The 100 Jazz Albums That Changed the World

Mooching around in W.H. Smith's I came across this Jazzwise glossy publication - coffee table material worthy of a jazz blogger - so I shelled out £12.99. l also noted that Ring Magazine were celebrating their 100 year anniversary so I forked out £9.99 for their 'Collector's Edition'.

Both are compelling and subjective and very much open to debate.

A Kind of Blue is rated as number one by Jazzwise and, whilst I acknowledge that it's a fine album, to my ears Trane, Cannonball, Evans, Kelly etc. all made better recordings under their own name. However, my main objection is that if these are the 100 albums that shook the world then surely they should have been listed chronologically? 

Ticking the boxes, I find I have approx 50 of the 100 albums albeit not necessarily in the original format.

The Ring ratings are not without controversy either: 1. Sugar Ray Robinson; 2. Joe Louis; 3. Muhammad Ali - no argument. But at number 7 we have Willie Pep. Pep was undoubtedly one of the all-time greats in the featherweight division but his record against another great featherweight, Sandy Saddler was 1 - 3 and Saddler doesn't make the cut.

Rocky Marciano, the only undefeated Heavyweight Champion of  the World comes in at no. 54 whereas Floyd Patterson is ranked 9 places above him!

All intriguing stuff but, at the end of the day, that's what makes polls and assessments in whatever endeavour all interesting, albeit worthless, good fun! Lance