Top 100 Jazz

Listen these dusty, distant acoustic series - the first great series of jazz recordings - and you will encounter the intricate and joyous sound of New Orleans at its absolute peak.

Beiderbecke was the doomed Scott Fitzgerald of music. But before the whisky killed him, he introduced a new mood into jazz - romantic, wistful - on these performances with the saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer.

Skirling and insistent in the upper register, plumy and fluid in the lower, Dodds's clarinet was among the most compelling voices to emerge from New Orleans. He still a little edgy.

With performances such as "Down South Camp Meetin'" (included on this), Henderson's band led the way to the big era. He also employed some of the best soloists in New York, Coleman Hawkins among them.

It's impossible to choose from the cornucopia of magnificent explorations of mood and tone-colour that Duke recorded between the late 20s and the mid 40s. This compilation has many of the best.

The British arranger produced some of the most beguiling arrangements of the early swing era, performed in New York with magnificent solos from Carter, Coleman Hawkins, and the trombonist Dicky Wells.

Holiday's voice and Young's saxophone made a wonderfully compatible musical couple, both wry, tender, vulnerable and beautiful. This compilation contains some of their most delightful encounters, plus one poignant reunion.

Reinhardt's Roma guitar and Grappelli's lilting violin both draw on European musical traditions, but fuse with American jazz in a combination that is propulsive, filled with joie de vivre and just irresistible.

Hampton, the first vibes virtuoso, was the leader on some of the most infectiously high-spirited small-group jazz recordings of the swing era featuring various star solists. This contains some splendid examples.

The tenor saxophonist brought a new sensibility into big band swing - subtle, oblique, compellingly melodic. In short, he invented musical cool. His early recordings, mostly on here, remain extraordinarily fresh.

Beginning his post-big band career, Satchmo fronts a band - with Jack Teagarden on trombone, Sid Catlett drums - that deserved the name All-Stars. Everyone's on magnificent form; Armstrong himself is sublime.

On these early sessions Monk gives the impression of reinventing music, slightly different from the way it was before; each piece is tart, compressed and still a bit startling.

On these early sessions Monk gives the impression of reinventing music, slightly different from the way it was before; each piece is tart, compressed and still a bit startling.

Bebop was fast and hot. For this nine-piece ensemble Davis and his collaborators - including Gil Evans and Gerry Mulligan - came up with a new sound: mellow, light and floating.

More audibly driven by demons than any other pianist in jazz, Powell made music that was furiously fast, fiercely intense, and sometimes in the words of one title, Un Poco Loco.

More audibly driven by demons than any other pianist in jazz, Powell made music that was furiously fast, fiercely intense, and sometimes in the words of one title, Un Poco Loco.

Self-taught and unable to read music, Garner came up with a style that was all his own, seeming sometimes to strum the piano like a gigantic guitar: jovial and hugely entertaining.

Drummer Art Blakey led the Messengers, a sort of elite academy of modern jazz, through many incarnations. None was more impressive than this early quintet version, stretching out at a New York club.

Drummer Art Blakey led the Messengers, a sort of elite academy of modern jazz, through many incarnations. None was more impressive than this early quintet version, stretching out at a New York club.

Brown's sound on trumpet was glowing and golden, his his delivery majestic. This captures the quintet he co-led with drummer Max Roach on fabulous form, shortly before Brown's early death.

Brilliant indeed, but also disconcerting, the title piece begins with a series of juddering gear-changes in tempo like nothing else in music. These are Monk's most accomplished small band performances.

Blue Seven", a long, reflective track, has long been acclaimed as a masterpiece, in which not a note of Rollins tenor solo could be altered. The rest of the session is almost as good.

This summit conference of mainstream jazz soloists contains the wistful, melancholy late Lester Young, and Teddy Wilson, Roy Eldridge and Vic Dickenson all playing at their mellow, relaxed maturity.

The alto saxophonist had never played with the rest of the band and was strung-out to boot. But the cool, inventive result couldn't have been improved by weeks of rehearsal.

