There seems to be a solid case for there being two best Jazz albums from the 20th century. However, the two albums are praised by two different groups of fans for two completely different reasons. Jazz enthusiasts mostly consider Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” to be the best Jazz album because of the music. Audiophiles mostly consider “Jazz at the Pawnshop” to be the best Jazz album because of the audio quality, mastering, and the ‘you are there’ presence of the recording. I have both so i thought i’d compare and contrast them and give you some details about both albums.
Kind of Blue
I think the reason this album is so well regarded is that it seems very relaxed and listenable while at the same time being extremely complex and nuanced. Those who are not jazz enthusiasts can listen and enjoy the music on this album because it just seems easy to get and enjoyable, while a real jazz enthusiast can find layers of complex things going on because of the modal base of the music and the extreme talent of each of the musicians to play expertly both individually, yet also as a group. It’s difficult to explain in words, but above all other jazz albums, this one stands up to repeated listening and enjoyment by both true jazzophiles and also average listeners.
The recording process for this album highlights the talent of these musicians as shown in this quote form the Wikipedia article on Kind of Blue:
As was Davis’s penchant, he called for almost no rehearsal and the musicians had little idea what they were to record. As described in the original liner notes by pianist Bill Evans, Davis had only given the band sketches of scales and melody lines on which to improvise. Once the musicians were assembled, Davis gave brief instructions for each piece and then set to taping the sextet in studio.
Kind of Blue has been released, re-released, mastered and re-mastered more than any other album i am aware of. You would think that the reason is because of its popularity, but there is another more complex reason. The album was originally recorded in 1959. It was released on vinyl many times but it was discovered that the original master tape of side one of the album was recorded slightly ‘off’ speed resulting in the pitch of the first side being wrong. This problem was not corrected until a re-master done 33 years later in 1992. All subsequent re-issues and re-masters have also corrected the pitch problem on the side one songs. In addition, an alternate take of “Flamenco Sketches” from the original sessions has been added to re-masters done after 1997. There have been many additional re-masters done since that time using improved technology to attempt getting every single bit of nuance and clarity from those original tapes. The process has been successful to a degree. The newer post 1997 remasters are better than the original releases, but as with most of these kinds of things, it takes some sophisticated (read expensive) audio equipment to catch the minute improvements in clarity of the music and reduction in noise. For most of us, any re-master done after 1997 will give you an excellent listening experience.
In fact, i did a specific blog post comparing the best of the re-masters with a regular CD re-master. If you are interested you can read that post from This link:
Comparing normal and hi-res versions of Kind of Blue and Jazz at the Pawnshop
Jazz at the Pawnshop
This album, recorded in 1976, has long been considered by audiophiles to be one of the best sounding, best mastered jazz albums ever made. It truly makes you feel like you are right there in the club listening to this performance.
The jazz music on this album is good. It just isn’t in the same league with Kind of Blue which is why there is considerable consensus that Kind of Blue is the best jazz album of the 20th century because of its music while Jazz at the Pawnshop is the best sounding jazz album of the 20th century. Both have many who fervently espouse their convictions and i think both can be and are true.
My recommendation to you: get both these albums. Both are listenable and enjoyable even if you are not a jazz aficionado. Both sound good, really good. So if you want to listen to the best jazz music ever recorded in the 20th century, buy Kind of Blue. If you want to listen to one of the best sounding, best mastered, clearest, ‘you are there’ live jazz albums ever recorded, get Jazz at the Pawnshop.
Or, do like i have, and get them both.