Your favorite pre '69 jazz records?

Ok, how about the positive side? Lets eliminate some of the obvious to start: Mile's "Kind of Blue" and Coltrane's "Love Supreme", and go for some of the not on everyone's audiophile list records. I have too many to pick just a few but will chime in later.

 

Coltrane's Blue Train - Lush Life

Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus

Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage

Miles Davis Kind Of Blue

 

Art Tatum's wonderful session with Ben Webster (now available as a Pablo CD, The Tatum Group Masterpieces Vol. 8, which is also, I believe, out as an XRCD)
Moanin', Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
Miles Ahead and Milestones, Miles Davis
Conversations with Myself, Bill Evans
Time Further Out, Dave Brubeck
Brilliant Corners, Thelonious Monk
Blues & Roots, Charles Mingus
Concert by the Sea and Plays for Dancing, Erroll Garner
Piano Reflections and Blues in Orbit, Duke Ellington
Saxophone Colossus and Way Out West, Sonny Rollins
Lonely Woman, Modern Jazz Quartet
Pike's Peak, Dave Pike Quartet (with Bill Evans)

 

Way Out West

Midnight Blue

 

Charles Mingus "Mingus Ah Um"
Thelonious Monk "Genius of Modern Music"
Duke Ellington at Newport
Eric Dolphy "Outward Bound"
Miles Davis "In a Silent way" (does this make the '69 cutoff?)
Bill Evans "Waltz for Debby"

heck, huge portions of the Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside, Verve, and Impulse catalogs...

Ray

 

Ah, Claus those are easy and I agree, but I was after the ones not on everyones audiophile list.
Infact "Lushlife" was the first Coltrane album I heard. My father was big into Big Band and Don Ellis of all things and he had one bebop record in his collection. After he died I was listening to all his records and one day put Lushlife on. It was a breakthrough for me. I immediately went out and bought the OJC lp's Tower was blowing out. Miles, Coltrane to start. That started a passionate hunt for any jazz from the 50's and 60's.

 

A few to start with. but there's so many more. I'll try to limit one album per artist.
Dizzy/ Bird - Jazz at Massey Hall
Dave Brubeck - Dave Digs Disney (Time Out too)
Miles - Someday My Prince Will come
Trane - My Favorite Things
Vince Guaraldi - Charlie Brown Christmas
Herbie Mann - Live At Village Gate
Billie Holiday - Lady In Satin
Ella - Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie

Plus many big band and swing albums that I can't recall the names to or only have on greatest hits stuff (Sing, Sing Sing - Minnie The Moocher etc..)

 

How about

1) Gerry Mulligan: "The Jazz Combo From «I Want To Live!»"
2) "Sinatra-Basie"
3) Charlie Byrd: "Byrd at the Gate"
4) Paul Desmond: "Desmond Blue"
5) "Bill Plummer And The Cosmic Brotherhood"
6) Ella Fitzgerald: "Whisper Not"
7) "Sammy Davis, jr. Sings/Laurindo Almeida Plays"
9) Ed Thigpen: "Out Of The Storm"
10) Bob Florence: "Here And Now"

Arne

 

Please excuse me, as I'm only assuming all are under 1969.

John Coltrane - Coltrane (Impulse/UNI)
John Coltrane - My Favorite Things (Atlantic)
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Again (Verve/PGD)
Tholonious Monk - Solo Monk (Columbia)
Louis Armstrong - Sings WC Hardy (Columbia/Legacy)
Billie Holiday - Songs For Distingue' Lovers (Verve/PGD)
Duke Ellington - Anatomy Of A Murder (Columbia/Legacy)
Freddie Hubbard - Juju (Blue Note)
Miles Davis - Round Midnight (Columbia)
Miles Davis - Relaxin' With....Quintet (DCC/Prestige)
Bix Beiderbecke - Just about any of the sides he played on.
Dave Brubeck Quartet - Dave Brubeck goes To College

...and that's just what I've listened to in the past few weeks off an on....

 

Oh, I missed out #8:

Barney Kessel: "Feeling Free". Oops, it's from 1969. Sorry.

 

Absolutely great selections from all ! I'd like to add a few that some of my favorites:

Django Reinhardt-Peche La Mouche (Verve) - Django goes electric in the final years of his life. Great 2 CD set.

Charles Mingus-Mingus At Monterey (JVC/Fantasy) - An intensely burning set of mostly Ellington covers.

Tina Brooks-True Blue (Blue Note) - To my ears, one of the most beautiful jazz albums ever.

Booker Little-Self Titled (Time/Bainbridge) - Strong compositions highlighted by great playing from Booker, Scott La Faro & Wynton Kelly.

Wes Montgomery-The Complete Smokin' At The Half Note (Verve) - Wes was great in the studio, but live he was unreal. Back up group courtesy of Miles Davis.

