Jazz Britannia
Strange Brew

The second in a landmark series, narrated by Terence Stamp, showing how jazz, a 20th century African American art form, has developed in Britain over the past 60 years.

A comprehensive and authoritative guide with interviews and performances by key artists like George Webb, Acker Bilk, Humphrey Lyttelton, Stan Tracey and Chris Barber, plus jazz's new famous faces like Amy Winehouse and Jamie Cullum.

The Sixties and early Seventies were decades of profound change for British society - and British jazz. Strange Brew charts the period where British jazz stepped out of the shadow of America to find its own distinct voice.

It examines the new school of British jazz composers, the enduring influence of émigré South African musicians and the birth of jazz rock: a brief yet golden flowering of British jazz.

Includes contributions from rock and jazz guitarist Jack Bruce, band leader and composer Mike Westbrook, alto saxophonist Peter King, Mike Garrick, John Surman and John McLaughlin.

Part of the Jazz Britannia season.


Fri 4 Feb, 22:00-23:00 60mins Stereo Widescreen

As suggested by Senor Martin and in respect of the Reggae Thread....

Mine are - in no particular order - and i've struggled to keep to ten

John Coltrane - Live at the Village Vanguard (Dolphy version)
Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch
Charles Mingus - Ah Um
Ornette Coleman - In all languages
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Dave Douglas - Strange Liberation
EST - From Gargarins Point of View
Henry Threadgill - Rag, Bush and All
Serge Chaloff - Blue Serge
Cecil Taylor - Live in Vienna

There's 40 other ones I can recommend...this is just to get the debate going

Not a jazz expert but these 10 big ones off the top of my head

Stanko/Komeda: Astygmatic
Coltrane: Olatunji Concert (maybe not his best album but just for the sheer full-on-ness of it)
Weather Report: Mysterious Traveller
Charlie Hayden:Liberation Music Orchestra
Albert Ayler: Live Greenwich
Pharoh Sanders: Karma
Basil Kirchen: Charcoal Sketches
Alice Coltrane: Journey
Charlie Mingus: Black Saint
Charles Lloyd:Lift Every Voice (although the early stuff like Forest Flower is great too)


and this evening i am listening to Taylor, Redman, Jones 'Momentum Space' and am finding the experience thoroughly enjoyable

John Coltrane : First Meditations
John Coltrane : Sun Ship
Miles Davis : Miles Smiles
Cecil Taylor : Nefertiti: the Beautiful One Has Come
Cecil Taylor : Silent Tongues
Charles Mingus : Mingus at Antibes
Andrew Hill : Point of Departure
Ornette Coleman : The Shape of Jazz to COme
Eric Dolphy : Out To Lunch
Albert Ayler : Greenwich
Ganelin Trio : Catalogue: Live in East Germany
Don Cherry : Eternal Rhythm

Impossible for me to keep it to ten. There are probably more than 100 albums I'd consider essential.

Does anyone rate Big John Patton's "Let 'Em Roll"?

Haven't heard this in ages but I thought it was pretty tasty.

Eccles' list is pretty sweet, though I haven't heard some of them and I never got into Bitches Brew. And I'm surprised about Weather Report. I have really hated everything I've ever heard by them (though Pastorius was godly)-- but then, I haven't heard much. I always lumped them in with horrid doctor's waiting room polite fusion crap like Spyro Gyra.

Who's gonna pick a Sun Ra? And which one?

That first Everything But the Girl one.

Really a great idea. I was thinking about that by my own. But, he who thinks too long waits too long... Anyway, I was rudely selecting ten out of even many more:

Charles Mingus, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
Hank Mobley, Slice of the Top
The Quintet (Charlie "Chan" Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, Max Roach), Jazz at Massey Hall
Duke Ellington, The Popular Duke Ellington
Miles Davis, Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet
Nina Simone, In Concert
John Coltrane, Blue Train
Thelonious Monk, Straight No Chaser
Bobby Hutcherson, Patterns
Ornette Coleman, Tomorrow is the Question

Tricky one, this, but here goes:

Stan Tracey - Under Milk Wood
Eric Dolphy - Out To Lunch
John Taylor/John Surman - Ambleside Days
Art Pepper - Winter Moon
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Supersession - Supersession
Dave Holland - Conference of the birds
Miles Davis - Lift to the scaffold
The Amazing Bud Powell
Louis Armstrong - Hot fives and sevens

That'll do for now.

John Coltrane - Live at the Village Vanguard Again
Duke Ellington - Live at the Whitney
McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy
Sun Ra - Space Is The Place (Impulse)
Louis Armstrong - Hot Fives and Sevens
Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington
Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
Pat Metheny - Zero Tolerance for Silence
Michel Godard - Castel del Monte
Paul Desmond - Take Ten
+ a comprehensive Billie Holiday compilation

er, that's eleven. Oh well. B)

Edit: wait, I forgot "Mingus Ah Um"...

