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来张新的榜单：[s:97][s:97][s:97]
FORMAL
· Amazonica - Sony 62882 BUY CD
· Antill: Corroboree - Everest EVC-9007 (*) BUY CD
· Berlioz: Requiem - Telarc CD-80109-2
· Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 - Reference Recordings CD-82 BUY CD
· Bryars: The Sinking of the Titanic - Point 446-061-2 BUY CD
· Carolan's Harp - BMG (DHM) 05472-77375-2 BUY CD
· Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Guitar Concerto - Vanguard QVC 8069
· Copland: Symphony No. 3 - Chandos CHAN 9474 (*)
· Debussy: Prelude: Afternoon of a Faun - CBC Records SMCD-5164
· De Falla: Three Cornered Hat - Everest EVC-9000 BUY CD
· Dukas: Mephisto and Co. - The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Reference Recordings CD-82 BUY CD
· Feeny: Dracula - Naxos 8.553964 BUY CD
· La Folia - ATR 013CD
· Gould: Latin-American Symphonette - Vanguard SVC-9
· Hanson: The Composer & His Orchestra - Mercury 434 370-2 (*) BUY CD
· Hovhaness: Mount St. Helens Symphony - Delos DE-3137 BUY CD
· Ibert: Escales: Ports of Call - Reference Recordings CD-80 BUY CD
· Khachaturian: Gayne (Suite) - Everest EVC 9020 BUY CD
· Mario Lanza: Live From London - RCA 09026-61884-2 BUY CD
· Mahler: Das Klagende Lied - RCA 09026-68599-2 BUY CD
· Mahler: Symphony No. 1 - Harmonia Mundi 907118 BUY CD
· Mozart: Concertos 21 & 24 - Reference Recordings CD-68
· Pomp and Pipes - Reference Recordings CD-58 (*) BUY CD
· Prokofiev: Lt. Kije (Suite) - RCA 09026-60984-2
· Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 - Naxos 8.553494 (*) BUY CD
· Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances - Telarc CD-80331 (*) BUY CD
· Rachmanioff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini - RCA 09026-62710-2 BUY CD
· Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Overture - Telarc CD-80378 BUY CD
· Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez - Telarc CD-80459 BUY CD
· Rutter: Requiem - Reference Records CD- 57 BUY CD
· Stravinsky: Petrouchka - Everest EVC 9042 BUY CD
· Tan Dun: Symphony 1997 - Sony SK 63368 BUY CD
· Tchaikovsky: Manfred (Chailly) - London D 115327
· Tchaikovsky: Manfred (Goosens) - Everest EVC 902 BUY CD
· Trittico - Reference Recordings CD-52 BUY CD
· Tutti (sampler) - Reference Recordings CD-906 (*) BUY CD
· Vaughan Williams: Symphonies 8 & 9 - RCA 09026-61196-2
INFORMAL
· Beasts of Paradise: Gathered on the Edge - City of Tribes Cotcd-008 BUY CD
· Before the Rain (Soundtrack) - London 314-526-407-2 BUY CD
· Blue Rodeo: Nowhere to Here - WEA CD-10617 BUY CD
· Braheny & Clark: Rain - Hearts of Space HS 11052-2 (*)
· Burmester: Art for the Ear (sampler) - Private Label**
· Holly Cole Trio: Don't Smoke in Bed - Alert Z2-81020 BUY CD
· Eagles: Hell Freezes Over (Live) - Geffen GEFD 24725 BUY CD
· Flirtations: Out on the Road (Live) - Flirt Records FL-1002 BUY CD
· Shirley Horne: You Won't Forget Me - Verve 847 482-2 BUY CD
· Janis Ian: Breaking Silence - Morgan Creek 29590-20023-2 BUY CD
· Diana Krall: All for You - Impulse IMPD-182 BUY CD
· Diana Krall: Love Scenes - Impulse IMPD-2323 BUY CD
· Caroline Lavelle: Spirit - Discovery 77028 BUY CD
· The Lost World - Hearts of Space HS-11504-2 (*)
· Loreena McKennitt: The Mask and Mirror - WEA CD 95296 BUY CD
· Nylons: One Size Fits All - Open Air Records OD-0301 BUY CD
· Jeff Pearce: The Hidden Rift - Ancient Sun Music ASM-2005CD
· Conrad Praetzel: En.Trance - Paleo Music PAL 4003-2 BUY CD
· Conrad Praetzel: Myths and Memories - Paleo Music PAL 4002-2
· Kendra Shank: Afterglow - Mapleshade 02132 BUY CD
· Stearns: Collected Ambient &Textural Works - Hearts of Space/Fathom 11068-2 BUY CD
· Symphonic Star Trek - Telarc CD-80383
· Tabula Rasa - Water Lily WLA-CS-44-CD BUY CD
· Toys (Soundtrack) - Geffen GEFD-24505 BUY CD
· Trance Planet (Volume 2) - Triloka Reocrds 7210-2 BUY CD
· Uncommon Ritual - Sony SK 62891 (*)
This list appears in issue number 114 of The Absolute Sound.
* Top picks, cream of the crop.
**This disc is available through Lyric Hi-Fi in Manhattan (212-535-5710) at the quite outrageous price of $30. It has no label numbering that we can divine.
CDs Worth Looking Into
Durufle: in paradisum. Bartoli, Terfel, Chung (cond). DG 459365
One of this century's most beautiful works, done justice. BUY CD
Copland: Symphony No. 3. Bernstein. NY Philharmonic. Sony SMK 63155.
Inarguably America's greatest symphony; Bernstein at his best. BUY CD
Shchedrin-Bizet: Carmen Ballet. Fiedler. Boston Pops. BMG "hp" 09026-63308-2
Downconverted from 96/24 masters, spectacular sonics.
Sibelius: Symphonies 5 & 7. Berglund. Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Finlandia 0630-17278-2.
Natural, un-digital like sonics and a wonderful Seventh. BUY CD
Lutoslawski: Concerto for Orchestra. Wit. Polish National. Naxos 8.553779
Another Naxos winner from B. Janowska, engineer. BUY CD
Herrmann: Jason and the Argonauts. Broughton. Sinfonia of London. Intrada MAF7083
The (virtually) complete score. Disappointing sonics. Do you care? BUY CD
Moore: The Ballad of Baby Doe (complete opera). Sills. NY City Opera. DG 289 465 148-2 (2 CDs).
From the l959 analog originals, a classic restored. BUY CD
Trance Planet (Vol. 2). Triloka 7102-2
Sampler of world trance music, miraculously recorded. The adventurous only. BUY CD
Citizen Kane: The Essential Bernard Herrmann. (two CD set, HDCD, Dolby Surround). Silva SSD 1093. BUY CD
Soundtrack. Before the Rain. London 314 526 407-2 BUY CD
Preisner. Requiem for my friend. Erato 3984 24146 BUY CD
Diamond. Symphony No. 4. Sony SMK 60594 BUY CD
Mardin. The Prophet: Kahlil Gibran. Atlantic ATXD 3/2-81490
Gavin Bryars. Cadman Requiem. Point Music 462-511-2 BUY CD
Menotti. The Consul. Chandos 9706 [2]. BUY CD
Beethoven. The Five Piano Concertos (Brendel, Rattle) Philips BUY CD
Vasks: Symphony "Stimmen." Telarc CD 80457
Tchaikovsky: The Complete Swan Lake (two CD set, mono). Dorati, Minneapolis. Mercury [The classic single-mike first recording of the entire ballet.] BUY CD
British Band Classics (Volume 1): Holst: Suites No. 1 & 2. Ralph Vaughan Williams: Folk Song Suite; Toccata Marziale. (also) H. Owen Reed: La Fiesta Mexicana; Mennin: Canzona; Persichetti: Psalm. Federick Fennell, Eastman Wind Ensemble. Mercury (mono). [HP Notes: These are the two most famous of the early Mercury band recordings and, from a quick sampling, they have been transferred in sound far surpassing that of other recordings made in l954-55. A surprise, one long-awaited.] BUY CD
Beethoven Symphony No. 7. Overtues to Egmont, Lenore (no.3) and the Consecration of the House. Dorati, London Symphony. Mercury BUY CD
Schumann: The Four Symphonies. Manfred Overture. Paul Paray, Detroit Symphony (two CD set). Mercury. BUY CD
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6; Romeo and Juliet (excerpts from the complete ballet). Dutoit, NHK Symphony Orchestra. Decca [British Decca has now acquired the rights to the "Decca" name in this country and will henceforth be labelled the same as the English originals. This means, says Glenn Petry, spokesman for the company, that many more original and more esoteric recordings from the company will now be imported.] BUY CD
Mahler: Symphony No. 9 Hartmann: Adagio (Symphony No. 2) . Von Dohnanyi, Cleveland. (two CD set) Decca BUY CD
Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos. Alfred Brendel (piano), Sir Simon Rattle (cond), the Vienna Philharmonic. (3 CD set) Philips. BUY CD
Psalms. Turtle Creek Chorale. Reference Recordings. [Music to break your lease by.] BUY CD
Koyaanisqatsi. Philip Glass and his ensemble. [First complete recording of the entire score for Gregory Reggio's groundbreaking and much imitated film.] Nonesuch. BUY CD
Harry Pearson's Super LP List
Since I was in swaddling clothes (well, maybe not quite that far back) there has been just one "bible" for the LP collector interested in great music and great sound: Harry Pearson's Super Disk List. Those of us who grew up reading the absolute sound carried it with us to used (and new) record stores, garage sales, swap meets, library sales, the houses of widows looking to unload their late husbands' vinyl collections You name a place where "black gold" could be discovered and, odds are, you'd find a copy of Harry's Super Disk List in a bargain-hunter's back pocket. Many of us have committed the thing to memory, and, some of us have been so inspired by HP's list that we've become serious record collectors, too. (The Lord only knows how many audiophiles got their introduction to classical music via Harry's efforts.) So, here it is in its latest and most updatest edition. Those of you who know the musical and sonic treasures in store will doubtlessly start with the many new entries. And those few of you who don't know HP's list are in for a gen-u-ine treat. Herein are true marvels of the analog arts, arranged with the pick of the litter at the start. Enjoy! ---Jonathan Valin