Happy Listening ! ED

 

A few that I rarely see listed on anyone's "top" lists that I really love are:

"This Here Is Bobby Timmons"
"Collector's Items" - M. Davis
"Thelonious Monk Trio" - 1952/1954
"Anita Sings The Most" - Anita O'Day

 

Not many things in life that make me happier than listening to Django! My dog is named after him.

 

Ok, my first choice is in my top 20 equally favorite jazz records in no particular order: Freddie Redd's "Shades of Red" on Blue Note. There is melodic magic on this Lp. The union of Tina Brooks and Jackie Mclean blending driving saxaphones is amazing. Melodic for those that don't like hard bop but plenty of hard bop styling. Very rare on LP but around on CD. Freddies piano is wonderful, driving, great touches of twinkling flurishes, moveing the band forward. Tina and Jackie can also be heard on "Jackies Bag" and "Street Singer", also on Blue Note. Paul Chambers, Bass and Louis Hayes on Drums. 1960.
http://www.allmusicguide.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Atgja7i78g7dr

More to come.

 

Bobbit you made my day ! You are the only other person I know of who has mentioned a liking in Freddie Redd or Tina Brooks. Freddie's 3 Blue Note CD's (The Connection, Shades Of Redd & Redd's Blues) are favorites of mine. Glad to see I'm not the only Freddie Redd and Tina Brooks fan here on the DCC board !

Happy Listening ! ED

 

too many to mention but...
Modern Jazz Quartet - Concorde
Miles Davis - Bags Groove
Getz/ Gilberto
Anything Astud Gilberto pre 1969
Thanks,
Aaron

 

This is so refreshing after all the Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, and 10cc posts!

Bobbit & Ed, count me in as another Tina Brooks and Freddie Redd fan. Like Jackie McLean, too, but not as much as Johnny Griffin!!

Ray

 

Any thing by Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday or Hot Lips Page. Boppin' At The Blue Note - Jon Hendricks and friends.

Oops I don't think Boppin' is that old but...

 

Ed in NY, RDK, the above mentioned titles have Jackie Mclean as leader but as you probably know the Blue Note sessions have less to do with who's leading and more to do with who's in the session. You can almost know if the album is good just by who the line up is regardless of who's leading. I'm glad there are some Jazz fans on here, not just those who buy whats on "audiophile" labels. There is so much to choose from just in the say '54 to '64 period alone. I think I will post every week one of my favorite Jazz albums I think others will appreciate and might not know about. Commenting on sonics as well as performance. I hope you guys who have a vast knowledge of our great American art form will join in, keeping it to one suggestion at a time to give us all a chance to look it up and hear it. Since "Shades of Red" might be too hard to find, I'll also suggest Kenny Burrell's "Midnight Blue" on Blue Note. Easier to find on Lp and CD. Outstading sonics and performance! Comments?

 

Larry, Have you the Classic Records issue of Louis Armstrong "Under The Stars"? I love it! "Have You Met Miss Jones" is worth the price of the album!

 

No. I know this is a sacrilegious statement to make on this website but I actually prefer a good mastered CD to LP's (not trying to start a torch tournament). I used to have MFSL's version of Abbey Road (I know about the EQ boost) and I swear that I could hear butterfly''s flirting about during the low passages. I handled that record like a baby and it still had several clicks and pops in it. Steve and others are able to zone them out and just groove on the music, I obsess on it and it ruins my whole listening experience. Oh well confession is good for the soul. Now that I'm out of the closet I feel a lot better. Hope I don't get kicked outta the sandbox!

 

No flame here Larry. I prefer many of my CDs over LP too, as long as the mastering is good.

With CDs I no longer have to tip-toe around when listening to music!

Same as Larry requested, no flames please.

Thanks for the "Shades of Red" hint Bobbitt. Looks cool. I intend to check it out and look forward to you next suggestion.

 

My two cents

Ella Fitzgerald - Sings The Cole Porter Songbook
Miles Davis Group - The Prestige Recordings
Cannonball Adderley & Bill Evans - Know What I mean?
Les McCann & Eddie Harris - Swiss Movement (ok, that was '69)
Thelonius Monk - Tokyo Concerts

 

Many wonderful records already mentioned, but let me add two albums by one of the finest alto sax players ever - Art Pepper . A great musician and a very interesting character, who lived by the sword and died too early.

"Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section" - fantastic 1957 gig. Pepper plays with Miles' rhythm section Philly Joe Jones, Paul Chambers, and Red Garland. They met for the first time that day, rehearsed once, and ripped off some of the finest jazz around. One of my all-time favourite records. I have the Gold disc.

"Art Pepper + Eleven: Modern Jazz Classics" - a totally different sound to the previous record, this one from 1959. Art's joined by an 11 piece band and they play jazz standards - great arrangements, but Pepper's sax is the star. A landmark album. I have this one on XRCD.

Regards,
Metralla