This thread is probably going to get approximately zero replies, but whatever, this topic is too close to my heart to ignore.
Personally, I think the liner notes to old jazz albums are the best. Always dated and typically pretentious, they're usually good for a couple of laughs. The information is often pretty interesting too. One of my favorites is from
Thelonious in Action: Recorded at the Five Spot Cafe, New York City, a live recording of the Monk Quartet with Johnny Griffin from 1958:
"This album captures the exciting core of an evening's performance by a unique jazz group at an unusual club. The group is unique simply because any jazz unit led and molded by Thelonious Monk deserves that adjective; the club is unusual because, as a casual bar deep down on New York's East Side, it contrasts sharply with the formal chicness or the alternative high-pressure pseudo-hipness of most of today's jazz spots"
