I believe this belongs on this thread.

1959 was an incredible year for Jazz.

What's your favorite jazz album(s)?

Being a Jazz player I understand that 1959 was possibly the most critical
year in Jazz music.

I believe Miles Davis' "Kinda Blues" is the greatest Jazz album as far as
the public is concerned. I'm not a big fan of Dave Brubeck, even though
I played with him. but his "Take Five" is undoubtedly one of the most
influential recordings ever.

Here are my faves

1. Kinda Blue - Miles Davis
2. Giant Steps- John Coltrane
3. Village Vanguard - Bill Evans
4. Blues and the Abstract Truth - Oliver Nelson
5. Portrait in Jazz - Bill Evans

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I won't knock Jazz for those who like it but it is one of my least favorite. I've been involved in music as both a performer and listener since the middle 50's and Jazz has always been very boring to me.

To each his own. However, the label "jazz" is every bit as generic as are the labels "classical" and "serious" -- all cover a multitude of sub-types that can vary from each other as widely as these types differ from each other. Would you consider Mozart and Bartok to be exactly the same type of music, and either to be better/worse than Stravinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, or Shostakovich?

Similarly, the 1920s-era Satchmo and Miles Davis are hardly comparable, and Maynard Ferguson's work differs widely from either -- although all three blow trumpet. And Dizzy was totally different from any of them (whether you like him or not)...

Some folk consider "jazz" to be only improvised, and rule out anything that's written down in charts. Others think differently. One of my favorite performers was the late Stan Kenton, who explored the entire gamut but could never be confused with Bix (whose single recorded piano performance, "In A Mist," is strangely like some of Errol Garner's work, and totally unlike his legendary skills with the horn). At least one famous and somewhat racist performer (name omitted to protect the guilty, but I'm sure that some will know who it was) claims that only members of his own race can play jazz.

Back to Prunepicker's original comment, I'd say that 1937 was a more significant year than 1959, since that's when Charlie Christian brought the guitar to the front as more than just part of the rhythm section. However one can probably find significant landmarks for every year along the way...

How about Ahmad Jamal? I knew he was not too shabby but this thread reminded me of him out in San Francisco and I wondered what impact he had on the jazz genre. Wikepedia (I know, take Wikipedia with a grain of salt) has the following "According to American music critic Stanley Crouch, Jamal is second in importance in the development of jazz after 1945 only to Charlie Parker." And "For five decades, he has been one of the most successful small-group leaders in jazz.". I have sort of lost touch with music in general and only listen to a few cd's that I own including Take Five and another Dave Brubeck cd (the name escapes me).
C. T.