1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: The 50's part 2

Late in posting this, but the fifties are done! Being only 23 albums in, it's a little early to declare this project a success, but it sort of already is. The variety of music and genre already gives this challenge a bump over the Rolling Stone one in my mind. When I think of the fifties, I think of a pretty uniform, safe period with a blast of rock and roll. Going through these albums though, it shows just how diverse the fifties really were as a decade, and completely setting up the sophistication and experimentation that would take place with music in the 60's. Great stuff, here's the list!


0012 Davis, Miles – Birth of the Cool
Also known as "The Death Of Peppy Jazz". I can appreciate the playing, but it bores the hell out of me.


0013 Machito – Kenya
More Jazz here, but it's peppy Latin Jazz and kept me interested. The songs weren't crazy long either which helped bunches.


0014 Little Richard – Here’s Little Richard
I loved this. I've always loved Little Richard. Arguably the greatest rock singer of all time. That voice was no good for anything else. So loud, so full of life. The music matches the energy and it all works perfectly. Recommended


0015 Puente, Tito & His Orchestra – Dance Mania (1958)
Mambo mania more like it! I'm not a huge fan of this type of latin music, but it's hard to hate something with a song called "3-D Mambo"


0016 Holiday, Billie – Lady in Satin
Holiday is undoubtedly one of the greatest female vocalist. This album however finds her sounding old and in poor health. It distracts from the performances and just makes the whole thing sad. I'd go for her earlier material.


0017 Elliott, Jack – Jack Takes the Floor
Before Dylan there was Ramblin' Jack tearing through folk standards. A prettty good album too, his introductions to the songs give it a personal performance feel, and he's in fine voice. None of these versions are the best you'll find or eclipse earlier artists, but they don't have to. Jack still shows you a good time, and even brings in Woody for a song.


0018 Vaughan, Sarah – At Mister Kelly’s
Sounds like a night club recording, and a pretty good one to. Sarah is in fine form singing some pop songs of the day.


0019 Fitzgerald, Ella – Sings the Gershwin Song Book
If your looking for a sophisticated vocal album, this ones for you. Ella does a great job interpreting 50 or so songs from the Gershwin song book. The music is lush, and Ella never gets lost in the orchestra and manages to put her own take on these. Great stuff.


0020 Charles, Ray – Genius of
You have to be either really good or a real asshole to use the word "Genius" on an album. Ray of course was really good. This is a hell of a record. A big band sound that still keeps the soul, not a bad song on it.


0021 Davis, Miles – Kind of Blue
Actually it's not kind of blue, it's totally boring.


0022 Robbins, Marty – Gunfighter Ballads & Trail Songs
I loved this record. I loved it so much, I listened to it 3 times in a row. Marty Robbins has the perfect cowboy voice, and these are great cowboy songs for him to sing. El Paso might be one of the greatest cowboy songs ever written. the band and harmonies are of the equal high quality, and all together I'm sure this is now a favorite.


0023 Brubeck, Dave – Time Out
As far as jazz albums go, i don't mind this one. I'm yet to have a desire to listen to it outside of these lists, but still it's at least not boring like many of the other ones. The thing with this though is it always makes me think of the soundtracks to NFB cartoons. Which is probably really complimentary to the NFB and a big slap in the face to Brubeck...

Right, that's about it! Bring on the 60's!