BEST OF THE BUNCH: Classical
· Arnold: English, Scottish, & Cornish Dances Lyrita SRCS-109
· Gerhard: The Plague Decca Head 6
· Gershwin: Porgy & Bess complete/Maazel Decca SET 609-11¯†
· Herold/Lanchbery: La Fille Mal Gardée Decca SXL-2313¯
· Hi-Fi a la Española Mercury SR-90144¯ (Also Classic)
· Holst: The Planets/Mehta, LA London CS-6734¯
· Prokofiev: Scythian Suite Mercury SR-90006¯ (Also Classic)
· Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 Mercury SR-90283¯
· Respighi: Feste Romanae Decca SXL-6822
· Ravel: La Valse/Paray Classic/Mercury SR-90313¯†‡
· Stravinsky: The Firebird/Dorati Classic/Mercury SR-90226¯†‡
· Widor: Symphony No. 6 Allegro Mercury SR-90169
BEST OF THE BUNCH: Popular
· Bachrach: Casino Royale Colgems COSO-5005
· Balaika Favorites Mercury SR-90310 (Also Classic)
· Belafonte At Carnegie Hall Classic Records LSC-6006
· Ellington: For Duke M & K Realtime 101
· Ralph Hunter Choir: The Wild, Wild West RCA LSP-l968¯†
· Music for Bang, Ba-room and Harp RCA LSP-1866
· Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon EMI Harvest SHVL-804
· The Sheffield Track Record Sheffield Lab-20¯‡
· Don Shirley: Water Boy Columbia CS-9196¯†
· The Weavers Reunion at Carnegie Hall, 1963 Vanguard VSD-2150¯
SPECIAL MERIT: Classical
· Alain: Organ Works (complete) Erato EDO-250/2
· Antill: Corroboree (Australian) EMI OASD-7603
· Anderson: Music of Leroy Anderson (Vol. II) Mercury SR-90043
· Arnold: Guitar Concerto/Bream RCA LSC-2487¯
· Arnold: Overtures Reference Recordings RR-48‡
· Arnold: Peterloo Overture: Symphony No. 5 EMI ASD-2878
· Bach-Elgar: Fantasia and Fugue in C Minor EMI ASD-2970
· Bach-Stokowski: Symphonic Transcriptions Chandos ABRD-1055
· Balbastre: Harpsichord Works Afka SK-298
· Bart?k: Concerto For Orchestra/Reiner, CSO Classic/RCA LSC-1934¯†‡
· Bart?k: Strings, Percussion, Celesta/Reiner Classic/RCA LSC-2374¯†‡
· Bax: Symphony No. 6 Musical Heritage Soc MHS 1198†
· Beethoven: Appassionata Sonata RCA/JVC RDC-4
· Beethoven: Symphony No. 6/Walter Columbia MS-6012
· Beethoven: Symphony No. 9/Solti, Chicago Decca GBB-121/2
· Berg: Lulu & Wozzeck (suites) Mercury SR-90278
· Berlioz: Requiem/Fremaux, et. al. EMI SLS-982
· Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique/Munch, BSO Classic/RCA LSC-1900¯†‡
· Bizet: Carmen (Suite)/Gibson Classic/RCA LSC-2449¯†‡
· Bliss: Music for Strings Lyrita SRCS-33¯
· Bloch: Concerto Grosso No. 1 Mercury SR-90223¯
· Borodin: Symphony No. 2 London CS-6126
· Brahms: Alto Rhapsody/Walter Columbia MS-6488
· Brian: Symphony No. 9 EMI ASD-3486
· Britten: Four Sea Interludes EMI ASD-3154
· Britten: The Prince of the Pagodas Decca Ace-of-Dmds GOS-558-9
· Busoni: Piano Concerto EMI ASD-2336/7
· Cage: Third Construction Classic/New World NW-319¯†
· Chabrier: Espana!/Argenta Speakers Corn/Decca SXL-2020¯†‡
· Copland: Appalachian Spring Can. Broadcast SM-5000
· Copland: Rodeo Mercury SR-90172
· Crumb: Makrokosmos I Nonesuch H-71293
· Crumb: Music for a Summer Eve: Makrokosmos IIINonesuch H-71311
· Debussy: Iberia Mercury SR-90010
· Debussy: Iberia/Reiner, CSO Classic/RCA LSC-2222¯†‡
· Debussy: Sonata for Violin & Piano Wilson W-8722
· Delius: North Country Sketches EMI ASD-3139¯
· Dorati: Symphony Mercury SR-90248
· Durufle: Requiem Epic BC-1256
· Dvorak: Cello Concerto/Starker Mercury SR-90303¯
· Dvorak: Symphony No. 8/Walter CBS/Sony 20 AC 1822
· Elgar: Caratacus EMI SLS-998¯†
· Elgar: Coronation Ode EMI ASD 3345
· Elgar: Engima Variations/Mehta, LA London CS-6816
· Elgar: Symphony No. 2 EMI ASD-3266
· Elgar: The Kingdom EMI SAN 244-5
· Finzi: Dies Natalis World Record Club SCM-50¯
· Finzi: Intimations of Immortality Lyrita SRCS-75
· Franck: Pieces Heroique Mercury SR-90168
· Gerhard: Symphony No. 4 Argo ZRG-701
· Gershwin: An American in Paris RCA LSC-2367¯
· Gershwin: Collected Works Vox Box QSVBX-5132
· Gould: Latin American Symphonette Vanguard SRV-275 SD†‡ (Also Analogue Productions)
· Grainger: Country GardensMercury SR-90219 (Also Mercury Wing SRW-18060)
· Grainger: Lincolnshire Posy Mercury SR-90173
· Grieg: Peer Gynt/Fjeldstad Speakers Corn/Decca SXL-2012¯†‡
· Grieg: Piano Concerto/Lupu, Previn London CS-6840
· Grieg: Piano Concerto/Rubinstein, Wallenstein RCA LSC-2566
· Hanson: Symphony No. 2 Mercury SR-90192
· Hanson: The Composer & His Orchestra Mercury SR-90175¯
· Holst: The Planets/Previn, LSO EMI ASD-3002
· Honneger: Pacific 231 EMI ASD-2989
· Howells: Hymnus Paradisi EMI ASD-2600
· Kabalevsky: The Comedians Classic/RCA LSC-2398†
· Khachaturian: Gayaneh & Spartacus Decca SXL-6000
· Khachaturian: Symphony No. 2 London CS-6323
· Kod·ly: H·ry J·nos (Suite) Mercury SR-90132¯
· Leigh: Concertino/Harpsichord & Strings Lyrita SRCS-126¯
· Lizst: Mephisto Waltz/Reiner Classic/RCA LSC-2241¯†‡
· Lloyd: Symphony No. 5 Lyrita SRCS-124
· Maconchy: Symphony Dble String Orchestra Lyrita SRCS-116
· Mahler: Symphony No. 1/Slatkin Telarc DG-10066
· Mahler: Symphony No. 3/Mehta London CSA-2249
· Massenet: Le Cid EMI TWO-350 (Also ESD-7040)
· Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Nights Dream EMI ASD-3377
· Messiaen: La Trans de Notre Sgnr. Jesus Christ Decca Head 1 & 2
· Messiaen: Turangalila Symphony EMI SLS-5117
· Moeran: Symphony EMI ASD-2913
· Mozart: Concerto for Two Pianos (K. 365) Nonesuch H-71028
· Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures/Reiner, CSO Classic/RCA LSC-2201†‡
· Offenbach: Gaote Parisienne/Fiedler, BSO Classic/RCA LSC-1817¯†‡
· Orff: Carmina Burana/Stokowski, Houston Capitol SPAR-8470¯
· Partch: The Delusion of the Fury Columbia M2-30576
· Praetorius: Dances from TerpsichoreArchiv 198166
· Prokofiev: Lt. Kije (Suite)/Reiner, CSO Classic/RCA LSC-2150¯†‡
· Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2/FragerClassic/RCA LSC-2465
· Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3/Janis Mercury SR-90300†
· Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet/Maazel Decca SXL-6620-2
· Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6/Weller Decca SXL-6777¯
· Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1/Ricci/AnsermetDecca/Eclipse ECS-746
· Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2/Heifetz RCA LSC-2314
· Rachmaninoff: The Romantic Rachmaninoff Readers Digest RDA-29
· Rachmaninoff: Paganini Variations/Rubinstein Classic/RCA LSC-2430
· Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 1 Classic/RCA LSC-2541†
· Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances Athena Productions ALSW-10001†
· Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 1 EMI ASD-3137
· Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2 EMI ASD-2889
· Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3 (British) RCA LSB-4090
· Rachmaninoff: The Bells EMI ASD-3284
· Rachmaninoff-Respighi: 5 Etudes Tableaux EMI ASD-3013¯
· Ravel: Concerto in G Major Linn Recut 01
· Ravel: Daphnis & Chloe/Ansermet Decca SXL-6204¯
· Ravel: Daphnis & Chloe/Munch, BSO Chesky RC-30
· Ravel: Collected Works Vox Box QSVBX-5133 (Also Ref. Mastercuts RM-1004†‡)
· Rawsthorne: Piano Concerto No. 1 Lyrita SRCS-101
· Respighi: Ancient Dances and Airs/Lute Mercury SR-90199¯
· Respighi: Brazilian Impressions Mercury SR-90153
· Respighi: Pines of Rome/Reiner, CSO Classic/RCA LSC-2436¯†‡
· Reubke: The 94th Psalm Orion ORS-78282
· Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade/Reiner Classic/RCA LSC-2446¯†‡
· Rodrigo: Concierto Andaluz Mercury SR-90488¯
· Rodrigo: Concierto Aranjuez/Yepes, Argenta London CS-6046¯
· The Royal Ballet Gala Performances Classic/RCA LSC-6065¯†‡
· Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals EMI ASD-299¯
· Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2/Rubinstein LSC-2234¯†‡
· Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3/Dupre Mercury SR-90012
· Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3/Fremaux EMI TWO-404¯
· Schmitt: Psalm 47 EMI ASD-2892
· Schubert: Death and the Maiden Quartet/Juilliard RCA LSC-2378¯
· Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1 EMI ASD-2924
· Shostakovitch: Symphony No. 1/Martinon Classic/RCA LSC-2322† ‡
· Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 EMI ASD SLS-897
· Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8/Previn EMI ASD-2917
· Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 Alto/ASD-3911¯†‡ (Also EMI)
· Sibelius: En Saga EMI ASD-2486¯
· Sibelius: Four Legends EMI ASD-3092
· Sibelius: Symphony No. 2/Paray, Detroit Mercury SR-90204¯
· Sibelius: Symphony No. 5/Gibson RCA LSC-2405
· (Also Decca SPA-122)
· Sibelius: The Tempest EMI ASD-2961¯
· Sibelius: Violin Concerto/Heifetz, Reiner, CSO RCA LSC-2435
· J. Strauss: Waltzes/Reiner, CSO RCA LSC-2500¯
· R. Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra/Reiner, CSO Classic/RCA LSC-1806¯†
