5
5
4
4
3
How I chose these masterpieces
Sam Reese, instructor
Three-Minute Masterpieces
I faced a daunting task when trying to select only eight recordings – one for each of our eight class sessions - from among hundreds of widely admired pieces in the annals of recorded jazz since 1917 (the year of the first jazz recording). I wanted to use a method to identify these eight tracks that reflected the judgments of contemporary jazz scholars and historians. I wanted to avoid merely creating a list of “Sam’s Favorite Jazz.”
The method I chose was to count the number of times that a given recording was selected for inclusion in five definitive anthologies of jazz recordings, each prepared by different scholars. These anthologies are:
1.
Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology (2011, 111 tracks)
2.
The Norton Jazz Recordings (2010, 78 tracks)
3.
Ken Burns Jazz (2000, 95 tracks)
4.
Jazz: The Definitive Performances (1999, 33 tracks)
5.
The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz (1987, 93 tracks)
They represent the best consensus we have about what scholars consider the recordings most worthy of study and preservation.
After performing this count, I was surprised at how little consensus there was about specific recordings but how much consensus there was about the artists that were represented.
Those tracks that were included at least three times in these five anthologies were:
Count Title Artist Year
5 Singin' The Blues (Till My Daddy
Comes Home)
West End Blues
So What
Body and Soul
Embraceable You
Dipper Mouth Blues
Frankie Trumbauer And His
Orchestra
1927
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five 1928
Miles Davis Sextet
Coleman Hawkins and His
Orchestra
Charlie Parker Quintet
King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band
1959
1939
1947
1923
3
3
The Stampede
Dead Man Blues
Fletcher Henderson and His
Orchestra
Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot
Peppers
1926
1926

1
4
3
3
2
3
3
3
3
3
3
Weather Bird
Moten Swing
Lester Leaps In
Ko-Ko
Manteca
Giant Steps
Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines
Bennie Moten and His Kansas City
Orchestra
Count Basie Kansas City Seven
Charlie Parker's Re-Boppers
1928
1932
1939
1945
Dizzy Gillespie and His Orchestra 1947
John Coltrane Quartet 1959
3
3
Django
E.S.P.
The Modern Jazz Quartet
Miles Davis Quintet
1960
1964
3
3
A Love Supreme Part I:
Acknowledgement
Birdland
John Coltrane Quartet
Weather Report
1964
1977
In addition to this simple counting method, however, I wanted to be sure that the tracks: a.
Represent major stylistic periods in jazz b.
Represent major artists c.
Are frequently analyzed and described in the major jazz literature d.
Are both instrumental and vocal e.
Represent a balance of fast, medium, slow tempos.
After creating several different versions of the list in an attempt to narrow it to eight, I decided upon the following:
COUNT Title Artist Year
5
5
Singin' The Blues (Till My
Daddy Comes Home)
West End Blues
Frankie Trumbauer And His
Orchestra
1927
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five 1928
4 Body and Soul 1939
Embraceable You
Giant Steps
E.S.P.
Cotton Tail
My Song
Coleman Hawkins and His
Orchestra
Charlie Parker Quintet
John Coltrane Quartet
Miles Davis Quintet
Ella Fitzgerald with the Duke
Ellington Orchestra
Keith Jarrett
1947
1959
1964
1965
1977

I chose to include all of the tracks that had counts of 4 or 5, except “So What” by Miles Davis
Sextet. With difficulty, I made this decision because of the 9:22 length of this track which would require a full third of our 1 ½ hour class time to listen through three times (which is one of the goals I have – to listen completely through each track at least three times). In place of “So What,” I chose to include “E.S.P.” by the Miles Davis Quintet because it represents Davis’ work well and also demonstrates another important stylistic approach that was very influential (even though it only had a count of 3).
Then, I selected another of the tracks that had a count of 3, “Giant Steps” by John Coltrane
Quartet, in order to include this very important artist and to have another track in a fast tempo.
Finally, I made the decision to forgo the count method and use my own discretion to include “Cotton Tail” by Ella Fitzgerald with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, because – almost unbelievably – no single Ellington recording was included more than twice in the five anthologies. Also, there was not a single other vocal recording that even had a count of
2, and I thought it important to include at least one vocal track.
At this point, the list included recordings from the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. Thus, I decided to include “My Song” by Keith Jarrett for three reasons: 1) to include a recording from the 1970’s, 2) because I consider Jarrett to be the most important pianist of our generation, and 3) this recording is a personal favorite. I chose not to include “Birdland” from Weather Report, even though it was recorded in the 1970’s and had a count of 3 because I believe it does not have the same degree of musical complexity and expressiveness as “My Song,” and its jazz-rock style would not have strong appeal to our
OLLI class members.
Regrettably, many seminal jazz artists are not included in this list of eight masterpieces like
Joe “King” Oliver, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Lester Young, Dizzy
Gillespie, Art Tatum, Sonny Rollins, Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus, Chick Corea, Pat
Metheny, Wynton Marsalis and many others who have made enduring contributions to the art.
Also disappointing is that no big band recordings are included, especially from the Count
Basie Orchestra and the Benny Goodman Orchestra. These musicians were among the very few jazz artists who have become household names because of their singular work during the swing era of the 30’s and 40’s.
Another teacher or scholar may well assemble a different group of eight jazz recordings that can equally be considered great jazz masterpieces.