Thursday, 18 October 2012

50 Greatest Moments in Jazz (The Guardian)

The Guardian Music Blog has a series called 50 Greatest Moments in Jazz. I've linked to them below and also put links for the music that the author thought typified the moment in the links below.

1. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band release Livery Stable Blues


Original Dixieland Jazz Band
No 1: Why Livery Stable Blues was the fanfare for a revolution
Livery Stable Blues

2. Louis Armstrong
No 2: Armstrong's voice propelled him into the limelight, but it was as a trumpeter that he emerged as a great virtuoso soloist
Louis Armstrong - Riverside Blues

3. The invention of swing
No 3: Last week's great moment showed Louis Armstrong going from singer to trumpeting genius. This week: Satchmo's role in the invention of swing
Sugar Foot Stomp

4. The Hot Fives and Hot Sevens


Louis Armstrong's Hot Five
No 4: Louis Armstrong's two sensational recording bands of the late 1920s saw the young musician laying the foundations of jazz improvisation
Potato Head Blues

5. Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers

No 5: Though he might not have invented the form (as he sometimes claimed) Jelly Roll Morton was the first jazz composer of importance, investing his music with spontaneity and diversity
Black Bottom Stomp

Sidney Bechet on soprano saxophone

20 Mar 2009: 
No 6: He was probably the first great jazz soloist who brought vibrant colours to the palette by introducing the soprano sax
  

Summertime

7. The arrival of Duke Ellington


Duke Ellington leads his 1930s jazz band
No 7: Of the jazz-influenced ensembles of the late 1920s, none showed greater vision than Duke Ellington's. In his hands, jazz kept its spontaneity, improvisational edge and dancefloor drive
East St. Louis Toodle-oo

8. Duke Ellington develops the 'jungle sound'

No 8: Ragtime, boogie-woogie, New Orleans blues and the Harlem renaissance … it all went into the rich mix that made up Duke Ellington's groundbreaking 'jungle sound'
Duke Ellington - Creole Rhapsody Part 1

9. Benny Goodman and the swing craze

No 9: As big in his day as rock'n'roll would be two decades later, Goodman was hailed the 'King of Swing' for bringing jazz's good-time feel to a wider audience during the Great Depression
Blue Skies

10. Count Basie


Count Basie in 1950
No 10: One of the most important jazz bandleaders of his day, Basie pioneered an infectious take on swing that stunned audiences
Oh Lady Be Good

11. Billie Holiday

No 11: Regarded by many as the greatest jazz singer of them all, Holiday's eloquent ability to sound both world-weary and innocent captivated audiences worldwide
The Man I Love

12. Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit

No 12: The song made Billie Holiday a star, but did so much more – telling of the horrors of lynchings in the deep south
Strange Fruit

13. Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall, 1938

No 13: Benny Goodman's racially integrated showcase unleashed jazz's great black innovators on a dazzled American public
Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall 1938


14. Charlie Christian

No 14: The pioneering guitarist dazzled contemporaries and put the sound of the electric guitar on the map


15. The emergence of bebop

No 15: Dismissed at the time as unlistenable and undanceable, bebop represented an outlet for imaginative, open-minded jazz musicians hoping to usher in a new age
Charlie Parker: Honeysuckle Rose

16. Charlie Parker


Charlie Parker
No 16: One of the most influential improvisational soloists in jazz, and a pioneer of bebop, Parker was able to move away from a tune's 'home' key and back without losing the thread.
6 of the Best
Cherokee

17. Charlie Parker's first recordings


13 Aug 2009:
No 17: Writtten hastily during rehearsals, these songs contain some of the most memorable melodies in 20th-century music
Charlie Parker - Red Cross
Charlie Parker - Ko Ko

18. Charlie Parker teams up with Ross Russell


24 Sep 2009:
No 18: Parker's deal with the record shop-owner was a defining moment for the saxophonist, as it led him to create some of the most memorable jazz improvisation of all time
Ornithology
Famous Alto Break
Loverman

19. Charlie Parker's final years


Charlie Parker in 1952 14 Oct 2009:
No 19: In the eight years following his release from a mental hospital in 1947, Parker produced a great deal of astonishing jazz
Relaxin' at Camarillo
Just Friends

20. The Quintet - Jazz At Massey Hall

No 20: Charlie Parker's final collaboration, featuring bebop's biggest stars, is one of the greatest recorded live shows in jazz
Night in Tunisia

21. Birth of the Cool


miles davis playing trumpet
No 21: Emerging from the shadow of his hero Charlie Parker, Miles Davis rejected the aggressive tempo of bebop to pioneer a smoother style that became a landmark in jazz evolution
The Birth of the Cool


22. The little-known genius of Lennie Tristano

No 22: One of the great jazz educators and innovators, this unheralded pianist was an inspiration to generations of musicians

23. Dave Brubeck's Jazz at Oberlin

No 23: Brubeck's 1953 live album showed that jazz didn't have to follow the bebop route, and that there was even a chart audience out there for it

24. Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan's pianoless quartet

29 Jan 2010: No 24: The charismatic prince of cool jazz developed an elegant and intertwining sound after being forced to perform without a piano

25. The Modern Jazz Quartet and John Lewis's Django

24 Mar 2010: No 25: One of the rare bands to be loved beyond the jazz cognoscenti, this chamber ensemble gave the genre a respect previously afforded to classical musicians

26. Cecil Taylor - Bemsha Swing

Jazz pianist Cecil Taylor Audio (7min 25sec), 14 Apr 2010: John Fordham: This 1956 interpretation of Thelonious Monk's typically flinty Bemsha Swing might not sound like a jazz revolution in motion at first. But listen closer...

27. Cecil Taylor's jazz piano revolution

Jazz pianist Cecil Taylor 14 Apr 2010: No 27: This 1956 interpretation of Thelonious Monk's typically flinty Bemsha Swing might not sound revolutionary at first. But listen closer ...
9 comments

28. The renaissance of Thelonious Monk

29 Apr 2010: No 28: The high priest of improv's 1956 album Brilliant Corners is a remarkable insight into his wayward musical mind
7 comments

29. The rise of saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins

11 May 2010: No 29: Though he had recorded with the Modern Jazz Quartet, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, it was from early 1956 that Sonny Rollins really took off …
4 comments

30. Jimmy Smith and the Hammond organ

Jimmy Smith 2 Jun 2010: No 30: The Hammond was designed as a low-budget organ for churches, but it was Smith who marked its place in jazz history 27 comments

31. Miles Davis and Kind of Blue

5 Jul 2010: No 31: This groundbreaking 1959 album is as close to perfection as jazz gets without sacrificing its spontaneity
19 comments

32. Ornette Coleman defines the Shape of Jazz to Come

23 Jul 2010: No 32: Initially regarded as a fraud or fool, he influenced half a century of jazz – and this album defines his greatness more than any other
8 comments
Jazz player John Coltrane 9 Aug 2010: No 33: Perhaps the most influential saxophonist all of time, Coltrane produced an intensely soulful sound that reached way beyond the jazz cognoscenti
24 comments
17 Aug 2010: No 34: Rock'n'roll effectively kept jazz out of the charts in the 60s, but the samba craze briefly rekindled hopes of a renaissance
16 comments

Charles Mingus 6 Sep 2010: No 35: It's almost impossible to choose just one great moment from the legacy of this pioneering bassist and compositional genius
15 comments


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