I’m no jazz expert, but my jazz list differs from David Remnick. Who are the theorists of new media list building? I don’t want yet another snobby list to share (though it may end up that way), but rather, I want to share a momentary reaction (a Gladwell “blink”) as writing moment, a list (Goody). Without dipping into my collection, without trying to remember any one disc, without doing anything but list a few things on a blog, on a Tuesday morning, I have an impression of top albums. In no particular order or organizational scheme other than “I like these records” (Barthes), I give you:

• Miles Davis Bitches Brew. One phrase: Holy cow. Never ceases to amaze.
• Miles Davis Kind of Blue. A list like this could quickly turn into a Miles fest. I bought this record by accident when I was 16 (just pulled it from the stacks), and I never looked back.
• Miles Davis On the Corner. Let’s keep this love fest alive a little longer. Funky grooves and staccato trumpet lines. You can imagine Miles walking around the stage with dark glasses on, barely admitting anyone else is in the room or on the stage. I like that kind of aloofness.
• Horace Silver Songs for My Father. Not a radical choice, but who cares. Melodic and soothing.
• John Coltrane A Love Supreme, Coltrane Plays the Blues, Dakar. Let’s pile all the Coltrane here for a second.
• Thelonoius Monk Greatest Hits. The easy way out. A greatest hits package.
• Medeski Martin and Wood. Out Louder. Let’s stick to one disc here and let it represent the entire funky package of MMW.
• Charles Mingus. Changes One, Changes Two. Mingus is so complex, so intense, to melodic, so fantastic.
• Ornette Coleman. Which disc? All of them. The ones that are unplanned, unrehearsed, organized only by the spirit of playing, notes bouncing or shrieking off of one another….
• Sonny Clark. Cool Struttin. Out of all of the Blue Note, you pick this? It moves. It shakes. It’s a logical representation of a catalog of awesome music.
• Stan Getz and Jao Gilberto. Getz/Gilberto. I love the work Getz did with Gillespie as well, but I’ll list this for no reason than a moment of love for the Brazilian sounds mixed with cool ’60s jazz.