What, in your opinion, would be the top 10 definitive Avant-Garde/Free Jazz albums of all time?

1. John Coltrane - "Ascension"
2. Ornette Coleman - "The Shape Of Jazz To Come"
3. Eric Dolphy - "Out To Lunch"
4. Peter Brotzmann - "Machine Gun"
5. Cecil Taylor - "Silent Tongues"
5. Sun Ra - "Atlantis"
6. Steve Lacy - "Dreams"
7. Paul Bley - "Open, To Love"
8. Albert Ayler - "Spiritual Unity"
9. Cecil Taylor - "Unit Structures"
10. Art Ensemble Of Chicago - "A Jackson In Your House"

John Coltrane - Ascension
Cecil Taylor - Nefertiti, The Beautiful One Has Come
Cecil Taylor - One Too Many Salty Swift & Not Goodbye
Evan Parker - 50th Birthday Concert
Albert Ayler - Spiritual Unity
Charles Mingus - The Black Saint & the Sinner Lady
Peter Brotzmann - Little Birds Have Fast Hearts Vol. 1 & 2
Anthony Braxton - Willisau (Quartet) 1991
Eric Dolphy - Out To Lunch
Ganelin Trio - Ancora Da Capo
Steve Lacy - Morning Joy
Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz
Sun Ra - Jazz in Silhouette
Jimmy Giuffre - Free Fall


I know it's unlucky 13, so sue me.

With this list I limited every musician to one recording. A few of those I could have added couple from each of them on that list.


Two of them are out of print and you might be able to find the Holy Grail easier than the Taylor and Braxton.

For Evan Parker, I went with what is his best group led recording. A couple of his solo recordings are as excellent.

There are a lot of excellent Evan Parker recordings but if I had to choose two other recordings to recommend that that should be in print.



At the Vortex - only slightly less than 50th Birthday. And I am talking atoms.
Saxophone Solos - my favorite of his many excellent solo recordings. It was recently reissued. Not sure how many or if it is still easily found.


Of course, there are also his recordings with Alexander Schlippenbach. All of which are necessary. You now that I think about it, I am going to replace Free Fall with Schlippenbach's Pakistani Pomade, which was recently reissued by Atavistic. So, you don't have to hunt down the lp like I did.


You know a person can go bankrupt just keeping track of all the recordings those on my list released. When you consider that avant/free is not supposed to be a big seller some of them have released 100+ recordings. Especially with the later free jazz musicians on my list.


Now another excellent and must have recording that Parker is a sideman on that is also one of my favorite Cecil Taylor's recordings is Nailed.

Parker and the drummer Tony Oxley don't like each. This stems from Parker and Derek Bailey's animosity towards each other. And it made it's way into the music and infected Taylor and Barry Guy's playing.

It might just be one of the most intense recordings you will hear in music. It's basically one giant cutting contest. This is where the title Nailed comes from. It lasts a bit over 78 minutes and it's close to not stop cutting and burning.

It starts off from a slow boil than catching fire 6 minutes into the first track, which lasts 52 minutes.

I have wondered if the animosity between Parker and Oxley led to this recording being left in some recording vault for 10 years. It was recorded in 1990 but wasn't released until 2000. It's the first and last time these 4 musicians ever played together.

It's not for the faint of heart or those that are just putting a few toes into Free Improv.


After all that, I am going to have to pull it out and crank the speakers.

So, anyone want to explain why my post is appearing above Seba's even though it was posted much later than his?

Nice list Satch, quite a few I don't have.

You think "50th Birthday Concert" is the best Evan Parker, eh? Guess I'll have to pick that up...same for the Brotzmann pick; I've got 6 of his albums but I haven't heard those two...

I've heard 12 out of Satcmo's 13 albums picked.

The only thing I havn't heard is Steve Lacy's Morning Joy.

I'm going to have to think about my list for a while.

The Little Birds albums are great, I really enjoy the trumpet playing by Toshinori Kondo on them.

does Frank Zappa's Hot Rats fit here? I heard it was a masterpiece, though I found it extremely boring...

I just want to make sure I understand the question. Are you asking if a recording you find boring belongs in a thread asking posters to list their top 10 avant/free jazz recordings?

You've got a point there... I wanted to post this for a while, but I didn't quite know where and I thought this was avant garde/free jazz, so...

I knew what you meant. I was having a little fun.

To answer the question. No it's neither Jazz, avant or free jazz. But it does have elements of Jazz and Fusion included. It's what people sometimes call Jazz-Rock. But there is no improvising involved.