Thelonious Monk's Solo Monk
Tyler says this is perhaps his favorite album. I wasn't sure why on the first listen. It sounded clunky and "plonky" to me and wasn't able to listen all the way through in the first sitting. Then I read that he was known for this style:
What’s interesting about him, from the little I’ve read, is that he really wanted to have chops on the level of the virtuosos of his time and he obviously hasn’t got them, and yet he’s great to the point where you wouldn’t want him to have chops because it would ruin it. There’s a child-like quality to his music, it’s not childish or immature, but there’s something gleeful. It just screams, “I’m Thelonious Monk and I don’t give a fuck.” There’s so much conviction there.1
Late Miles Davis I: Live at Fillmore
Lots of extremely funky and out-there synth and guitar solos. Stacatto spatterings of notes, squeals and screetches. Basically a long free jazz jam session. It's quite hard to describe these sounds, so I'll include some gems from the Pitchfork review.
...transformed into a three-headed monster by a band that obviously couldn't sit still on a bet.
On this date, Shorter meets his maker, full of fire and machine gun lines on soprano and tenor sax...
"Directions" (it appears twice, since these two discs document both an early and a late show) starts off innocently enough, with a low, humming growl from Holland, but quickly develops into the Apocalypse. There are moments when the music seems to cross over into the avant-garde and free jazz realms, especially whenever Shorter is playing a solo.
Then, out of nowhere, everything gets funky. Holland lays down some serious dirty pimp low end, filtered through that infamous "ring modulation" to give it the extra ass-mangling quality so desired in serious jazz performance. After a bit, Shorter drops another trip-bop bomb, and then the quiet comes back. Davis takes it out with a few quick, muted jabs, while the beat simmers below.
How is this Tyler's favorite jazz?
Late Miles Davis II: In a Silent Way
Absolutely loved this one. Just two long and pensive tracks.
Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz
Made it 7 minutes in. Sounds like a noisy practice room.
Cecil Taylor
Stan Kenton
He added these to his post on David Remnick's list of the 100 best jazz albums.