The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World – please, check our sheet music list.

The list The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World was published in 2006 to mark the hundredth issue of the British music magazine Jazzwise.

It features all albums selected by Jazzwise editor Jon Newey and Keith Shadwick, with advice and commentary from authors Stuart Nicholson, Brian Priestley, Duncan Heining, Kevin Le Gendre, Charles Alexander and Tom Barlow.

The title of the list is a nod to The Wire’s previous 1998 compilation 100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening).

Please, subscribe to our Library.

If you are already a subscriber, please, check our NEW SCORES’ page every month for new sheet music. THANK YOU!

Rang	Artist/Band	Album Title	Label	Year
1	Miles Davis	Kind of Blue	Columbia	1959
2	John Coltrane	A Love Supreme	Impulse!	1964
3	Ornette Coleman	The Shape of Jazz to Come	Atlantic	1959
4	Bill Evans Trio	Sunday at the Village Vanguard	Riverside	1961
5	Sonny Rollins	Saxophone Colossus	Prestige	1956
6	Thelonious Monk	Brilliant Corners	Riverside	1956
7	Charles Mingus	Mingus Ah Um	Columbia	1959
8	Charlie Parker	Bird: The Complete Original Master Takes. The Savoy Recordings	Savoy Jazz	1945–1948
9	Miles Davis	Bitches Brew	Columbia	1969
10	Keith Jarrett	The Köln Concert	ECM	1975
11	John Coltrane	Giant Steps	Atlantic	1959
12	Eric Dolphy	Out to Lunch!	Blue Note	1964
13	Louis Armstrong	The Complete Hot Fives and Hot Seven Recordings	Columbia	1925–1930
14	Duke Ellington	The Blanton-Webster Band	RCA Bluebird	1940–1942
15	Mahavishnu Orchestra	The Inner Mounting Flame	Columbia	1971
16	Albert Ayler	Spiritual Unity	ESP-Disk	1964
17	Herbie Hancock	Head Hunters	Columbia	1973
18	Dave Brubeck	Time Out	Columbia	1959
19	Ornette Coleman	Free Jazz	Atlantic	1960
20	Weather Report	Heavy Weather	Columbia	1976
21	Ahmad Jamal	At the Pershing: But Not for Me	Argo	1958
22	Jelly Roll Morton	Volume 1	JSP	1926–1928
23	Frank Sinatra	Songs for Swingin’ Lovers	Capitol	1955–1956
24	Wes Montgomery	The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery	Riverside	1960
25	Modern Jazz Quartet	Fontessa	Atlantic	1956
26	Bud Powell	The Genius of Bud Powell	Clef/Verve	1951/52
27	Cecil Taylor	At the Café Montmartre	Debut	1962
28	Art Blakey	Moanin’	Blue Note	1958
29	Herbie Hancock	Maiden Voyage	Blue Note	1965
30	Stan Getz/João Gilberto	Getz/Gilberto	Verve	1965
31	Pat Metheny	Bright Size Life	ECM	1976
32	Jimmy Smith	A New Sound… A New Star…	Blue Note	1956
33	Jan Garbarek	Afric Pepperbird	ECM	1970
34	Woody Herman	The Thundering Herds	Columbia	1945–1947
35	Duke Ellington	Ellington at Newport	Columbia	1956
36	Ella Fitzgerald	Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook	Verve	1956
37	Charles Mingus	The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady	Impulse!	1963
38	Cannonball Adderley	Somethin’ Else	Blue Note	1959
39	Tony Williams Lifetime	Emergency!	Polydor	1969
40	Billie Holiday	Billie Holiday at JATP	Clef/Verve	1945–1946
41	Chick Corea	Return to Forever	ECM	1971
42	Stan Getz	Focus	Verve	1961
43	Miles Davis	Sketches of Spain	Columbia	1960
44	George Russell	The Jazz Workshop	RCA Victor	1956
45	John Coltrane	Impressions	Impulse!	1961–1963
46	Andrew Hill	Point of Departure	Blue Note	1964
47	Sonny Rollins	The Bridge	RCA Victor	1962
48	Sun Ra	The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 1	ESP-Disk	1965
49	Dizzy Gillespie	Shaw ’Nuff	Musicraft	1945/46
