The year 1959 was outstanding for jazz.
The year's production includes the best selling jazz album of all time (Kind of Blue - Miles Davis), biggest selling jazz tune of all time (Take Five - Paul Desmond), the first jazz score for a major Hollywood film by Afro-Americans (Anatomy of a Murder - Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn) and some of the most influential music by top artists such as Charles Mingus (Mingus Ah Um), John Coltrane (Giant Steps), Ornette Coleman (The Shape of Things to Come), Bill Evans, the debutante Nina Simone, as well as the emergence of bossa nova, afro roots music and free jazz.
A year of masterpieces.
Duke Ellington - Anatomy of a murder ••• Miles Davis - So What ••• Charles Mingus - Better Git It In Your Soul ••• Thelonious Monk - Straight, No Chaser ••• Miles Davis & Bill Evans - Blue in Green ••• Paul Desmond - Take Five ••• Bill Evans - Autumn Leaves ••• John Coltrane - Giant Steps ••• Charles Mingus - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat ••• Gerry Mulligan with Art Farmer - My Funny Valentine ••• Ornette Coleman - Lonely Woman ••• John Coltrane - Naima ••• Thelonious Monk - Blue Monk ••• Art Pepper - 'Round Midnight ••• Gerry Mulligan with Art Farmer - What Is There To Say ••• Antonio Carlos Jobim - Desafinado (Off Key) ••• Coleman Hawkins - La Rosita ••• Duke Ellington - El Gato ••• Gil Evans - Straight No Chaser ••• Sun Ra and His Arkestra - Saturn ••• Howlin' Wolf - Smokestack Lightnin' ••• Art Blakey - The Drum Thunder Suite ••• Ray Charles - Moanin' ••• Nina Simone - Love Me Or Leave Me ••• Chet Baker with Bill Evans - You and the Night and the Music ••• Ella Fitzgerald - How Deep Is The Ocean ••• Antonio Carlos Jobim - A Felicidade ••• Mongo Santamaria - Afro Blue ••• Abbey Lincoln - Afro Blue ••• Curtis Fullers Quintet - Five Spot After Dark ••• Nina Simone - Don't Smoke In Bed ••• Luiz Bonfá, Antonio Carlos Jobim - Manhã De Carnaval ••• Horace Silver Quintet - Peace ••• Ornette Coleman - Peace ••• Nina Simone - I Loves You Porgy ••• Bill Evans - Peace Piece