· Stravinsky: Ballets/AnsermetLondon CSA-2308
· Stravinsky: Ebony Concerto Reference Recordings RR-55¯†
· Stravinsky: Firebird (Suite)/Stokowski, Berlin Capitol SP-8407
· Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps/Solti, CSO Decca SXL-6691
· Stravinsky: Petrouchka (solo piano) Wilson W-8313¯
· Stravinsky: Petrouchka/Ansermet London CS-6009
· Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale/Reiner, CSO Classic/RCA LSC-2150†
· Sullivan-Mackerras: Pineapple Poll EMI CSD-1399 (Also ESD-7028)
· Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4/Monteux, BSO RCA LSC-2369
· Tchaikovksy: Manfred/Previn Alto/EMI ASD-3018¯†‡
· Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker/Previn, LSO EMI SLS-832
· Thomson: The Plow That Broke The Plain Analogue/Vanguard AP001†
· Toch: Symphony No. 5 Capitol SP-8364†
· Vaughan Williams: Choral Music EMI SLS-5082
· Vaughan Williams: Job EMI ASD-2673
· Vaughan Williams: Sancta Civitas EMI ASD-2422
· Vaughan Williams: The Nine Symphonies EMI SLS-822
· Vivaldi: Lute Concertos & Trios Hungarton SLPX-11978¯
· Wagner for Band Mercury SR-90276
· Walton: Crown Imperial/Fennell, Eastman Mercury SR-90197
· Grace Williams: Fantasy/Welsh Nursery Tunes EMI ASD-3006¯
· Wiren: Serenade for Strings EMI ESD-7001
SPECIAL MERIT: Operas
· Bizet: Carmen/Bernstein, et. al. Deutsche Gramm. 2709 043
· Bizet: Carmen/Karajan RCA LDS-6164†
· Britten: Noye's Fludde Argo ZK-1
· Menotti: Amahl & the Night Visitors RCA LSC-2762
· Mussorgsky: Boris Godonov Decca SET-514/7
· Puccini: La Boheme/Karajan Decca SET-565/6
· Puccini: Tosca RCA LDS-7022†
· Puccini: Turandot/Mehta Decca SET 561-3
· Verdi: Aida/Karajan London OSA-1313
· Wagner: Das Rheingold London OSA-1309
· Wagner: Gotterdammerung London OSA-1604
SPECIAL MERIT: Collections
· André Previn's Music Night EMI ASD-3131
· Ballet for Band Mercury SR-90256
· Danses Ancienne de Hongrie Harmonia Mundi HM-1003
· Evensong for Ash Wednesday Argo ZRG-5365
· Festival/Reiner, CSO Classic/RCA LSC-2423¯†‡
· For My True Love / Terri, Almeida Capitol SP-8461†
· Kronos Quartet: In Formation Reference Recordings RR-9
· La Fete de la Ane Harmonia Mundi HM-1036
· Fiesta in Hi-Fi Mercury SR-90134
· Magnum Opus Wilson W-8111
· The Moscow Sessions Sheffield TLP-1000
· Musique de la Grace Antique Harmonia Mundi HM-1015
· Overtures Fantaises Mercury SR-90191
· Percussion Music Nonesuch H-71291
· The Power of the Orchestra/Leibowitz, RPO Chesky RC-30
· Rhapsodies / Stowkowski Classic/RCA LSC-2471¯†‡
· Sing We Noel: Christmas Music Nonesuch H-71354
· La Spagna BIS 163/164
· Vienna: 1908-1914 Mercury SR-90316
· Witches Brew / Gibson, NSOL Classic/RCA LSC-2225†‡
SPECIAL MERIT: Informal
· Chet Atkins in Hollywood RCA LSP-1993
· Chet Atkins: Caribbean Guitar RCA LSP-2549
· The Other Chet Atkins RCA LSP-2175
· Joan Baez: Diamonds & Rust Mobile Fidelity MFSL 1-238†‡
· Joan Baez: Farewell Angelina Vanguard VSD 79200
· Joan Baez: In Concert Vanguard VSD 2122
· Belafonte at Carnegie Hall RCA LSO-6006
· Belafonte Sings the Blues Classic/RCA LSP-1972†‡
· Bob and Ray Throw a Stereo Spectacular RCA LSP-1773 (Also Classic)
· Dave Brubeck: Time Out Classic/Columbia CS-8192†‡
· The Civil War (Vol. 1) Mercury LPSD-2-901
· Judy Collins: Judith Elektra 6E-111
· David Crosby: If I Could Only Remember My Name Atlantic SD-7203
· Dafos Reference Recordings RR-12
· Jim Dawson: Songman Kama Sutra KSBS-2035
· Davis: Kind of Blue Classic/Columbia CS-8163†‡
· (Also Columbia CS-8163†)
· Davis-Evans: Sketches of Spain Columbia CS-8271
· Eagles: Desperado (British) Asylum SYL-9011
· Eileen Farrell: Torch Songs Reference Recordings RR-34¯†‡
· Electric Love Mercury Limelight LS-86072
· Enya Atlantic 81842-1
· Fresh Aire II American Gramaphone 359
· Fresh Aire III American Gramaphone 365
· Art Garfunkel: Breakaway CBS/Sony 25AP 1373
· S. Goodman: Mallets, Melody & MayhemColumbia CS-8333†
· Ed Graham: Hot Stix M & K Realtime RT-106
· Earl "Fatha"Hines: Fatha! M & K Realtime RT-105
· Jarre: OxygËnePolydor 2473-10
· Bruce Katz: Crescent Crawl Audioquest AQ-1012¯†‡
· Klaatu EMI EST-11542
· Kraftwerk: Autobahn Parlophone EJ24 00701
· Gordon Lightfoot: Summer Side of Life Reprise MS-2037
· Bob Marley & The Wailers: Natty Dread Island ILPS-9281
· McBroom: Growing Up in Hollywood Town Sheffield Lab-13
· Charles Mingus: Mingus Ah-Um Classic/Columbia CS 8171†‡
· (Also Columbia CS-8171†)
· Joni Mitchell: Blue Reprise MS-2038
· Joni Mitchell: Court & Spark Asylum 7E-1007
· Joni Mitchell: Wild Things Run Fast Geffen GHS-2019
· Van Dyke Parks: Song Cycle Warner Bros. 1727
· Peter, Paul, & Mary Warner Bros. 1449
· Pig's Eye Jazz (Vol. II) Insight Records Vol. 2
· Pink Floyd: The Wall (Japanese) CBS/Sony 40AP 1750
· Professor Johnson's Astounding Sound Show Reference Recordings RR-7¯‡
· Reflections Reference Recordings RR-18¯‡
· Renaissance: Novella Sire SA-2576
· Rough Trade: Avoid Freud True North TN-43
· Rough Trade: For Those Who Think Young True North TN-48
· Rough Trade: Shaking The Foundations True North TN-50
· Salt City Six: Dixieland Audiophile AP-80
· Seals & Crofts: Greatest Hits Warner Bros. BS-2886
· The Sheffield Drum Record Sheffield Lab-14¯
· Star of Wonder Reference Recordings RR-21¯‡
· Cat Stevens: Tea for the Tillerman (British) Island ILPS-9135
· Cat Stevens: Teaser & The Firecat Mobile Fidelity MFSL 1-244†‡
· The Strayaway Child Song of the Wood 7811
· The Wilson Band Recordings Wilson W-8823/24¯†
· Dionne Warwick: Soulful Scepter SPS-573
SPECIAL MERIT: Singles:
· Aha: Take Me On (British) Warner Brothers W-9006
· China Crisis: in a Catholic Style(British) Virgin VS-765112
· Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Relax(British) Virgin/ZTT-1ZZTAS1
· Freez: I.O.U.Streetwise SWRL-2210
· Bill Henderson: Send in the Clowns (45rpm) Classic/Discovery JP-0779.12†
· Greg Kihn: JeopardyBeserkley 0-67932
· Human League: Don't You Want Me(British) Virgin 466-12B
· Propaganda: Machinery(British) Virgin/ZTT 12xZ TAS 12
· Lionel Richie: All Night LongMotown 4514-MG
· Gerry Woo: Help YourselfPolydor 887-529-1
· Yaz: Don't GoMute Yaz-001
· Yello: Lost Again Elektra 966790
· Yello & Shirley Bassey: The Rhythm DivineMercury 888-746-1
SPECIAL MERIT: Film and Broadway Score
· Bliss: Things To Come EMI ASD-3416¯
· The Flight of the Condor BBC Records REB-440
· Herrmann: Citizen Kane (British) RCA GL-43441
· Herrmann: The Fantasy Film World Decca PFS-4309
· Herrmann: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir Filmmusic Collection FMC-4¯
· Herrmann: The Three Worlds of Gulliver Decca PFS-4337
· Homrich/Gascoigne: The Emerald Forest Varese Sarabande STV-81244
· Horner: Glory Virgin 1-91329
· Jarre: The Professionals Colgems COSO-5001
· Mancini: Hatari! RCA LSC-2559
· Moroder: Cat People Backstreet BSR-6107
· Myrow/Seagrave: Phantasm Varese VC-81105
· Prokofiev: Ivan the Terrible EMI SLS-5110
· Rosza: Ben Hur Decca PFS-4394
· Rosza: Quo Vadis Decca PFS-4430
· Sondheim: Pacific Overtures RCA ARL-1-1367†
· Sondheim: Sweeney Todd RCA CBL2-3379†
· Tiomkin: Lost Horizons (British) RCA GL-43445
· Tiomkin: The Thing (British) RCA RL-42005
· Vangelis: Antartica (Japanese) Polydor 2MM-0290
† New entries on list
‡ Still in print
¯ Exceptionally natural and musical sound, as opposed to the merely hi-fi spectacular
Best-of-the-Century Classical Compositions
By Mark Lehman and Jonathan Valin
Who can resist a "best-of-the-century" list? We’ve already had the century’s one hundred best novels in English, one hundred best American films, one hundred greatest artists and thinkers, etc. Why not one hundred of its finest classical compositions?
It was certainly a great and exciting century for classical music lovers. We saw the incredible revolutions of atonal, serial, aleatoric, electronic, and minimalist musics — and the neo-Romantic and neo-Classical reactions to each. We saw the breakdown of Austro-German hegemony, and the rise of nationalist musics of extraordinary variety and quality. We saw authentic "folk" music influencing the most sophisticated composers of the age. We saw every sort of sonic experiment, from the sounds of sirens to the sound of silence, from strict tone rows and elegant palindromes to pure improvisation and the music of chance.
All of us know the works of the famous figures — the Debussys, Mahlers, Stravinskys, Schoenbergs, and Bartóks — that inspired these experiments, revolutions, and reactions, and you will certainly find many of them here, where they belong. But along the way, you may find some compositions and composers you don’t recognize instantly — and they belong, too. Part of the purpose (and fun) of constructing this list was to introduce you to these lesser-known composers who wrote works every bit as good as those of their better-known contemporaries, although seldom in the same abundance.