Any Miles from "In A Silent Way" until his 1975 retirement as well as some of the compilations used to fill the gap, especially "Get Up With It" and "Circle In The Round".
Coltrane - Ascension, The Complete Africa/Brass Sessions, Sunship, Meditations etc etc.Anything on Impulse and "Ole" really. :D
Albert Ayler - Spirits Rejoice, Spiritual Unity, Bells
Pharoah Sanders - Black Unity

Permit me to name my 10... albeit coming from perhaps a less "avant" perspective.


Miles Ahead/Miles Davis
Moanin'/Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
Ole Coltrane/John Coltrane
Hub Tones/Freddie Hubbard
Song For My Father/Horace Silver Quintet
The Blues and the Abstract Truth/Oliver Nelson
The Soothsayer/Wayne Shorter
The Prisoner/Herbie Hancock
Filles de Kilimanjaro/Miles Davis
New Orleans Suite/Duke Ellington

B) B) B) B) B)

take the point about Weather Report
dont like them at all
but, in spite of that, Mysterious Traveller is one of my all time favourite albums

and, seeing as others are going for 11...can i add Oregon's 'Our First Record'?

I really dig Live Evil and Dark Magus, daddio.

Dunno if they count as 'jazz' exactly but whatever.

Bit of a soft spot for Ayler's Spirtiual Unity and New York ear and Eye Control (or whatever it was called). Skwwwaaaaaaak! Honk! Fubbly-dubbley-doo-Twing!

Ornette Coleman - Dancing In Your Head

John McLaughlin - Extrapolation

any Mingus.

No claims for connections in - just going by the ones that get played more than others:
Oscar Aleman BUENOS AIRES - PARIS
Nat King Cole Trio - LIVE AT THE CIRCLE
Acker Bilk - STRANGER ON THE SHORE
Dollar Brand - BLACK LIGHTNING
Ray Russell Quartet - Dragon Hill
Thelonius Monk - The London collection vol. 1
HERBIE HANCOCK - Speak Like A Child
USA ALL STARS IN BERLIN
Ottilie Patterson - with Chris Barber
Dave Douglas - SOUL ON SOUL

Actually, Herbie Hancock's Sextant is probaby my favourite jazz/fusion/whatever record.

all pre-Verve Charlie Parker
any solo Art Tatum
early Monk
Beauty is a Rare Thing (box set) - Ornette Coleman
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk
Free Fall - Giuffre Trio
Sonny Meets Hawk - Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins
Spiritual unity - Albert Ayler
Touchin' On Trane - Charles Gayle
More Live at the Knitting Factory - Charles Gayle
Atlantis - Sun Ra
Jazz in Silhouette - Sun Ra
Cosmic Tones/Art Forms - Sun Ra

tons of Evan Parker and Cecil Taylor that I can list if anyone is looking for pointers

That's a motherfucker of an album!

RE: EP and Cecil. It's hard to pick one or two from their respective discographies as the standard of their work is so consistently high. However, Nailed on FMP catches both at their best IMO. I love After Appleby by Parker. Another sublime one is Sankt Gerold by Bley/Parker/Philips.

This one is very hard, but I'll give it a go

In no particular order and not at all inclusive -just quickly:


Ornette Coleman: The Change Of A Century

Fletcher Henderson: The Fletcher Henderson Story

Cecil Taylor: Student Studies (too hard)

Roland Kirk: Rip, Rig, and Panic

Thelonius Monk Quartet: Mysterioso (too hard)

Eric Dolphy: At The Five Spot (too hard)

Charles Mingus: Presents Charles Mingus

Albert Ayler: Spiritual Unity

Sonny Sharrock: Ask The Ages

Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus

Charlie Parker: Complete Savoy and Dial Sessions

Hank Mobley: No Room For Squares

Louis Armstrong: Hot Fives And Sevens (JSP box)

Oliver Nelson: The Blues And The Abstract Truth

Love the liner notes to the Gayle album too.


That's exactly why I didn't list all my faves by Taylor and Parker--so much of what they touch is golden. You're right about Nailed, and The Hearth is another fine meeting between CT and EP on FMP.

Entry level Sun Ra has to be the Lanquidity CD which is very Bitches Brew era Miles in form and content....

I'm going to try and tie all these together into a Fall Fans Funkj Jazz Top 50......

ps try the Charles Gayle Knitting Factory double CD....it will blow your eardrums!!!

So here is the comprehensive compiled list

Most popular album is Aylers Spirutual Unity. Most popular artists are Miles and Trane

The heart warming thing is that I own most of these albums (!)

