Classic Soul/Blues/Funk/Jazz/50's Rock

Classic soul/funk:
Ray Charles, James Brown, Sam Cooke, Otis Reading, Booker T & the MG's, Sly & the Family Stone, The O'Jays. If you can find em, the complete Motown singles box-sets and the complete Stax/Volt singles Box are great collections if you have the space.

Jazz is such a broad genre, you've got 100+ years of music that can vary wildly, but I'd say the best way to approach jazz is from the 40s-60s Be-bob/hard bop/Free jazz that most people associate with the genre. Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gilespie, Charlie Parker, Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman. This list could literally go on forever.
Also if you like rock & funk you may like late 60s 70s fusion jazz, like Miles Davis Bitches Brew era stuff or Herbie Hancock, Chic Corea & Return to Forever or even Frank Zappa's Hot Rats/Waka/Jawaka/Grand Wazoo era stuff.

I'm really looking forward to finding my way through all these. Thanks for all the responses.

I'll be sure to pick up those top ten. To ebay I go.

I'll recommend ten jazz albums and ten funk albums. I'll also second Garageland's entire soul album list, all of which are excellent. The Sam Cooke in particular is one of my very favorite live records.

Funk-
Sly and the Family Stone - There's a Riot Goin' On (the darkest and funkiest of their amazing run of albums. I'm forcing myself to limit myself to one Sly album, but Stand!, A Whole New Thing, Life, Dance to the Music and Fresh are all among the best albums of all time)

Stevie Wonder - Music of My Mind

Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove

The Meters - Look-Ka-Py-Py (my favorite of their instrumental albums, but Rejuvenation may be a better way to go if you prefer their vocal side)

James Brown - Sex Machine

Betty Davis - Betty Davis (Miles Davis's funky wife, who introduced him to the music of Jimi and was his muse for his early electric period. Both of her albums are phenomenal)

Curtis Mayfield - Superfly (So much of the best funk is from Blaxploitation films. Roy Ayers' soundtrack to Coffy, Isaac Hayes's Shaft, Earth Wind and Fire's soundtrack to Sweet Sweetback's Baadaasss Song are some other great ones.)

Kool and the Gang - Spirit of the Boogie

The Commodores - The Commodores

Black Heat - Black Heat

Some other essential funk tracks: Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band's "Express Yourself", James Brown's "People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul", Parliament's "Flash Light" and "Give Up the Funk", so many more. And that's not even getting into all of the excellent funk from Africa.

Jazz-
I'll keep this simple by limiting it to bebop, hard bop and post-bop, plus some big band stuff (i.e. no early swing, no free jazz, jazz-funk or fusion. Maybe a little free jazz, depending on ow you define it) I'll also assume you've heard Miles's Kind of Blue, which is number 0 on every list. It really wouldn't be hard to make a list of 100, jazz is so vast.

Miles Davis - The Birth of the Cool (Miles's first album as a leader, and the very best example of the west coast cool jazz sound that was dominant at that time ~ 1949)

Ella Fitzgerald - Live in Berlin Mack the Knife (her singing is absolutely phenomenal throughout, but the vocal improvisation on the title track and the How High the Moon encore are just mind blowing)

Cannonball Adderley - Country Preacher (Soul-jazz classic, complete with an introduction by Jesse Jackson, featuring Joe Zawinul's excellent compositions and phrasing, and Cannonball's uplifting banter between songs)

Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um (this is such a great album because it is like a history of jazz up to that point. Every song is like a transcendent ride into the past)

Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery - The Dynamic Duo (Two virtuosos feeding off of each other's energy.

Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come (The first great jazz album without an isntrument dedicated to playing chords, this album paved the way for free jazz, and features some of the most beautiful songs ever written. "Lonely Woman" melts me every time.)

The Quintet - Jazz at Massey Hall (This one features Bird, Diz, Bud Powell, Mingus, and Max Roach)

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin' (Lee Morgan's trumpet solo alone on the title track is worth the price of purchase)

John Coltrane - Coltrane's Sound (In my opinion, the best of his Atlantic albums, and an excellent introduction to his work. "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" is one of my very favorite songs.)

Duke Ellington - Money Jungle (Most of Duke's best work is with big bands, but his excellent compositions are given new life in this trio setting, with excellent backers Charles Mingus and Max Roach).


This omits many of the early greats, since they didn't cut as many LPs. If you want to check out those guys, here's some song recommendations: Charlie Parker's "Parker's Mood", "Billie's Bounce", "Confirmation". Duke Ellington's "East St Louis Toodle-oo" and "Mood Indigo", any early Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Art Tatum, so many more.

