream Alive" 1978 Great music IMO

 

Poncho Sanchez-Papa Gato

 

You're right--Katanga is excellent, and it's very hard to find.

It came out, IIRC, in Blue Note's West Coast series in 1998, but I don't think these titles exactly flew off the shelves. Which is a shame.

 

The 40th Anniversary Carnegie Hall Concert (1976), Woody Herman And His Orchestra With guests.

'Four Brothers' has Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Stan Getz and the composer, Jimmy Giuffre on the sax part. The brothers took great solos and the Zoot would steal the show.

 

May I say thank you to the contrbutors to this thread, some excellent suggestions.