Every once in a while another 100 Best Jazz Recordings list pops up. A new one is batting about the ethernet. This time the source is the UK newspaper the Telegraph. The compiler is Martin Gayford, an art critic, biographer and sometime jazz critic. It’s a good list, but anyone who has the temerity to choose the best of anything, even the hundred best, opens himself up to the ire of fans. Mr. Gayford’s list, published on November 10, has already attracted a batch of “how could you leave out ___________” complaints. Please direct yours to the Telegraph and Mr. Gayford, not to Rifftides. To see the list, go here.
How could he leave out Woody Herman?
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
The more CDs and LPs one acquires (and I have a combined total of something like 15,000-18,000 albums, collected over 36 years), the more I learn how pointless it is to try to create a best 100 jazz albums list.
Two tips for people inclined to post such lists: label them as “my favorites” and you’ll get a few less brickbats thrown your way. Also, proofread your work and get everyone’s name spelled correctly (Erroll, not “Errol” Garner) and readers might take you a bit more seriously.
All in all, it is not a bad list, though I wouldn’t include bootlegs on Properbox instead of U.S. releases, nor would I choose abbreviated “best of” collections instead of complete boxed sets by the same musicians.
It is amazing how many seemingly recent issues are already out of print.
No Herman? Phew… Steve Voce must be turning over in his easy chair! England has always been a haven for Hermanites. Oh well, I have just posted a bit on Gerry Mulligan, and added a small credit to you down at the end. You might find it interesting, or misbegotten, or ridiculously wrong, or… So goes the blogosphere.
(You can find Mr. Leimbacher’s blog by clicking on his name in red in the upper left corner of this comment. — DR