12.11.2018
Text: Cem Kayıran
Translation: Yetkin Nural
Since we are witnessing the rebirth of record culture and its impressive competition with digital platforms in the recent years, we have decided to go back and remember some of the jazz records that left their mark in music history. Here are the best selling jazz albums of all time and their stories.
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
(Columbia, 1959)
Kind of Blue, which was conceived by a legendary team in the spring months of 1959, is not only one of jazz’s, but also all music history’s bestselling albums. One of the major attractions of Kind of Blue is its accessibility, even for the audiences who are not familiar with the jazz genre. The album, which carries the majestic influences of legendary names like John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Cannonball Adderley alongside Davis, was introduced to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1992. Even though many years has passed since its release, Kind of Blue was still 10th best selling record of all time in 2016 and continues to sell 5.000 copies per week.
Herbie Hancock – Headhunters
(Columbia, 1973)
Headhunter, one of the funkiest albums of Herbie Hancock discography, is another best selling album of all times. Reaching one million sold copies shortly after its release, it is also known as the fastest-selling album to reach this number. Hancock, who recorded the album with his new orchestra at the time, tells the back-story of Headhunters with these words:
‘‘I began to feel that I had been spending so much time exploring the upper atmosphere of music and the more ethereal kind of far-out spacey stuff. Now there was this need to take some more of the earth and to feel a little more tethered; a connection to the earth... I was beginning to feel that we (the sextet) were playing this heavy kind of music, and I was tired of everything being heavy. I wanted to play something lighter.’’
Dave Brubeck – Time Out
(Columbia, 1959)
Time Out, which also includes the Brubeck’s timeless hit ‘‘Take Five’’, was recorded with the musician’s classic quartet Eugene Wright, Paul Desmond and Joe Morello. As one of those records that makes it into countless ‘‘albums you need to listen before you die’’ sort of lists, Time Out opens with “Blue Rondo à la Turk’’, a song that was inspired by the 9/8 rhythms that the musician listened from a Turkish orchestra during a trip in İstanbul. Another interesting detail is that this is the second album in this list from Columbia’s 1959 releases.
Weather Report – Heavy Weather
(Columbia, 1977)
Selling 500.000 copies in the year of its release and selected as the ‘‘Best Album of The Year’’ by the prestigious jazz magazine Downbeat, Heavy Weather can also said to be one of the best jazz albums of all time. Going through significant changes in their music after the introduction of legendary bass player Jaco Pastorius to the band, Heavy Weather’s classic album is also known as the pioneer record of jazz-rock. Joe Zawinul, the band’s leader, explains the change they went through after Pastorius joined the team:
“I heard him play only four bars and I knew history was being made. Before Jaco, Weather Report was a cult band, mostly appreciated by blacks. Jaco was this nice white boy who brought us a new, white audience that made us much more commercially successful.”
*Other worldwide best selling jazz titles include Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, Herbie Hancock’s Future Shock, two Louis Armstrong classics, Hello, Dolly! and What A Wonderful World, Al di Meola’s 1977 album Elegant Gypsy and Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Birds of Fire.