50 Essential Jazz Albums 

I made a Spotify Playlist too: open.spotify.com/user/121243605/playlist/7sos7yWcZYDju17t8xDBBR?si=yRgcFL2AShuqnluIu4MRtw

Great albums. Some albums I missed: Maiden Voyage (Herbie Hancock), In a Silent Way (Miles Davis), Something Else (Cannonball Adderley), Go (Dexter Gordon), My Favourite Things (John Coltrane)

Excellent! I think our lists would be about 70% inclusive. Mine would include more Charlie Parker, early Ellington, Trane & Hartman, Jimmy Smith, and "A Charlie Brown Christmas". :-)

Nice to see some Clifford Brown getting some love.

Very well conceived, but some important omissions: - Miles Davis - In a Silent Way - Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain - Miles Davis - 'Round About Midnight - John Coltrane - My Favorite Things - Cannonball Adderley - Something Else - Bill Evans - Portraits in Jazz - Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage

You have all four albums featured in "1959 The Year that Changed Jazz".

Wow! What a beautiful list!!! Thank you, Aimee!

Wonderful list aimee! Ive had these albums in my years of collecting. We are so lucky to have been given these gifts from these incredible artists and for having you share your talent with us!! Thank you Aimee.

There goes my Sunday! Thank you, Aimee! ❤️

Just what I needed today!! Thank you, Aimee!! 😁👍🏼

This is fantastic, thank you very much for the upload! I’ve been watching the Ken Burns docu-series on Jazz and listening to the albums in this video and together they’ve thought me tons!!

Excellent choices! Thanks for putting in the work!

All things considered i really think this is just an absolutely fantastic selection

Great selection! Looking forward to the why-video! I did not know all of them...

Thank you so much! I have been searching for a credible "professional" jazz list to start my collection. This is just what we needed!

Thanks, Aimee. You have really narrowed it down to a manageable list. It can be a daunting task to listen to a lot of jazz. This is a good place to start, thank you!

Late 50's definitely my favorite period

Am already looking forward to exploring these 🎶😊

Great suggestions, with a nice mix of eras and genres.

This is awesome! Just finished running a jazz festival and this is a perfect way to end it! Thank you!

The Joe Pass “Virtuoso” is great, but the album he did with Ella Fitzgerald is stupendous. Fantasitic example of top floor voice and guitar in the jazz idiom.

𝙔𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 daunting ! This is quite comprehensive . I appreciate the effort . I think you are a very thorough educator . You also seem pretty chill , like human chamomile tea . I'm not even '' into '' jazz , but I still know that this is a good list . Thanks .

Comprehensive and interesting list. Some absolute classics.

Thanks aimee, happy that i know a lot of those, and a whole other lot to listen to

Really appreciate this, fantastic list!

great selection aimee! thanks for providing us such an invaluable list!

My selection would have been a bit different, but I'm happy that Aimee included Brad Mehldau's "Songs: The Art Of The Trio Vol 3". I love that album.

so happy to see concert by the sea and Elligton at Newport on the list - the whole list is awesome (Personally I love the Ellington and Coltrane collaboration Album just because of everything the two of the represent)

Wow! I'll check those albums out. Especially Wayne Shorter. Thanks! Great video. Watching from London UK 9

Thank you Aimee!!!!!

Excellent list! I'm surprised how many of these I own or have owned in one medium or another -- almost all from the fifties and sixties. Thank you for sharing this.

Awesome list!

Great list. Thank you for this. I'll be checking them out. :)

Great, simple format. I enjoyed it. Chet Baker got me into Jazz. No mention noticed even in comments??

Great list! I would have found room for Conference of the Birds, Midnight Blue and Miles Smiles but I can't fault any of you choices.

Good list!

Thank you so much for this video amie

Thanks Aimee!! Building my Apple Music “Aimee Nolte Jazz Essentials” playlist right now!

Really nice list! I’ll check out the few I only sort of know. It’s fun to see people chime in with suggestions in the comments too. Personally, the Keith Jarrett Trio would be on my list. Maybe the Blue Note concerts. Glad you had the Koln Concert.

