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, occasionally decade). We are now moving backwards through the early days of the LP era. As we now firmly out of the 12″ LP era, the first four years of the fifties are being dealt with here in a single post. The series will continue with a final Album By The Decade post for the 1950s and Album by the Century to conclude the series. Thanks to everyone who has followed the series especially the few die-hards who have stuck it out for the dawn of the LP era.
My personal list is alphabetical Asterisks (*) indicate post publication edits or additions.
Paul Bley: Introducing Paul Bley with Charlie Mngus, Art Blakey
Miles Davis: Blue Period
Miles Davis: Volume 1
Miles Davis: Volume 2
Kenny Drew Trio: New Faces, New Sounds
Duke Ellington: The Duke Plays Ellington (a. k. a. Piano Reflections)
Elmo Hope: New Faces, New Sounds
The Quintet (Gillespie, Mingus, Parker, Powell, Roach): Jazz at Massey Hall
Miles Davis: Young Man With a Horn
Duke Ellington: Ellington Uptown
Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker: Bird and Diz
Bud Powell: The Amazing Bud Powell
Horace Silver: New Faces New Sounds
Louis Armstrong: Satchmo at Pasadena
Miles Davis: The New Sounds
Duke Ellington: Masterpieces by Ellington
Thelonious Monk: Genius of Modern Music
Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Blessed Assurance *
Various Artists: Porgy and Bess
Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn: Piano Duets (a.k.a. Good Times)
Ella Fitzgerald: Ella Sings Gershwin
Benny Goodman: The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert
