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Best-ofs suck, the reissue is perhaps the most beautiful thing ever, live albums are usually things not yet found. Sometimes they can be poorly attended concerts now hailed as a groundbreaking performances, or can open up our eyes to a totally new sound a band can produce. Compilations are on the fence. They can be pretty annoying, like "The Smiths Singles Box!", or "NOW! 152" or they can be quite interesting: "NY No Wave". Apart from doubling as my Christmas List, here are some great repackagings, inspired groupings, exciting rediscoveries, and other galvanizations from the last decade.
50. Zero: A Martin Hannett Story - Factory Records was a shit ton of cool people, here is one of their stories.
49. New Thing! Deep Jazz from USA - Dusty Grooves underground 70s jazz platter: Rashied, Shepp, Alice Coltrane, and the Chicago Underground scene.
48. Strangley Strange, But Oddly Normal: An Island Anthology (1962-1972) - Perfectly named, this box set chronicles the early years of Island Records, a label later home to guys like Tom Waits and groups like Pulp.
47. Galaxie 500, the Peel Sessions - It's easy to be hungry for more Galaxie 500, but hard to decide which Peel Session to put on this list.
46. This Heat - Out of Cold Storage - #$@()____?
45. Suicide Live 1977-1978 - Year long look at an incredible live act in Alan Vega and Martin Rev.
44. Josef K, Entomology - Post-Kafka-post-punk which won't bug you.
43. Naked City, Complete Studio Recordings - Literally everything by Naked City...because punk-jazz-fast-third-stream comes in spurts.
42. Raymond Scott, Manhattan Research Inc. - Cool electronic music comp, cartoony and soothing all at once.
41. Talking Heads Brick - Damn that TELEVISION: Every album.
40. The Zombies Live at the BBC, 2003 - Baroque pop rocks out, sounds a little like the Animals.
39. Gas: Nah Und Fern - Wolfgang Voight's alter-ego Gas not only sounds like fuzzy dark wave ambient minimalism, but birthed a techno label, see #20.
38. Jesus and Mary Chain: The Power of Negative Thinking - Massive rarities and B-sides comp.
37. Miles Davis - Live at the Filmore East (March 7, 1970): It's About That Time/ Complete In a Silent Way Sessions/Complete Jack Johnson Sessions/Complete On the Corner Sessions/Seven Steps: Complete Columbia Album Collection - holy. fucking. shit.
36. Mudhoney, Superfuzz Big Muff Deluxe Ed. - So this is a reissue, but it includes the best songs by the band from the original EP as well as lost tracks and live jaunts.
35. Victrola Favorites: Artifacts from Bygone Days - Although it is remastered and on CD, this does capture that interesting, unique sound from a bunch of differing genres.
34. Mojo Presents: Beloved - Included with a damn good issue of Mojo, I was happy to see this disc include McCarthy, as well as others.
33. Les Savy, Inches - 1995-2004 in singles.
32. Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 - Complete with inter-set quips and visionary one-liners.
31. Pole 123 - Stefan Betke's first 3 albums of dub-based glitches and near-silence.
30. Jerome's Dream Completed 1997-2001 - Even if you hate screamo you've gotta give this guy credit for what he's doing to his voice.
29. The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions - Seu Jorge@bowie.net
28. London is the Place for Me Vol. 1-4 - Calypso never sounded so good.
27. Indian Summer, Science 1994 - The best crescendos and soft/loud shadings of the mid-1990s...Emo 101.
26. New Order: Singles - Apart from this albums massive collection of canonical synth-wave, the first five tracks on this collection are some of the most impressive music every recorded.
25. Creation Records: International Guardians of Rock and Roll - Creation was big, big sounding and big in thier reach of genres. Along side heavy hitters JAMC, House of Love, and Oasis comes The Pastels, Meat Wiplash, and other hidden gems.
24. Home Schooled: The ABCs of Kid Soul - Picking up where The Jackson 5 and Foster Sylvers leave off.
23. XTC, Coat of many Cupboards - For a band that sounded thier best cleaned up and mastered, these early versions, demos, and live sets really show the songwriting prowess of Andy Partridge.
21. Liquid Liquid, Slip In And Out Of Phenomenon - A look at the seminal no wave-dance punk group over the course of 3 LPs.
