CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Kind of Blue

CD-Charts > Music > Hard Bop
by: Miles Davis

Release Date March 25, 1997
I'll keep this short and sweet,this is an all time jazz classic,hands down!!! This awesome reissue features incredible remastered sound,a treat to listen to!!! A must for any serious music collection!!! Recommended!!! Timeless!!! A+

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Miles from India (TWO CD SET)

CD-Charts > Music > Hard Bop
by: Various Artists

Release Date April 15, 2008
I am usually ambivalent of this genre of music.Fusion albums can be either superb or very banal.For example compare this release with "Floating Point" the latest album by John Mclaughlin.I was utterly disapponted.It has absolutely no new ideas and is banal at it's best.Interestingly, both albums have a lot of musicians in common - Luiz Banks,Ranjit Barot, Shankar Mahadevan...

This album is a totally different cup of tea.It works and like how.Of course the premise to begin with, is brilliant.And then the musicians are on fire and you can actually feel that on every track.

All the songs on the album are superb, but if I have to pick a favourite it would be Jean-Pierre, the last track on the first CD.

Highly ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

A Love Supreme

CD-Charts > Music > Hard Bop
by: John Coltrane

Release Date August 19, 2003
I have a small but highly acclaimed jazz collection. This is the jewel, my favorite, only tied by kind of blue in quality. An essential, not for jazz lovers, but rather music lovers.

CD-Charts Position 4
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Somethin' Else

CD-Charts > Music > Hard Bop
by: Cannonball Adderley

Release Date March 09, 1999
Conventional wisdom holds that this is a Miles Davis album, and that is pretty much right - it's an album led by Miles Davis, under Cannonball Adderley's name, set up to showcase the altoist who had just joined Davis's band. You can hear plenty of fine playing by Cannonball, but it's in Davis's world - the earthiness of many later Cannonball recordings isn't present.

The similarities are particularly obvious on the classic interpretation of "Autumn Leaves" and the Davis original "Somethin' Else". "Love for Sale" was recorded under Davis's leadership 3 months later, with Cannonball present, and it's interesting to compare the two approaches. (I prefer the Davis version, but they are both superb.)

Some people go further ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Ken Burns's Jazz: The Story of American Music

CD-Charts > Music > Hard Bop
by: Various Artists

Release Date November 14, 2000
When I discussed the Ric Burns documentary about the old West with an Amerindian acquaintance, I complained that the film concentrated on the Lakota, to the exclusion of other peoples. My friend answered that, as the Lakota was the best known native American culture, that was a good place to start, and the audience would then move on to learn about other parts of the story.

I suppose the same is true of the documentary by Ric's brother Ken Burns, on the history of Jazz, on which this box set is based. It is heavy on Louis Armstrong and on the Big Band sound of the Swing era - probably the Jazz best known to the general public - but light in other areas, including the many, varied strands of Jazz in the last 30 years or so. There is a whole ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
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Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall

CD-Charts > Music > Hard Bop
by: Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane

Release Date September 27, 2005
Recorded on 11/29/57, featuring Thelonious Monk - piano and compositions, John Coltrane - tenor, Ahmed Abdul-Malik - bass, and Shadow Wilson - trap drums.

The hype surrounding the release of this music had some people seemingly calling it the greatest thing ever even before it had been released. It is great, I don't take anything away from it, but I don't consider it to be so much higher than Monk's Music or Complete Prestige Recordings that it knocks all that stuff down a few notches or makes them nearly irrelevant in comparison, like some people might have you believe.

Shortly after it was released I saw a contestant on Jeopardy say this was his favorite music of all time. That's taking it a bit far, I do believe. I think that ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
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Mingus Ah Um

CD-Charts > Music > Hard Bop
by: Charles Mingus

Release Date February 16, 1999
An essential part of jazz history. The compositions and playing of this group, especially the presence of tenor Booker Ervin, are bound to remain one of the most important contributions to the jazz idiom.

CD-Charts Position 8
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Blue Train

CD-Charts > Music > Hard Bop
by: John Coltrane

Release Date April 01, 1997
John Coltrane-Blue Train *****

When I first heard the album Blue Train I played the title cut eight times before I played the rest of the album; Then I proceeded to play the album over and over and over again. The title piece from this land mark album is like nothing I had ever heard before and nothing I have heard since. While not half as adventurous as he would soon become and not as technically efficient as some of Coltrane's other work, 'Blue Train' is a piece unto itself. Maybe because it is none of those things is why it is so stunning to me. The piece rolls along like a train as the title suggest. The blues number is among Coltrane's most inspired pieces in my book.

'Moments Notice' 'Locomotion' and the restrained power of 'Lazy Bird' ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
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The Very Best of John Coltrane

CD-Charts > Music > Hard Bop
by: John Coltrane

Release Date February 15, 2000
I have this CD in a Rhino release: same music, same cover photo, same "very best of" tagline, just not the "Greatest Hits" design. I think of John's time on Atlantic Records as his most interesting, and all the performances here are from 1959 and 1960. In the '50's, Coltrane was a more traditional sax improviser, mainly on the Prestige label, and he produced some lovely things. After 1960, he moved more and more into "avant-garde" or "free-form" jazz and lost me as a fan. On Atlantic, you get the best...he is harmonic and inventive, melodic and yet stretching a few solos into unexpected territory. For those not familiar with Coltrane, but not all that adventurous in their jazz tastes, this is a superb introduction, better than the Ken Burns compliation which was issued ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
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The Sidewinder

CD-Charts > Music > Hard Bop
by: Lee Morgan

Release Date November 16, 1999
This is another one of those recordings that I picked up on a whim only because it was recommended by The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings: Eighth Edition (Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings). One listen and I was hooked like a dolphin in a tuna net. If your foot doesn't start tapping the minute the laser touches the etching, you're deaf or dead. And Morgan keeps it up through the entire recording, really embodying a jazz style that got lost in all the "cool" "avant-garde" "smoothe" music that followed close on this trend-setting album's heels. Multiple listenings do not wear thin, and even if I've been listening to Miles Davis for a week or I'm not sure what I'm in the mood for, Sidewinder always satisfies. This CD belongs in any serious jazz fan's library, and it would certainly ... Read More: