And it’s time for our annual look at
the quirky and always interesting voters at the RateYourMusic website.
Jazz, as usual, dominates the list, but it’s not exclusive, so we’ll just look
at the jazz. As always, this is a snapshot of a moment in time. The site’s
followers keep voting, so although the records at the top have amassed enough
votes to remain pretty stable, lower down there’s volatility. I like the list
because it gives a complete picture of the year in music (they list something
like 500 albums) and because it gives an interesting perspective on what albums
continue to hold the jazz connoisseur’s interest.
The top of the list pretty much
duplicates Nathan Holoway’s choices, except that Giant Steps and Portrait
in Jazz are considered 1960 albums and therefore not included: Kind of
Blue, Mingus Ah Um, The Shape of Jazz to Come, Time Out.
Here’s what follows.
5.
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (Blue
Note). “Moanin’” is what makes this album rate so high. The administrators of
the RateYourMusic site even put the song’s name in parentheses after the
album title.
6.
Nina Simone, Little Girl Blue (Bethlehem).
If I were making a case for 1959 as jazz’s most creative year, and I wanted to
include a singer, I think I’d make it Nina Simone rather than Ella Fitzgerald.
Simone was really the cutting edge, as contemporary listeners have come to appreciate
more than did the Down Beat readers of the time.
7.
The Miles Davis Quintet, Workin’. From
the Contractual Marathon.
10. Dizzy
Gillespie, Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins, Sonny Side Up (Verve)
11. The
Cannonball Adderley Quintet featuring Nat Adderley in San Francisco (Riverside)
12. The
Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall (Riverside). This should have been
included as an example of the creative power unleashed in 1959, with a
ten-piece orchestra and arrangements by Hall Overton.
15. Joao
Gilberto, Chega de saudade (Odeon). This is the album that made Gilberto
a star in South America, though it would take a few more years, and Stan Getz,
for Norteamericano audiences to appreciate him. Chega de saudade was
voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001, and contemporary listeners seem to
have caught up with it. It is pure bossa nova.
18. Sun
Ra, Jazz in Silhouette (Saturn). Another figure overlooked by Down
Beat readers at the time, particularly as composer (24 got votes, Ra was
not one of them). This isn’t a knock on the 1959 audience. Tastes change, and
there’s no reason to suppose that one generation’s tastes are better than
another’s. Still, the 1959 reader’s poll does not represent the most adventurous
jazz spirit.
19. Miles
Davis, Porgy and Bess (Columbia)
20. Champion
Jack Dupree, Blues from the Gutter (Atlantic)
21. Coleman
Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster (Verve). My kind of encounter. With Oscar
Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, Alvin Stoller
22. Ella
Fizgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook (Verve). Norman Granz
had a knack for picking performers who had already stood the test of time, so
it’s small wonder so many of his recordings have continued to stand the test of
time.
23. Jimmy
Smith, The Sermon (Blue Note)
24. Finger
Poppin’ with the Horace Silver Quintet (Blue Note)
25. Sonny
Rollins, Newk’s Time (Blue Note)
26. Bill
Evans Trio, Everybody Digs Bill Evans (Riverside). Evans’ debut album.
27. The
Lester Young – Teddy Wilson Quintet, Pres and Teddy (Verve). A 1956
recording, released in 1959. What I said about Verve.
28. Ella
Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Porgy and Bess (Verve)
29. Horace
Silver Quintet, Blowin’ the Blues Away (Blue Note). I love the cover art
here, by Paula Donohue. Blue Note rarely used graphic artists. Most of their
covers were photographs by the label’s co-founder, Francis Wolff, a fine
photographer. I can’t find anything else by Donohue. Too bad.
32. Cannonball
Adderley Quintet in Chicago (Mercury)
33. T-Bone
Walker, T-Bone Blues (Atlantic)
34. Charles
Mingus, Jazz Portraits (Mingus in Wonderland) (United Artists)
35. Back
to Back: Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges Play the Blues (Verve)
36. Nina
Simone at Town Hall (Colpix)
37. Duke
Ellington and Johnny Hodges, Side by Side (Verve)
39. Henry
Mancini, Music from Peter Gunn (RCA Victor)
40. Chet
Baker. Chet (Riverside)
44. Frank
Sinatra, No One Cares (Capitol)
47. Thelonious
Monk Quintet, 5 by Monk by 5 (Riverside)
48. Roy
Haynes, Phineas Newborn, Paul Chambers, We Three (Prestige)
49. Wynton
Kelly, Kelly Blue (Riverside)
50. Billie
Holiday, All or Nothing at All (Verve)
Others on the list: Lou Donaldson, Abbey Lincoln, Bud Powell,
Chico Hamilton, Blue Mitchell, Dizzy Reece, Gerry Mulligan, Antonio Carlos
Jobim, Jimmy Giuffre, Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Burrell, Idrees Suleiman, Steve
Lacy, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. Michel
Legrand, Dorothy Ashby, Frank Wess, Memphis Slim, Cecil Taylor, Dinah
Washington, Peggy Lee, George Shearing, Larry Williams, Wes Montgomery, George
Russell, Huey “Piano” Smith, Ahmed Abdul Malik, Donald Byrd, Little Richard,
Julie London, Lee Konitz, Gil Evans, the Flamingos, Blossom Dearie, Jack
Kerouac and Steve Allen, Keely Smith, Johnny Griffin, Red Garland, Buddy Rich,
Max Roach, Mickey Baker, Paul Quinichette, Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, Anita
O’Day, Charlie Shavers, Tiny Grimes, Paul Desmond, Modern Jazz Quartet, Hank
Ballard and the Midnighters, Benny Golson, Milt Jackson, Ahmad Jamal, Booker
Little, Sarah Vaughan, David “Fathead” Newman, Yusef Lateef, Jimmy Heath, Count
Basie, Tony Bennett, the Three Sounds, Shirley Bassey, Chico Hamilton, Carmen
McRae, Ernestine Anderson, Wilbur Harden,Fats Domino, Jerome Richardson, Ray
Bryant, Oliver Nelson, Benny Carter, Ruth Brown, Herbie Mann, Jimmy Rushing,
Oscar Pettiford, Ramsey Lewis, Barney Kessel, Lem Winchester, Mose Allison,
June Christy, and that’s just a few.
This was more a year of recommitment to the tradition for
Prestige than it was of innovation, but innovation was there. Eddie “Lockjaw”
Davis and Shirley Scott pioneered the organ-tenor sax combo. And Yusef Lateef bringing
his Eastern influenced sounds into modern jazz.
But also noteworthy to Prestige’s year were its Swingville
and Bluesville labels, bringing jazz masters from Coleman Hawkins to Willis “Gator
Tail” Jackson into the fold, with a marketing tool to get them noticed. Bob
Weinstock would keep these subsidiary labels going for several years, and jazz
would be the richer for it.
On to 1960!
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