30 Platters of Jazz Perfection

WFCR Music Director John Montanari has been letting his all-genres music flag fly on the Classical Blog at NEPR, and last week posted a list of his “individual musical selections that come as close as humanly possible to achieving perfection.” Here you’ll see that he’s ranged from The Left Banke to Hank Williams to the Early Music Consort of London.

I’m following suit today, but where my tastes are about as catholic as John’s, I’m limiting my selections to jazz records. Coleman Hawkins, whose “Body and Soul” won this list’s coin toss over el perfectos like “Get Happy” and “The Man I Love,” once rejected the notion of editing a reed squeak that emitted from his tenor on Max Roach’s recording, “Driva Man.” Hawk thought it antithetical to jazz’s essential spontaneity to cut out a mistake, and while there are countless jazz recordings of a relatively flawless nature, there are many other classics that mix mastery with more routine levels of musicianship.

In chronological order, here’s my idea of 30 platters of jazz perfection that reflect a fairly representative span of styles and eras, all available as downloads. As the list unfolded, I was impressed by how many recordings made in 1964 merited inclusion but not at all surprised that several were made for Blue Note, a paragon of perfection among jazz labels. And while Louis Armstrong’s “West End Blues” belongs at the top of any self-respecting list, I selected another of the Armstrong-Earl Hines masterpieces, “Tight Like This,” because it’s the kind of performance that existed only in recorded form, whereas “West End Blues” was an occasional part of the repertoire of Pops and others. 

I'll follow this up with a list of vocal gems in a couple of weeks.  And here you'll find the annotated Desert Island list of jazz albums and anthologies that I put together in 2009.  I invite you to chime in with your list or any amendments you’d suggest to mine.

 Louis Armstrong and His Savoy Ballroom Five Tight Like This 1928

Benny Goodman & Jack Teagarden (with Eddie Lang & Joe Venuti) Beale Street Blues 1931

Count Basie & Lester Young (issued as Jones-Smith, Inc.) Oh, Lady Be Good 1936

Coleman Hawkins Body and Soul 1939

Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra Cottontail 1940

Fats Waller Honeysuckle Rose 1941

Charlie Parker Quintet Embraceable You (Take A) 1947

Woody Herman Early Autumn 1949

Bud Powell Trio Un Poco Loco 1951

Miles Davis All-Stars Walkin’ 1954

Clifford Brown & Max Roach Parisian Thoroughfare 1954

Art Tatum & Ben Webster Gone With the Wind 1956

Sonny Rollins St. Thomas 1956

Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk In Walked Bud 1957

Charles Mingus Goodbye Porkpie Hat 1959 

Bill Evans Nardis 1961 

Oliver Nelson Stolen Moments 1961

Joe Henderson Recorda Me 1963

Horace Silver Quintet Song for My Father 1964

Archie Shepp Naima 1964

John Coltrane Quartet Wise One 1964

Wayne Shorter Speak No Evil 1964

Herbie Hancock Maiden Voyage 1965

Duke Ellington Isfahan 1966

Miles Davis Quintet Pinocchio 1967

Dave McKenna & Zoot Sims I Cover the Waterfront 1974

Cedar Walton & George Coleman/Eastern Rebellion Bolivia 1975 

Don Pullen-George Adams Quartet Sing Me a Song Everlasting 1987

Tommy Flanagan Trio Raincheck 1991

Brad Mehldau Trio River Man 1998