I like how even if with the really popular jazz artists, you get some reallllyyy great music.

Mine would be a tie between Charles Mingus' 'The Clown', Miles Davis' 'Bitches Brew'/'Birth of The Cool' and John Coltrane's 'Sun Ship'.

oscar brown, jr, mr kicks, could have put this in a couple genre's, but i'll go with jazz.

that's the medicine, i am crap at naming vocal jazz that isn't billie holiday

as cliched as it is my favourite jazz album is 'A Love Supreme', it's more engaging than straight bebop and doesnt stray into avant garde codswallop territory, i know every note but have not attempted a voice rendition yet.
And Thelonious Monk's 'Genius of Modern Music Vol.1', nobody plays piano like him (except the RZA)... the documentary about his life and mental illness is worth finding
oh and a compilation called 'Yet Mo' Mod Jazz' which I would recommend to absolutely anyone AND the Seatbelts OST to the anime 'Cowboy Bebop', which is just an eclectic joy that would vaguely fall under the category 'big band jazz' with a bluesy vibe YouTube - Cowboy Bebop: Rush

aint no jazz expert but them's my two cents

yes your right 'yet mo' mod jazz' is a good cd, i've got the other 4 in the series, i like jazz with a touch of blues, soul, funk, the mod jazz series is on the kent label, and there is another label called b.g.p. beat goes public, that have really good jazz cd's, both labels are on the ace records rosta, check their site.

Skatalites

For me it's Room Eleven with "Six white Russian and one Pussy Cat"

I have to say for me it's John Zorn's Spy vs. Spy. Which is the music of Ornette Coleman preformed in Zorn's hardcore/acid style.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IyDZgXq8QH...%2BColeman.jpg

It's very Zorn, however. So if you aren't a fan you probably won't dig it.

cannonball adderley invites lou rawls from the audience to sing, i'd rather drink muddy water, two legends jam effortlessly.

I don't know about it being the best ever (it's really hard to choose), but Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is the quintessential Jazz record. If someone's getting into Jazz for the first time, I'd suggest starting with Kind of Blue.

"I have given away hundreds of copies to kids all over the world and said, 'I want you to treat this like orange juice, listening to it every morning.'" - Quincy Jones

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Buddy Rich & Max Roach- Rich vs. Roach

This album has got to be my new favorite jazz album. The whole album is centered around these two incredible jazz drummers, who attribute every song with fills and solos, trading off one nasty line after another. One of my favorite parts about this album is the fact that Buddy Rich's band plays on the left channel, and Max Roach's band plays on the right, providing a wild balance between the two groups of battling musicians.