you a 12-best list, or tell you that what follows tells the story in full. But the following list expresses lineages of thought, instrumental technique, rhythmic ideas and group conception. The dots are easy to connect, the names clearly indicated and the sounds unforgettable.
And this list is like those sponge toys that, placed in water, magically grow overnight. Listen, and you’ll find expansive knowledge easily absorbed, not to mention natural links to many more artists and recordings.
Listen Hot Fives And Sevens
Artist: Louis Armstrong
Release Date: 1925
To tell the story of jazz without Louis Armstrong up top is to cut off the head of the living organism that is jazz. Armstrong was a giant of a trumpeter, he was an influential singer and perhaps most important, he transformed jazz from a strictly instrumental music into a complicated blend of solo and ensemble sound. In that sense, nearly all the 20th century jazz that followed flowed from the innovation of these recordings. Over the course of these sessions, you can hear the transformation in process, from traditional New Orleans collective style to a different blend, with the clarion call of Armstrong’s horn pointing the way.
Listen The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces Volume 1
Artist: Art Tatum
Release Date: 2001
Any one edition drawn from this eight-CD set will do. And any one is enough to give a sense of the enormity of Tatum’s genius and its far-reaching effects on all the music that followed. Tatum simply played more piano — got more out the