The recent discussion in another thread about the underrepresentation of jazz in the upper reaches of the AM album list (it was noted that there are only three jazz albums in the top 200 - actually, it's currently three in the top -300-) inspired me to post a list of the top 200 jazz albums on the current list.

Rank / Overall AM Rank / Artist / Title / Year:

1 / 39 / Miles Davis / Kind of Blue / 1959
2 / 67 / John Coltrane / A Love Supreme / 1965
3 / 88 / Miles Davis / Bitches Brew / 1970
4 / 313 / Dave Brubeck Quartet / Time Out / 1959
5 / 327 / Ornette Coleman / The Shape of Jazz to Come / 1959
6 / 328 / Eric Dolphy / Out to Lunch! / 1964
7 / 341 / Miles Davis / Birth of the Cool / 1954
8 / 366 / Stan Getz and João Gilberto / Getz/Gilberto / 1964
9 / 369 / John Coltrane / Giant Steps / 1960
10 / 379 / Sonny Rollins / Saxophone Colossus / 1956
11 / 385 / Miles Davis / In a Silent Way / 1969
12 / 393 / Miles Davis / Sketches of Spain / 1960
13 / 410 / Charles Mingus / Mingus Ah Um / 1959
14 / 418 / Charles Mingus / The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady / 1963
15 / 432 / Herbie Hancock / Head Hunters / 1973
16 / 435 / Duke Ellington / Ellington at Newport / 1956
17 / 484 / Thelonious Monk / Genius of Modern Music (Volume One) / 1951
18 / 486 / Oliver Nelson / The Blues and the Abstract Truth / 1961
19 / 496 / Bill Evans / Sunday at the Village Vanguard / 1961
20 / 517 / Herbie Hancock / Maiden Voyage / 1965
21 / 528 / Thelonious Monk / Brilliant Corners / 1957
22 / 534 / Benny Goodman / The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert / 1950
23 / 539 / John Coltrane / My Favorite Things / 1961
24 / 561 / Ornette Coleman / Free Jazz / 1961
25 / 564 / Albert Ayler / Spiritual Unity / 1964
26 / 595 / Bill Evans / Waltz for Debby / 1961
27 / 598 / The Mahavishnu Orchestra / The Inner Mounting Flame / 1971
28 / 622 / The Quintet / Jazz at Massey Hall / 1953
29 / 631 / Keith Jarrett / The Köln Concert / 1975
30 / 637 / John Coltrane / Blue Train / 1957
31 / 641 / Wayne Shorter / Speak No Evil / 1965
32 / 646 / Billie Holiday / Lady in Satin / 1958
33 / 647 / Miles Davis / Porgy & Bess / 1958
34 / 655 / Ella Fitzgerald / Sings the Cole Porter Songbook / 1956
35 / 695 / Count Basie / The Atomic Mr. Basie / 1957
36 / 702 / Cannonball Adderley / Somethin' Else / 1958
37 / 704 / Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers / Moanin' / 1958
38 / 738 / Erroll Garner / Concert by the Sea / 1956
39 / 794 / Lee Morgan / The Sidewinder / 1964
40 / 823 / Wes Montgomery / The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery / 1960
41 / 828 / Gil Evans / Out of the Cool / 1961
42 / 835 / Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane / Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane / 1961
43 / 838 / Thelonious Monk / Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 2 / 1952
44 / 839 / Bud Powell / The Amazing Bud Powell / 1951
45 / 841 / John Coltrane / Coltrane "Live" at the Village Vanguard / 1962
46 / 850 / Charles Mingus / Pithecanthropus Erectus / 1956
47 / 873 / Horace Silver / Song for My Father / 1965
