Essential Jazz Albums

Ah, Bill... nobody quite like him. I remember reading in the NME about his death in 1980 the day before I was going to dinner with a (terrific) British percussionist and his wife - I mentioned it in passing, and we spent the rest of the evening listening to those great 50s/60s Riversides (they had an excellent collection) while they got over their upset. As I only knew BE as the piano player on Kind Of Blue at that point (forgive me - I was 21 and callow), it was a complete ear-opener for me.

Years later (1990s sometime) I was lucky enough to pick up this beauty in (the late lamented) Mole Jazz at Kings Cross for £45 or thereabouts...

- one of the consequences of which was that my best mate inherited the individual BE Riversides that I'd accumulated on vinyl up to that point. Lucky both of us, eh?

Anyway, just thought I'd note that the Shelly's Manne Hole stuff is superb - that The Village Vanguard Sessions is (IMLTHO) the greatest piano trio jazz ever recorded/released - and that the version of Thad Jones' A Child Is Born on this gorgeous thing remains one of my favourite test recordings for any new piece of kit (need I add how good it sounds via Accession MM?):

Two other observations prompted by Les' list:

1) The Blue Note Alternative Man is by the other jazz Bill Evans (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Evans_(saxophonist)) - hence, I suspect, the LP title;

2) Doxy reissues (of which I have a large handful) look and feel lovely - but I gather they're from digital sources and (more importantly) that they don't pay royalties - so I try to avoid them these days.

f.