Unlike some other "best-of-the-century" lists ours is not arranged in order of merit. It would be presumptuous — and virtually impossible — to rank many of these pieces. Instead, we have listed their composers alphabetically. We have also arbitrarily limited ourselves to a maximum of three compositions by any given composer. Some may think this does an injustice to artists like Stravinsky or Bartók or Prokofiev, who clearly wrote a good many more than three masterpieces apiece. However, we felt it was more important to make room for "unheard" or little-heard masterworks than to put forth a list made up entirely of well-known masterworks by four or five well-known composers. Suffice it to say that, whether you’re familiar with a given work or not, every piece on this list deserves to be included among the best of the century; every piece on this list is genuinely "great."
You will note that we have listed favorite recordings of each piece. These recordings are not always the finest performances of each work, although oftentimes they are. What they all are are among the best-sounding. In certain rare instances, the recording recommended is the only recording of the piece. In other cases, the performance is only available on out-of-print vinyl (indicated by an asterisk following the catalog number). If a recording is available on vinyl and CD-reissue, we’ve listed both versions, LP first followed by the CD. In general the better sound is to be had on the LP.
Nota Bene. We’ve restricted our list to orchestral and operatic works, along with a few oratorios — and to those composers who excelled in this music. For chamber music — and this was, arguably, the greatest century for chamber music — we plan to compile a separate list. Obviously, many of the names will be the same, but not all. For instance, composers as disparate as Fauré, Kodály, Albéniz, Babbitt, Crumb, and Cage haven’t made our list as orchestral composers; but works by all of them will certainly be on our list of twentieth-century chamber masterpieces.
And so, without further ado, here it is: Mark and Jon’s Best-of-the-Century Classical Compositions.
The Top 100
1. John Adams, Harmonielehre(1985). Recording: DeWaart (Nonesuch 79115) BUY CD
2. Samuel Barber, Symphony No. 1(1936). Recording: Zinman (Argo 436 288) BUY CD
3. Béla Bartók, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta(1936). Recording: Karajan (Angel 35949/EMI 769242)
4. Béla Bartók, Violin Concerto No. 2 (1938). Recording: Stern (Columbia MS 6002/Columbia 47511)
5. Béla Bartók, Concerto for Orchestra (1943). Recording: Reiner (RCA LSC 1934/RCA 61504) BUY CD
6. Alban Berg, Wozzeck(1922). Recording: Böhm (DG 2707 023/DG 435 705) BUY CD
7. Alban Berg,Violin Concerto (1935). Recording: Mutter (DG 437 093) BUY CD
8. Alban Berg,Lulu (1935). Recording: Dohnányi (Decca OSA 13120/Decca 430 415)
9. Luciano Berio, Sinfonia (1968). Recording: Berio (Columbia MS 7268) *
10. Harrison Birtwistle, The Triumph of Time (1972). Recording: Boulez (Argo ZRG 790) *
11. Arthur Bliss, Music for Strings (1935). Recording: Rignold (Lyrita SRCS33) *
12. Ernest Bloch, Concerto Grosso No. 1 (1925). Recording: Hanson (Mercury SR 90223/Mercury 432 718) BUY CD
13. Pierre Boulez, Pli Selon Pli (1962). Recording: Boulez (Columbia M30296/Erato 98495) BUY CD
14. Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes (1945). Recording: Britten (Decca OSA 1305/Decca 414 577) BUY CD
15. Benjamin Britten, Billy Budd (1951). Recording: Britten (Decca OSA 1390/Decca 417 428) BUY CD
16. Elliott Carter, Variations for Orchestra (1955). Recording: Levine (DG 431 698)
17. Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring (1943). Recording: Bernstein (Columbia MS 6355/Sony SBK39443) BUY CD
18. Aaron Copland, Symphony No. 3 (1946). Recording: Copland (Columbia M35113/Sony SM3K46559) BUY CD
19. Claude Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande (1902). Recording: Boulez (Columbia M3 30119/Sony SM3K47265) BUY CD
20. Claude Debussy, La Mer (1905). Recording: Karajan (DG 138923/DG 447 426) BUY CD
21. Claude Debussy, Jeux (1912). Recording: Boulez (DG 439 896) BUY CD
22. Henri Dutilleux, Cello Concerto (1970). Recording: Rostropovich (EMI 069-02687/EMI CDC7 49304) BUY CD
23. Edward Elgar, Symphony No. 2 (1911). Recording: Barbirolli (EMI ASD 610/EMI CDM7 64724) BUY CD
24. George Enescu, Third Suite for Orchestra (1937). Recording: Rozhestvensky (Chandos 9507) BUY CD
25. Gerald Finzi, Cello Concerto (1955). Recording: Ma (Lyrita SRCS112) *
26. Lukas Foss, Time Cycle (1960). Recording: Bernstein (Columbia MS 6280/Sony 63164) BUY CD
27. Roberto Gerhard, Violin Concerto (1943). Recording: Neaman (Argo ZRG 701) *
28. George Gershwin, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in F (1925). Recording: Wild (RCA LSC 2586/RCA GD865 19) BUY CD
29. John Harbison, Symphony No. 2 (1987). Recording: Blomstedt (Decca 433 376)
30. Roy Harris, Symphony No. 3 (1937). Recording: Bernstein (Columbia MS 6303/Sony 60594) BUY CD
31. Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Symphony No. 8 (1962). Recording: Kubelik (Wergo 60086/Wergo WER60 187-50) BUY CD
32. Robert Helps, Symphony No. 1 (1962). Recording: Rozsnyai (Columbia MS 6801/CRI 717) BUY CD
33. Hans Werner Henze, The Young Lord (1964). Recording: Dohnányi (DG 138 257/DG 445 248)
34. Paul Hindemith, Mathis der Maler Symphony (1934). Recording: Karajan (Angel 35949/EMI 764292) BUY CD
35. Paul Hindemith, Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria Von Weber (1943). Recording: Ormandy (EMI CDM5 65175) BUY CD
36. Gustav Holst, The Planets (1916). Recording: Mehta (London 452910) BUY CD
37. Arthur Honegger, Symphony No. 4 (1946). Recording: Munch (Erato 15554/Erato 45689) BUY CD
38. Andrew Imbrie, Violin Concerto (1954). Recording: Rozsnyai (Columbia MS 6597) *
39. Charles Ives, Symphony No. 4 (1928). Recording: Stokowski (Columbia MS 6775/CBS CD46726)
40. Leos Janácek, Slavonic Mass (1926). Recording: Kubelik (DG 138 954/DG 459 360)
41. Leos Janácek, Sinfonietta (1926). Recording: Ancerl (Parliament 166/Supraphon 1929)
42. Leos Janácek, From The House of the Dead (1928). Recording: Neumann (Supraphon 10 2941)
43. György Ligeti, The Grand Macabre (1978).Recording: Salonen (Sony 62312) BUY CD
44. Witold Lutoslawski, Concerto for Orchestra (1954). Recording: Kletzki (London CS 6665) * BUY CD
45. Witold Lutoslawski, Symphony No. 3 (1983). Recording: Salonen (CBS 42203/Sony SK66280)
46. Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 4 (1900). Recording: Klemperer (EMI ASD 2799/EMI CDM7 69667) BUY CD
47. Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 9 (1909). Recording: Walter (Columbia M2S 676/Sony SM2K 64452) BUY CD
48. Gustav Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde (1911). Recording: Walter (Columbia/Sony SX 10K66246)
49. Frank Martin, Concerto for Seven Wind Instruments (1949). Recording: Martinon (RCA LSC 2914) *
50. Frank Martin, Violin Concerto (1951). Recording: Cannin (New Albion NA86) BUY CD
51. Bohuslav Martinu, Violin Concerto No. 2 (1943). Recording: Suk (Supraphon 1101535/Supraphon 11 0701)
52. Nicholas Maw, Odyssey (1979).Recording: Rattle (EMI CD57 54277)
53. E. J. Moeran, Symphony in G Minor (1937). Recording: Boult (Lyrita SRCS70) *
54. Carl Nielsen, Symphony No. 5 (1922). Recording: Bernstein (Columbia MS 6414/Sony SMK47598) BUY CD
55. Carl Orff, Carmina Burana (1937). Recording: Jochum (DG 423 886) BUY CD
56. Arvo Pärt, Te Deum (1986). Recording: Kaljuste (ECM 439 162) BUY CD
57. Walter Piston, Symphony No. 2 (1943). Recording: Thomas (DG 2530 103/DG 429860)
58. Francis Poulenc, The Dialogues of the Carmelites (1957). Recording: Crespin (Angel 3585/EMI 49331)
59. Sergei Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 3 (1927). Recording: Janis (Mercury SR90300/Mercury 434 333)
60. Sergei Prokofiev, Symphony No. 5 (1944). Recording: Martinon (RCA LSC 2272) * BUY CD
61. Sergei Prokofiev, Symphony No. 6 (1947). Recording: Leinsdorf (RCA LSC 2834) *
62. Giacomo Puccini, Turandot (1926). Recording: Mehta (Decca 443 204) BUY CD
63. Sergei Rachmaninoff, Symphony No. 2 (1907). Recording: Previn (EMI ASD 2889/EMI CMS7 64530) BUY CD
64. Sergei Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 4 (1934). Recording: Michelangeli (Angel 35549/EMI 749 236) BUY CD
65. Maurice Ravel, Shéhérazade (1903). Recording: De Los Angeles (EMI CMS5 65061) BUY CD
66. Maurice Ravel, Daphnis et Chloé (1912). Recording: Munch (RCA LSC 1893/RCA 61846) BUY CD
67. Maurice Ravel, Concerto for Piano (Left-Hand) and Orchestra (1931). Recording: Fleischer (Sony SK47 188)
68. George Rochberg, Symphony No. 2 (1956). Recording: Torkanowsky (Columbia MS 6379/CRI 768) BUY CD
69. Albert Roussel, Symphony No. 3 (1930). Recording: Dutoit (Erato 75282/Erato 88225) BUY CD
70. Miklós Rózsa, Violin Concerto (1956). Recording: Heifetz (RCA LSC 2767/RCA 61778) BUY CD
71. Carl Ruggles, Suntreader (1931). Recording: Rozsnyai (Columbia MS 6801) *
72. Arnold Schoenberg, Variations for Orchestra (1928). Recording: Karajan (DG 2530 627/DG 415 326) BUY CD
73. Arnold Schoenberg, Moses und Aron (1932). Recording: Boulez (Columbia M233594/Sony 48456) BUY CD
74. Arnold Schoenberg, Violin Concerto (1936). Recording: Zeitlin (DG 2530 257/DG 431 740) BUY CD
75. William Schuman, Symphony No. 3 (1941). Recording: Bernstein (Columbia MS 6245/Sony 63163) BUY CD
76. Roger Sessions, Symphony No. 3 (1957). Recording: Buketoff (RCA LSC 3095/CRI 573) BUY CD
77. Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 1 (1925). Recording: Martinon (RCA LSC 2322) *
78. Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 5 (1937).Recording: Mitchell (RCA LSC 2261) *
79. Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 10 (1953). Recording: Karajan (DG 2862 0690) * BUY CD
80. Jean Sibelius, Symphony No. 4 (1911). Recording: Karajan (DG 138 974/DG 415 108) BUY CD
81. Jean Sibelius, Symphony No. 5 (1915). Recording: Gibson (RCA LSC 2405) * BUY CD
82. Jean Sibelius, Symphony No. 7 (1924). Recording: Karajan (DG 139 032/DG 439 527) BUY CD
83. Nikos Skalkottas, Largo Sinfonico (1944). Recording: Christodoulou (BIS 904) BUY CD
84. Richard Strauss, Salome (1905). Recording: Solti (Decca OSA 1218/Decca 414 414) BUY CD
85. Richard Strauss, Elektra (1909). Recording: Solti (Decca OSA 1269/Decca 417 345) BUY CD
86. Richard Strauss, Four Last Songs (1948). Recording: Schwarzkopf (Angel 36347/EMI 56241) BUY CD
87. Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring (1913). Recording: Stravinsky (Columbia MS 6319/Sony SM3K 46291) BUY CD
