[Start Here] Jazz Masterpieces: A Must-Listen Album Selection
What kind of impression do you have of the musical genre known as jazz?
You might think of it as somewhat stylish, or perhaps a bit intimidating and highbrow.
The history of jazz, which includes many subgenres, can’t be summed up easily—and of course, it’s not just music from a bygone era.
This time, for those who are interested but don’t know where to start, we’ve picked out a selection of classic, standard albums that have gone down in jazz history—perfect as your first listen.
Be sure to check them out!
- The Royal Road of Jazz: Classic modern jazz masterpieces. Popular tracks you should listen to at least once.
- Hall of Jazz: Classic Blue Note Records. Recommended jazz albums.
- [For Beginners] Classic Modern Jazz Albums: Recommended Records to Start With
- [Jazz Intro] Classic Jazz Tracks Recommended for First-Time Listeners
- [Western Music] Classic jazz guitar albums: recommended records you should listen to at least once
- A roundup of classic Western jazz-funk albums—from staples to the latest releases
- [BGM] Delicious Jazz Classics You’d Want to Hear in a Restaurant [2026]
- A roundup of famous jazz standards featured in the hugely popular jazz manga BLUE GIANT
- [2026] Jazz piano masterpieces: from standards to recent favorites
- Introduction! A collection of recommended masterpieces and standard numbers for jazz beginners
- Classic swing jazz tunes. Recommended popular songs.
- Jazz Piano Masterpieces: From Classic Essentials to Contemporary Favorites
- Classic Dixieland jazz tunes. Recommended popular songs.
[Start with this one] Jazz masterpieces: A must-hear album selection (81–90)
Autumn Leavesjim hall
In jazz harmony, along with the piano, the guitar is sometimes used.
Among the masters of the guitar—an instrument said to be three times harder than the piano—in the world of jazz is Jim Hall.
One of the charms of jazz guitar is the technique of playing chords and melody simultaneously—and doing so improvisationally.
Mack the KnifeBobby Darin
A song composed by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht for the music drama Die Dreigroschenoper.
This Bobby Darin version became his biggest hit and won Song of the Year at the 2nd Annual Grammy Awards in 1959.
All the Things You AreJoe Pass
Alongside Jim Hall, Joe Pass is a master of jazz guitar.
He plays chords, melody, and bass lines simultaneously—and improvises them.
Even the jazz standard “All the Things You Are” becomes uniquely his own without disturbing the character of the piece.
Feeling GoodNina Simone
A song written by British songwriters Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for the 1965 Broadway musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd.
In the Broadway production, it was performed by actor Gilbert Price.
This Nina Simone version has become one of her best-known songs.
The Girl From IpanemaAstrud Gilberto & Stan Getz
In 1961, jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd, who had toured Brazil, introduced tenor saxophonist Stan Getz to Brazilian bossa nova, leading to the release of the smash hit Jazz Samba in 1962.
What is now a familiar meeting of jazz and bossa nova took shape through this very sequence of events.
The album we’re highlighting today, Getz/Gilberto, is renowned—alongside the aforementioned Jazz Samba—as an epoch-making work that fused jazz and bossa nova.
Credited jointly to Getz and bossa nova singer-guitarist João Gilberto, it was released in 1963, became a major hit reaching No.
2 on the Billboard chart, and won a Grammy Award.
Though it drew mixed reactions in some quarters, it undeniably helped bring widespread recognition of bossa nova to the United States.
From the moment the opening track—The Girl from Ipanema, the extraordinarily famous classic sung by Astrud Gilberto, João’s wife at the time whose career breakthrough it became—begins, you feel as if you’re tasting the atmosphere of South America you couldn’t possibly know firsthand.
It’s a highly recommended album for newcomers to both jazz and bossa nova.
