My top 100 jazz tracks

A while ago I wrote a post explaining how jazz works. In response, someone asked me to name my favorite hundred jazz tracks. So here’s my list. It’s totally subjective and necessarily incomplete, but I can guarantee that any of these tunes will make your life better. Hear them on Spotify.

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers

• “Caravan” – Caravan
• “Moanin'” – Moanin’
• “Come Rain or Come Shine” – Moanin’

Art Tatum

• “Just Like A Butterfly That’s Caught In The Rain” – Solo Masterpieces Volume Six

Billie Holiday

•  “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” – Billie Holiday: The Legacy 1933-1958
• “All Of Me” – The Quintessential Billie Holiday Volume 9 (1940 – 1942)
• “God Bless The Child” – The Quintessential Billie Holiday Volume 9 (1940 – 1942)
• “The Way You Look Tonight” – Billie Holiday Love Songs
• “Willow Weep for Me” – Lady Sings The Blues

Bud Powell

• “Thelonious” – A Portrait of Thelonious

Cannonball Adderley

• “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” – Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
• “Autumn Leaves” – Somethin’ Else, featuring Miles Davis

Carmen McRae

• “Ruby, My Dear” – Carmen Sings Monk
• “Round Midnight” – Carmen Sings Monk

Cecil Taylor

• “Piano Solo” – Historic Concerts

Charles Mingus

• “Better Git It In Your Soul” – Mingus Ah Um
• “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” – Mingus Ah Um
• “What Love?” – Mingus At Antibes
• “Mood Indigo” – Mingus Dynasty

Charlie Parker

• “Now’s the Time” – Bird’s Best Bop on Verve
• “Anthropology” – Early Bird

Clifford Brown & Max Roach

• “The Blues Walk” – Clifford Brown & Max Roach
• “Daahoud” – Clifford Brown & Max Roach
• “Joy Spring” – Clifford Brown & Max Roach

Count Basie

• “One O’Clock Jump” – Ken Burns Jazz – Count Basie
• “Li’l Darlin'” – Ken Burns Jazz – Count Basie
• “Everyday (I Have the Blues)” – 1956 Count Basie & Joe Williams

Dizzy Gillespie

• “Whisper Not” – Birks’ Works: The Verve Big-Band Sessions

Django Reinhardt

• “Honeysuckle Rose” – Plays The Great Standards
• “Sweet Georgia Brown” – Plays The Great Standards

Duke Ellington

• “Midnight Indigo” – Anatomy Of A Murder
• “Blood Count” – And His Mother Called Him Bill
• “The Star-Crossed Lovers” – Such Sweet Thunder
• “Half The Fun (Aka Lately)” – Such Sweet Thunder
• “Overture” – Three Suites
• “Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance Of The Sugar-Plum Fairy)” – Three Suites
• “Misfit Blues” – Three Suites
• “Lay-By” – Three Suites
• “The New East St. Louis Toodle-Oo” – The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz
• “Ko-Ko” – The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz
• “Concerto For Cootie” – The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz
• “Cotton Tail” – The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz
• “In A Mellotone” – The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz

Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus & Max Roach

• “African Flower (Fleurette Africaine)” – Money Jungle
• “Wig Wise” – Money Jungle

Duke Ellington & John Coltrane

• “In A Sentimental Mood” – Duke Ellington & John Coltrane

Ella Fitzgerald

• “Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea” – The Best Of The Songbooks
• “Sophisticated Lady” – Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Song Book
• “I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart” – Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Song Book
• “Mack the Knife (Live, West Berlin 1960)” – Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song
• “How High the Moon (Live)” – Ken Burns’s Jazz: Ella Fitzgerald
• “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To” – The Smithsonian Collection Of Classic Jazz

Ella Fitzgerald & Joe Pass

• “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You?” – Take Love Easy

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong

• “Stars Fell On Alabama” – Ella and Louis
• “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” – Ella and Louis

Eric Dolphy

• “God Bless the Child” – Here and There

Hank Mobley

• “This I Dig of You” – Soul Station (Remastered)

Herbie Hancock

• “Watermelon Man” – Head Hunters

Horace Silver

• “Song for My Father” – Song for My Father

Jimmy Smith

• “On The Sunny Side Of The Street” – Back At The Chicken Shack

John Coltrane

• “Acknowledgement” – A Love Supreme
• “Moment’s Notice” – Blue Train
• “Equinox” -Coltrane’s Sound
• “Lonnie’s Lament” – Crescent
• “Giant Steps” – Giant Steps
• “Naima” – Giant Steps
• “India” – Impressions
• “Venus” – Interstellar Space
• “My Favorite Things” – My Favorite Things
• “But Not For Me” – My Favorite Things

Max Roach

• “Drums Solo” – Historic Concerts

McCoy Tyner

• “Contemplation” – The Real McCoy

Miles Davis

• “Doxy” – Bags’ Groove
• “Venus De Milo” – Birth Of The Cool
• “Shhh/Peaceful” – In A Silent Way
• “In A Silent Way/It’s About That Time” – In A Silent Way
• “So What” – Kind Of Blue
• “Freddie Freeloader” – Kind Of Blue
• “Milestones” – Milestones
• “Round Midnight” – ‘Round About Midnight
• “All Of You” – ‘Round About Midnight
• “Bye Bye Blackbird” – ‘Round About Midnight
• “Someday My Prince Will Come” – Someday My Prince Will Come
• “On Green Dolphin Street” – ’58 Sessions

Miles Davis & Gil Evans

• “Prayer (Oh Doctor Jesus)” – Porgy And Bess

Nat Adderley

• “Work Song” – Work Song

Oliver Nelson

• “Yearnin'” – The Blues And The Abstract Truth

Sidney Bechet

• “When The Saints Go Marchin’ In” – Sidney Bechet

Sonny Rollins

• “St. Thomas” – Saxophone Colossus
• “You Don’t Know What Love Is” – Saxophone Colossus

Thelonious Monk

• “Played Twice” – Big Band and Quartet in Concert
• “Round Midnight” – The Composer
• “Ask Me Now” – Genius Of Modern Music Vol. 2
• “Bye-Ya” – Monk’s Dream
• “Sweet And Lovely” – Monk’s Dream

Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane

• “Bye-Ya” – Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall
• “Blue Monk” – Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall

Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins

• “Work” – Thelonious Monk And Sonny Rollins
• “The Way You Look Tonight” – Thelonious Monk And Sonny Rollins

Wayne Shorter

• “Witch Hunt” – Speak No Evil