Welcome back to this special retrospective music-posting feature. The gimmick is simple — each week, you post a list (ranked or unranked) of your favourite 25 (or however many) albums of a given year or, in this case, decade. We are now moving backwards through the early days of the LP era. The video below, originally posted by Eexalien in the Weekly Music Thread provides valuable context about the early days of the LP.
[spoiler title=Video_Cliff_Notes]
- Following the Edison cylinder, the first agreed upon recording format was the 78 rpm record which became the standard around 1910. These records were made of a very fragile material called shellac (a resin secreted by the lac bug). A 10″ 78 rpm record held about 3 minutes per side and a 12″ one between 4 and 5 minutes but the 10″ was the more popular format
- The concept of the music album originated when 78 rpm records were issued in multi-disc packages similar to books. In terms of packaging, these aren’t dissimilar from what we now think of as box sets but in terms of length, most could easily fit on a single 12 inch or even 10 inch LP hence the persistence of the album misnomer in the LP era (the fact that LP was Columbia’s proprietary term contributed greatly to this phenomenon as well).
- By the 1930s, the industry was well aware of the limitations of the 78 rpm record and wanted to use microgroove technology (224 to 300 grooves per inch rather than the previous 90) to replace it. The first 33 1/3 rpm records were issued by RCA Victor in 1931 . Their records held 15 minutes per side but the records were too fragile to support multiple playbacks and the format was abandoned by 1933. WWII got in the way of further developments.
- In 1948, Columbia records launched a superior version of the 33 1/3 rpm record which they dubbed the LP (for long player). In a display or remarkable foresight, they actually began mastering records for the new format as early as 1939 giving them access to a considerable back catalogue right at launch. The 12 inch version of LP is essentially the 45 minute album as we know it now but the 12 inch was initially mostly reserved for classical music. Nearly everything else was issued on 10 inch LPs because of the popularity of 10 inch record players with backwards compatibility with 10 inch 78 rpm records. The 10 inch LP was only phased out around the mid-fifties.
- RCA responded to Columbia’s 33 1/3 rpm format by launching the competing 45rpm format on 7 inch records, a format which they had started developing before the war. The only problem was the 45 rpm record had been initially designed as a less ambitious improvement over the 78 rpm record than their own abandoned 33 1/3 format not as a direct competitor to Columbia’s LP. It had the very glaring limitation of being quite short. This meant that RCA was trying to compete with single disc releases by issuing multi disc sets not dissimilar to those previously issued on 78 rpm. These sets proved to be unpopular and as we now know, the 7 inch 45 rpm format nonetheless found it’s calling as the preferred format for single song releases while the term album became synonymous with the 12 inch 33 1/3 rpm record.
[/spoiler]
All lists alphabetical (no artists repeated):
[spoiler title=Top_50_studio_jazz_albums]
Art Ensemble of Chicago: A Jackson In Your House
Albert Ayler: Spiritual Unity
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: A Night in Tunisia
Paul Bley: Closer
Peter Brötzmann: Machine Gun
Kenny Burrell with Art Blakey: At the Five Spot Café *
Jaki Byard: The Jaki Byard Experience
Ornette Coleman: Change of the Century
Alice Coltrane: A Monastic Trio
John Coltrane: A Love Supreme
Miles Davis: Miles Smiles
Eric Dolphy: Conversations
Kenny Dorham: Quiet Kenny
Duke Ellington: The Far East Suite
Bill Evans: Conversations with Myself
Ella Fitzgerald: Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas
Dizzy Gillespie: Gillespiana
Dexter Gordon: Go!
Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage
Joe Harriott: Free Form
Joe Henderson: Page One
Woody Herman: Woody’s Winners
Andrew Hill: Point of Departure
Bobby Hutcherson: Components
Ahmad Jamal: Happy Moods
Sheila Jordan: Portrait of Sheila
Krzysztof Komeda: Astigmatic
Jeanne Lee & Ran Blake: The Newest Sound Around
Herbie Mann: Memphis Underground
Jackie McLean: Let Freedom Ring
Charles Mingus: Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
Thelonious Monk: Underground
Wes Montgomery: The Incredible Jazz Guitar of
Lee Morgan: The Sidewinder
Oliver Nelson: The Blues and the Abstract Truth
Duke Pearson: Wahoo!