48 / 878 / Weather Report / Heavy Weather / 1977
49 / 885 / Charles Mingus / Blues and Roots / 1960
50 / 947 / Charles Mingus / Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus / 1960
51 / 950 / Ornette Coleman / Change of the Century / 1960
52 / 960 / Miles Davis / Miles Ahead / 1957
53 / 969 / The Mahavishnu Orchestra / Birds of Fire / 1973
54 / 977 / Miles Davis / Milestones / 1958
55 / 997 / Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown / Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown / 1955
56 / 1005 / Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong / Ella and Louis / 1956
57 / 1010 / Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd / Jazz Samba / 1962
58 / 1011 / Charles Mingus / Tijuana Moods/New Tijuana Moods / 1962
59 / 1031 / Andrew Hill / Point of Departure / 1965
60 / 1039 / Ella Fitzgerald / Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook / 1959
61 / 1052 / Sonny Rollins / A Night at the Village Vanguard / 1958
62 / 1062 / Sonny Rollins / Way Out West / 1957
63 / 1068 / Max Roach / We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite / 1961
64 / 1078 / John Coltrane / Ascension / 1966
65 / 1105 / Sun Ra / Jazz in Silhouette / 1958
66 / 1123 / Duke Ellington with Charles Mingus and Max Roach / Money Jungle / 1962
67 / 1126 / Miles Davis / On the Corner / 1972
68 / 1148 / Miles Davis / A Tribute to Jack Johnson / 1971
69 / 1180 / Hank Mobley / Soul Station / 1960
70 / 1183 / Carla Bley & Paul Haines / Escalator Over the Hill / 1971
71 / 1187 / Count Basie / April in Paris / 1956
72 / 1198 / Dexter Gordon / Our Man in Paris / 1963
73 / 1208 / Chick Corea / Return to Forever / 1972
74 / 1224 / Ella Fitzgerald / Sings the Rodgers and Hart Songbook / 1956
75 / 1231 / Miles Davis / Miles Smiles / 1967
76 / 1232 / Chick Corea / Now He Sings, Now He Sobs / 1968
77 / 1250 / Sonny Rollins / The Bridge / 1962
78 / 1254 / Duke Ellington / Far East Suite / 1967
79 / 1273 / Peter Brötzmann / Machine Gun / 1968
80 / 1282 / Art Pepper / Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section / 1957
81 / 1289 / John Coltrane/Johnny Hartman / John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman / 1963
82 / 1308 / Louis Armstrong / Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy / 1954
83 / 1310 / Cecil Taylor / Unit Structures / 1966
84 / 1315 / Miles Davis / Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet / 1961
85 / 1327 / Lambert, Hendricks and Ross / The Hottest New Group in Jazz / 1959
86 / 1331 / Miles Davis / Nefertiti / 1968
87 / 1338 / Archie Shepp / Fire Music / 1965
88 / 1341 / Clifford Brown & Max Roach / Daahoud/Clifford Brown & Max Roach / 1954
89 / 1347 / Count Basie/Joe Williams / Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings / 1955
90 / 1351 / Sonny Rollins / Tenor Madness / 1956
91 / 1360 / Art Blakey Quintet / A Night at Birdland Vol. 1 / 1954
92 / 1361 / Miles Davis / Live Evil / 1971
93 / 1370 / Miles Davis / Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet / 1957
94 / 1378 / Jackie McLean / Let Freedom Ring / 1962
95 / 1399 / Miles Davis / Round About Midnight / 1957