• John Coltrane - Live at the Village Vanguard (Dolphy version), Olatunji Concert, First Meditations, Sun Ship, Blue Train, A Love Supreme, Live at the Village Vanguard Again, Ascension, The Complete Africa/Brass Sessions, Meditations, Ole
• Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch (3 nominations), At the Five Spot
• Charles Mingus - Ah Um (2 nominations), Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (2 nominations), Mingus at Antibes, Presents Charles Mingus
• Ornette Coleman - In all languages, The Shape of Jazz to Come, Tomorrow is the Question, Dancin’ in your head, Beauty is a rare thing(box set), Change of the Century
• Miles Davis - Bitches Brew, Miles Smiles, Cookin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet, Lift to the Scaffold, In a Silent Way, Get Up With It, Circle In The Round, Miles Ahead, Filles de Kilimanjaro, Live Evil, Dark Magus
• Dave Douglas - Strange Liberation, Soul on Soul
• EST - From Gargarins Point of View
• Henry Threadgill - Rag, Bush and All
• Serge Chaloff - Blue Serge
• Cecil Taylor - Live in Vienna, Nefertiti the beautiful one has come, Silent Tongues, Student Studies, The Hearth (with Evan Parker)
• Stanko/Komeda: Astygmatic
• Weather Report: Mysterious Traveller (2 nominations)
• Charlie Haden:Liberation Music Orchestra
• Albert Ayler: Live Greenwich (2 nominations), Spirits Rejoice, Spiritual Unity (5 nominations), Bells
• Pharaoh Sanders: Karma, Black Unity
• Basil Kirchen: Charcoal Sketches
• Alice Coltrane: Journey (to Satchinandia?)
• Charles Lloyd:Lift Every Voice, Forest Flower
• Taylor, Redman, Jones 'Momentum Space
• Andrew Hill : Point of Departure
• Ganelin Trio : Catalogue: Live in East Germany
• Don Cherry : Eternal Rhythm
• Big John Patton "Let 'Em Roll"
• Hank Mobley, Slice of the Top, No room for Squares
• The Quintet (Charlie "Chan" Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, Max Roach), Jazz at Massey Hall
• Duke Ellington, The Popular Duke Ellington, Live at the Whitney, New Orleans Suite
• Nina Simone, In Concert
• Thelonious Monk, Straight No Chaser, Plays Duke Ellngton, Misterioso. The London Connection Volume 1
• Bobby Hutcherson, Patterns
• Stan Tracey - Under Milk Wood
• John Taylor/John Surman - Ambleside Days
• Art Pepper - Winter Moon
• Supersession - Supersession
• Dave Holland - Conference of the birds
• Bud Powell The Amazing Bud Powell
• Louis Armstrong - Hot fives and sevens (3 nominations)
• McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy
• Sun Ra - Space Is The Place (Impulse), Lanquidity
• Pat Metheny - Zero Tolerance for Silence
• Michel Godard - Castel del Monte
• Paul Desmond - Take Ten
• Billie Holiday – a comprehensive compilation
• Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers – Moanin’, with Thelonious Monk
• Freddie Hubbard – Hub Tones (2 nominations)
• Horace Silver Quintet - Song For My Father
• Oliver Nelson- The Blues and the Abstract Truth
• Wayne Shorter- The Soothsayer
• Herbie Hancock- The Prisoner, Sextant, Speak Like a Child
• Oregon 'Our First Record'?
• New York Ear and Eye Control
• John McLaughlin – Extrapolation
• Charlie Parker – pre Verve Albums (the Complete Savoy and Dial) (2 nominations)
• Art Tatum – any solo album
• Jimmy Giuffre Trio - Free Fall –
• Sonny Rollins - Sonny Meets Hawk, Saxophone Colossus
• Charles Gayle - More Live at the Knitting Factory, Touchin' On Trane -
• Sun Ra – Atlantis, Jazz in Silhouette, Cosmic Tones/Art Forms for mental therapy
• Evan Parker – After Appleby
• Bley/Parker/Philips. - Sankt Gerold
• Fletcher Henderson: The Fletcher Henderson Story
• Roland Kirk: Rip, Rig, and Panic
• Sonny Sharrock: Ask The Ages
• Oliver Nelson: The Blues And The Abstract Truth
• Oscar Aleman BUENOS AIRES – PARIS
• Nat King Cole Trio - LIVE AT THE CIRCLE
• Acker Bilk - STRANGER ON THE SHORE
• Dollar Brand - BLACK LIGHTNING
• Ray Russell Quartet - Dragon Hill
• USA ALL STARS IN BERLIN
• Ottilie Patterson - with Chris Barber

Great B)

Impressive list (but I don´t own more than 40-45 of them...), not much to add. However, I do miss Bill Evans on the list - either the first Village Vanguard recordings, or some of his final live recordings from 1980 (Like the Last Waltz). But for some reason I didn´t post my list, so I guess I´m to blame for his absence...

