Birth of the Yoity Tot CD List

I had a comment on this blog the other day from "Tim", a fellow alumnus of the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He suggested that I ought to consider composing my own list of best jazz CD's, and he sent me a link to one on The New Yorker website. I immediately considered that to be an excellent idea. While I drive my own jazz music purchases through an almost fervent attention to the Penguin Jazz Recordings Guide's Core Collection, I've found a few recordings that I like at least as much as the ones on that list, and of course, I've found a couple on that list that do absolutely nothing for me. And since such lists are purely subjective opinions of the individuals preparing them, I figured I have nothing to lose by going out on a limb and telling people I like "this one over that one" for whatever reason suits me. If anybody complains, well, I just tell them, that's fine, please ignore my list.

So, having determined I would go ahead and compose a list, the next challenge I faced was coming up with a name for it. I tried to think of something that would reflect the subjectivity of the list, namely, I didn't want to be presumptuous by calling my list something like "These are the best jazz CD's ever" or "Eric's authoritative list of the best 25 jazz recordings of the last 50 years", or anything like that. I wanted the title to suggest that all listeners of jazz have to take it upon themselves to define their likes and dislikes and act accordingly - that is - true to their own nature. I don't know if I am some kind of genius or it was purely lucky happenstance, but amazingly, and seriously, I came up with what I consider a suitable acronym embodying these thoughts and intentions on my very first try. The acronym is "YOITY" (yoy-tee). After playing with it a little further in my head, I expanded it to YOITY TOT (yoy-tee taht). It stands for, "You Owe It To Yourself To Own These CD's".

That, was the easy part. Now comes the hard part of preparing and defending the list. Plus the structure. Should I include single CD's only, or box sets? Should I limit myself to specific eras? How many should I put on the list?

Here's what I'm thinking: Anything goes. I think basically, I'm going to limit the number to 25, and I'm going to make the list based on the CD's that I have played most often over the previous sixty days. I might even keep a "Serie B" (that is not missing an 's'; it's an Italian soccer, er football, term for "B League") list of, say, ten or twenty CD's that were in the top 25 but got dropped out because of other recordings getting more play time. At least, that is how I will approach it. For starters.

As for actually composing the list, I can think of five CD's that will go on the list right now:
Kind of Blue by Miles Davis
The Cole Porter Songbook by Ella Fitzgerald
The Sidewinder by Lee Morgan
Jazz in Silhouette by Sun Ra
The Billy Taylor Trio by Billy Taylor
I'm pretty sure Portrait in Jazz by Bill Evans will make it as well. Other candidates (this is not the list, yet, this is just off the top of my head): Somethin' Else by Cannonball Adderley, Afro-Cuban by Kenny Dorham (that's a recent acquisition raking in a lot of playing time right now), Have a Little Faith by Bill Frisell, New Orleans Suite by Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington by Thelonious Monk, Night Train by Oscar Peterson, and Motion by Lee Konitz.

Time to look at the blog layout page to see where I'm going to put the list. Thanks, Tim. My readers and I thank you for your excellent suggestion!