20. Kompakt Total 4/8 - With each passing year, Cologne-based label Kompakt would drop thier Total compilation, 4 and 8 had standout tracks, but each one poses a new way of looking at minimalism. 19. Messthetics - Hyped to Death's insane catalog of post-punk niche comps is growing and growing and you cannot go wrong with anyone of them.
18. African Scream Contest - In a market flooded with non-western geo-comps, this one stands out, not just because of its name, but also due to that mean organ sound.
17. Bob Dylan, The Bootleg Series Vol. 4, Live 1966/Vol. 6, Live 1964 - Before and during going electric.
16. Can You Dig It: The Music and Politics of Black Action Films - Penultimate collection, cc: Issac Hayes/Bobby Womack/Quincy Jones.
15. Nirvana Live at Reading - Wheelchair, grunge, forever bootlegged, finally mastered, includes DVD.
14. Louis Armstrong The Complete Hot 5 and Hot 7 Recordings - The biggest and best New Orleans style jazz package you can by used online.
13. Dead Moon, Echoes of the Past - Sub-Pops 2 disc nod to NW DIY underground punk. 12. DFA Records Presents: Compilation #1/#2 - In these two comps, we see DFA's James Murphy, Tim Goldworthy, and many others reaching deep into their catalog, reinventing it, and packaging it with some hard to find favorites.
11. Factory Records Communications 1978-1992 - This comp spans a period of time which many of us have come to enjoy, and does it in Madchester...why no scene kid should be complete with out it.
10. The Clean Anthology - New Zealand's little population gave us this influential group which seems to be at the trunk of the indie tree.
9. ESG, A South Bronx Story - Minimal dance-punk funk rediscovered.
8. Roky Erikson: I Have Always Been Here Before - The 13th Floor Elevators comprise only a fraction of this massive comp, which spans into Roky's devil-rocker career of '60s nostalgia. We Sell Soul by The Spades is SUCH a good song.
7. Rockin’ Bones: 1950s Punk and Rockabilly - 4 discs worth of people who hated Truman and his bomb and didn't like Ike...score 1 for every song you can find the Cramps covered.
6. Orange Juice, The Glasgow School - So shimmery and charming were the Scots, this will unexpectedly open the floodgates to such melodrama as Josef K and The Monochrome Set.
5. Enter the Vaselines* - This awesome box set not only piles together their entire stupid stuff, but them in their most interesting form: live. *Includes Live in London.
4. Albert Ayler Holy Ghost - Over and over, we see jazz greats repackaged according to live appearances, label runs, instrumental periods, ect. Finally Albert Ayler has gotten 9 discs of what he deserves, including one with interviews.
3. Modest Mouse, Build Nothing Out of Something/Sappy Sad Sucker - Sandwiching their masterpiece Antarctica came 2 great retrospective albums, helping us all discover the lost lo-fi aurora of MM.
2. The Wipers Box Set - Portland's understated group is right next to The Replacements and Husker Du in the intelli-punk batting order.
1. Joy Divison Live at the Factory, '79/Live at University of London Union, '80/Live at High Wycombe Town Hall - These live Joy Division recordings may take a back seat to the much anticipated reissues of Unknown Pleasures and Closer, but the live bonus discs should nary be over looked. They are among the most-listened to tracks I own.
Every Jazz List I have ever come across includes albums a decade before or a decade after 1959, and with good reason. ’59 marked a pivotal year for jazz culture. It included 2 groundbreaking Miles Davis Albums, Brubeck’s Time Out, Coltrane’s Giant Steps, Ornette’s Shape of Jazz to Come, Mingus entering a phase of un-abashed third stream genius, and countless musicians who played on these various cuts, all which would move onto bigger and better things.
