Recently, I wrote a piece in which I asked Music Majors and Minors to talk about their favorite albums, or albums which have greatly impacted their lives. This week, I asked music professors, and professors who love music, to answer the same question. Below are the results.
Ted Buehrer, Professor of Music
“Initially, when I started thinking about this question, my mind went completely blank because, well, how do I choose only five? But I’ve listened to these five countless times, and for hours and hours, over the years.”
This is my answer to the question, “If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only listen to one recording, what would it be?” Miles is perfect in his understated style, and he is complimented well by his all-star sidemen on this classic album. I think I can sing from memory just about every note of Miles’s solos on this album. There’s a reason it’s the best selling jazz album of all time.
J.S. Bach — Cello Suites (Janos Starker, cello)
Bach’s music is good for the soul. The solo cello suites are some of his greatest masterpieces, in my opinion. There are many good recordings of these suites by other cellists, but I always come back to Starker.
This appeals to my love of funk (I am a child of the 1970s, after all). This album is funk from first to last, and was popular not only in its day (it’s the first jazz album to go platinum!) but still manages to sound fresh every time I listen to it more than 40 years later. Any other funk band owes a debt of gratitude to Herbie and this album.
Billy Joel — Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 and 2
I was a huge fan of Billy Joel in high school and college (and still am) and knew how to play a bunch of his songs on the piano, mostly because I learned them from this record. I still love using BJ examples in my theory classes!
Brad Mehldau — Art of the Trio, Vol. 4
Mehldau is one of the most talented, creative, young jazz pianists performing today. In the late 1990s and early 2000s he did a series of piano trio albums called Art of the Trio. This one—my favorite—is from a live performance at the famous Village Vanguard jazz club in New York. The energy and interaction between trio members jumps out of the recording, and Mehldau’s chops are amazing.
Chelsey Hamm, Visiting Instructor of Music
My first CD!
Reel Big Fish — Turn the Radio Off
My favorite album in high school!
My favorite album during my master’s!
My favorite album in my Ph.D.!
Charles Ives — Ives Plays Ives.
My favorite Ives album!
Dane Heuchemer, Professor of Music
Maynard Ferguson — Live at Jimmy’s
This album really got me listening to jazz as a freshman in high school. It was kind of “jazz lite” but I was into it for quite a while.
Toscanini and NBC Symphony — Beethoven: Complete Symphonies
I learned my basic conducting skills “directing” these recordings my junior year of high school. Turned me on to Classical music.
Duke Ellington — The Great Paris Concert
Wow! After listening to “jazz lite” for too long I found out what real jazz was like. Between my junior and senior years of high school, when I was at Harvard for a summer term, Prof. Tom Everett really got me listening to some serious artists.
Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet — Study in Brown
Another Everett recommendation. Best jazz trumpeter ever, ever, ever. Ever.
Chicago Symphony, Georg Solti — Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 5. 1973 recording Unbelievable playing, unbelievable work, wonderful conductor. Epic orchestra. It’s in my car now, in CD slot number 1. Actually, if I could, I would like to put all of the Solti Mahler recordings of that time into this list. They were reissued as a CD boxed set about twenty years ago…
Bob Milnikel, Professor of Mathematics
“Five albums that, at various times in my life, I have listened to daily for periods of weeks or months…It seems criminal that I don’t have any Beatles on here, but no single Beatles album has ever obsessed me the way these five have at various periods of my life.”
Glenn Gould — Bach’s Goldberg Variations (1955 version)
For a year or more of high school, this was probably in my walkman at least 50% of the time, and I wore my walkman everywhere. I still adore the piece and really admire this recording.
Berlin Philharmonic — Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (1977 version)
The first CD I ever owned, and I went to sleep to it every night for a year or more. Simply one of the most glorious pieces of music ever written.
Talking Heads — Stop Making Sense
Not technically the soundtrack album of the film; I hooked an audio cassette up to my VCR and recorded every second of the movie. Absolutely my favorite concert film and live album.
Might not be their single best album, but when I was wallowing in loneliness working a summer job away from all of my friends after my first year of college, 90 minutes of nightly existential despair, beautifully executed, seemed like just the ticket.
Jaco Pastorius — Jaco Pastorius
A work of absolute genius. A 24-year-old comes out of nowhere, playing the bass like nobody ever has before, and writes an album with an array of styles and sounds that has seldom been equaled. Go find this album and listen to it.
Honorable mentions: The original cast recordings of “Into the Woods” and “Hamilton.”
Ross Feller, Assistant Professor of Music
“I have compiled a short list of albums that have affected me, only by women or of music by women. They are listed in no particular order.
Art Bears — Winter Songs (featuring vocalist Dagmar Krause)
Unlike anything I’d heard. Profound lyrics, dark, brooding, experimental cabaret.
Olga Neuwirth — Lonicea caprifolium
Klangforum Wien performs this Austrian composer’s work. Includes “Spleen”, a fantastic piece for bass clarinet solo, which explores all manner of comportment.
Chaya Czernowin — Shu Hai Practices Javelin
Chaya’s music is full of new sounds and hybrid mixtures of genres and styles.
Carla Bley — Musique Mecanique
Contains several moments in which she has composed the (virtual) sounds of a skipping record!
Ruth Crawford — String Quartet 1931
This piece was an early example of a sound mass texture, without employing a mass of instruments.
Charming Hostess (featuring Jewlia Einsenberg) — Sarajevo Blues
They approach the problem of how to compose music about the horrors of war and strife, without nostalgia or cliche.
Bulgarian Women’s Choir — The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices
Sheer vocal beauty.
Wendy Carlos — Switched—On Bach
Bach played on Moog synthesizers. Hugely influential.
Laurie Spiegel — The Expanding Universe
She is a pioneer in computer music and software development. She composed the score for Hunger Games.
Huge thanks to Professors Buehrer, Hamm, Heuchemer, Milnikel and Feller for their thoughtful answers! Who should I ask next?
Image credits: Giphy.com