88. Igor Stravinsky, Symphonie of Psalms (1930). Recording: Stravinsky (Columbia MS 6548/Columbia 42434) BUY CD
89. Igor Stravinsky, Agon (1957). Recording: Stravinsky (Columbia MS 6022/Sony SM3K46292) BUY CD
90. Michael Tippett, Symphony No. 2 (1958). Recording: Tippett (BBC Vol. III, No. 6)
91. Eduard Tubin, Symphony No. 4 (1943). Recording: Jarvi (BIS 227/BIS 227) BUY CD
92. Edgard Varèse, Arcana (1927). Recording: Martinon (RCA LSC 2914) * BUY CD
93. Ralph Vaughan Williams, Symphony No. 5 (1943). Recording: Barbirolli (Angel 35152/EMI 565 110) BUY CD
94. Matthijs Vermeulen, Symphony No. 2 (1920). Recording: Vis (Donemus 8384/5) *
95. William Walton, Symphony No. 1 (1935). Recording: Previn (RCA LSC 2924/RCA 7830)
96. William Walton, Cello Concerto (1959). Recording: Piatigorsky (RCA LSC 2109/RCA 61498)
97. Anton von Webern, Passacaglia (1908). Recording: Karajan (DG 2711 014/DG 423 254) BUY CD
98. Anton von Webern, Five Orchestral Pieces (1913). Recording: Dorati (Mercury SR 90316/Mercury 432 006) BUY CD
99. Kurt Weill, The Threepenny Opera (1928). Recording: NY Shakespeare Festival (CBS PS34326) *
100. Alexander Zemlinsky, Lyric Symphony (1922). Recording: Sinopoli (DG 449 179) BUY
The 100 Greatest Pop Albums of the Century
By Allan Kozinn
Let us begin by agreeing that lists of the greatest anything are battlefields, by nature. If they are compiled conscientiously, they are agonized over, and the compiler is never entirely satisfied. Every reader, as well, knows for an absolute certainty that he or she could assemble a better, truer, more valid list. Even if we are only glancingly familiar with the subject of a list, we are likely to cluck our tongues and roll our eyes over both selections and omissions; disputes increase in direct proportion to a reader’s knowledge and passion for the subject of a list.
So I’m not under any illusions that mine is the list to end all lists. It is, I think, reasoned and defensible, and it largely does what I wanted it to do, which was to cover a lot of ground — though by no means the full expanse of popular music. It is a personal list; but it is not a personal desert-island list. That would be quite different. It would, for starters, include the complete recordings of the Beatles, and larger helpings of the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, both Elvises (Presley and Costello), Ella Fitzgerald, and Jimi Hendrix, and that would mean that quite a few entries would be jettisoned. I tempered those preferences in the interests of painting a broader picture of the best that the world of pop music has produced.
But what is pop? Perhaps the first order of business should be to define some terms, since virtually every word of the title of this list demands a kind of Talmudic parsing. For starters, my definition of "century" is a bit constricted, mainly because my definition of "album" is as well. Although I do include some earlier music, my century is really only 52 years long, starting with the introduction of the LP in 1948.
For the most part, I am using the current common parlance meaning of "album" as a collection of songs that are physically inseparable — i.e., compiled on an LP or CD, under a title meant to cover the complete contents. Ideally, it is a unified sequence of some kind, which is to say that it was assembled with a clear opening, middle, and end, and with some consideration for the experience of playing it through. At the very least, it is the product of a discrete run of sessions or concerts.
There are several problems with this definition. One is historical and linguistic. However we think of an album now, the term actually alludes to the practice of collecting 78rpm discs in book-like contrivances, in which each page was a pocket that held a single disc. Those were albums in the way that a photo album or a stamp album is, and an LP or CD is not. In classical music, it took such an album to house a symphony; in pop, generally, these albums bound together singles that lived lives of their own, not sequenced album tracks as we think of them today. Had RCA, rather the CBS, won the format war of the late 1940s, 78s would have given way to 45s rather than LPs, and the "album" would have remained closer in concept to the old books of 78s.
The real problem with my somewhat purist definition, though, is that by implicitly excluding compilations and hits collections, it also excludes a great deal of spectacular music — music that I love, and that defines its time — simply because it was produced my musicians who excelled at singles rather than albums. The "girl groups" of the 1950s, the products of Phil Spector’s hit factory, and the incomparable works of the Motown vocal groups of the 1960s are all cases in point. This may be my own failing, but for me, few complete albums by groups within these categories hold up as well as compilations. So I have abandoned the ban on compilations. I resort to them as sparingly as possible.
Still, sets like Rhino’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On, which compiles recordings of Lieber and Stoller classics by everyone from Big Mama Thornton, Ben E. King, and Elvis Presley to Dion and Tom Jones, and the Spector anthology, Back to Mono, with everything from the Ronettes, the Crystals, and the Teddy Bears to Spector’s classic productions for the Righteous Brothers and Ike and Tina Turner, cover so much ground that they can’t be ignored. And they make great listening.
Similarly, Columbia’s compilation of the complete 78rpm recordings of Robert Johnson seemed a must, as did Atlantic’s multi-disc overview of its best rhythm and blues sides, many of them also originally issued on 78s. In Johnson’s case, I could have chosen the old "King of the Delta Blues" compilations, classic albums in their own right. But I allowed rational factors (the possibility of getting the complete works in one package) to override nostalgia. As compromises go, allowing compilations isn’t perfect: Dealing with the girl groups problem, for example, has meant weighing Rhino’s superb Wonder Women against Mercury’s Growin’ Up Too Fast. Choosing the Rhino meant getting some great Shirelles, Dixie Cups, and Betty Everett tracks, but missing The Shangri-Las, Dusty Springfield, and the Angels, all on the Mercury disc — and vice versa. I went with the latter: C’est la guerre, I’m afraid.
My definition of "popular" also needs explaining, since it whittles further at my already shortened century. I’m talking about the rock era here. There are forays into other realms. I included Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Robert Johnson, for example, because by the broadest definition, they are pop — and more importantly, they are favorites that I wanted on my list. One could argue, though, that vocals of the Fitzgerald-Sinatra kind and Johnson’s blues belong more to the jazz world than to the pop world, and jazz will have a list of its own. So I have stepped gingerly there, defining some fine vocalists (from the Andrews Sisters to Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, and Sammy Davis, Jr.) as being outside my purview.
There is also a whole industry of middle-of-the-road pop music that is not really jazz, definitely not rock, and also not my cup of tea. If I were offering a comprehensive survey of popular music, I would probably have to tip my hat to Al Martino, Steve and Edie, and Vic Damone, to say nothing of their equivalents in light instrumental music. But again, this is a personal selection. So those singers aren’t included, nor have I included rap groups, popular though they are. For that matter, I haven’t included much in the way of country music or gospel or the purest forms of folk music, except where they intersect with rock.
Is this too limited a definition of "popular" music? Maybe, but to me, the sheer variety of styles that falls within the definition of rock argues otherwise. Besides, my selections are based principally on what I consider great music, regardless of whether it appealed mainly to a niche audience (like Tangerine Dream’s bleakly atmospheric Phaedra) or was sickeningly overplayed (Derek and the Dominoes’ Layla — still great if you can hear it as if though it were your first listening). And there are a couple of entries that few TAS readers will have heard (a magnificent album of acoustic, grandly structured music by the Dutch band Flairck comes to mind); but I felt strongly enough about them to find room here, in the hope that an adventurous listener might seek them out. If I were going to include pop from the non-English speaking world, might I not have been better off with an Edith Piaf or Jacques Brel album? Maybe. My thought was that there are enough of the "usual suspects" on this list to warrant a few eccentricities — and besides, I’m sneakily mentioning Piaf and Brel here, aren’t I?
Even keeping mostly within the rock world, the choices were difficult — and so, on to my definition of "greatest."
My original intention was to select 100 artists or groups, and pick a single album to represent each. That meant, in several cases, abandoning personal choices in favor of sensible ones. An example: If I wanted to play a Jethro Tull album now, my first choice would probably be Stand Up. Most people would probably choose "Aqualung," the group’s biggest hit. But for the list, I chose Thick as a Brick because it better represents the eclecticism of Stand Up and the notion of conceptual unity of Aqualung, and is, in the end, a more ambitious and better executed album than either.
On the other hand, sometimes I chose an album not because it was a crystallization of a band’s work, but because it was antithetical to it. The first Blood Sweat and Tears album, Child Is Father to the Man, guided as it was by Al Kooper, is entirely unlike what followed. More’s the pity, for although the eponymous second album was the bigger hit, it also lacked the humor and spirit of its predecessor and was the start of a long slide.
Even after negotiations of that sort, the one-album-per-artist idea quickly crumbled. In most cases, I’ve kept it to no more than two albums per artist, although that slight expansion created yet another dilemma: The point of abandoning the one-album-only policy was to touch on the variety of work produced by those artists whose careers have been long and prolific. Often, though, moving to two albums meant a tough choice between two consecutive releases: The Beatles Revolver and Sgt. Pepper, Dylan’s Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde, and the Stones’ Beggar’s Banquet and Let It Bleed are examples.
