Quote:
Originally Posted by gusmahler
Interesting list, and I would recommend going through the whole thing. I haven't really looked closely, and will do so later, but my first reactions are
1) I'm a Zappa fan, and a lot of jazz fans like him, but I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that
Hot Rats is a jazz album. First of all, most of Zappa's work (especially around this period) was meticulously crafted, with little room for improvisational dialogue or exploration, confined almost entirely to the bridge solos. Only
Gumbo Variations, on
HR, seems to encourage the kind of instantaneous expression that the best jazz inspires.
In a recent Nat Hentoff column in JazzTimes, MJQ leader John Lewis is quoted as defining jazz: "It has to swing, or appear to. It has to contain an element of surprise, and it has to embody the eternal search for the blues."
Hot Rats does swing, if often in less stylistically familiar form. Especially "Peaches en Regalia" and the previously cited "Gumbo Variations". And his music almost always has an element of surprise. But Zappa is far too skeptical and self-aware to "embody an eternal search for the blues", even in an ironic fashion, and even when the lyrics are
not weighting it down with satire.
2)
Saxophone Colossus belongs higher. In retrospect, I think I should have put it on my initial five essential albums.
3) Thirty albums and no Bill Evans, but Vince Guaraldi at number 16?
Blasphemy.
4)Pharoah Sanders up here is a surprise, although a nice one.
5) Horace Silver. Damn straight.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gusmahler
My thoughts:
* I need to get me some Mingus. I have over half the albums on this chart, but none of the Mingus ones.
Yes, you do. I always enjoy your posts, gus, and find them enlightening. After finding this out, however, I now have to wonder about you.
Right this wrong, immediately, good sir.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gusmahler
* Biggest surprise: In a Silent Way. I think it's one of Miles Davis's worst electric albums.
I agree, but for some reason, it seems to retain a popular following. I certainly don't think it is the fourth best jazz album of all time, that's for sure. And ahead of
Jack Johnson, and
Bitches Brew? Nah.