Essential Listening: Jazz Albums

Before he composed music for Bride Hard and Star Wars: Forces of Destiny, Ryan Shore did the music for Floyd Norman: An Animated Life, the story of the first African-American animator at Disney.

After we [screened the documentary][] at Apple, we held a meet-and-greet, and Shore spoke with a young man who was curious about jazz. Shore emailed that young man, Maddux, a list of essential jazz artists, and thirteen essential jazz albums. Here are those albums:

• Miles Davis
  • Kind of Blue
  • Birth of the Cool
  • Sketches of Spain
  • ’58 Sessions (aka 1958 Miles)
• Miles Davis: Kind of Blue, Birth of the Cool, Sketches of Spain, ’58 Sessions (aka 1958 Miles).
• Cannonball Adderly: Somethin’ Else
• John Coltrane: Blue Train, Giant Steps
• Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus
• Herbie Hancock: Head Hunters
• Duke Ellington: at Newport
• Getz/Gilberto: Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto
• Michael Brecker: Michael Brecker
• Take 6: Take 6

As a better starting point for a burgeoning jazz enthusiast, this is pretty hard to beat.