In most cases I chose one, reluctantly; in others I threw up my hands and said, "What the hell, it’s my list." But I don’t want to minimize the difficulty of compiling it. Having assembled a preliminary list of over 200 discs, and noting the absence, even then, of several favorites, it was clear that the triage was going to be painful. But a list is just a list — and it’s better to have an embarrassment of riches than to have to stretch to fill the quota.
The list itself is alphabetical by performer. Virtually all these recordings are currently available on CD; LPs are indicated by (*). Because quite a few of these recordings have been remastered and reissued on CD several times, usually with new catalog numbers, I have listed only the labels on which they appear. In some cases, performers’ catalogs have moved from label to label. Mostly, I have included the most current affiliations. But sometimes there have been trade-offs. David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, for instance, has had incarnations on RCA, Ryko, and now Virgin. The Virgin issue may have the freshest sound, but Ryko’s deluxe edition, which sounds immensely better than the old RCA issue, is beautifully packaged, with copious notes and bonus tracks, all abandoned in the leap to Virgin. I’d opt for that one. Such cases — and cases in which I prefer a special edition (such as a Mobile Fidelity pressing) — are indicated by (#). The Top 100
1. The Allman Brothers Band: The Fillmore Concerts (expanded version of Live at the Fillmore East; Polydor) BUY CD
2. The Band: Music from Big Pink (Capitol/Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs)# BUY CD
3. The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds (Capitol) BUY CD
4. The Beatles: Revolver (Capitol) BUY CD
5. The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Capitol) BUY CD
6. The Beatles: The White Album (Apple/Capitol) BUY CD
7. Chuck Berry: The Great 28 (Chess/MCA) BUY CD
8. Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin: Cheap Thrills (Columbia/Legacy) BUY CD
9. Blood Sweat and Tears: Child Is Father to the Man (Columbia) BUY CD
10. James Brown: The CD of JB (Polydor)
11. Jackson Browne: For Everyman (Asylum) BUY CD
12. David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (Ryko deluxe edition)# BUY CD
13. Buffalo Springfield: Buffalo Springfield (Elektra) BUY CD
14. Kate Bush: Hounds of Love (EMI) BUY CD
15. The Byrds: Untitled (Columbia) BUY CD
16. The Clash: The Clash (Epic) BUY CD
17. Patsy Cline: Heartaches (MCA) BUY CD
18. Leonard Cohen: Songs of Leonard Cohen (Columbia) BUY CD
19. Elvis Costello: My Aim Is True (Ryko)
20. Cowboy Junkies: The Trinity Session (RCA) BUY CD
21. Cream: Wheels of Fire (DCC Compact Classics)# BUY CD
22. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: Déjà Vu (Atlantic) BUY CD
23. Derek and the Dominoes: Layla (Polydor) BUY CD
24. Dire Straits: Love Over Gold (Vertigo) BUY CD
25. The Doors: The Doors (Elektra) BUY CD
26. Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited (CDD Compact Classics)# BUY CD
27. Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks (Columbia) BUY CD
28. Electric Light Orchestra: Eldorado (Jet) BUY CD
29. Emerson, Lake and Palmer: Emerson, Lake and Palmer (Rhino) BUY CD
30. Ella Fitzgerald: The Rodgers and Hart Songbook (Verve) BUY CD
31. Flairck: Gevecht met de Engel (Fight With the Angel) (Polydor import, the Netherlands)*
32. Fleetwood Mac: Then Play On (Reprise) BUY CD
33. The Four Tops: 19 Greatest Hits (Motown) BUY CD
34. The Grateful Dead: Workingman’s Dead (Warner Brothers) BUY CD
35. George Harrison: All Things Must Pass (Apple/Capitol) BUY CD
36. The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Electric Ladyland (Experience Hendrix/MCA) BUY CD
37. Buddy Holly: Buddy Holly (MCA) BUY CD
38. Jefferson Airplane: Surrealistic Pillow (RCA) BUY CD
39. Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick (EMI boxed version) BUY CD
40. Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Rocket) BUY CD
41. Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings (Columbia/Legacy) BUY CD
42. King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King (EG) BUY CD
43. The Kinks: Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround Pt.1 BUY CD
44. Cyndi Lauper: She’s So Unusual (Columbia) BUY CD
45. Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin (Atlantic) BUY CD
46. Led Zeppelin: IV (Atlantic) BUY CD
47. John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band (Apple/Capitol) BUY CD
48. Little Richard: 18 Greatest (Rhino)
49. Paul McCartney: Flowers in the Dirt (Capitol) BUY CD
50. Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark (Asylum) BUY CD
51. Nirvana: Nevermind (Geffen) BUY CD
52. Sinead O’Connor: The Lion and the Cobra (Chrysalis) BUY CD
53. Roy Orbison: For the Lonely (Rhino) BUY CD
54. Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon (Capitol/Mobile Fidelity)# BUY CD
55. The Pogues: Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash (WEA import, UK) BUY CD
56. Portishead: Portishead BUY CD
57. Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM): Storia di un minuto (RCA import, Italy) BUY CD
58. Elvis Presley, et al: The Sun Sessions (RCA) BUY CD
59. Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley (RCA) BUY CD
60. Prince: 1999 (Warner Brothers) BUY CD
61. Procol Harum: A Salty Dog (Westside) BUY CD
62. Radiohead: OK Computer (Capitol) BUY CD
63. Otis Redding: The Ultimate Otis Redding (Warner Special Products) BUY CD
64. REM: Green (Warner Brothers) BUY CD
65. The Rolling Stones: Beggar’s Banquet (Abkco) BUY CD
66. The Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed (Decca) BUY CD
67. The Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers (Rolling Stones/Virgin) BUY CD
68. Diana Ross and the Supremes: 20 Greatest Hits (Motown) BUY CD
69. Paul Simon: Graceland (Warner Brothers) BUY CD
70. Simon and Garfunkel: Sounds of Silence (Columbia) BUY CD
71. Frank Sinatra: September of My Years (Capitol) Listen BUY CD
72. Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run (Columbia) BUY CD
73. Steeleye Span: Now We Are Six (Shanachie) BUY CD
74. Al Stewart: Past, Present and Future (Rhino) BUY CD
75. Rod Stewart: Gasoline Alley (Mercury) BUY CD
76. Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense (Sire; better still on the DVD, Palm Films) BUY CD
77. Tangerine Dream: Phaedra (Virgin) BUY CD
78. Tears for Fears: Songs from the Big Chair (Mercury) BUY CD
79. The Temptations: 17 Greatest Hits (Motown) BUY CD
80. Richard and Linda Thompson: I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (Hannibal) BUY CD
81. Richard Thompson: Across a Crowded Room (Polydor) BUY CD
82. Traffic: John Barleycorn Must Die (Island) BUY CD
83. U2: The Joshua Tree (Island) BUY CD
84. Velvet Underground: Loaded (Rhino) BUY CD
85. The Verve: Urban Hymns (Virgin/Hut) BUY CD
86. The Who: The Who Sell Out (MCA) BUY CD
87. The Who: Tommy (MCA) BUY CD
88. Stevie Wonder: Talking Book (Tamla) BUY CD
89. Yes: Close to the Edge (Atlantic) BUY CD
90. Neil Young: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Reprise) BUY CD
91. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention: Freak Out (Ryko) BUY CD
92. Frank Zappa: Hot Rats (Ryko) BUY CD
93. Various Artists: Atlantic Rhythm and Blues 1947-1974 (Atlantic) BUY CD
94. Various Artists: Back in the Saddle Again: American Cowboy Songs (New World)* BUY CD
95. Various Artists: Growin’ Up Too Fast: The Girl Group Anthology (Mercury Chronicles)
96. Various Artists: Phil Spector — Back to Mono (1958-1969) (Spector/Abkco) BUY CD
97. Various Artists: The Sun Story (Rhino) BUY CD
98. Various Artists: There’s a Riot Goin’ On: The Rock’n’Roll Classics of Lieber and Stoller (Rhino)
99. Various Artists: Wonder Women: The History of the Girl Group Sound (Rhino)
100. Various Artists: Woodstock (both volumes packaged together, Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs)# BUY CD
Allan Kozinn is a well known writer on music. For several years, he was a contributor to the Pop Section of Fi magazine.
Top 100 Jazz Albums of the Twentieth Century
By Fred Kaplan
Jazz is a Twentieth Century music, so "the greatest jazz of the century" is also "the greatest jazz of all time." Contriving a list of this greatest is all the more daunting, since, in its brief evolution, jazz has gone through as many epochs and permutations as classical music has in its near half-millennium. Partly this is because most Twentieth Century art forms place a premium on the new. Jazz is also an improvisational art; its music, even if composed to some degree, is never carved in stone, always subject to change, often defined by change. Jazz has also been, at various times, a hotly competitive art, which has pushed the pressure for new angles. The fact that jazz, almost from its beginnings, has been recorded and sold has accelerated its development: Whenever one musician advanced the art, other musicians heard it, studied it, took it as a new benchmark, and aimed to match or top it, or at least to account for it in their own spin. Finally, being a popular art, in the sense that it exists only to the degree that it is played before an audience (a book is still a book even if nobody reads it, a symphony can exist solely as a score), jazz has also been whooshed by the winds of social change.
As a result of all this, jazz fans are as fractured, or eclectic, a bunch as those attracted to classical music or to art museums. A collector of Jack Teagarden shellacs may have little to say to the downtown denizen who swoons for Cecil Taylor — any more than a scholar of medieval icons is inclined to consort with a de Kooning enthusiast. Then again, maybe all of them should hang out together more often. They, and the creations they hold dear, have more in common than first glances, or hearings, suggest.
Still, we all have our leanings, and, as this list indicates, I have mine. Those seeking signposts might notice that three-quarters of the recordings cited below were recorded between 1945 and 1967. I suppose this reflects my personal taste, though few would dispute that those years, by any measure, marked an era of delirious richness in jazz. The music of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, which launched the era, never ceases to amaze, never sounds old even after half-a-century. More to the point, its innovations of harmony and rhythm set in motion an enduring cycle and counter-cycle of musical inventions, which either spun variations on, or mounted rebellions against, be-bop’s flighty thrills or rigid strictures. The era ended, I would argue, when these elaborations had pretty much run their course, with nowhere left to go but the dead end of pure expressionism or the desperation of rock-fusion. The music didn’t pick up for another decade or so, when a new generation of artists came along, many of them engaging in acts of creative consolidation, seeking new syntheses of music from various eras, while others, inspired by the fruits of global record-distribution, explored mixes with the music of lands previously uncharted by jazz.
Of course, this is a grossly simplified précis of modern jazz history. (For one thing, nothing moves quite so linearly. For another, many masters — Ellington and Armstrong, most notable — simply went their own course through the various so-called epochs, occasionally challenged or inspired, but never really altered, by the trends around them.)