That title, and the mushroom cloud on the cover, may be in dubious taste, but this truly is explosive music. Big band jazz never had more punch and power.

Rollins's tough tenor saxophone has a sardonic wit. Here, accompanied by just bass and drums, he performs improbable cowboy tunes such as Wagon Wheels with deadpan humour and inventive brilliance.

Armstrong plays some trumpet, but essentially this is a duet between two great singers - Ella supremely poised and mellifluous, Louis with a voice like a dredger. The combination is piquant and irresistible.

With time her voice faded, but Billie's ability to infuse wry and tender emotional power into a lyric just grew and grew. This session finds her at her interpretive peak.

Here two great tenor saxophonists - Hawkins with a stronger, darker sound, Webster smoother and airier - contrast like black coffee and cappuccino. It's not a contest but a wonderfully rich combination.

Though issued under Adderley's name, this contains some of Miles Davis's greatest playing, especially on a ravishing version of Autumn Leaves. Cannonball and Hank Jones on piano perform with impeccable elegance.

Evans introduced something of the feeling and delicacy of the classical piano music into the jazz tradition. This - alternatively lyrical and driving, Debussy plus bebop - was his first great recording.

"Take Five" is too well-known for its own good, but this collection of elegant experiments with unusual time signatures remains delightful, above for the airy beauty of Paul Desmond's alto saxophone.

A perfect album, in which an unbeatable group - including John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans - sustained a wonderful mood - hip, enigmatic, - and launch a novel musical idiom: modal jazz.

This was the recording on which Coltrane emerged as a performer of mesmerising authority, and - on several of these pieces dizzying speed of execution. He was to transform jazz completely.

The bassist and composer brings the newest kind of jazz - bebop verging on free jazz - together with some of the oldest, including gospel and Jelly Roll Morton - a splendidly turbulent blend.

There are tenor saxophone plus rhythm sessions without number, but not many as flawlessly conceived and executed as this impeccable late bop session: relaxed but not a note out of place.

The trombone was a somewhat neglected instrument in post-war jazz, but not when Brookmeyer was around. On this - rasping, sighing, gentle, sardonic - he's the perfect tough guy of jazz.

Coleman had a sound as piercing as a cry and an indifferent to the rules of conventional harmony. This was indeed the shape of free jazz - if not all jazz - to come.

After Ellington, Evans was the master arranger of large jazz ensembles, adding a fresh range of atmospheric, pastel tone-colours to the repertoire. This is his best recording under his own name.

Forget Julie Andrews, Coltrane - playing soprano saxoph0one - transformed the cute little tune from The Sound of Music into a mystical mantra. It seems to carry on to infinity. The 60s start here.

Evans not only devised a new mode for jazz piano, he also revolutionised his trio by setting his bassist Scott LeFaro free from time-keeping. This catches them, live, at a peak.

An elegantly-poised soloist on alto-saxophone, Carter was also the most stylish of arrangers for reeds. Here he leads a saxophone ensemble through some of the most glorious performances of his long career.

Jazz with strings albums almost never work, but this one really did. The arranger, Eddie Sauter, borrowed the title track from Bartok, Roy Haynes's drums are urgent, Getz's tenor soars.

There's a wonderful band on this - Eric Dolphy, Bill Evans, and the imperious Freddie Hubbard on trumpet. It is Nelson's writing and arranging, however, that give it such style and unity.

A delightful Latin infusion runs through much of the music on this session by Henderson and Kenny Dorham, one of the mst outstanding - and underrated - trumpet/tenor teams in jazz.

Mixing jazz and bossa nova became a craze, and later a cliché. This meeting between Getz and Brazilian performers, however, remains irresistible: an early tour de force of world music.

This trumpet and tenor quintet session was that rare thing, a popular jazz hit. Endless attempts were made to imitate the infectious funkiness of the title track, but none quite succeeded.

Raging, sighing, languorous, furious - this tumultuous six part composition expresses all the contradictory emotions swirling inside Mingus's head (and comes with a commentary by his psychiatrist).