And today, jazz is dead, but dead like punk...its still breathing. Time and time again we've seen it altered, added too, enhanced, bastardized, stripped down, and built up. Jazz, after 50 years of rock and roll, has begun to hybrid itself with countless musical movements. Some have worked, (punk-jazz, electronic improv), and others haven't (adult contemporary, smooth, Bolton Swings Sinatra). Upon entering the 2000s, many of these styles have been either accepted and crystallized, or shunned by jazz enthusiast and left to consumerist masses during holidays. I was originally planning on limiting my list to 2009, but here at the turn of the decade we are still finding a shortage of jazz lists, I could probably try to make a list in 7 months from now and it could be entirely different. Someone sitting next to me could find half the albums on this list unbearable. I tried...and the top ten are in alphabetical order, not numbered. Best of the decade:50. Lars Danielsson - Tarantella, Act Music + Vision 200949. Charles Lloyd - Jumping the Creek, ECM 200548. Old Dog - By Any Other Name, Porter 200947. Bebo & Cigala - Legrimas Negras, RCA 200446. Vandermark 5 - Alchemia, Not Two 200545. Anashai Cohen - Continuo, Sunny Side 200644. Esbjorn Svensson Trio - Seven Days of Falling, Act 200343. Susie Ibarra - Folklorio, Tzadik 200442. Full Blast - Full Blast, Jazzwerkstatt 200541. Mark Feldman - Secrets, Tzadik 200940. Kieth Jarrett - Up For It, ECM 200339. Scorch Trio - Luggmut, Rune Grammofon 200438. Derek Bailey - Mirakle, Tzadik 200737. Milford Graves & John Zorn - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 2, Tzadik 200436. Greg Osby - Channel 3, Blue Note 200535. Dave Douglas - Strange Liberation, RCA 200434. Ellery Eskellin - Aracanum Moderne, HATology 200333. Nels Cline - Monastery, Cryptogramophone 200632. Braxton, Graves, Parker - Beyond Quantum, Tzadik 200831. Led Bib - Sensible Shoes, Cuneiform 200930. David S. Ware - Corridors and Parallels, AUM Fidelity 200129. Bobby Bradford Extet - Midnight Pacific Airwaves, Entropy 200828. Brad Mehldau - Day is Done, Nonesuch 200527. Tord Gustarvsen Trio - Being There, ECM 200726. Alexander von Slichppenbach Trio - Swinging at the BIM, Phantom 200825. Anouar Brahem - Astrakan Cafe, ECM 200124. Evan Parker - After Appleby, Leo 200023. Wadada Leo Smith - Lake Biwa, Tzadik 200422. Art Ensemble of Chicago - The Meeting, Pi 200321. Andrew Hill - Time Lines, Blue Note 200620. Matt Wilson - Humidity, Palmetto 200319. William Parker - Sound Unity, AUM Fidelity 200518. Fred Hersch - Trio + 2, Palmett0 200417. Bobby Previte - 23 Constellations of the Joan Miro, Tzadik 200316. Paul Bley, Jimmy Giuffre, & Steve Swallow - Emphasis & Flight 1961, HATology 200315. Mathew Shipp - Nu Bopp, Thirsty Ear 200214. Electric Masada - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 4, Tzadik 200413. Ben Allison - Riding the Nuclear Tiger, Palmetto 200112. Tim Berne - Open, Coma/The Shell Game, Screwgun 200111. The Masada - Sevilla 2000/Tonic 2001, Tzadik 2000/2001#. Bar Kokhba Sextet - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 11, Tzadik 2004 - Of all the Zorn on this list, I feel bar Kokhba is his masterpiece. Both this and the Electric Masada recording (#14) are featured debuts by him from this decade and each presents Zorn as a seasoned avant-garde veteran. The Masada comes in right above the ten here and he and drummer Milford Graves are up higher at #37. Needless to say, this 3 night live feature is from the most important month of jazz this decade, September 2004. In mixing klezmer with new classical, frantic free jazz, and dark somber tones, Zorn assembled a team of Tzadik wunderkinds to play some of the most beautiful, powerful renditions of the Masada songbook.#. Bohren & der Club of Gore - Black Earth, Ipecac 2004 - This album is without definition so whatever the Gore Club consider themselves is fine with us. They used to be a hardcore metal band, but now exhibit an extremity of self-control. Black Earth is strewn with swings, flows, and terrifies. Death metal lounge music would be spot on but the Club is something more visceral and deep. The quartet conjures up images and lets you decide what any of their 9 ballads of mystery and madness mean.#. Bill Frisell - Richter 858, Soundlines 2005 - Jazz musicians become legends because they have a sound. Frisell broke into the usually tepid world of jazz guitar with just that. His long run with Nonesuch has produced some of the most interesting works on guitar in the last two decades. Songlines release Richter 858 presents a look at the seasoned Frisell where each piece is a sublimation of art by German artist Gerhard Richter. The albums tracks are repetitive violin/cello/viola lines on top of which Frisell smears on the effects, the beauty, and the anti-rhythm.