Max Roach: We Insist! Freedom Now Suite
Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins: Sonny Meets Hawk!
George Russell: Jazz in the Space Age
Pharoah Sanders: Tauhid
Archie Shepp: Black Gipsy
Wayne Shorter: The All Seeing Eye
Horace Silver: Song for My Father
Nina Simone: Forbidden Fruit
Frank Sinatra and Count Basie: Sinatra-Basie
Sun Ra: Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra
Cecil Taylor: Unit Structures
McCoy Tyner: Tender Moments
Mal Waldron: The Quest
Tony Williams: Emergency
Larry Young: Unity!
[/spoiler]
[spoiler title=Top_15_live_jazz_albums ]
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Ugestsu
Albert Ayler: In Greenwich Village
Ornette Coleman: At the Golden Circle
John Coltrane: Live at the Village Vanguard
Miles Davis: My Funny Valentine
Eric Dolphy: At the Five Spot
Duke Ellington: Soul Call
Bill Evans: Live at the Village Vanguard
Ahmad Jamal: Ahmad Jamal’s Alhambra
Ramsey Lewis: The In Crowd
Junior Mance: Trio at the Village Vanguard
Shelly Manne & His Men: At the Black Hawk
Cecil Taylor: Nefertiti
Nina Simone: At Newport
McCoy Tyner: Live at Newport
[/spoiler]
[spoiler title=Top_10_soundtracks ]
John Barry: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Elmer Bernstein: The Great Escape
Beatles: A Hard Day’s Night
Henry Mancini: Breakfast at Tiffanys
Krysztof Komeda; Rosemary’s Baby
Ennio Morricone: The Battle of Algiers *
Alex North: Spartacus
Elvis Presley: Blue Hawaii
Sonny Rollins: Alfie
Frank Zappa: Uncle Meat *
[/spoiler]
[spoiler title=Contemporary_music_top_5]
Gyorgy Ligeti: Atmosphères (Ernest Bour, conductor) *
Witold Lutosławski: Symphony No. 2 (Witold Rowicki. conductor)
Steve Reich: Live/Electric Music (Paul Zukofsky, violin)
Terry Riley: A Rainbow in Curved Air
Dimitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 (Kyril Kondrashin, conductor)
[/spoiler]
[spoiler title=Top_25_popular_music_albums]
Allman Brothers: Allman Brothers Band
Amon Düül II: Phalus Dei
The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
The Beatles: Rubber Soul
Can: Monster Movie
Captain Beefheart: Trout Mask Replica *
Donovan: Sunshine Superman
Brigitte Fontaine: Comme à la Radio
Giles, Giles & Fripp: The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp
Jimmy Hendrix Experience: Electric Ladyland *
Etta James: At Last
King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King
The Kinks: Something Else
Love: Forever Changes *
MC5: Kick Out the Jams
Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed *
Pink Floyd: Piper at the Gates of Dawn *
Elvis Presley: From Elvis in Memphis
Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed
The Stooges: The Stooges
Them: The Angry Young Them
The Who: Sing My Generation
Neil Young: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Frank Zappa: We’re Only in it for the Money
The Zombies: The Zombies
[/spoiler]
[spoiler title=Top_10_Christmas albums]
Nat King Cole: The Magic of Christmas
Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn : The Nutcracker Suite *
Ella Fitzgerald: Ella Wishes You a Swingin’ Christmas
Vince Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas
Stan Kenton: A Merry Christmas! *
Ramsey Lewis: Sounds of Christmas *
The Merrymen: Merry Christmas with the Merrymen *
Duke Pearson: Merry Ole Soul *
Bobby Timmons: Holiday Soul *
Various Artists: Christmas Wish to You from Phil Spector *
[/spoiler]
* edited