Great list and i have many of them but have some work to do thanks

Nice solid selection.

when you thought this was some random youtube compilation and it was actually Aimee Nolte. Nice!

Such a cool list. Chick Coreas beneath the mask is my favorite album of all time because it really shifted my perspective on music but glad to see he made it on the list, after I heard him I got obsessed, now its Guthrie. Sorry for the rant, this stuff just makes me so exited. Cant wait for the discussion.

Thanks Aimee!!

yessss! gracias Aimee! kisses!

My hero Paul Chambers is on so many of those albums, even though he had such a short career. RIP Mr. P.C.

Great choose!!

Thanks a lot😋. I'll discover jazz history thanks to you and this video😀

Thank you so much for this!

Hey Aimee, I have a few to add for the top 100! Mike Clark - Carnival Of Soul 2010 John Scofield - A Go Go 1998 Billy Cobham - Spectrum 1973 Eddie Harris - Mean Greens 1966 Jimmy Smith - Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf 1964 Lee Konitz, Brad Mehldau and Charlie Haden - Alone Together 1997 Maceo Parker - Mo’ Roots 1991

So glad that Speak No Evil was on the list!

I do a jazz radio show, and the 50's--60's portion of this could be my playlist; really well-done list. Of course some things are missing for everybody, how could they not be? For me some Dex, Go or Biting the Apple; either an early or late Joe; Zoot with Rowles (how does a piano player not have Jimmy somewhere--the Billie sessions with Ben W., or The Peacocks with Getz, or the first album with Zoot, or the duo with Al Cohn...); some Detroit piano--Hank, Tommy or Barry. Barry plays Tadd Dameron is so perfect as relaxed bebop playing. I could go on. But a lot of this list had me saying "yep, yep", as it went by. Thanks!

So I went through the list with my collection and was actually missing quite a bit more than I thought. Thank you for introducing me to these new albums that I might have never found.

Saludos y BENDICIONES desde Puerto Rico

Hello Aimee I’ve just come to say I love you! Thanks by all from Brazil

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for introducing me to Ahmad Jamal!!!! I thought maybe I was going to run out music that just blows me away from the first listen. Apparently not yet. The use of dynamics in his music is so addicting.

*Ferb, I know what we’re gonna do today*

Aimee this is a great, great list! I own almost all of these on LP and/or CD, although a few of the compilation LPs are somewhat different but have (more or less) the same material. However, I don't have the King Oliver, Errol Garner, Cannonball/ Nancy Wilson, that exact Oscar Peterson (although I have some of its tunes on a compilation), the Cecil Taylor , the MJQ, the Brad Mehldau, or the Michael Brecker albums you listed. One correction re: "The Complete Birth of the Cool" by Miles Davis. While the 33 &1/3 RPM LP album itself was indeed first issued in 1957, the tunes were recorded in 1949 and 1950 and most, if not all, were released as 78 RPM "singles" (two tunes, one on each side) in '49 or early '50s. Again a GREAT LIST!!!. I think anyone that went and got these records would have the start of a well rounded jazz collection with no duds!! I'm more of a rabid fan/record collector than a musician although I played harmonica in a blues band for a while (many years ago) and was a live sound engineer in the late 80s through the 90s. If I put together a similar jazz list it would include AT LEAST 30 of the same titles! My list would have a few more Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins records, an Art Tatum solo piano compilation, a Dexter Gordon record, "Sing a Song of Basie" (1957) by Lambert Hendricks and Ross, "Undercurrent" (1962) by Bill Evans & Jim Hall, "Conference of the the Birds" (1972) and "Prime Directive" (1999) by Dave Holland, and something by Regina Carter like "Free Fall" (2000) which is a duet with Kenny Barron. Sorry for all the exclamation marks! (LOL), but I got very excited by this list.

Cannonball Adderly: Live in SF Maynard Ferguson: Live at Jimmy's. Phil Woods: Floresta Canto...gonna keep adding as titles come to me. My father was a jazz pianist. We wuz poor...but So much richer than everyone else. He was inducted into the Kansas City Jazz Hall of Fame in 1996.

