50 great moments in jazz
John Fordham looks at the key moments in jazz that defined music history
50 great moments in jazz: Ornette Coleman at Meltdown 2009
No 50: To close the series, here is an inspired performance from an iconoclast who reaffirms the joy of being a jazz fan
50 great moments in jazz: Steve Coleman reinvents jazz rhythm
No 49: In the penultimate blog of this series on jazz landmarks, we turn again to a contentious figure of the scene
50 great moments in jazz: Wynton Marsalis goes back to basics
No 48: He's not without his critics, but Marsalis's dedication to the spirit of jazz is more than worthy of a place in the hall of greats
50 great moments in jazz: Anthony Braxton swims against the tide
No 47: A Coltrane devotee who liked Brubeck's Take Five? Anthony Braxton has always been at odds with orthodox jazz thinking
50 great moments in jazz: Pat Metheny
No 46: More than any other jazz guitarist, Metheny has given the instrument as prominent a place as a trumpet or saxophone
50 great moments in jazz: Jan Garbarek, ECM Records and the 70s European renaissance
No 45: From the late-60s onward, European jazz musicians began to look to their own cultural tradition. The first steps were tentative, but by the mid-70s they had become giant strides
50 great moments in jazz: Weather Report and the orchestration of fusion
No 44: Readers' input has been invaluable to the progression of 50 great moments. With only a handful left in the series, we turn to 1970s fusionists Weather Report
50 great moments in jazz: Abdullah Ibrahim
No 43: While apartheid divided a nation, South African jazz artists were exporting a heady mix of harmony, energy and hope
50 great moments in jazz: Keith Jarrett's The Köln Concert
No 42: This record-breaking album still gets a chilly reception from jazz fans. But the inspiration behind its inception lives on
50 great moments in jazz: Carla Bley's Escalator Over the Hill
No 41: These days, no one would blink an eye at the thought of a jazz opera. But in 1971, Carla Bley's genre-spanning mix of poetry, country and Indian music was unprecedented
50 great moments in jazz: How Miles Davis plugged in and transformed jazz ... all over again
No 40: How the tireless musical innovator came to make, in Bitches Brew, one of the biggest-selling jazz albums of all time
50 great moments in jazz: Peter Brötzmann's Machine Gun
No 39: A trailblazing piece of free jazz that arrived in the revolutionary year of 1968 – and later found a fan in Bill Clinton
50 great moments in jazz: Stan Tracey's Under Milk Wood and the rise in British jazz
No 38: By the 60s, British jazz no longer sounded like an American clone. Among the works that took the genre to new heights, Stan Tracey's Under Milk Wood still reigns supreme
50 great moments in jazz: How Miles Davis's second quintet changed jazz
No 37: In 1964, Miles Davis responded to free-jazz by enlisting a group of untried talents who would challenge, rather than flatter, his remarkable trumpet sound. It was a gamble that paid off ...
50 great moments in jazz: The shortlived cry of Albert Ayler
No 36: Appreciation of the saxophonist's work came just a few years after his untimely death in 1970
50 great moments in jazz: Charles Mingus's The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
No 35: It's almost impossible to choose just one great moment from the legacy of this pioneering bassist and compositional genius
50 great moments in jazz: Stan Getz's Jazz Samba
No 34: Rock'n'roll effectively kept jazz out of the charts in the 60s, but the samba craze briefly rekindled hopes of a renaissance
50 great moments in jazz: John Coltrane's giant step for improvisation
No 33: Perhaps the most influential saxophonist all of time, Coltrane produced an intensely soulful sound that reached way beyond the jazz cognoscenti
Great moments in jazz: Ornette Coleman defines the Shape of Jazz to Come
No 32: Initially regarded as a fraud or fool, he influenced half a century of jazz – and this album defines his greatness more than any other
50 great moments in jazz: Miles Davis and Kind of Blue
No 31: This groundbreaking 1959 album is as close to perfection as jazz gets without sacrificing its spontaneity
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