96 / 1405 / Duke Ellington/John Coltrane / Duke Ellington and John Coltrane / 1963
97 / 1406 / Miles Davis / Live at the Plugged Nickel, Chicago / 1976
98 / 1423 / Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong / Porgy and Bess / 1957
99 / 1429 / Thelonious Monk / Monk's Music / 1958
100 / 1431 / Herbie Hancock / Takin' Off / 1962
101 / 1438 / Ella Fitzgerald / Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook / 1957
102 / 1449 / Lennie Tristano / Lennie Tristano / 1956
103 / 1454 / Sarah Vaughan / Images/Swingin' Easy / 1954
104 / 1455 / The Modern Jazz Quartet / Fontessa / 1956
105 / 1476 / Dexter Gordon / Go / 1962
106 / 1491 / Duke Ellington / ...And His Mother Called Him Bill / 1968
107 / 1493 / Art Tatum / The Tatum Group Masterpieces, Vol. 8 / 1956
108 / 1498 / McCoy Tyner / The Real McCoy / 1967
109 / 1513 / Sonny Rollins / Freedom Suite / 1958
110 / 1516 / Larry Young / Unity / 1966
111 / 1540 / Charlie Parker / Charlie Parker with Strings / 1950
112 / 1563 / Jimmy Giuffre 3 / Thesis / 1961
113 / 1570 / Dave Holland / Conference of the Birds / 1973
114 / 1582 / The Modern Jazz Quartet / Django / 1956
115 / 1591 / Jimmy Smith / The Sermon! / 1959
116 / 1594 / Miles Davis / Relaxin' with The Miles Davis Quintet / 1958
117 / 1595 / Cassandra Wilson / Blue Light 'Til Dawn / 1993
118 / 1616 / Horace Silver / Horace Silver and The Jazz Messengers / 1955
119 / 1626 / Jimmy Smith / Back at the Chicken Shack / 1960
120 / 1631 / Sonny Clark / Cool Struttin' / 1958
121 / 1647 / Charles Mingus / Mingus at Antibes / 1960
122 / 1650 / Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie / Bird & Diz / 1952
123 / 1651 / Herbie Hancock / Empyrean Isles / 1964
124 / 1662 / Ornette Coleman / Dancing in Your Head / 1977
125 / 1700 / Sun Ra / Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 1 / 1965
126 / 1703 / Dizzy Gillespie / Groovin' High / 1955
127 / 1711 / The Tony Williams Lifetime / Emergency! / 1969
128 / 1716 / Jimmy Giuffre 3 / Fusion / 1961
129 / 1725 / Stan Kenton / New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm / 1953
130 / 1736 / Betty Carter / The Audience with Betty Carter / 1979
131 / 1737 / John Coltrane / Meditations / 1966
132 / 1749 / Ahmad Jamal / At the Pershing: But Not for Me / 1958
133 / 1753 / Cecil Taylor / Conquistador! / 1967
134 / 1757 / George Russell / New York N.Y. / 1959
135 / 1771 / John Coltrane / Ballads / 1963
136 / 1780 / John Zorn / Naked City / 1990
137 / 1783 / Lee Morgan / Search for the New Land / 1964
138 / 1786 / Miles Davis / Tutu / 1986
139 / 1795 / Wayne Shorter / Adam's Apple / 1966
140 / 1805 / Dinah Washington / Dinah Jams / 1954
141 / 1816 / Dizzy Gillespie/Roy Eldridge / Dizzy Gillespie with Roy Eldridge/Roy and Diz / 1954
142 / 1820 / Wayne Shorter / Juju / 1964
143 / 1826 / John Coltrane / Coltrane Jazz / 1961
144 / 1833 / Pat Metheny / Pat Metheny Group / 1978
145 / 1835 / Count Basie / At Newport / 1957
146 / 1843 / Charles Mingus / Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus / 1964
147 / 1844 / John Coltrane / Coltrane Plays the Blues / 1962
148 / 1848 / Lee Konitz & Lennie Tristano / Subconscious-Lee / 1949