And here's some early rock recommendations:
Elvis Presley - The Sun Sessions
Little Richard - Here's Little Richard
Fats Domino - Early Imperial Recordings
Loud Fast and Out of Control (4-disc rhino comp)
Big Joe Turner - The Definitive Blues Collection (yeah, it's blues, but it definitely was a key influence on early rock)
Ritchie Valens - Ritchie Valens
Any Chuck Berry compilation

And for Blues, again, the field is huge. I'd recommend everyone mentioned above. A few to add: T-Bone Walker (probably the most influential blues guitarist), Big Bill Broonzy (country blues king), John Lee Hooker (boogie master with a devastating blues voice), Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (multi-instrumentalist innovator and idol of Zappa), and Etta James (she started out as a blues singer, anyway - check her early stuff). Also should mention my favorite blues revivalists Canned Heat, who are part of the reason we still know and listen to many of the older blues and boogie artists.

It really is. Thanks to everyone who has posted recommendations, I know I've been peeking this thread quite a bit, and finding lots of stuff to check out. Well done! ;D ;D

I'm going to take these of the table automaticaly. You know these names. You should own at lest Greatest Hits collections by them. I'm gonna focus on some names you may not have heard.

Screamin' Jay Hawkins
While he only put out one record (1958's At Home with Screamin' Jay Hawkins) in that decade, he will always be one of my favorites. Such an outlandish stage performance and a gimmick persona, you have no choice but to love the man.
You probably know one song from his catalog, I Put A Spell On You. His most famous by far. But what a performance.


Duane Eddy
My Dad loved Duane. We settle in for long car rides to the beach and the first tape that was produced was Duane Eddy's Greatest Hits. One of those truckstop cassettes for super cheap. He went through a million of those I think.
Eddy has a distinct style al his own. You can hear jazz,R&B,country all in his style. Just listen to this Rebel Rouser.

Have Twangy Guitar Will Travel is th album you should look for.

Link Wray
Dude. It's quackin Link Wray. Enough said.


Eddie Cochran
Last but not least I'll leave this with my favorite from this era. Eddie Cochoran. The only album I suggest is "12 of His Biggest Hits". While it came out in 1960 it was an amazing overature of his career, to that point. You can also find it under the name "The Eddie Cochran Memorial Album". He died very shortly after they put that out.
He was one of the first from those years to write his own songs.



Two more I gotta add. Neither are "rock" persay, more R&B, but the lines are so blured.
Andre Williams
God I LOVE Andre. With songs lke " I Wanna Be Your Favorite Pair Of Pajamas" and "Jailbait", How could you not. One of the sleazest men in Rock and Roll history.
Hes still recording too. And he puts on a hell of a show.


I gotta say Jailbait is my favorite record from him.

ESQUERITA!!!!
If Little Ricard is PG-13, Esquerita is R.




So many names. Roy Orbison, Johnny Ace, Hank Ballard, El Dorado, The Larks. The list can just keep going.

And Thanks Drewboss. Thereare some things I'll start to look for on that funk list.

And ND if you ever need to know about 60's garage. Let me know.

"It's Screamin' Jay Hawkins and he's a wild man, so bug off"

(If you've never seen Stranger Than Paradise, you need to check it out) (and I couldn't figure out how to embed this video, so just go watch it)

As for music to check out, it may sound weird, but you should really check out the Blues Brothers. Dan Akroyd and John Belushi really put together a sick band, and many of the guys in the band said they were two of the best singers they ever performed with. Also, I feel like Bobby Darin needs to put on this list, I feel like he gets forgotten too many times.

I have yet to see it, though I just watched Down By Law with Tom Waits, Roberto Benini and the guy from Stranger Than Paradise and loved it. Jarmusch is the man.

Soul: Al Green, Ray Charles, the Staple Singers, Aretha Franklin, the Four Tops, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Wilson Pickett, Sam Cooke, Solomon Burke, The Supremes, (Stevie Wonder), Smokey Robinson

Blues: Howlin Wolf, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Leadbelly, Memphis Slim, Muddy Waters, Pinetop Perkins, Roosevelt Sykes, Slim Harpo

Funk: Prince, James Brown, Sly & the Family Stone, Parliament/Funkadelic/George Clinton, Earth Wind & Fire, the Meters, Kool & the Gang, Tower of Power

50's Rock: Buddy Holly, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Fats Domino, Johnny Cash, Otis Redding, Roy Orbison,


Jazz: Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter, Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Freddie Hubbard, Bud Powell, Benny Goodman, Art Blakey, Louis Armstrong, Chick Webb, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Kenton, Lester Young, Bill Evans, Bix Beiderbecke, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Django Reinhardt, Pat Metheny Group, the Bad Plus, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Christian Scott, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Wes Montgomery, Esbjorn Svensson Trio, Gordon Goodwin, Weather Report, John Scofield, John Zorn, Oliver Nelson, Modern Jazz Quartet, Pharaoh Sanders, Phronesis, Return to Forever, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Sun Ra

^^Definitely a top 5 R&B/Soul/Funk album for me. It cannot be understated how much this album pushed the doors open for other artists to experiment in the R&B/Soul genre.