Over at the jazz blog Groove Notes, Kevin Kniestedt is plugging away at what I initially thought was an ambitious, daunting, and possibly insane project. Maybe not insane, but certainly out there. What Kniestedt proposed was the construction of a list of the 1000 jazz albums you should hear before you die. I like the parameters of this list -- you just have to hear them, maybe not even listen, and by no means are you required to purchase or download them. Pft, perhaps even the notion of the album is an antiquated one for all I know. Good luck to you, Kevin I thought. That first list of 20 albums is easy-peasy, but good luck picking 980 more.
Right now Kniestedt is sitting at 340, with another 560 to go, and on each list I find a few albums that I've not only listened to, but actually own. And I'm not going to embarass myself by indicating how many albums and/or CDs and/or downloads I've got in my jazz library. It is a large amount. But even on the latest list, three are in my collection: Sun Ra's Atlantis, Wynton Marsalis' Black Codes (From the Underground), and Joshua Redman's Wish. Another eight I've listened to (at least a few tracks) and I would agree that they're pretty good.
So, if we might offer Brother Kevin our interest and support, I think he could use it. So far so good, but there's another 28 lists to go. Let's hope that when he reaches 1000 -- after much thought and debate -- we might be able to find another 1000 albums to listen to as well.
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