50	Lennie Tristano	Tristano	Atlantic	1955
51	John Zorn	Naked City	Elektra/Nonesuch	1989
52	John McLaughlin	Extrapolation	Marmalade	1969
53	Pharoah Sanders	Karma	Impulse!	1969
54	Lester Young	Lester Young/Buddy Rich Trio	Verve	1946
55	John Coltrane	Ascension	Impulse!	1965
56	Art Ensemble of Chicago	A Jackson in Your House	BYG Actuel	1969
57	Horace Silver	Song for My Father	Blue Note	1963/64
58	Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet	Clifford Brown and Max Roach	EmArcy	1954
59	Coleman Hawkins	Body and Soul	RCA Bluebird	1939–1956
60	Peter Brötzmann Octet	Machine Gun	FMP	1969
61	Miles Davis	Birth of the Cool	Capitol	1949/50
62	Count Basie	The Atomic Mr. Basie	Roulette	1957
63	Archie Shepp	Four for Trane	Impulse!	1964
64	Brad Mehldau	Art of the Trio Vol. 3	Warner	1998
65	Gerry Mulligan	Gerry Mulligan Quartet	Pacific Jazz	1952
66	Gil Evans	The Individualism of Gil Evans	Verve	1963/64
67	John Handy	Live at Monterey Jazz Festival	Columbia	1965
68	Esbjörn Svensson Trio	From Gagarin’s Point of View	ACT	1999
69	Stan Tracey	Jazz Suite Inspired by Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood	EMI/Columbia	1965
70	Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim)	African Marketplace	Elektra/Musician	1980
71	Wayne Shorter	Speak No Evil	Blue Note	1964
72	Thelonious Monk	Genius of Modern Music – Vol 1	Blue Note	1947
73	Roland Kirk	Rip, Rig and Panic	Limelight	1965
74	Herbie Hancock	The New Standard	Verve	1996
75	Oscar Peterson	Night Train	Verve	1962
76	Charles Lloyd	Dream Weaver	Atlantic	1965
77	Art Tatum	The Genius of Art Tatum No. 1	Clef	1953
78	Betty Carter	The Audience with Betty Carter	Betcar	1979
79	Oliver Nelson	The Blues and the Abstract Truth	Impulse!	1961
80	John Surman	Tales of the Algonquin	Deram	1971
81	Eberhard Weber	The Colours of Chloë	ECM	1973
82	Steve Coleman and the Five Elements	The Tao of Mad Phat: Fringe Zones	RCA/Novus	1993
83	Diana Krall	Love Scenes	Impulse!	1997
84	Anthony Braxton	For Alto	Delmark	1969
85	Krzysztof Komeda	Astigmatic	Nagrania Muza	1965
86	Steps Ahead	Steps Ahead	Elektra/Musician	1983
87	Django Reinhardt	Rétrospective 1934–53	Saga	1934–1953
88	Joe Harriott-John Mayer Double Quintet	Indo-Jazz Suite	EMI Columbia	1965
89	Jackie McLean	Let Freedom Ring	Blue Note	1962
90	Charlie Haden	Liberation Music Orchestra	Impulse! Records	1969
91	Music Improvisation Company	Music Improvisation Company	ECM	1970
92	Sarah Vaughan	Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown	EmArcy	1954
93	Jan Johansson	Jazz på svenska	Megafon	1962–1964
94	Cassandra Wilson	Blue Light ’Til Dawn	Blue Note	1993
95	Wynton Marsalis	Black Codes from the Underground	Columbia	1985
96	Medeski, Martin & Wood	Combustication	Blue Note	1998
97	Tomasz Stańko	Soul of Things	ECM	2001
98	Courtney Pine	Journey to the Urge Within	Antilles	1986
99	The Bad Plus	These Are the Vistas	Columbia	2005
100	Polar Bear	Held On the Tips of Fingers	Babel	2004–2005

M I L E S D A V I S – Kind Of Blue – Full Album

Browse in the Library:

So what 00:00 Freddie Freeloader 9:26 Blue In Green 19:13 All Blues 24:51 Flamenco Sketches 36:34 On Green Dolphin Street 45:46 Fran – Dance 55:40 Stella by Starlight 1:01:28 Love for Sale 1:06:14

Kind of Blue is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis. It was recorded on March 2 and April 22, 1959, at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio in New York City, and released on August 17 of that year by Columbia Records.

