We all like a playlist, and the legendary Soho jazz club Ronnie Scott’s has devised, with a lot of help from its friends, a list of 60 jazz albums in celebration of the club’s 60th anniversary year.  Peter Bacon reports:

The Jazz 60 playlist is just the first of a number of special events Ronnie Scott’s has planned to mark its 60 years at the heart of jazz in London. Celebrations will culminate in a 60th birthday gig at the Royal Albert Hall in October.

The press release describes the list as comprising “the 60 most important, most brilliant, most innovative and most significant jazz albums that have been recorded over the last 60 years”.

The release states:

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Artists who have shared their personal jazz favourites include the likes of Soweto Kinch, Nubya Garcia, Courtney Pine, Pee Wee Ellis, Billy Cobham, Claire Martin, Alex Garnett, Natalie Williams, Moses Boyd, and Monty Alexander.

Broadcasters and journalists such as Giles Peterson, Cerys Matthews, Robert Elms, Mike Hobart, Rosie Hanley, David Freeman, Jane Cornwell, Mike Vitti and Jez Nelson have also provided their top albums. Additionally, industry expert and resident Ronnie Scott’s Music Bookings Coordinator Paul Pace also shared a list of the Jazz albums which have inspired him…

Managing Director of Ronnie Scott’s, Simon Cooke, said:

 “With such an incredible array of artists to choose from, selecting the most significant jazz albums of the last 60 years was never going to be straightforward. Our 40 aficionados nominated over 800 albums which have been whittled down to a definitive list that not only reflects the jazz of the past 60 years, but looks to the future too; just as we do at Ronnie Scott’s.”

The official Ronnie Scott’s Jazz 60 playlist 

Alice Coltrane – Journey in Satchidananda
Archie Shepp – Attica Blues
Art Blakey – Moanin’
Betty Carter – The Audience with Betty Carter
Bill Evans – Sunday at the Village Vanguard
Cannonball Adderley – Somethin’ Else
Charles Mingus – Mingus Ah Um
Charles Mingus – The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
Chick Corea – Now He Sings, Now He Sobs
Courtney Pine – Journey to the Urge Within
The Dave Brubeck Quartet – Time Out
Dave Holland – Extensions
Dexter Gordon – Go
Ella Fitzgerald – Ella In Berlin: Mack the Knife
Eric Dolphy – Out to Lunch!
Esbjörn Svensson Trio – Seven Days of Falling
Esperanza Spalding – Emily’s D+Evolution
Frank Sinatra – Sinatra at the Sands
Freddie Hubbard – Red Clay
George Benson – Breezin’
Gregory Porter – Water
Hank Mobley – Soul Station
Herbie Hancock – Head Hunters
Herbie Hancock – Maiden Voyage
Horace Silver – Song for My Father
Jaco Pastorius – Jaco Pastorius
Joe Henderson – Page One
John Coltrane – A Love Supreme
John Coltrane – Giant Steps
Kamasi Washington – The Epic
Keith Jarrett – The Köln Concert
Kurt Elling – The Messenger
Lee Morgan – The Sidewinder
Loose Tubes – Loose Tubes
The Mahavishnu Orchestra – Birds of Fire
Mark Murphy – Stolen Moments
Mary Lou Williams – Black Christ of the Andes
Michael Brecker – Tales of the Hudson
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
Miles Davis – In a Silent Way
Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley – Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley
Oliver Nelson – The Blues and the Abstract Truth
Ornette Coleman – The Shape of Jazz to Come
Oscar Peterson Trio – Night Train
Pat Metheny Group – Still Life (Talking)
Robert Glasper – Black Radio
Roy Hargrove – Earfood
Sarah Vaughan – Ronnie Scott’s Presents Sarah Vaughan Live
Shirley Horn – Here’s to Life
Stan Getz & João Gilberto – Getz/Gilberto
Sonny Rollins – The Bridge
Sons of Kemet – Your Queen is a Reptile
Stan Tracey – Jazz Suite Inspired by Dylan Thomas’s “Under Milk Wood”
Sun Ra – The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One
Tubby Hayes – Tubbs in N.Y.
Wayne Shorter – Speak No Evil
Weather Report – Heavy Weather
Wes Montgomery – The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery
Wynton Marsalis – Black Codes (From the Underground)
Yussef Kamaal – Black Focus

LINK: A selection of the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz 60 is available on Spotify