The title track has a liltingly attractive them with a Latin feel, an insistent beat - and a brilliant storming tenor solo from Joe Henderson which really makes it classic.

A master saxophonist, Shorter is also one of the most distinctive composers in jazz. His zenith came in the mid-60s, most compellingly here in company with Herbie Hancock and Freddie Hubbard.

A marvellous blend of composition, improvisation and overall mood. Hancock's piano, Tony Williams's drumming and the ensemble actually seem to grow turbulent then calm, like the sea.

With the extra-terrestrial chiming of Bobby Hutcherson's vibes, and Dolphy's own fearless flights to the limits of conventional harmony on flute, alto saxophone and bass clarinet, this seems like jazz from outer space.

Coltrane is the only jazz musician to have a church founded in his honour, and this extraordinary record explains why. Passionate, intense and prayer-like, this is modern jazz as spiritual revelation.

Corea brought a new abstraction to jazz piano. With its title derived from the I Ching, this adventurous piano trio session is of its time, but contains the essence of his music.

Having already initiated two new developments - cool and modal jazz - with this exercise in hip impressionism, Miles entered a twilit, twinkling world of electric sounds and inaugurated the era of jazz-rock.

The elegant MJQ, had been playing dulcet chamber jazz together for two decades before this highly charged performance, as smoothly-meshed as a Rolls Royce. They never sounded better.

In this epic performance - alternatively funky, lyrical, churchy and rocking - Jarrett extended solo piano improvisation up to, and beyond, the length of a Beethoven piano sonata.

This version of Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" - with Hall on guitar, plus Chet Baker and Paul Desmond - is more persuasive than Miles Davis's (and the rest of the album is better still).

Basie was a supreme musical minimalist, making one perfectly-placed note do the work of ten. This pairing with Zoot Sims on tenor saxophone produced jazz at its most infectiously enjoyable.

By taking the impressionist strand in 60s jazz, and adding electric sounds and rock beats, Weather Report hit on a formula that returned jazz to mass popularity, and - here with considerable charm.

Davern, the finest jazz clarinettist of the late 20th century, performs with just piano and drums to make New Orleans revivalist jazz so imaginative and accomplished it turns into something fresh and new.

Flanagan was a delightfully thoughtful performer on innumerable recordings. What makes this trio special was the combination of his piano with the volcanic energy of Elvin Jones at the drums.

Marsh's sound on tenor saxophone was so cool it sometimes verged on refrigeration. That impassivity, however, concealed a musical imagination of tremendous scope. This is an overlooked masterpiece.

Drug abuse caused terrible damage to Baker's health and appearance. His trumpet playing, though, grew ever more expressive. This late meeting with the tenor-player Warne Marsh is a neglected masterpiece.

A one-man history of jazz piano, Wellstood sweeps through the repertoire from ragtime to Coltrane on this - wise-cracking the while - at a little club in New England. Utterly engaging.

Wilson explores a dark, brooding almost spectral mood. Her version of Robert Johnson's "Hell Hound on My Trail" is enough to raise the hair on the back of your neck.

Larkins was the most dulcet and feather-light of pianists, Braff a unique trumpeter/cornettist. They made many
beautiful duet recordings over the years, none more so than these, the last.

Larkins was the most dulcet and feather-light of pianists, Braff a unique trumpeter/cornettist. They made many
beautiful duet recordings over the years, none more so than these, the last.

Three generations - septuagenarian saxophonist Konitz, middle-aged bassist Haden and 20-something Mehldau - and revisit a series of standards in wonderfully quirky fashion. You feel there's plenty more mileage in this diom still.

Lovano's tenor saxophone - warm, fuzzy and eloquent - is a superlative foil for Hank Jones, well into his 80s, but still delectably poised and precise at the piano.

A band of improbable instruments, including the bass saxophone and echo cornet, performs forgotten music of the 20s and 30s. The result is irresistibly euphoric: proof that jazz remains full of life.

Haig was the most stylishly fastidious of bebop pianists, his touch a thing of beauty. He and his trio glide through these standards as if on a cushion of air.