Jazz 24's top 100 jazz songs

[Connemara]

Failure from the very top. "Take Five?" Seriously?

http://www.jazz24.org/jazz100.html

 

[audiophilia]

How can anybody take a list seriously with one Bill Evans track on it?

Bill, Stan, and Miles could fill the list themselves!

I wouldn't put Dave Brubeck anywhere near that list. IMO.

 

[ter1413]

these lists are becoming more and more trash every time one is published....

 

[DerekS]

take five is to jazz what the jonas brothers is to rock and roll.

 

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by audiophilia

How can anybody take a list seriously with one Bill Evans track on it? Bill, Stan, and Miles could fill the list themselves! I wouldn't put Dave Brubeck anywhere near that list. IMO.
+1! And no Eric Dolphy, or Oscar Peterson.

 

[StephenHero]

"Take Five" is worthy.

 

[Brogued]

Well, it was done by vote. For many people, especially of a certain age, "Take Five" is the The jazz tune. If you play in a jobbing band, it's hard to get through the night without somebody requesting it. I certainly never need to hear (or play) it again.

 

[Aaron01]

Listing songs was the first fail. They're better when you hear the whole album, not just a random song.

 

[life_interrupts]

Take Five is a fine song, but not a #1 of 100 for Jazz aficionados. Problem with these list for jazz that very little after 1970 is considered, not much other than Armstrong before 1935 is considered. Some big band, lots of be bop and cool jazz. If Jazz is that limited (or dead), put it in a museum, like Miles suggested for folk music (and those who wanted him to keep making Milestones over and over).

 

[christinedaae]

how in the hell do you have ella fit'z mack the knife on there above Louis Armstrong's mack the knife. Louis Armstrong IS mack the knife damnit.

 

[clockwise]

Only 9 from Miles and 7 from Coltrane!!! Not enough.

No big surprises except for the number 1, which I would have expected to see among the top 20 in this kind of poll but never as number 1. Not really meaningful to argue with the list since it is just what "people voted". If this had been some "expert critics view", I would have been disappointed.

Someone mentioned that a vote on albums is more meaningful than songs, I agree completely and would rate Dolphy's Out to Lunch and Sonny Clark's Cool Struttin among the top 10...or 20. None of them would get on a list of jazz songs.

 

[A Y]

A pet peeve of mine: a piece of music is not a song unless it's sung by a voice. Calling "Take 5" a song is like calling Michelangelo's David a painting.

--Andre

 

[Biggskip]

Originally Posted by A Y

A pet peeve of mine: a piece of music is not a song unless it's sung by a voice. Calling "Take 5" a song is like calling Michelangelo's David a painting.

--Andre
Not trolling, but what would you call it, a tune?

 

[Harold falcon]

Originally Posted by Biggskip

Not trolling, but what would you call it, a tune?

I usually refer to a self-contained popular musical selection as a "track". If classical or orchestral music, I would refer to it as a "piece".

I don't know if this is right or wrong, but it's what I've always done. I dislike the word "song".

 

[ld111134]

Some voters undoubtedly voted for specific performances of specific tunes, e.g. Coltrane and Johnny Hartman's rendition of "Lush Life", Peggy Lee's performance of "Fever", Weather Report's "Birdland" - much the way a poll of pop music would really be a poll of specific records rather than tunes per se. If the poll was taken among jazz "cognoscenti " (however you want to define that term), the voting would be more focused on the compositions rather than on specific, "famous" performances, i.e. pieces that are part of the "canon" and that are performed regularly both on the bandstand and in the recording studio such as Charlie Parker's "Confirmation", Horace Silver's "Sister Sadie", any number of Monk compositions, Ornette Coleman's "Turnaround"... That said, many of the tunes on this list meet that criteria, e.g. "All Blues", "A Night in Tunisia", "Salt Peanuts", "Caravan". I note that Kind of Blue gets major props on this list.