As I approach the release (this Friday!) of my Live at the Side Door trio album, I find myself thinking about some of my favorite live albums. It’s an interesting framework, as to me a standout live album has two components: great music (of course) and at least something about it that is unique to the live setting. Truly great music can be recorded in front of an audience, but is that music or the way it’s presented palpably different than if the same thing were recorded in the ostensibly more sterile environs of a studio? After all, especially with jazz, blues, singer-songwriter, and other potentially “intimate” types of music, musicians can channel interactivity and spontaneity and raw emotion regardless of environment – in that sense, it’s not as if Coltrane’s A Love Supreme is somehow sterile because it was recorded at Van Gelder Studio.

I got a little caught up genre-wise, so I’ll present this as two lists, jazz and “other.” I could write pages just about the “honorable mentions,” so I’ll just quickly shout out some of the many omissions, such as Etta James, Ramsey Lewis, Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, Elvin Jones, James Brown, Dexter Gordon, Brother Jack McDuff, Joao Gilberto, Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, Joan Armatrading, Joe Locke/Geoffrey Keezer Group, Keb’ Mo’, Bobby Timmons, Santana, Junior Mance, Keith Jarrett, Lyle Lovett, Bobby McFerrin, Kevin Eubanks, Shakti, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Alice Coltrane, John Hiatt, Ray Brown, Sam Cooke, Thelonious Monk, John Prine, Yusef Lateef, Old & in the Way, Bill Evans, Joe Jackson, Horace Silver, James Booker, Cannonball Adderley, Tito Puente, Mulgrew Miller, Rufus with Chaka Khan, Dave Liebman/Richie Beirach, Bob Marley, Kurt Elling, Peter Gabriel, Maceo Parker, Sting, and John Coltrane (gasp). And Peter Frampton of course 🙂

And here we go:

Top 10 Favorite Live Jazz Albums

1 ) Live at the Half Note by Art Farmer (1963)

The interplay among this quartet (with Jim Hall, Steve Swallow, and Walter Perkins) is just remarkable, and hearing them stretch out like they never could in the studio is profound.

2 ) Great American Songbook by Carmen McRae (1972)

Carmen commands the stage, brilliantly accompanied by a rhythm section fronted by Joe Pass and Jimmy Rowles.

3 ) A Night at the Village Vanguard by Sonny Rollins (1957)

Sonny’s stretched-out improvisations here are revelatory, as is his navigation of the sax/bass/drums trio format, which he would continue exploring from there.

4 ) Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival by John Handy (1966)

These two stretched out performances are the ultimate representation of saxophonist Handy’s unique and important West Coast quintet featuring Michael White’s violin and Jerry Hahn’s guitar.

5 ) Live at the Keystone Korner by Mary Lou Williams (1977)

This trio with Larry Gales and Eddie Marshall demonstrates that Mary Lou hadn’t slowed down an iota this late into her career.

6 ) Night and the City by Charlie Haden and Kenny Barron (1998)

Mostly ballads, and achingly gorgeous ones, recorded by this superlatively sensitive duo live at the Iridium in NYC. Thank goodness there’s a document of them patiently stretching out like this.

7 ) Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel by Miles Davis (1965)

Speaking of “thank goodness there’s a document of this,” hearing Miles, Wayne, Herbie, Ron, and Tony reinvent tunes from Miles’s book is an indispensable part of understanding what made them click as an ensemble.

8 ) Sunday at the Village Vanguard by Bill Evans (1961)

Mostly I haven’t primarily focused on records based on “historical significance” on this list, but the last and ultimate documentation of Evans, Scott LaFaro, and Paul Motian’s unprecedented interactivity is as historically essential as it is beautiful (and heartbreaking given LaFaro’s passing soon thereafter). 

9 ) Mack the Knife: Ella in Berlin by Ella Fitzgerald (1960)

There is plenty of uninhibited Ella on record, but this record is just joy incarnate.

10 ) A Night in Copenhagen by Charles Lloyd (1984)

I’m not sure why (aside from being from the ‘80s) this one isn’t more widely lauded as a classic, but Lloyd, Michel Petrucciani, Palle Danielsson, and Son Ship (Reggie) Theus are just amazing here, bolstered further by a guest appearance by the then-obscure vocalist Bobby McFerrin in one of his crowning moments as a scat singer. 

Top 10 Favorite Live Albums, Non- Jazz Category

1 ) Live by Donny Hathaway (1972)

I’ll always be grateful to bassist Richard Hamilton for turning me on to this indescribably joyful record in 1996, a truly transformative musical experience.

2 ) Live/Dead by Grateful Dead (1969)

I’m not sure this is even my favorite Grateful Dead live album (that would likely be Europe ’72) but the highly creative improvisations mixed with interesting songs and some gutbucket blues make it perhaps the ultimate representation of what made their live shows a unique experience.

3 ) Aretha Live at Fillmore West by Aretha Franklin (1971)

Aretha’s singing is so effortless that some of her live performances are “only” amazing and not earth-shattering, but sometimes (as on the classic Amazing Grace record) she melts our faces. This record is one of those, and the duet with Ray Charles certainly doesn’t hurt.

4 ) Wednesday Night in San Francisco by Albert King (1968)

The royal Kings of blues guitar all have some great live records. My favorite live work by Freddie King is currently out of print, and while B.B.’s

5 ) Live by Lou Rawls (1966)

I considered omitting this because (like Cannonball Adderley’s Mercy, Mercy, Mercy) technically it was recorded in a studio, but because this is in front of a live audience and has all the trappings of a live recording I chose not to penalize this great work of art for that.

6 ) Live at Carnegie Hall by Sweet Honey in the Rock (1988)

Every live Sweet Honey experience I’ve had has been profoundly moving. I’m not sure if an album can capture that, but this one comes as close as is possible, with an always-soulful mix of the uplifting and the darkly thought-provoking.

7 ) Roxy and Elsewhere by Frank Zappa (1974)

Like watching extraordinary circus performers without a net, hearing the mind-blowing intricacy and complexity of Zappa’s music executed so effectively that the pure fun isn’t inhibited is really something (with extra points for George Duke’s nutso-keyboard playing on “Be-bop Tango”).

8 ) Season of Lights by Laura Nyro (1977)

There are several lovely Laura Nyro albums, and I almost chose the stark intimacy of Live at Mountain Stage from 2000, but this band is just so cooking.

9 ) Love Alive by Walter Hawkins and the Love Center Choir (1975)

The Hawkins brothers really knew how to rouse folks. (audiences? congregations? is that even an important distinction in this sense?) Because Edwin Hawkins Live is out of print (come hang sometime and we’ll listen on vinyl) choosing this moving and important first edition in brother Walter’s “Love Alive” series was a no-brainer. 

10 ) Under a Blood Red Sky by U2 (1983)

There can be something about a stripped-down rock or punk band letting loose live that is especially satisfying, yet some of the greats in that vein (Television, the Clash, etc.) are underrepresented on live records; this passionate early document of U2 in concert was (and on some level remains) my template for their innate energy, even as their ascent to superstardom remained some years away.