OK, so who is crazy enough to put together THAT sort of list? Apparently the folks at Groove Notes!
The image I highlighted was of Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s 1967 recording The Inflated Tear. This is my favorite recording of his, mixing free jazz elements, traditional hard-bop, and soul-flavored pop elements he’d later explore on Blacknuss and Volunteer Slavery. If you haven’t heard of it, don’t feel bad, because while it was a big hit for a non-mainstream jazz recording it wasn’t exactly setting the charts on fire – as stated in AllAboutJazz, “Roland Kirk won over the masses with this one too, selling over 10,000 copies in the first year.”
One artist I found missing from the first 500 was Emily Remler. She was an extremely talented guitarist and composer whose life was cut short by the all too common personal tragedies mixed with drugs that led to a weakened state that resulted in her dying of a heart attack at 32.
She has a solid catalog of original and cover music, including Catwalk, Transitions, and my personal favorite This is Me, which was her final recording. All are difficult to find, drifting in and out of publication – but definitely worth searching out. iTunes has her second-to-last release East to Wes, which is also excellent.
Here is a video of her performing her composition ‘Blues for Herb’ (from East to Wes) for a weekly show:
The list contains just loads of truly great music that spans a fairly broad interpretation of the ;what is jazz’ spectrum. I estimate I own more than half of the things on the list, and made some notes on some others that look cool. The authors continue to add 20 albums per week and have just reached 600! Still no Emily Remler, but each week adds loads more great music – if you have any interest, definitely check this list out!
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