Nor does a mini-lecture on the era’s importance fully explain why it so dominates this list — nor why it includes 16 recordings made after this period but only eight made before. Again, we all have our leanings. Or as Robert Warshow once wrote, "A man watches a movie, and a critic must acknowledge that he is that man." A man listens to a record album, too. And so this is my list, a list of the 100 jazz albums that I most enjoy, cherish, love.
The artists are listed alphabetically, though when an artist has more than one album on the list, I have cited them in the order of those that (right now, anyway) I like best. The dates indicate when the material was recorded, not necessarily when the album was released. The labels include, first, the originals (at least those that first put them in LP or CD form), then all major reissues. Most, but not all, of these records are still in print, one glad tiding of the digital age. I have avoided big box-sets, except when unavoidable. Finally, this list was drawn up irrespective of sonic criteria, but I have placed an asterisk (*) next to those recordings that offer exceptionally good sound.
The Top 100
1. Cannonball Adderley: Somethin’ Else [1958, Blue Note/Classic Records]* BUY CD
2. Louis Armstrong: Vol. 4: Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines [1928, Columbia/JSP] BUY CD
3. Louis Armstrong: Vol. 2: The Hot Fives and Sevens [1927, Columbia/JSP] BUY CD
4. Louis Armstrong: Plays W.C. Handy [1954, Columbia] BUY CD
5. Count Basie: The Complete Decca Recordings [1937-39, Decca/GRP] BUY CD
6. Count Basie: The Complete Live Roulette Recordings [1959-62, Mosaic]
7. Ran Blake: That Certain Feeling [1990, hatART]
8. Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers: A Night at Birdland [1954, Blue Note] BUY CD
9. Anthony Braxton: 6 Monk’s Compositions [1987, Black Saint] BUY CD
10. Clifford Brown & Max Roach: Daahoud [1954-55, Emarcy]1
11. Ornette Coleman: The Shape of Jazz to Come [1959, Atlantic] BUY CD
12. Ornette Coleman: Change of the Century [1959, Atlantic] BUY CD
13. Ornette Coleman & Charlie Haden: Soapsuds Soapsuds [1977, Artists House/Verve] * BUY CD
14. Ornette Coleman: Sound Museum: Hidden Man [1996, Verve] BUY CD
15. John Coltrane: The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings [1961, Impulse!/GRP] BUY CD
16. John Coltrane: Giant Steps [1959, Atlantic] BUY CD
17. John Coltrane: A Love Supreme [1964, Impulse] BUY CD
18. John Coltrane: My Favorite Things [1961, Atlantic] BUY CD
19. John Coltrane: Blue Train [1957, Blue Note/Classic Records] * BUY CD
20. Miles Davis: Kind of Blue [1959, Columbia/Classic Records * BUY CD
21. Miles Davis: The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel [1965, Columbia/Mosaic] * BUY CD
22. Miles Davis & John Coltrane: Live in Stockholm 1960 [1960, Dragon] BUY CD
23. Miles Davis & Gil Evans: Miles Ahead [1957, Columbia] BUY CD
24. Miles Davis: Cookin’ [1956, Prestige/Analogue Productions/DCC] * BUY CD
25. Miles Davis & Gil Evans: Sketches of Spain [1959-60, Columbia/Classic Records] * BUY CD
26. Miles Davis: Miles Smiles [1966, Columbia]2 BUY CD
27. Paul Desmond: Easy Living [1964, RCA] BUY CD
28. Eric Dolphy: Out to Lunch [1964, Blue Note] * BUY CD
29. Eric Dolphy: Outward Bound [1960, Prestige/Fantasy OJC] BUY CD
30. Eric Dolphy with Booker Little: Far Cry [1960, Prestige/Fantasy OJC] BUY CD
31. Duke Ellington: The Far East Suite [1966, RCA] * BUY CD
32. Duke Ellington: And His Mother Called Him Bill [1967, RCA] * BUY CD
33. Duke Ellington: The Blanton-Webster Band [1940-42, RCA] BUY CD
34. Duke Ellington: Ellington at Newport 1956 (Complete) [1956, Columbia] BUY CD
35. Duke Ellington: Such Sweet Thunder [1957, Columbia] BUY CD
36. Bill Evans: Waltz for Debby [1961, Riverside/Fantasy OJC/Analogue Productions] * BUY CD
37. Bill Evans: Sunday at the Village Vanguard [1961, Riverside/Fantasy OJC/JVC XRCD] BUY CD
38. Bill Evans: The Final Vanguard Sessions [1980, Mosaic]3
39. Gil Evans: Out of the Cool [1960, Impulse/Alto Analogue] BUY CD
40. Ella Fitzgerald: Gershwin Songbook [1959, Verve] * BUY CD
41. Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Ella & Louis [1957, Verve/Analogue Productions] BUY CD
42. Ella Fitzgerald: Clap Hands Here Comes Charlie! [1961, Verve/Classic Records] * BUY CD
43. Ella Fitzgerald: Cole Porter Songbook [1956, Verve/Mobile Fidelity] * BUY CD
44. Chico Freeman: Spirit Sensitive [1978-79, India Navigation/Analogue Productions] * BUY CD
45. Dizzy Gillespie & Roy Eldridge: Roy & Diz [1954-55, Verve]4 BUY CD
46. Jimmy Giuffre 3: 1961 [1961, ECM]5 * BUY CD
47. Dexter Gordon: Our Man in Paris [1963, Blue Note] BUY CD
48. Dexter Gordon: Go [1962, Blue Note] BUY CD
49. Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage [1965, Blue Note] * BUY CD
50. Coleman Hawkins: Body and Soul [1939-56, RCA] BUY CD
51. Andrew Hill: Point of Departure [1964, Blue Note] BUY CD
52. Billie Holiday: Greatest Hits [1933-42, Columbia]6 BUY CD
53. Billie Holiday: Body and Soul [1956, Verve/Mobile Fidelity] *
54. Billie Holiday: Songs for Distingué Lovers [1956, Verve/Classic Records] * BUY CD
55. Hank Jones/Billy Higgins/Dave Holland: The Oracle [1989, Emarcy]
56. Roland Kirk: Rip Rig and Panic [1965, Limelight/Emarcy] BUY CD
57. Lee Konitz: Motion [1961, Verve] * BUY CD
58. Jackie McLean: Let Freedom Ring [1963, Blue Note] BUY CD
59. Charles Mingus: Tijuana Moods [1957, RCA] * BUY CD
60. Charles Mingus: Pithecanthropus Erectus [1956, Atlantic] BUY CD
61. Charles Mingus: Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus [Impulse!] BUY CD
62. Thelonious Monk: Monk’s Music [1957, Riverside] BUY CD
63. Thelonious Monk: Thelonious with John Coltrane [1957, Riverside] BUY CD
64. Thelonious Monk: Brilliant Corners [1956, Riverside] BUY CD
65. Thelonious Monk: Thelonious Alone in San Francisco [1959, Riverside] BUY CD
66. Thelonious Monk: Genius of Modern Music [1947-48, Blue Note] BUY CD
67. Jelly Roll Morton: The Birth of the Hot: The Classic Chicago "Red Hot Peppers" Sessions [1926-27, RCA] BUY CD
68. Gerry Mulligan & Chet Baker: Complete Pacific Jazz Quartet Recordings [1952-57, Pacific Jazz/Mosaic/Blue Note]
69. David Murray: Ballads for Bass Clarinet [1991, DIW] BUY CD
70. Oliver Nelson: Blues and the Abstract Truth [1961, Impulse!] * BUY CD
71. Charlie Parker: The Complete Dial Sessions [1946-47, Dial/Spotlite/Stash/Jazz Classics/Definitive Recordings] BUY CD
72. Charlie Parker: Jazz at Massey Hall [1953, Debut/Prestige/Fantasy OJC] 7 BUY CD
73. Charlie Parker: The Charlie Parker Story [1945, Savoy]8 BUY CD
74. Charlie Parker: The Complete Verve Recordings [1946-54, Verve] BUY CD
75. Charlie Parker: The Complete Live Performances on Savoy [1947-50, Savoy] BUY CD
76. Art Pepper: Today [1978, Galaxy]
77. Art Pepper: Meets the Rhythm Section [1957, Contemporary/Analogue Productions/ DCC] * BUY CD
78. Bud Powell: The Amazing Bud Powell [1949-50, Blue Note]
79. Bud Powell: Jazz Giant [1949-50, Verve] BUY CD
80. Bud Powell: The Genius of Bud Powell [1950-51, Verve] BUY CD
81. Sonny Rollins: Our Man in Jazz [1962, RCA/Classic Records] * BUY CD
82. Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus [1956, Prestige/Fantasy OJC/DCC] BUY CD
83. Sonny Rollins: Night at the Village Vanguard [1957, Blue Note] BUY CD
84. Sonny Rollins: Way Out West [1957, Stereo/Contemporary/Analogue Productions] * BUY CD
85. Wayne Shorter: Speak No Evil [1964, Blue Note] BUY CD
86. Frank Sinatra & Count Basie: Sinatra-Basie [1962, Reprise]9 * BUY CD
87. Sonny Stitt (with Art Pepper): Atlas Blues (Blow and Ballad) [1980, Atlas] *
88. Sun Ra: Sunrise in Different Dimensions [1980, hat HUT]
89. Sun Ra: Jazz in Silhouette [1958, Saturn/Impulse!/Evidence] BUY CD
90. Art Tatum: Solo Piano [1949, Capitol]
91. Art Tatum (with Ben Webster): The Group Recordings, Vol. 8 [1956, Pablo/JVC XRCD] BUY CD
92. Cecil Taylor: For Olim [1986, Soul Note] * BUY CD
93. Sarah Vaughan: With Clifford Brown [1954, Emarcy] BUY CD
94. Sarah Vaughan: Swingin’ Easy [1954, Emarcy] BUY CD
95. Sarah Vaughan: Crazy and Mixed Up [1982, Pablo/JVC XRCD] * BUY CD
96. Sarah Vaughan & L.A. Philharmonic: Gershwin Live! [1982, Columbia] * BUY CD
97. World Saxophone Quartet: Revue [1980, Black Saint] BUY CD
98. World Saxophone Quartet: Plays Ellington [1986, Nonesuch] BUY CD
99. Lester Young: The Lester Young Story, Vol. 1 [1937-40, Columbia] BUY CD
100. John Zorn: Masada 8 [1996, DIW] BUY CD
* especially excellent recording quality
1 Known, on CD, as Clifford Brown with Max Roach.
2 The remastering on Mosaic’s Complete box-set merits a *.
3 Released on CD, by Warner Bros., as Turn Out the Stars: The Final Village Vanguard Recordings.
4 Originally three Verve LPs: Trumpet Battle, The Trumpet Kings, and Tour de Force.
5 Originally two Verve LPs: Fusion and Thesis.
6 The latest of many, near-equally excellent single-disc compilations taken from Columbia’s 9-volume Quintessential Billie Holiday series.
