Amazon has posted this list. I would expect that the number one pick would be a great surprise to most people; it was to me. I do think it’s a great album, but greatest? Well, not really.
More than that, I was beginning to mutter with outrage that only two albums by John Coltrane are on the list, until I noted the editors’ proviso that they tried to limit themselves to one album per artist, and Coltrane still got two, so I guess that’s okay.
Jazz is not my favorite music—I listen to more rock, classical, and folk—so I’m not familiar with the majority of titles here. I have to think this is a rather strange selection, though. Some of it doesn’t seem to really qualify as jazz—I like Astrud Gilberto and Madeleine Peyroux, but their work included here isn’t jazz. Or, if you’re going to count them as jazz, how could you possibly not include Sinatra? And I wouldn’t have picked “Blue Trane” over “Giant Steps.”
Well, music geeks can’t resist these lists and the pointless arguments that follow, and the list could be useful as a guide to exploration. And, speaking of Ornette Coleman, I wrote about him a while back, here.
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