What Defines a Great Jazz CD?

[What about the “smooth jazz” they play on the radio these days? It is of no interest to me. If you like it, then good for you—read no further.]

Is this the greatest jazz album ever? Hell, no.

So what do I look for?

First and foremost, the CD must have legs. It must stand up to repeated listening over a period of years and continue to surprise and delight.

It must be worth listening to as music in its own right. By this I mean I don’t list CDs that are there for purposes of nostalgia, or because they are “important” or were innovative in their time. If they cannot be listened to and enjoyed today by persons of all ages based solely on musical content, then they don’t make the cut. Many or most can be enjoyed even by people who would not regard themselves as jazz enthusiasts.

They may be easy to listen to, but they are not “easy listening”. In no case did the producers of the original recordings go into the studio and say “lets churn out some bland easy-listening music”. Some of the CDs listed may give that impression to some naïve listeners, but if you really listen to them, you will find that the soundscape is quite complex and sophisticated once you get past the basic melody.

If it is a singer, then the CD must be representative of his or her best work at the peak of their career. I like the great voices. Recently I heard a radio interview with British comedy actress Jane Horrocks (Bubble in Absolutely Fabulous) who does fantastic impersonations of various female singers like Judy Garland. She said she could only impersonate imperfect voices full of emotion and that she could not do technically perfect voices like Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee. Well, Ella and Peggy are two of my very favorite singers. They don’t just depend on raw emotion and tricks to get a point across.

The backing musicians must be top-drawer musicians at their peak and hopefully the tracks are long enough for some instrumental soloing, even on songs. One of the things that distinguishes jazz recordings from pop recordings is the by-play and interaction between the vocalist and the instrumentalist that only exists in jazz. Pop records are primarily a producer’s medium, whereas jazz it is all about the performance.

The recording must of of exceptional quality. I like clearly defined staging, meaning that is you close your eyes you can visualize the band and see in your mind’s eye where each player is. I like the soloists to “step forward”. I don’ t like a lot of echo or reverberation. If it is a singer, I want to feel goose bumps as I sense that he or she is right there in the room (or car) with me.

The choice of numbers must be good. Obviously this, to a large extent is a matter of opinion. You either like a tune or you don’t. I love I’ve Got You Under My Skin,and I don’t care if it is a hymn to heroin or not, and I can’t have enough of April in Paris or Autumn in New York. On the other hand, although I know that many people, maybe including you, think that Send In the Clowns is a great song, I can live without it. Same goes for Windmills of Your Mind.

Instrumentation must be to my taste. I like most jazz soloing instruments, particularly piano, vibes, guitar, clarinet, and bass saxophone. You will see that I don’t mention trumpet and saxophone. Of course I love them too, but I don’t particularly like muted trumpets (sorry, Miles Davis) or tenor saxophones when played in the shriller registers which sometimes give me that fingernails on blackboard feeling. This is a personal thing and your ears may work differently from mine. In big bands and orchestras I don’t greatly care for the blaring horns that you will find in some of Stan Kenton’s output--though I very much like some of his recordings--or in some of the Latin jazz bands and orchestras. At least only in small doses.

I prefer slow to medium tempos for the most part. Up tempo music has its place and can infuse you with energy and good spirits, and I have included some that I like, but I tend to find that a whole album of frenetic double time playing can be enervating and leave you wanting to turn the damn thing off. I like and enjoy Latin rhythms like bossanova and samba, though I have not included many Latin type albums.

I don’t care all that much for bebop or avante garde music. I admire the virtuosity of an Art Blakey, but find his music ultimately enervating. When it comes to Charlie Parker I have to admit I enjoy the sumptuousness and tone of his ballad playing more than the virtuosity of his up-tempo work. I really dig some of the fifties recordings by Sun Ra, but his avante garde output leaves me cold. I saw him play live in 1970, but sadly can’t remember much about the music. Thelonius Monk is a witty antidote to everybody else, but a little of his music goes a long way.


The CD must be uniformly good. I don’t want a CD that has a couple of great tracks and a load of filler. I want it to be good to the last bite. For this reason I recommend quite a lot of anthology “Best Of” type albums or collections—as long as they really are the cream, which ain’t necessarily so. Then again I don’t really care for CDs that have different kinds of music juxtaposed. I don’t want small groups and big bands together, or early career recordings combined with late career recordings.

In one of my editions of the Penguin Dictionary of Jazz (PDOJ) the first three CDs issued by Herbie Hancock are all given the highest possibly rating (four stars and a crown), but the CD The Best of Herbie Hancock, which is a compilation of the most notable tracks on these three albums is given on three and one half stars. While I do kind of understand the logic of hearing the music better in the context that it was originally published, I don’t think this is a huge issue for most people and would often tend to recommend a compilation as a first purchase of you have nothing else by that artist. Even if you later go on to purchase more albums, the Best Of or Finest Hour will be a useful sampler to other albums and will generally be a very enjoyable listen in its own right. For this reason my recommended CDs will rarely match the top recommendations in the PDOJ. I actually own many of the CDs that have the highest rating in PDOJ and in many cases I do not agree with their ratings, or I find they top rate CDs that don’t really match the other criteria for selection that I have listed here.

Now, you may not agree with my taste, so we need to clear this up right away. What I propose to do is offer you a sampler album of a dozen tracks. These are all superb individual numbers that you can hear short samples of and download in 256 kps mp3 format from Amazon for less than a dollar a track. That is less than $12 for the album of an hour of superb music.

But if you think that is a bit much to take on trust, I understand. Just download the first track and play it and see if you like it. Then if you do, you can try the second one. We will soon know if we are on the same page, because either you are going to think “Wow, this is wonderful stuff, give me more”,or you are going to be, like, “bore-ring, next jazz blog please”.

You can download them some place else if you wish. Try e-Music where you can have 50 free downloads on a trial membership and then cancel your subscription altogether if you don’t like it. Personally, I find their selection is a bit limited, whereas on Amazon you can download many albums in mp3 OR buy the CD new, OR buy a used CD, AND read buyer reviews, so there is a wider range of choices. Then there is the Apple online music store, as I am sure you know.

Click here for Best 40 CDs list.