#. Charles Mingus - Cornell 1964 w/ Eric Dolphy, Blue Note 2007 - Certainly the best discovery of the year goes to Sue Mingus. This album is as stacked as they come: Dannie Richmond, Eric Dolphy, Jaki Byard, Johnny Coles, and Clifford Jordan. The hand of Mingus guides this group through the likes of When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, Fats Waller's Jitterbug Waltz, a 29 minute Fables of Fabus, and Mingus' solo bass homage to Ellington in Sophisticated Lady. Within these comes the endless styling of such a diverse group in solo sections, complementing, and Mingus' spur-of-the-moment stage direction. A must-own.#. The Bad Plus - These Are the Vistas, Sony 2003 - The most interesting part about the Bad Plus is their drummer David King. King, who has drummed primarily with rock groups including 12 Rods, Meat Beat Manifesto, among others. But this unlikely trio doesn't end there, pianist Ethan Iverson seems a cooler version of Mehldau, preferring classical and free jazz influences to more traditional like Bill Evans, and Reid Anderson is a NYC new classical composer with a stint of garage rock running through him. These Are the Vistas is their second rock/pop influenced post-bop record. Apart from covering Smells Like Teen Spirit, they explore the boundaries of what a jazz trio can do, writing arrangement after arrangement of mini-pop symphony.#. Dave Holland - Extended Play: Live at Birdland, ECM 2003 – If '59 was a pivotal year, then '69 could be said to follow it in importance. Again, at the helm is Miles Davis with In a Silent Way infusing us forever with rock and electronic music. Out of this mist came Dave Holland, the bass player who adapted his playing to fit the electronic charge in the air. Soon thereafter, he began a successful solo career. Fast forward 30 years, he plays live with his quintet consisting of saxophonist Chris Potter, trombone/cowbell Tom Eubanks, vibe/marimba Steve Nelson and drummer Billy Kilson. Every track but one clocks in over 10 minutes, some as long as 20. Holland and his guys just love to play and do so in a fashion which shatters normal conventions while staying within jazz's classic sound.#. Thomasz Stanko - Suspended Night, ECM 2004 – The European free jazz bullpen is deep, all too often with people North America never hears of. Thank god for ECM, which turns up allover this list. Throughout the 90s Stanko began recording eerie ballads drenched in his far-off, minimal trumpet. Since the 60s he had been helping Krzysztof Komeda on such albums as Astigmatic. At the turn of the century, he had perfected this and has released a slew of great albums, any of which could have made this list. Suspended Night contains some of the most standard recordings of them all, making a very accessible recording.#. John Coltrane - The Olatunji Concert: Last Live Recording, UMVD 2001 - As far as rediscoveries go, live stuff is always the most exciting. Coltrane’s last live set from 1967 has an incredible lineup, including his wife Alice Coltrane, drummer Rashied Ali, complementing saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, and several more African percussion players. The two tracks, Ogunde and My Favorite Things are among his best ever recorded on record. The venue, Olatunji Center of African Culture, is a perfect atmosphere for Trane’s last amazing licks.#. Ornette Coleman - Sound Grammar, Sound Grammar 2006 - In 2007 Coleman won a Pulitzer Prize for this, and it was his first album in over a decade. Chock full of the usual free, upward swells of jubilee, Coleman is also one of the great listeners of music and makes extensive use of musical quotation. Greg Cohen and Tony Falanga both play bass...giving the album double, double bass. The album seems as if it could be transplanted from his seminal album Live at the Golden Circle in Stokholm, and now, at 76 years old, he is still utilizing trumpet, violin, and sax to bring classic free jazz and show he is still the ruler of his kingdom.#. Supersilent - 5/6, Rune Grammofon 2006/2005 - When Rune Grammofon records began in ’98, the Norwegian label began drawing from techno influences heavily. Supersilent became their international success. Having released 5 of their 9 albums this decade, 5 and 6 present some of their most compelling work. Each album is the result of a live improvisational performance combining a quartet of trumpet, drums, electronics/electric guitar, and synthesizer.
