Recommendations of the editorial team
Here we list the 50 best jazz plates of all (previous) times. Let’s go!
50th place. The thing – bag it!
Smalltown Superjazz
2009
Eleven albums long were the three Swedes as a live phenomenon, which would probably never succeed in implementing the incredible power of their energy jazz in the studio. Bag it! Changes everything. The man behind this mystery: Steve Albini. Heading him as a producer was a mandatory idea, especially because the man from Chicago can mix a drums like no other so that it intimately rumbles. Saxophone and bass are allowed to trust the drums of the drums, the drums appear in dialogue. Or better: the instruments shout at each other, and so frenzied that these musicians cannot help but scream in between from time to time. But there are also gaps in the noise: the title piece develops as a new-building-like industrial experiment before it becomes frenzied and ultimately comes to rest again. André Boße
49th place. The Pyramids – Lalibela
Pyramid music
1973
In the film Space is the Place, the Afrofuturist Sun Ra ends up with his spaceship in Oakland (California), his mission is the liberation of the African Americans by means of the cosmic energy of music. In the 1970s, the Pyramids opened their jazz camp in Oakland and singer Idris Ackamoor in a track of his brand new album: “A Band of Children from the Land of Ra Who Travel Space From Star To Star”. Lalibela is the 1973 debut of the sextet, a miracle of Cosmic Jazz in two side -filling tracks. For moments it sounds like pre-modern folk, then the flutes and saxophones begin to meanders in wild lanes, ritual chants push themselves over the Conga beats. In the end, her souls are said to have left their bodies. Frank Sawatzki
48th place. The Peter Brötzmann Octet – Machine Gun
FMP
1968
No, it was not the European variant of the Free Jazz that the saxophonist Peter Brötzmann invented on his second album Machine Gun. But it was the first essential free jazz album from Europe. Brötzmann and his octet with, among others, Evan Parker, Han Bennink, Fred van Hove and Sven-Åke Johansson thought the free collective improvisation that Ornete Coleman developed on the album Free Jazz and which was later continued by John Coltrane on Ascension. Ultra-fast and aggressive high-energy music, which often reminded of the sounds of the title-giving Machine Gun, led by Brötzmann’s roaring game on the tenor and baritone saxophone. If there is the equivalent of heavy metal in jazz, it is this album. Albert Koch
47th place. The Bad Plus – Prog
Do the math
2007
It is such a thing when jazz virtuosos plunge to well-known pop and rock templates, it is not uncommon for handicrafts to be created that works for mild sparkling wine in weddings and pedestrian zone inauguration, but is mere gesture on plate. The Bad Plus do it much better, the US trio does not choose the tracks because of the AHA experiences, but examines what to get out of the original. Prog not only offers progressive rock (but also, namely “Tom Sawyer” by Rush), but also its own compositeons, but above all variations on pop songs such as “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears or Bowies “Life on Mars?” – And always add several levels and voltage arches to the templates based on the main topics. André Boße
46th place Charlie Parker – Jazz at Massey Hall
Debut
1953
The live recording also runs under the band name The Quintet, alongside Parker at the Saxophone Charles Mingus on the bass and Dizzy Gillespie on the trumpet, Bud Powell am Piano and Max Roach on the drums-it couldn’t be better. Mingus was responsible for the recording, he is said to have improved a few bass tracks. It is also told by the drunk pianist that Gillespie was also more interested in the boxing match on the television than for the concert and complained afterwards that he only got his fee years later. Beautiful jazz legends, but more important is what you hear: an impressive jazz demonstration of the best musicians at this time, who continue to turn the Bebop with high virtuosity towards hard bop and modern jazz. André Boße
45th place. Collocutor – The Search
On the Corner Records
2017
Storytelling in jazz. The second album of the British band around the saxophonist and flutist Tamar Osborn could also be the soundtrack for a road movie that tells of the disappearance of a person and ends with their appearance (“Arrival live dubplate mix”). Collocutor take off their music picture routes in a fantastic flow, switch to the stop-and-go mode, take a look in Sun Ras jazz lands, leave the course and return with turbo percussion. “Killer” was the judgment of DJ and Talkin ‘loud founder Gilles Peterson. Wherever the journey of the young London jazz scene can lead, their youngest Maxi: Miles Davis’ “Black Satin” tore them up on the sides and pulled them into a deep hole with bass and electric guitar. Frank Sawatzki
44th place. Thelonious Monk – Straight, No Chaser
Columbia
1967
Not the soundtrack for the film portrait, but the sixth album by the pianist-and one that can be heard in contrast to many Monk recordings on the side. Monk and his three fellow musicians on saxophone, bass and drums do not move too far from the templates of Duke Ellington or Harold Arlen, the interpretations of his own songs also sound, which does not reduce the hearing pleasure, on the contrary: If more than five people are as a guest, no chaser is always the best Monk choice: You can always agree on this plate. André Boße
43th place. Badbadnotgood – IV
Innovative Leisure/ Rough Trade
2016
Broken vintage surfer shirts, washed-out jeans, funny caps and much nonsense in the mind: the boys from Badbadnotgood act like real trailers. You could easily go through Mac Demarco, Twin Peaks or Hinds as best buddies, but God are the joyful! The great thing: You don’t have to check your ambitious Weirdo jazz. In this music, genre-promoted people should recognize all sorts of references, but no less fun with jazz, when saxophone or trumpet replace and hook hooks, but never sound bulky when rhythms change every second when sound motifs spherically on and established genre expectations are not redeemed. IV is indie rock and jazz, running and five-course menu at the same time. Only with this, her fourth album did the band from Toronto got the really great international attention. Perhaps because she was so busy producing tracks for Kendrick Lamar or Kaytranada, so that their own songs had to be put down. In the recording studio of the boys, which bears the sexy name Studio 69, they recently wrote the instrumental for a fairly hit: “After the Storm” by Kali Uchis, Tyler, The Creator and Booty Collins. Jördis Hagemeier
42th place. The Lounge Lizards – The Lounge Lizards
Editions eG
1981
Free jazz from New York and from the early 80s, when the nervousness and irony of the postpunk are also swinging. The lounge Lizards play with the style of the great jazz traditionalists, the cover comes from Peter Saville, the man who gave the Joy Division plates the corporate look. The lounge of Lizards have developed their lust for noise in various no wave era in various noise bands. On your first LP you interpret two monk tracks, plus the standard “Harlem Nocturne”, which continues to lead the meta jazz of the Lounge Lizards into the rock world-which is also due to the compact drummer Anton Fier, who previously played with the Feelies and Pere UBU. André Boße
41th place. Duke Ellington – piano in the background
Columbia
1960
The title is interesting, because if Duke plays Ellington Piano, of course not just in the background. This is how his piano sounds decisive here, although there are always moments when the wind players of his orchestra develop tremendous power or, at “What on the i here for?”, The trumpet almost takes on the role of lead singing. Either way: Piano in the background is an excellent example of Duke Ellington’s unique art of arrangement. André Boße