Lovely list. Here's some of my favs that aren't mentioned: Bill Evans - Portraint in Jazz/ Explorations/ You must believe in Spring/ Conversations with myself John Coltrane - My Favorite things/ John Coltrane with Jonny Hartman/ Soultrane/Ballads Miles Davis - Round Midnight/ E.S.P/ Miles Smiles Stan Getz - Sweet Rain/ Focus John Surman - Upon Reflection Krzysztof Komeda - Astigmatic Charles Mingus -The Black Saint and the sinner lady Cannonball Adderley - Know what i mean (with Evans) John Coltrane and Duke Ellington - self-titled Thelonious Monk - Misterioso Sonny Rollins - The Bridge Paul Desmond - Take Ten Wayne Shorter - Adam's Apple Alice Coltrane - journey in satchidananda ...and many others Enjoy!

Many that I have and many that I’ve not heard (or heard of!) Awesome! Looking forward to your follow up video(s). Of course you invite the “but what about...?” So here’s mine - but what about something from Miles Davis’s second great quintet?😁😁

Big fan of your teaching videos and esp. Aimee's Riffing-While-Skating videos! And even though I agree with (and own) at least 35 of these 50, I think the 80's and 90's are far enough away to know if there was anything essential (20-30yrs). It seems like you don't care for W. Marsalis, but I'd argue that either "Black Codes..." or "Majesty of the Blues" or "Citi Movement" should be up there - even by the standards often used by the straight-up (and sad) Wynton Haters Club, Inc. (not saying you're in that tribe). Thanks for all you do!

Cool. I have a few of these albums.

Hella list here. So many left out. But none can argue with these. I have about 28 of the ones listed here. Will get the others.

Love Paul Desmond sax 🎷 style.... Top mate

Thank you!

These are great selections. Just a few more things people should really check out. Somethin’ Else, Phenix and almost anything by Roy Hargrove. I would recommend Earfood as my personal favorite but he was simply fantastic.

Brilliant!

chat baker songs for lovers must have

Great! Thanks!

Wonderful list - as is always the case, and should always be the case, there are some artists where I might choose one album over another ... but that comes with the joy of having these amazing artists with such a breadth and depth of work where we can have a spirited debate about album X or Y while ultimately agreeing that BOTH are excellent! I was actually a little saddened that I own all of these ... had my pen and paper ready :). I know that ‘lists’ tend to get people upset if their pet choice isn’t represented, but in my case I was hoping to learn stuff I have missed through the years!

In the voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame there's always one person who will never vote for ANYONE first ballot. This accounts for the one do not like. There's always one. This is an AWESOME list. I don't see how any well listened jazzhead can disagree. Excellent job. "Excellence does not require perfection."

Of course an impossible task to please everyone. Well done. Some of my personal considerations: Frank Rosolino, Carl Fontana , Bill Watrous, Maynard Ferguson, Clark Terry, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Chicago…. You get the idea. Lot’s of love, thanks always .

Thanks for the recommendations, Aimee!!! Definetly I'm gonna check for the ones that I haven't heard yet. I'd like to mention the: Ella Fitzgerald - Mack the knife: Live in Berlin Ella is superb in that album that I love and probably you already know but, if you haven't, please check it out totally worth it. Love your channel, Aimeel!! 🤗 Jazz, Jazz, Jazz!!!

Thanks for Django!

Love it! No Hancock's Maiden Voyage, Griffin and Coltrane's Blowin Session, Henderson's Inner Urge or Webster's Soulville though?? I know I'd find it hard narrowing it down to 100 let alone 50!

good Monk pick. The blossoming of Monk to the world, all original compositions after the Ellington and standards albums.

Thank you so much!!!..)

I usually don't see "At the Pershing: But Not for Me" on top 50 lists but I completely agree. It was the first Jazz album I bought. Nice list in general.