7 Also released on a Milestone LP, The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever.
8 Confirmation, also on Verve, is a very good two-CD excerpt of this 10-CD box. Yardbird Suite [Rhino] is a very good two-CD set taken from the Dial, Savoy, and Verve recordings.
9 Maybe not the best Sinatra album, but the best that can be called, indisputably, jazz.
II. HP's New Super CD List The Baker's Dozen (ranked sonically) · Master of Chinese Percussion (Volume II) — Marco Polo 8.225942 (HDCD) · Gladiator (soundtrack) — Decca 989 467 094 BUY CD · Vaughan Williams: Sinfonia Antartica — Naxos 8.550737 · The Lost World — Fathom 11504 · Copland: Third Symphony — Reference RR-93CD BUY CD · Penderecki: Credo — Hanssler 98311 BUY CD · Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 — Naxos 8.555714 · Puccini: Tosca — EMI 5 5717320 BUY CD · Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony — Telarc CD-80588 BUY CD · Britten: Billy Budd (complete) — Chandos 9826(3) BUY CD · Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (Leinsdorf) — BMG 07026-63469 · The Thin Red Line (soundtrack) — BMG 0902–63382 BUY CD · Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 — Naxos 8.553494 BUY CD Special Merit (ranked sonically) · Ravel: Orchestral Works [96/24] — Classic Records DAD-1025 BUY CD · Gershwin: Collected Works [96/24] — Classic Records DAD-1018 · Antill: Corroboree [96/24] — Classic/Everest DAD-1029 · Pulse [96/24] — Classic Records DAD 1062 Classical Music· Adams: Violin Concerto — Telarc CD-80494 · Argento: A Ring of Time* — Reference RR-91 CD · Berlioz: Requiem — Telarc CD-80109 BUY CD · Bernstein: Candide (suite) — Reference RR-87CD BUY CD · Bernstein: Serenade — DG 445 185 · Bizet/Shchedrin: Carmen (suite)* — BMG 09026-63308 · Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 — Reference RR-81CD · Bryars: The Sinking of the Titanic — Point 446-061 · Castelnuovo–Tedesco: Guitar Concerto — Vanguard QVC 8069 · Copland: Symphony No. 3 Chandos — CHAN 9474 · Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun — CBC Records SMCD 5164 · Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice (from Mephisto) — Reference RR-82 CD · Elgar-Payne: Symphony No. 3* — Naxos 8.554719 · Falla: Three Cornered Hat — Everest EVC-9000 · Feeney: Dracula — Naxos 8.553964 · Glass: Koyanisqaatsi — Nonesuch 79506 · Gould: Latin-American Symphonette — Vanguard SVC-9 · Hanson: The Composer & His Orchestra* — Mercury 434 370 · Hanson: Merry Mount Suite* — Naxos 8.559072 · Holst-Sykes: The Planets (organ transcription) — Raven OAR-380 · Ibert: Escales (from Ports of Call) — Reference CD-80 · Khachaturian: Gayaneh* (suite) — Everest EVC 9020 BUY CD · Lutoslawski: Concerto for Orchestra — Naxos 8.553779 · Mahler: Das Klagende Lied — RCA 09026-68599 BUY CD · Mahler: Symphony No. 1 — Harmonia Mundi 395.7118 · Mahler: Symphony No. 3 — Sony S2K 60250 · Mozart: Concertos 21 & 24 — Reference RR-68CD BUY CD · Pärt: Tabula Rasa — Naxos 8.554591 & DG457 847 · Prokofiev: Lt. Kije (suite) — RCA 60984† · Rachmaninoff: A Window in Time — Telarc CD 80489 · Rachmaninoff: Paganini Rhapsody, Concerto No. 3* — Harmonia Mundi 90728 · Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini — RCA 09026-62710 · Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances* — RR-96CD · Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Overture — Telarc CD-80378 · Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez — Mercury 434369 BUY CD · Rósza: Concerto for Piano & Orchestra — Koch 7402 · Rutter: Requiem — Reference RR-57CD · Schubert: Songs for Male Chorus* — Telarc CD-80340 · Sérèbrier: Symphony No. 2 — Reference RR-90CD · Sibelius: Symphonies 5 & 7 — Finlandia 0630-17278 · Sibelius: Symphony No. 7 — Naxos 8.554387 · Sibelius: The Tempest* — Ondine ODI 914 · Strauss: Ein Heldenleben — Reference RR-83CD · Strauss: Death and Transfiguration — DG 447-762 · Stravinsky: Petrouchka — Everest EVC 9042 · Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (Levine)† — DG 437531-2 · Tchaikovsky: Manfred (Chailly)* — London/Decca 421441 · Tchaikovsky: Manfred (Goosens)* — Everest EVC 9025 · Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations — DG 453-460 · Tchaikovsky: Symphonies 1, 2 & 3 — Mercury 434391 · Theodorakis: Requiem — Intuition 3292 BUY CD · Tüür: Architectronics† — Finlandia 0630-14908 · Vaughan Williams: Symphonies 8 & 9† — RCA 09026-61196 · Waxman: The Song of Térèzin — London 289-460-211 Popular Music · Between Heaven & Earth* (bamboo gamelan)† Music Club 50113 · Blue Rodeo: Nowhere to Here — WEA CD-10617 BUY CD · Braheny & Clark: Rain* — Hearts of Space HS 11052 BUY CD · Cohen, Adam: Adam Cohen — Columbia CK-67957 BUY CD · Holly Cole Trio: Don't Smoke in Bed — Alert Z2-81198 · Eagles: Hell Freezes Over (live) — Geffen GEFD 24725 · Enya: Watermark — Reprise S26774 BUY CD · Flirtations: Out on the Road (live) — Flirt Records FL-1002 BUY CD · Shirley Home: You Won't Forget Me — Verve 847 482 · Janis Ian: Breaking Silence† — Morgan Creek 29590-20023 · Diana Krall: All for You — Impulse IMPD-182 BUY CD · Diana Krall: Love Scenes — Impulse IMPD-233 BUY CD · Diana Krall: When I Look Into Your Eyes — Impulse IMPD-304 BUY CD · Loreena McKennitt: The Mask and Mirror — WEA CD 45420 BUY CD · Nylons: One Size Fits All — Open Air Records OD-0301 BUY CD · Jeff Pearce: The Hidden Rift — Ancient Sun Music ASM-2005CD BUY CD · Conrad Praetzel: En.Trance — Paleo Music PAL 4003 BUY CD · Robert Rich: Gaudi — Hearts of Space 11028 BUY CD · Spanowdakis: Alexandros — FM Records FM 205 · Tonto's Expanding Head Band: Tonto Rides Again†.. — Viceroy Vintage-VIN 6036 · Tabula Rasa — Water Lily WLA-CS-44CD BUY CD Collections · Amazonica — Sony 62882 BUY CD · Bolero — — Reference RR-92CD · Art for the Ear & Art for the Ear II (samplers) Burmester** · Carolan's Harp — BMG (DHM) 05472-77375 · Fabulous Marches (Fennell) — Mercury 289 434-394 BUY CD · Farrar: Orchestral Works — Chandos CHAN9586 BUY CD · La Folia Harmonia — Mundi SA ATR 90.1050CD · Master of Chinese Percussion (Volume I) — Marco Polo 8.225950-HDCD · Mario Lanza: Live from London — RCA 0902-61884 BUY CD · Pomp and Pipes — Reference RR-58CD BUY CD · Ports of Call — Reference RR-80CD BUY CD · Postcards — Reference RD-61CD BUY CD · Psalms — — Reference RR-86CD BUY CD · Reveries* — Reference RR-99CD BUY CD · Robert Shaw Chorale: Sea Shanties — RCA 9026-63528 BUY CD · Steams: Collected Ambient & Textural Works — Hearts of Space/Fathom 11068 · Trance Planet (volume 1)† — Troika Records 7210 · Trittico — — Reference CD-52 BUY CD · Tutti — — Reference CD-906 BUY CD · Uncommon Ritual — Sony SK 62891 · XLO - Reference Recordings: Test Disc — RX-1000 Movie Music · Arnold: The Roots of Heaven — Marco Polo 8.225167 BUY CD · Before the Rain (soundtrack) — London 314-526-407-2 BUY CD · Black Hawk Down (soundtrack) — Decca 440 017012 BUY CD · The Gift (soundtrack) — Lakeshore/Will 33680 · Gods & Monsters (soundtrack)* — BMG-09026-63356 BUY CD · Goldsmith: Patton* — Varése/Sarabande VSD5796 · Herrmann: Citizen Kane — Preamble PRCD 1788 BUY CD · Herrmann: Jason and the Argonauts — Intrada MAF 7083 · Herrmann: Vertigo — Varése/Sarabande VSD-6500 BUY CD · Patriot Games (soundtrack)* — RCA/BMG 07863 66051 BUY CD · Steiner: Beast with Five Fingers* (from Murder & Mayhem) Marco Polo 8.225132 · Sneakers (soundtrack) — Columbia CK 53146 BUY CD · Snow Falling on Cedars (soundtrack) — Decca 289 466 818 BUY CD · Symphonic Star Trek — Telarc CD-80383 · Titanic (soundtrack) — Sony SK 63213 BUY CD · The X Files (soundtrack) — Warner Elektra 62217 BUY CD · Waxman: Objective, Burma! — Marco Polo 8.225148 · Williams: Jaws — Varése/Sarabande 302-066-078 BUY CD * Especially noteworthy sonically, just below The Baker's Dozen. ** Available through Lyric Hi-Fi (212) 535-5710 for $30. Not numbered. † Out-of-print or otherwise unavailable. Thanks to Ted Richards for checking and correcting the catalog numbers.
1. Vivaldi: La Stravaganza. Channel Classics (TAS 145) 2. Mahler: Symphony No. 3. SFS Media (TAS 145)3. Eighth Blackbird: Thirteen Ways. Cedille (TAS 144)4. Rainbow Body. Telarc (TAS 144)5. Beethoven: Fidelio. EMI (TAS 146)6. Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto (Lang Lang). DG7. Bach/Webern: Ricicare. ECM (TAS 145)8. Vladimir Horowitz: Horowitz Rediscovered. RCA9. Tavener: Ikon of Eros. Reference (TAS 146)10. Handel: Rinaldo. Harmonia Mundi (TAS 144) |
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狗仔卡
发表于 2005-11-16 11:42
发表于 2005-11-16 19:53
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