Best Jazz Albums 26-50

Compiling a list of 50 best jazz albums is, as reader Derick put it, like "walking blindfolded through a mine field."   Proceeding on the principle that rules are made to be broken, I made rules and broke them.  But it has been fun and it has led me to go back and do a lot of listening that I otherwise might have neglected.  I also found myself frequently entering an album only to replace it with another.  Discipline, please!

I wanted to get some multi-disc collections in, if only to cheat on the limit of fifty recordings.  That's a little like being limited to three books on a desert island, and putting the Harvard Classics as number one.  So here is 26-33 on my list:

Coltrane	John	Complete 1961 Village Vanguard  Recordings
Coltrane	John	Complete Africa/Brass Sessions
Davis	Miles	Legendary Prestige Recordings
Davis	Miles	Live at the Plugged Nickel
Davis	Miles	Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall
Dolphy	Eric	At the Five Spot Vols. 1 & 2 /Memorial Album
Manne	Shelly	Shelly Manne and His Men  @ Blackhawk
Rollins	Sonny	A Night at the Village Vanguard

Obviously Miles Davis and John Coltrane are overrepresented.  But that reflects the importance I place on those two giants.  Davis's Prestige Recordings include his incomparable Workin', Relaxin', Cookin', and Steamin' albums.  How could I leave them out, and how else could I fit them in?  I first listed the Blackhawk recordings, but the Plugged Nickel set is a better example of the distance Miles crosses in the period I concentrate on.  Trane's Vanguard recording are, in my mind, his greatest achievement.  Dolphy's Five Spot recordings aren't really a single set (I cheated again), but put 'em in a single bag.  They might be the best display of Dolphy's brilliance.  Manne's Blackhawk recordings are West Coast jazz at its best.  Rollins' Vanguard set needs no defense.

Here is the rest of the list:

Ayler	Albert	Spiritual Unity
Blakey	Art	Moanin'
Dolphy	Eric	Out to Lunch
Ellington	Duke	Ellington at Newport
Ervin	Booker	The Trance
Hawes	Hampton	Hampton Hawes Trio Vol. 2.
Holland	Dave	Conference of the Birds
Jarrett	Keith	The Köln Concert
Kirk	Roland	Rip, Rig, and Panic
Lovano	Joe	From the Soul
Mobley	Hank	Soul Station
Montgomery	Wes	The Incredible Guitar
Morgan	Lee	Search for the New Land
Murray	David	The Hill
Russel	George	Ezz-Thetics
Silver	Horace	Blown' the Blues Away
Sun Ra		Jazz In Silhouette

When in doubt, look at what everyone else is doing.  I consulted several "top 100" lists on the web.  Most of them are pretty much like mine for the first ten or so.  Past 25, there is a lot of divergence.  But most of the items in my list show up somewhere on other lists.  Some exceptions include Booker Ervin's Trance.  I am deeply in love with Booker Ervin.  Trance is not his best known work, but think it is the purest example of his genius.  Lee Morgan's Sidewinder was his best seller, while Search for the New Land rarely shows up on best jazz lists.  But great as the former is, I think the later is the more serious recording.

I got a couple of big band recordings in, by Ellington and Sun Ra.  I don't like big band jazz generally, but I think these are superb albums.  Some of the items are recorded much later than my target period (1950-1970).  Holland, Murray, and Lovano, for example, though Holland Conference of the Birds doesn't miss it by much.  But these recordings fit right into the mold. 

Anyway, I think this top 50 list would be the core of a very good jazz library.  Here are some samples.

David Murray/Santa Barbara and Crenshaw Follie/The Hill

Lee Morgan/Morgan the Pirate/Search for the New Land

Miles Davis/Milestones/Live at the Plugged Nickel