149 / 1863 / Chick Corea & Return to Forever / Light as a Feather / 1973
150 / 1866 / McCoy Tyner / Enlightenment / 1974
151 / 1871 / Miles Davis / Ascenseur pour l'échafaud / 1958
152 / 1872 / John Zorn / Spillane / 1987
153 / 1874 / Art Blakey / Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk / 1958
154 / 1880 / Pharoah Sanders / Karma / 1969
155 / 1881 / Oscar Peterson / Night Train / 1963
156 / 1897 / John McLaughlin / Extrapolation / 1969
157 / 1901 / Ornette Coleman / This Is Our Music / 1961
158 / 1902 / Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers / A Night in Tunisia / 1961
159 / 1905 / George Russell / The Jazz Workshop / 1957
160 / 1922 / Albert Ayler / Albert Ayler in Greenwich Village / 1967
161 / 1927 / Billie Holiday / Lady Sings the Blues / 1956
162 / 1929 / Art Ensemble of Chicago / People in Sorrow / 1969
163 / 1938 / George Russell / Ezz-Thetics / 1961
164 / 1943 / Rahsaan Roland Kirk / The Inflated Tear / 1968
165 / 1959 / Cecil Taylor / Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come / 1963
166 / 1968 / Pat Metheny & Ornette Coleman / Song X / 1986
167 / 1969 / Ornette Coleman / Something Else!!!! / 1958
168 / 1982 / Ornette Coleman / At the Golden Circle, Volume One / 1966
169 / 1993 / John Coltrane / Crescent / 1964
170 / 1996 / Duke Ellington / Such Sweet Thunder / 1957
171 / 2002 / Thelonious Monk / Thelonious Monk Trio / 1953
172 / 2004 / Gil Evans / The Individualism of Gil Evans / 1964
173 / 2005 / Gerry Mulligan Quartet / Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker / 1953
174 / 2009 / Herbie Hancock / Mwandishi / 1971
175 / 2019 / Sun Ra / The Magic City / 1966
176 / 2021 / Dizzy Gillespie / At Newport / 1958
177 / 2028 / Miles Davis / Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet / 1959
178 / 2033 / Bill Evans and Jim Hall / Undercurrent / 1962
179 / 2037 / Wes Montgomery / Full House: Recorded 'Live' at Tsubo / 1962
180 / 2040 / Stan Getz / Focus / 1961
181 / 2046 / John Coltrane / Soultrane / 1958
182 / 2054 / Eric Dolphy / At the Five Spot, Vol. 1 / 1961
183 / 2075 / Anita O'Day / Anita Sings the Most / 1957
184 / 2085 / Anthony Braxton / For Alto / 1971
185 / 2092 / Benny Carter / Further Definitions / 1962
186 / 2093 / Charles Mingus / Town Hall Concert / 1964
187 / 2096 / Lester Young/Teddy Wilson / Pres & Teddy / 1956
188 / 2097 / Miles Davis / E.S.P. / 1965
189 / 2099 / Rahsaan Roland Kirk / Rip, Rig and Panic / 1965
190 / 2106 / Mel Tormé / Swings Shubert Alley / 1960
191 / 2110 / Clifford Brown & Max Roach / Study in Brown / 1955
192 / 2113 / Art Pepper / Smack-Up / 1960
193 / 2119 / Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges / Side by Side / 1959
194 / 2126 / Ella Fitzgerald / Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife / 1960
195 / 2145 / Anthony Braxton / 3 Compositions of New Jazz / 1968
196 / 2150 / Cecil Taylor / Silent Tongues / 1975
197 / 2156 / Joe Henderson / Inner Urge / 1965
198 / 2159 / Wayne Shorter / Native Dancer / 1975
199 / 2169 / Gerry Mulligan/Ben Webster / Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster / 1959
200 / 2176 / Roy Haynes / Out of the Afternoon / 1962