I also think that the last years of Miles Davis are a bit overlooked. Check out the Montreux box set, if you have loads of money, or "Live around the world" which gives a good picture. Actually, what he did during those years was just what he had tried to do for several years - trying to make jazz "popular" again. Some people might argue that the result wasn´t very good, but I really enjoy his late period - at least live.

Man, I would love to get ahold of more Oscar Aleman. I have a 2 disc collection of his work. What a smokin player. Definitely should be as well known as Eddie Lang or Django Reinhardt.

On the collection I have there is a version of an old Irving Berlin tune called "Russian Lullaby." It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. Whoever does the vocals is amazing.

I once learned to sing and play this song on the ukulele. Took a couple of weeks to nail it, even on that instrument.

Ho Ho Ho!!

I know booger all about jazz, but I like Blue Train by Coltraine, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis (sound like a double album to me) and I don't mind Brighten the Corners by Thelonius Monk.

I find Bitches Brew unlistenable.

High up there's Gary Burton & Keith Jarrett.
This disc I've got also contains Gary Burton's LP THROB
The whole lot is bliss.
Goodnight :rollover:

Oooh, good point, a cracker.

Alice Coltrane's first handful of albums are all pretty amazing actually especially "Journey Into Satchadananda" (sp?, don't have the disc to hand...)

Yeah, I love her stuff. Hippy-smelling though it undoubtedly is (the record you mentioned, which I also can't spell, is named after her spiritual guru!).

Basically, I seem to like 'jazz' records that aren't really jazz, but I can't stand most of what's known as 'fusion' (Weather Report and most solo records by members of Miles Davis's 70s bands being particular irritants!)

I don't like most fusion either. I always thought fusion sounded much weaker than the best acoustic records from the '60s. I know I'd rather listen to cutting edge sounds of Ayler, Coleman or Coltrane. Fusion was trying to be so rock 'n' roll, yet always sounds like a compromise to my ears. Diluted Rock/Diluted Jazz. A lot of fusion hasn't aged that well but Trane's albums on Impulse haven't aged a day.

the chico hamilton quintet-featuring buddy colette

B) B) I'd suggest that OM is probably looking a little wrinkly round the edges.....

That great LP offers up an odd connection for me:


"Boogie Stop Shuffle" is probably the source for the theme music to the original SPIDERMAN cartoon series

" Fables Of Faubus" is probably the source for the theme music to The Odd Couple tv series.


Tell your friends!



PS - Fables of Faubus w/ lyrics on "Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus" is THE definitive version.

i have a version of 'fables', a long live version of the piece...i prefer it to the ah um version...cant remember who plays on it though...it takes up two sides of an album

More than likely its this.....(?)

Charles Mingus Sextet
Johnny Coles
Eric Dolphy
Clifford Jordan
Jaki Byard
Charles Mingus
Dannie Richmon


"Concertgebouw", Amsterdam, Holland, April 10, 1964

Out to Lunch; Iron Man-Dolphy
Cecil Taylor Unit-C Taylor
Point of Departure-Andrew Hill
Coon Bidness-Julius Hemphill
Free Fall-Jimmy Giuffre
Best of Mose Allison
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
Nubians of Plutonia-Sun Ra
Dialogue-Bobby Hutcherson

Wayne Shorter - Schizophrenia

My favourite Sun Ra:

OM is the worst piece Trane ever recorded and very easily forgotten.

Yeah but which advert uses Moanin' (from Blues & Roots)? It's been puzzling me for a while....

Girlfriend refers to Boogie Stop Shuffle as The Postman Pat song

Some great records already mentioned. I don't think I could come up with a shortlist of 10. There are just too many.

Judgment - Andrew Hill
Some Other Stuff/Evolution - Grachan Moncur III
Dialogue/Stick Up! - Bobby Hutcherson
Ole Coltrane/Africa Brass - John Coltrane
Jack Johnson/Kind Of Blue - Miles Davis
Greenwich Village - ALbert Ayler
Nefertiti, The Beautiful One Has Come - Cecil Taylor
Let Freedom Ring - Jackie McLean
Threads/Live In The World - David S Ware
Mingus Ah Um / Black Saint - Charles Mingus
Winter Moon - Art Pepper
Black Unity/Karma - Pharoah Sanders
Dreher, Paris - Steve Lacy & Mal Waldron
Dimension & Extensions - Sam Rivers
Etcetera - Wayne Shorter
My Goal's Beyond - John Mclaughlin
Pastoral Composure - Matthew Shipp


...etc