★ Jazz Albums that Shook the World: The 1950s

With an active critical fraternity already analysing the music’s every move, by the time records such as Saxophone Colossus turned up in 1956, the ability of a record to influence the entire direction of the music came centre stage. Albums became an increasingly important way for musicians to communicate with the wider world beyond the smoke and limitations of the night club circuit. Just to give you some idea of how we drew up the criteria for this list: long-playing vinyl records began to appear in the US at the tail end of the 1940s, first in a 10” format, then by the mid-1950s in what became the standard 12” format that still persists today alongside CDs, which first appeared in the mid-1980s. But this is not just another “greatest jazz albums” list of favourite recordings and biggest sellers but a fully annotated look at the albums that actually changed jazz and changed lives. Barely a month goes by without magazines, newspapers or TV programmes pushing yet another poll of the 100 greatest whatever.

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