Feel free to amend this if you think Norah Jones (AM #1016) or the Lounge Lizards (#1907) - or Frank Sinatra - should be included.

Good idea! I do appreciate jazz but it's never gripped me like pop and rock music but I think this will be a good starter list seeing as it's mostly coming from rock and pop critics.

If I did my eye-balling right there are no albums from the last three decades in the top 100. The critics must be wrong. Or not?

Probably wrong, but for the most part the lists are from pop critics, and current jazz just doesn't fall under the popular category anymore. A poll of 500 jazz critics would most definitely have albums released in the past 30 years.

Thanks for posting this; it's nice to be able to compare apples to apples by separating the jazz albums out from the main list.

One thing that strikes me is how the acclaimed jazz albums are so concentrated on particular artists. Davis, Coltrane, Mingus, Coleman, Monk, etc. just dominate this genre. Anyone have any ideas on why this is?

Name recognition.

Maybe I haven't been listening to the right jazz, but other than Colin Stetson, pretty much all the recent jazz I've heard is either structured like a pop song or focused on replicating the greats. Can anyone recommend some more adventurous newer jazz?

Name recognition, and again, these are pop critics rankings on this site so outside of rock and pop, other genres are going to be represented mainly by the popular, influential figures. An obscure jazz artist isn't going to sneak into many all-time lists where the focus is rock and pop. Also, it's rare to even see obscure rock and pop artists from the 50's and 60's make all-time lists either mainly because not that as much music came out during that time.

Just listened to John Zorn's Naked City, which came out in 1990. That album is definitely uneven, but "adventurous" describes it perfectly.

Yeah, and Zorn has continued to produce tons of albums since, all of which are at the least adventurous. (Even those that are more straightforward, since Zorn's own fans get angry about that.) The Circle Maker is also very good, and very different from Naked City.

Other great, adventurous, recent jazz albums:

Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres: Best album of 2011 thus far, and the best jazz album to my ears of the last 20 years.

David S. Ware - Godspelized and Threads: Very different albums from each other...
Matthew Shipp - Pastoral Composure
Terence Blanchard - A Tale of God's Will
William Parker - Double Sunrise Over Neptune
David Holland Big Band - Overtime
Kenny Wheeler - Angel Song

Jaga Jazzist and Esbjorn Svensson Trio both are very good too, though bridge jazz, prog, and alternative more than the above.

Anouar Brahem - Le Pas du Chat Noir 2002
EST - Seven Days of falling 2003
Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin - Holon 2008
Andrew Hill - Time Lines 2006
Ornette Coleman - Sound Grammar 2006

Haven't heard the Matana Roberts album yet

Good call on Sound Grammar -- I'll have to listen to the Anouar Brahem.

Do check out the Matana Roberts album...it can get pretty wild, but she branches out all over the place stylistically. It's like a free jazz ArchAndroid or something...

You know a good place to find the Matana Roberts album? It was already on my list, but I couldn't find it.

Thanks for the recommendations.

It's on Rhapsody.

2 more recommendations I completely forgot about!

Lawrence Butch Morris's Dust to Dust came out in 1991, and I consider it the best jazz/avant album since 1980. Densely orchestrated stuff, at times jarring, at times surprisingly beautiful.

Also, Evan Parker has continued doing interesting stuff in recent years -- I particularly recommend Toward the Margins

What strikes me most about this list is how there's very little jazz from the last three decades. Of the top 200 jazz albums, only four of them were released after 1980 (and one of them is by that old stalwart, Miles Davis). In fact, there aren't any in the top 200 from the 21st century. There's a definite concentration of jazz from the '50s and '60s.

Any ideas as to why this might be? I've got a few ideas. Feel free to agree or disagree with them...

1) Until the early to mid-1960s, artists in country/rock & roll/pop didn't really embrace the long player as a medium for musical expression. It wasn't until Sinatra (and like Harold said, whether or not you consider Ol' Blue Eyes a jazz artist is a matter of discussion) started releasing albums like IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS or SONGS FOR SWINGIN' LOVERS that pop artists started to release more ambitious long players, and it wasn't until the Beatles released RUBBER SOUL and REVOLVER (or thereabout) that rock artists did the same.