The most balanced list I´ve seen. Personally, I do not enjoy fusion so much, but I understand that all styles should be represented. I missed Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Andrew Hill, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, and Kenny Dorham. There are some (great ) albums that could fill two of these gaps simultaneously: say, "Art Tatum and Ben Webster", "Coleman Hawkins encounters Ben Webster", "Our Man in Paris"( D. Gordon, B.Powell and also Kenny Clark), and "Point of Departure"( A.Hill, K.Dorham and also Joe Henderson). The last one is one of my all time´s favourite, and a good point of departure to enjoy "modern jazz". Personally I would like to see Dorham also represented as a leader ( "Quiet Kenny" perhaps), but this is probably a too personal choice.

Thanks a lot! Great list, this will support me the next couple of years. Three suggestions: 1. Following many comments where we get several other Miles Davis records, we could give Miles the ‘Sinatra c.s. approach’ with a) MD collected Blue Note (‘49-‘54), b) MD collected Prestige (‘54-‘56), c) MD collected Columbia (‘49-‘89) and d) collected WarnerBros (‘86-‘91), together ‘MD Collected ‘49-‘91’; 2. John Scofield has to be here. My personal choice is Still Warm, but with my first bullet being supported, I’m fine with John playing on Miles’ Star People (great blues album, also with Mike Stern), Decoy and You’re under arrest (also John McLaughlin), here we also get Darryl Jones from / for the ‘80’s; 3. Lennie Tristano (album same name) I would love on this list. As Clare Fischer and a Monk album with ‘Round Midnight. Brad Mehldau allready included is great! And well deserved. Glad I can see him nearly every year in The Netherlands. John Scofield idem. Thank you guys!

Some lists are perfect this is one of them.

Great selection, and many here that I need to acquire. One of my favorites, "Concierto" (Jim Hall and pals) didn't make the list, but maybe when you do the next fifty?

Well this is going to take time, it takes me a month to get over an album or two

Good choices..

I have a couple of those albums, the Dinah Washington one and Oscar Petersen. So much great music out there.

I have 50 or Bird CDs and I didn't have the Massey hall album shown here. STELLAR Pick!

Interesting. I've made a note of the small handful don't have already.

I've owned a lot of those instrumental albums. I would have dropped Headhunters and added Dexter Calling. And squeezed Betty Carter in there for a vocalist. All in all, great taste displayed.

Thank you

Thank you for this. I can now fill in the gaps. I was curious when I saw the video link what you were going to choose as I am always wary of 'essential' lists. Yet certainly from both a historical and learning perspective the ordering and choices are impeccable IMO. Maybe these lists could b entitled 50 essential jazz albums selection one leaving you space to do another fifty that you couldn't fit kin to the first round? I noticed not many singers on the list. I doubt others will agree with me but Lambert, Hendrick ad Ross I'd love to see on the list or at least Jon Hendricks. Only two albums from 2000 onwards is both curious, interesting and possibly concerning. Maybe it takes time like a fine vintage wine for greatness to be appreciated?

I listened to Virtuoso by Joe Pass for the first time last night. Holy crap! I don't know how I completely missed this album.

Great list Aimee, I know how difficult it must have been for you but it would have been nice to include Ray Charles who has been a very influential figure maybe Genius + Soul = Jazz. Also, the amazing duets of Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster (Blue Saxophones).

Gracias por compartir

This honestly shows how underrated Joe Henderson is. I really believe that Page One or Inner Urge should be in this list. I still really enjoyed the video! Thanks!

Can’t argue with anything on your list.

Thank you! Now we are all going to be distracted for 1,000 years trying to figure out how to play like these amazing artists

Thank you.

Personal taste of course - I would include Ahmad Jamal “Ahmad’s Blues”, Charlie Byrd “By the Sea”, Duke Ellington “The Pianist”, Paul Desmond - various, Zoot Sims - various, Wynton Marsalis, James Morrison - huge job - well done!!

No argument with any of these, but I would like to add a shout out to Dave Holland's Conference of the Birds and Julian Lage's Gladwell. Also Kenny Burrell's Midnight Blue.