Since we started the Building a Jazz Library (BAJL) series, we've assembled more than sixty collections, and that number continues to grow. We thought it might be interesting to see what readers would recommend, so we asked AAJ Bulletin Board members to provide a short list of recordings they considered essential, and the 159 different lists that came in over a six-month period added up to a tremendously diverse collection of music.
The following thirteen recordings (listed in rank order) were most frequently mentioned by readers in their BAJL lists. Most of them were released over the ten-year period from 1956-65, which appears to be the concensus Golden Age of jazz among those who voted. Curiously, this list closely resembles a collection of Masterpieces selected by the AAJ editorial staff, and you can read more about each individual record there.
Miles Davis Kind of Blue Columbia 1959
John Coltrane A Love Supreme Impulse! 1964
John Coltrane Giant Steps Atlantic 1959
Charles Mingus Mingus Ah Um Columbia 1959
Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus Prestige 1956
Eric Dolphy Out to Lunch Blue Note 1964
Ornette Coleman The Shape of Jazz to Come Atlantic 1959
Herbie Hancock Maiden Voyage Blue Note 1965
Bill Evans Sunday at the Village Vanguard Riverside 1961
John Coltrane Blue Train Blue Note 1957
Oliver Nelson Blues and the Abstract Truth Impulse! 1961
Wayne Shorter Speak No Evil Blue Note 1964
Louis Armstrong Complete Hot Fives and Sevens Columbia / Legacy 2000
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