This year is the centenary of the first jazz recording. It was not an auspicious start when the Original Dixieland Jass Band entered the Victor Talking Machine Company’s studio on the 12th floor of its New York off ces to record a novelty million-seller hit, Livery Stable Blues, only to see it become the subject of a lawsuit. Yet the events of 26 February 1917 gave birth to a rich new artform.
The sheer size of jazz’s recorded history makes selecting just 40 essential records an almost impossible task. For every record included here, just as strong a case could be made for five, or even 10 others to take its place. The only way to reduce the size of the challenge is to apply some constraints.
So we’ve limited the timeframe covered to what many people consider to be the Golden Age of jazz records: 1955 to 1970. It may seem controversial to go for such a short period, but it’s logical in the context of jazz record collecting. 1955 was a pivotal year for recorded jazz, because it was the point when the 12-inch LP format usurped the 10-inch LP. This change affected all forms of recorded music but, for jazz, it was a unique artistic liberation that gave the musicians extra time to stretch out and improvise in the way they already did on live dates. The end-point of our chosen era was just as significant to jazz, but for a difierent reason: the 1970 release of one LP, Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, changed everything. Jazz was in commercial decline and Davis’ move to a band playing electric instruments that fused jazz with rock and funk set the direction for the next decade.