2) There was a distinct backlash in the jazz community against artists like Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis who attempted to fuse jazz and rock. The "purists" decried this as "selling out jazz." Since about 1980, there's been a move back toward straight-ahead jazz, much of which can, ironically, be traced back to Herbie Hancock's V.S.O.P. album, and specifically how popular the non-fusion portions of that album were. As a result, a lot jazz musicians (Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Kenny Garrett, etc.) have favored more traditional types of jazz over more experimental/groundbreaking music like John Zorn.

3) A good portion of the public considers "modern jazz" to be stuff like Kenny G, Dave Koz, Chris Botti, etc. In other words, smooth jazz. This kind of stuff may sell a lot of records (especially in the case of Mr. G), but gets VERY little critical acclaim.

Anyone have any other hypotheses?

Had another thought after I posted that last comment. Does Acclaimed Music take into account jazz-only year-end lists? Specifically I'm thinking about how the critics at Down Beat Magazine list a "jazz album of the year" every year since the '60s. Granted, it's not a list of the top albums, but I'm sure that there are other jazz-themed publications that actually do make lists.

I grant you that jazz-only year-end lists probably would make very little impact on the overall AM list, but it's just a thought that I had.

On a similar thought, I would imagine that there are probably other genre-specific publications for relatively un-acclaimed genres. How about some polka?

I'd be happy to include EOY jazz lists, but if it's only a couple that's probably not enough for any jazz albums to be added at AM.

This backlash is kind of the same thing modern rock music is now experiencing. They reached a point where if you try to expand the sound, people are not sure that is the genre anymore. There is currently no place for jazz and rock to go.

Thought I'd bump this thread after listening to Portico Quartet's Isla for the 2009 poll. Highly recommended.

Since I've been listening to a ton of jazz records lately I thought I'd post a little list of my favorite jazz records. In general I think I enjoy jazz fusion and hard bop most, as you can probably see, and I don't really enjoy free jazz or the weirder avant-garde stuff.

1. Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
2. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
3. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
4. John Coltrane - Giant Steps
5. Charlie Parker- Jazz At Massey Hall, Vol. 3
6. Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
7. Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert
8. John Coltrane - Blue Train
9. Miles Davis - A Tribute to Jack Johnson
10. Thelonious Monk - Monk's Music
11. John Coltrane - Olé Coltrane
12. Mahmoud Ahmed - Ere Mela Mela (RYM classifies it as jazz, albeit Ethio-Jazz)
13. Mahavishnu Orchestra- The Inner Mounting Flame
14. Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus
15. Wayne Shorter - Juju
16. Bill Evans - Sunday at the Village Vanguard
17. Thelonious Monk - Thelonious Monk Trio
18. Freddie Hubbard - Straight Life
19. Oscar Brown Jr. - Sin & Soul
20. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
21. Stan Getz/João Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto
22. Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners
23. Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters
24. Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out
25. Art Blakey - Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers [Moanin']

If Fela Kuti classifies as jazz he can be inserted at #1 (Zombie), #9 (Confusion), #14 (Roforofo Fight), and, #21 (Expensive Shit).

Favorite artists, in order: (Fela Kuti,) John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Wayne Shorter.

Maybe we could have a jazz poll! (like we don't already have enough polls coming up)

For the more rock oriented jazz records, try "On the corner", "Get Up with it" and all the live albums Miles recorded in that period, "Black Beauty", "Dark Magus", "Agartha" and "Pangea". Heavy stuff!

What is it that makes "Kind of Blue" such a beautiful record? Bill Evans' piano playing. He is at his peak in the last recordings he made, "You must believe in spring", and the concerts he gave with the same trio, "The Paris conert" (1 and 2). Highly recommended

Also, talking about more classical jazz, we have Duke Ellington, who recorded some of his best works in the 70's, the "Far East Suite", and the "Afro-Eurasian Eclipse". The sound is that of a big band, but the arrangements sound more like "world" music avant-la-lettre.

Another big band leader is Sun Ra, whose oevre mostly consists of free jazz. However, he made a couple of more acessible records, "Sleeping Beauty" and "Lanquidity"