One Defining Jazz Track Per Year, From 1945 To 2001? An Impossible Task!

June 11, 2002 8:41 AM

One Defining Jazz Track Per Year, From 1945 To 2001? An Impossible Task! Well, not for Gary Giddins, arguably our greatest contemporary jazz critic. He's just spent five months going through his record collection to come up with a terrific and deliciously debatable list for The Village Voice. Yeah, how could he leave out...*insert your particular obsession here*...?[Here's a 74-page 1996 interview with him(in pdf format) that's practically a mini-history of jazz.]
posted by MiguelCardoso (14 comments total)

Holy**** Miguelito! Synchronicity at its finest!!
posted by martk at 8:47 AM on June 11, 2002

Is this one of the those great minds think alike things going here?

Well, it's part one of a double post that'll go down in Stone Age History, that's for sure.

I'll have to check this out before I make any more comment.
posted by y2karl at 8:51 AM on June 11, 2002

Great minds think alike but only the greatest think so on the same day, at the very same time, eh martk?! :)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:54 AM on June 11, 2002

It's also a killer derailer, of course. Shit!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:55 AM on June 11, 2002

Or maybe, great minds read the VIllage Voice, hmm?
posted by y2karl at 8:56 AM on June 11, 2002

A highly arbitrary list, agreed.

Well, I came that close *thumb and index finger a millimeter apart* to playing Sarah Vaugh's Mean To Me on the program this week... The 74 page interview sounds great--but I have only a 56k modem and life is so short.
posted by y2karl at 9:07 AM on June 11, 2002

The interview PDF is only 226k -- not bad on a dial-up connection.

At first glance, it looks like a pretty good list. And I'm happy to see Archie Shepp represented. :)
posted by laze at 11:14 AM on June 11, 2002

Awesome PDF, good link. Is there any place I can find all of these tracks on a 2-4 CD set? Or is there anyone out there who could compile these for me and I could send some cash to? E-mail me; we can work out the terms.
posted by BlueTrain at 11:23 AM on June 11, 2002

is there anyone out there who could compile these

I'd be interested too - a retrospective jazz sampler. My own tastes in jazz are fairly superficial (Miles, Stan, Dave, MMW), though with a few exceptions. There's such a broad variety of music - I'd love for exposure to the best of all worlds.
posted by Marquis at 12:03 PM on June 11, 2002

So what?
posted by rocketman at 1:22 PM on June 11, 2002

Good idea, Blue Train. Think there are enough jazz fans on Metafilter to cover all the tunes listed?

Rocketman -- Clever Miles reference. I hope.
posted by laze at 1:30 PM on June 11, 2002

Think there are enough jazz fans on Metafilter to cover all the tunes listed?

I'm not sure, but I would love to find out. If we could find someone to e-mail all the mp3s to, we could have that person, or group of people, create the CD's and mail them out, and all the money could be sent through paypal.

I could do this, but it will take some commitment from a group of diehard jazz fans. Like I said before, whoever's interested, drop me a line, we'll setup a mailing list or whatever, and make something happen.
posted by BlueTrain at 1:40 PM on June 11, 2002

BlueTrain: Unfortunately, most of my jazz collection is on LP, which makes the burn process problematic. I'll be happy to share what I have on CD, however.

I posted to that "other" thread:

Interesting list - he includes a lot of the expected artists, but not always the most obvious tracks. Seems like there should be room in there for works as influential as "Giant Steps" or "A Love Supreme", but his rules preclude multiple tracks by the same artist. And based on his post-60's picks, he's not much into fusion. I think Weather Report is an omission.

I think it's a very good list. He explains his choices well without getting longwinded about it. Some artists and tracks I'm not very familiar with that I'd like to check out.
posted by groundhog at 1:54 PM on June 11, 2002

A list of 5-star jazz records from the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD is linked to in the other thread.

Nice to know the 'Net god pantheon includes a Trickster.
:)
posted by mediareport at 5:38 PM on June 11, 2002