For the recording, Davis led a sextet featuring saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, with new band pianist Wynton Kelly appearing on one track – “Freddie Freeloader” – in place of Evans.

Influenced in part by Evans, who had joined the ensemble in 1958, Davis departed further from his early hard bop style in favor of greater experimentation with musical modes, as on his previous album Milestones (1958).

Basing Kind of Blue entirely on modality, he gave each performer a set of scales that encompassed the parameters of their improvisation and style, and consequently more creative freedom with melodies; Coltrane later expanded on this modal approach in his own solo career.

Kind of Blue is regarded by many critics as Davis’s masterpiece, the greatest jazz record, and one of the best albums of all time. Its impact on music, including jazz, rock, and classical genres, has led writers to also deem it one of the most influential albums ever recorded.

The album was one of fifty recordings chosen in 2002 by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry, and in 2003 it was ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2019, Kind of Blue was certified 5× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of at least five million copies.

Personnel

Miles Davis – trumpet

Julian “Cannonball” Adderley – alto saxophone except on “Blue in Green” and bonus disc track “So What”

John Coltrane – tenor saxophone

Bill Evans – piano except on “Freddie Freeloader” and bonus disc track “So What”

Wynton Kelly – piano on “Freddie Freeloader” and bonus disc track “So What”

Paul Chambers – double bass Jimmy Cobb – drums

John Coltrane – A Love Supreme [Full Album] (1965)

Part I – Acknowledgement 0:00 Part II – Resolution 7:42 Part III – Pursuance 15:02 Part IV – Psalm 25:44

Personnel:

John Coltrane — bandleader, liner notes, vocals, soprano and tenor saxophone

Jimmy Garrison — double bass

Elvin Jones — drums

McCoy Tyner — piano

Browse in the Library:

Ornette Coleman – The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959)

00:00 Lonely Woman (1959) 04:56 Eventually (1959) 09:14 Peace (1959) 18:11 Focus On Sanity (1959) 24:58 Congeniality (Nomad) (1959) 31:40 Chronology (Step In) (1959)

Personnel:

Ornette Coleman – alto saxophone
Don Cherry – cornet
Charlie Haden – bass
Billy Higgins – drums

Bill Evans – Sunday at the Village Vanguard

Track listing

"Gloria's Step" (take 2) (Scott LaFaro) – 6:09
"My Man's Gone Now" (George Gershwin) – 6:21
"Solar" (Miles Davis) – 8:52
"Alice in Wonderland" (take 2) (Sammy Fain) – 8:34
"All of You" (take 2) (Cole Porter) – 8:17
"Jade Visions" (take 2) (Scott LaFaro) – 3:44

Bonus tracks on CD:

"Gloria's Step" (take 3) – 6:54
"Alice in Wonderland" (take 1) – 6:59
"All of You" (take 3) – 8:03
"Jade Visions" (take 1) – 4:16

Personnel:

Bill Evans – piano
Scott LaFaro – bass
Paul Motian – drums

Sonny Rollins – Saxophone Colossus

Track listing
Side one
No. Title Writer(s) Length

1. “St. Thomas” Sonny Rollins 6:49
2. “You Don’t Know What Love Is” Gene de Paul, Don Raye 6:30
3. “Strode Rode” Sonny Rollins 5:17
   Side two
   No. Title Writer(s) Length
4. “Moritat” Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht 10:05
5. “Blue 7” Sonny Rollins 11:17
   Personnel Sonny Rollins – tenor saxophone
   Tommy Flanagan – piano
   Doug Watkins – bass
   Max Roach – drums

Best Sheet Music download from our Library.