My top 100 jazz tracks

A while ago I wrote a post explaining how jazz works. In response, someone asked me to name my favorite hundred jazz tracks. So here's my list. It's totally subjective and necessarily incomplete, but I can guarantee that any of these tunes will make your life better. Hear them on Spotify.

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers

• "Caravan" - Caravan

• "Moanin'" - Moanin'

• "Come Rain or Come Shine" - Moanin'

Art Tatum

• "Just Like A Butterfly That's Caught In The Rain" - Solo Masterpieces Volume Six

Billie Holiday

•  "They Can't Take That Away From Me" - Billie Holiday: The Legacy 1933-1958

• "All Of Me" - The Quintessential Billie Holiday Volume 9 (1940 - 1942)

• "God Bless The Child" - The Quintessential Billie Holiday Volume 9 (1940 - 1942)

• "The Way You Look Tonight" - Billie Holiday Love Songs

• "Willow Weep for Me" - Lady Sings The Blues

Bud Powell

• "Thelonious" - A Portrait of Thelonious

Cannonball Adderley

• "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" - Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

• "Autumn Leaves" - Somethin' Else, featuring Miles Davis

Carmen McRae

• "Ruby, My Dear" - Carmen Sings Monk

• "Round Midnight" - Carmen Sings Monk

Cecil Taylor

• "Piano Solo" - Historic Concerts

Charles Mingus

• "Better Git It In Your Soul" - Mingus Ah Um

• "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" - Mingus Ah Um

• "What Love?" - Mingus At Antibes

• "Mood Indigo" - Mingus Dynasty

Charlie Parker

• "Now's the Time" - Bird's Best Bop on Verve

• "Anthropology" - Early Bird

Clifford Brown & Max Roach

• "The Blues Walk" - Clifford Brown & Max Roach

• "Daahoud" - Clifford Brown & Max Roach

• "Joy Spring" - Clifford Brown & Max Roach

Count Basie

• "One O'Clock Jump" - Ken Burns Jazz - Count Basie

• "Li'l Darlin'" - Ken Burns Jazz - Count Basie

• "Everyday (I Have the Blues)" - 1956 Count Basie & Joe Williams

Dizzy Gillespie

• "Whisper Not" - Birks' Works: The Verve Big-Band Sessions

Django Reinhardt

• "Honeysuckle Rose" - Plays The Great Standards

• "Sweet Georgia Brown" - Plays The Great Standards

Duke Ellington

• "Midnight Indigo" - Anatomy Of A Murder

• "Blood Count" - And His Mother Called Him Bill

• "The Star-Crossed Lovers" - Such Sweet Thunder

• "Half The Fun (Aka Lately)" - Such Sweet Thunder

• "Overture" - Three Suites

• "Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance Of The Sugar-Plum Fairy)" - Three Suites

• "Misfit Blues" - Three Suites

• "Lay-By" - Three Suites

• "The New East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" - The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz

• "Ko-Ko" - The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz

• "Concerto For Cootie" - The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz

• "Cotton Tail" - The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz

• "In A Mellotone" - The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz

Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus & Max Roach

• "African Flower (Fleurette Africaine)" - Money Jungle

• "Wig Wise" - Money Jungle

Duke Ellington & John Coltrane

• "In A Sentimental Mood" - Duke Ellington & John Coltrane

Ella Fitzgerald

• "Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea" - The Best Of The Songbooks

• "Sophisticated Lady" - Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Song Book

• "I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart" - Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Song Book

• "Mack the Knife (Live, West Berlin 1960)" - Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song

• "How High the Moon (Live)" - Ken Burns's Jazz: Ella Fitzgerald

• "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To" - The Smithsonian Collection Of Classic Jazz

Ella Fitzgerald & Joe Pass

• "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You?" - Take Love Easy

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong

• "Stars Fell On Alabama" - Ella and Louis

• "They Can't Take That Away From Me" - Ella and Louis

Eric Dolphy

• "God Bless the Child" - Here and There

Hank Mobley

• "This I Dig of You" - Soul Station (Remastered)

Herbie Hancock

• "Watermelon Man" - Head Hunters

Horace Silver

• "Song for My Father" - Song for My Father

Jimmy Smith

• "On The Sunny Side Of The Street" - Back At The Chicken Shack

John Coltrane

• "Acknowledgement" - A Love Supreme

• "Moment's Notice" - Blue Train

• "Equinox" -Coltrane's Sound

• "Lonnie's Lament" - Crescent

• "Giant Steps" - Giant Steps

• "Naima" - Giant Steps

• "India" - Impressions

• "Venus" - Interstellar Space

• "My Favorite Things" - My Favorite Things

• "But Not For Me" - My Favorite Things

Max Roach

• "Drums Solo" - Historic Concerts

McCoy Tyner

• "Contemplation" - The Real McCoy

Miles Davis

• "Doxy" - Bags' Groove

• "Venus De Milo" - Birth Of The Cool

• "Shhh/Peaceful" - In A Silent Way

• "In A Silent Way/It's About That Time" - In A Silent Way

• "So What" - Kind Of Blue

• "Freddie Freeloader" - Kind Of Blue

• "Milestones" - Milestones

• "Round Midnight" - 'Round About Midnight

• "All Of You" - 'Round About Midnight

• "Bye Bye Blackbird" - 'Round About Midnight

• "Someday My Prince Will Come" - Someday My Prince Will Come

• "On Green Dolphin Street" - '58 Sessions

Miles Davis & Gil Evans

• "Prayer (Oh Doctor Jesus)" - Porgy And Bess

Nat Adderley

• "Work Song" - Work Song

Oliver Nelson

• "Yearnin'" - The Blues And The Abstract Truth

Sidney Bechet

• "When The Saints Go Marchin' In" - Sidney Bechet

Sonny Rollins

• "St. Thomas" - Saxophone Colossus

• "You Don't Know What Love Is" - Saxophone Colossus

Thelonious Monk

• "Played Twice" - Big Band and Quartet in Concert

• "Round Midnight" - The Composer

• "Ask Me Now" - Genius Of Modern Music Vol. 2

• "Bye-Ya" - Monk's Dream

• "Sweet And Lovely" - Monk's Dream

Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane

• "Bye-Ya" - Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall

• "Blue Monk" - Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall

Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins

• "Work" - Thelonious Monk And Sonny Rollins

• "The Way You Look Tonight" - Thelonious Monk And Sonny Rollins

Wayne Shorter

• "Witch Hunt" - Speak No Evil