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, century. It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to guide this series into what will be it’s final post. As for my own list, I’ve decided to go with a straight list of 100 recordings with no distinction of genre or between live recordings and studio ones.
Abou-Khalil, Rabih: Blue Camel
Aphex Twin: Richard D. James Album
Art Ensemble of Chicago: The Alternate Express
Art Ensemble of Chicago: Full Force
Albert Ayler: In Greenwich Village
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (1982 Trevor Pinnock recording)
Bach: Cello Suites (1936-1938 Pablo Casals recordings)
Bach: The Goldberg Variations (1981 Glenn Gould recording)
Bach: Magnificat (1985 John Eliot Gardiner recording)
Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra / Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1990, Mariss Jansons recordings)
The Beatles: Abbey Road
The Beatles: Rubber Soul
Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk: Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk
Blondie: Parallel Lines
David Bowie: Low
Peter Brötzmann: Machine Gun
Can: Future Days
Captain Beefheart: Doc at the Radar Station
Jane Ira Bloom: Art and Aviation
Tim Brady: Strange Attractors
John Carter: Castles of Ghana
Don Cherry, Nana Vasconcelos, Colin Walcott: Codona 3
Ornette Coleman: Of Human Feelings
Ornette Coleman: The Shape of Jazz to Come
Alice Coltrane: World Galaxy
John Coltrane: A Love Supreme
John Coltrane: Live at Birdland
John Coltrane: Live at the Village Vanguard
John Coltrane: Live in Japan
Bing Crosby: Merry Christmas
Anthony Davis: Episteme
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue
Miles Davis: Milestones
Miles Davis: Miles Smiles
Francis Dhomont: Sous le regard d’un soleil noir *
DJ Shadow: Endtroducing DJ Shadow
Eric Dolphy: At the Five Spot
Eric Dolphy: Conversations
Duke Ellington: The Far East Suite
Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn: The Nutcracker Suite
Duke Ellington/Charles Mingus/Max Roach: Money Jungle
Brian Eno: Another Green World
Brian Eno: Here Come the Warm Jets
Bill Evans: You Must Believe in Spring
Ella Fitzgerald: Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas
Ella Fitzgerald: Songs in a Mellow Mood
Fleeetwood Mac: Tusk
Ganelin Trio: Catalogue
Philip Glass: Satyagrahah (1984 Christophe Keene recording)
Herbie Hancock: Crossings
Bernard Herrmann: North by Northwest
Dave Holland: Conference of the Bird
Sheila Jordan: Portrait of Sheila
King Crimson: Discipline
King Crimson: Red
King Crimson: Starless and Bible Black
Krzysztof Komeda: Astigmatic
Kronos Quartet: Night Music
Jeanne Lee & Ran Blake: The Newest Sound Around
Gyorgy Ligeti: Requiem, Lontano, Continuum (1969 Ernest Bour recordings)
Louvin Brothers: Tragic Songs of Live
Love: Forever Changes
Shelly Manne & His Men: At the Black Hawk
John McLaughlin: Extrapolation
Charles Mingus: Pithecantropus Erectus
Thelonious Monk: Brilliant Corners
Thelonious Monk: Genius of Modern Music
Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed
Oliver Nelson: The Blues and the Abstract Truth
Elvis Presley: Elvis’ Christmas Album
Radiohead: O.K. Computer
Steve Reich and Musicians: Music for 18 Musicians
Terry Riley: Shri Camel
Max Roach: We Insist! Freedom Now Suite
Sonny Rollins: A Night at the Village Vanguard
Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus
Sonny Sharrock: Ask The Ages *
Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony # 5 (1984 Evgeny Mravinsky live recording)
Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony # 8 (1982 Evgeny Mravinsky live recording)
Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony # 10 (1976 Evgeny Mravinsky live recording)
Paul Simon: The Rhythm of the Saints
Nina Simone: At Newport
Nina Simone: Forbidden Fruit
Thomas Stanko: Lontano
Igor Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps (1973 Bernard Haitink recording)
Sun Ra: Jazz in Silhouette
Sun Ra: Lanquidity
Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Gospel Train
Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense
Television: Marquee Moon *
Henry Threadgill: Makin’ a Move
U2: Achtung Baby
Sarah Vaughan: Sarah Vaughan
Mal Waldron: The Quest
David S. Ware: Godspelized
Neil Young: Chrome Dreams (unauthorized release)
Frank Zappa: The Grand Wazoo
Frank Zappa: Roxy & Elsewhere
Frank Zappa: The Yellow Shark
John Zorn: Naked City