The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz


The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz is a six-LP box set released in 1973 by the Smithsonian Institution. Compiled by jazz critic, scholar, and historian Martin Williams, the album included tracks from over a dozen record labels spanning several decades and genres of American jazz, from ragtime and big band to post-bop and free jazz.

Release and reception

Praised from the time of its release as "by far the best anthology of jazz recordings ever issued," it "became part of the jazz curriculum at colleges throughout the country." and over time it was a best-selling, double platinum record.
This collection has been criticized for a number of shortcomings and idiosyncrasies; e.g., Paul de Barros, jazz critic for the Seattle Times, wrote, "Williams also favored black musicians over white, overlooked Latin, female and most hard-bop instrumentalists and, as most male jazz critics still do, disdained vocals." However, the collection has also long been widely and highly praised in terms similar to those of Dan Morganstern of The New York Times, who in 1987 referred to it as "by far the best available survey of the recorded history of jazz on concise form."
Critic Gary Giddins posited in 1998 that these traits, its idiosyncratic nature and its esteemed stature, were two sides of a coin: "One key reason Martin Williams's epochal 1973 Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz had the impact it did is that he trusted his own eccentricity, though he would have used a, ahem, different term, like maybe critical judgment."
In 1987 the Smithsonian issued a revised, seven-LP, five-CD, or five-cassette edition of the collection, accompanied by a paperback book by Williams under the same title, with the revised collection including some different tracks, ending with "Steppin'" by the World Saxophone Quartet. The collection was reissued as a five-CD boxed set in 1997 by Sony Music Special Projects, digitally remastered and with some tracks restored to full-length.
In 2011, with this collection out of print, the Smithsonian issued a new 6-CD set Intended to take its place, called Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology, about which Ben Ratliff of The New York Times wrote, "what the new anthology might make you miss the most is the object it has been designed to replace: The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz, compiled in 1973 and revised in 1987 by the critic Martin Williams." One critic opined that the 2011 anthology's selection by committee, rather than by a single person, "while admirable in principle, guarantees that The Smithsonian Anthology has no point of view." Other critics had similar reactions.

Track list

Side one
  1. Scott Joplin – "Maple Leaf Rag" – 3:16
  2. Jelly Roll Morton – "Maple Leaf Rag" – 2:37
  3. Robert Johnson – "Hellhound on My Trail" – 2:39
  4. Bessie Smith – "St. Louis Blues" – 3:12
  5. Bessie Smith – "Lost Your Head Blues" – 2:57
  6. King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band – "Dippermouth Blues" – 2:22
  7. Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers – "Grandpa's Spells" – 2:55
  8. Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers – "Dead Man Blues" – 3:00
Side two
  2. Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers – "Black Bottom Stomp" – 3:14
  3. The Red Onion Jazz Babies– "Cake Walking Babies " – 3:28
  4. Sidney Bechet and His Blue Note Jazzmen – "Blue Horizon" – 4:26
  5. James P. Johnson – "Carolina Shout" – 2:47
  6. Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five – "Struttin' with Some Barbeque" – 3:04
  7. Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven – "S.O.L. Blues" – 1:05
  8. Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven – "Potato Head Blues" – 1:14
  9. Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five – "Hotter Than That" – 3:02
  10. Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five – "West End Blues" – 3:17
Side three
  2. Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines – "Weather Bird" – 2:46
  3. Louis Armstrong and His Sebastian New Cotton Club Orchestra – "Sweethearts on Parade" – 3:15
  4. Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra – "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" – 2:59
  5. Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra – "Riverboat Shuffle" – 3:15
  6. Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra – "Singin' the Blues" – 3:02
  7. Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra – "The Stampede" – 3:18
  8. Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra – "Wrappin' It Up" – 2:48
  9. Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra – "Moten Swing" – 3:26
Side four
  2. Fats Waller – "I Ain't Got Nobody" – 3:09
  3. Meade Lux Lewis – "Honky Tonk Train" – 3:01
  4. Benny Goodman Trio – "Body and Soul" – 3:30
  5. Coleman Hawkins and His Orchestra – "Body and Soul" – 3:02
  6. Coleman Hawkins Quartet – "The Man I Love" – 5:10
  7. Billie Holiday and Her Orchestra – "He's Funny That Way" – 2:41
  8. Billie Holiday and Eddie Heywood and His Orchestra – "All of Me" – 2:59
  9. Ella Fitzgerald – "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" – 2:56
Side five
  2. Art Tatum – "Willow Weep for Me" – 2:58
  3. Art Tatum – "Too Marvelous for Words" – 2:25
  4. Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra – "Lunceford Special" – 2:51
  5. Gene Krupa and His Orchestra – "Rockin' Chair" – 3:02
  6. Roy Eldridge and Benny Carter – "I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me" – 3:02
  7. Lionel Hampton – "When Lights Are Low" – 2:15
  8. Count Basie and His Orchestra – "Doggin' Around" – 2:57
  9. Count Basie – "Taxi War Dance" – 2:55
Side six
  2. Count Basie's Kansas City Seven – "Lester Leaps In" – 3:14
  3. Benny Goodman Sextet – "I Found a New Baby" – 2:57
  4. Benny Goodman Sextet and Charlie Christian – "Blues Sequence" – 2:24
  5. Duke Ellington and His Orchestra – "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" – 3:38
  6. Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra – "New East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" – 3:04
  7. Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra – "Creole Rhapsody" – 6:00
  8. Duke Ellington and His Orchestra – "Harlem Air Shaft" – 3:00
  9. Duke Ellington and His Orchestra – "Concerto for Cootie" – 3:22
Side seven
  2. Duke Ellington and His Orchestra – "In a Mellotone" – 3:19
  3. Duke Ellington and His Orchestra – "Ko-Ko" – 2:42
  4. Duke Ellington and His Orchestra – "Blue Serge" – 3:22
  5. Don Byas – "I Got Rhythm" – 5:07
  6. Dizzy Gillespie Sextet – "I Can't Get Started" – 3:08
  7. Dizzy Gillespie's All Star Quintet – "Shaw 'Nuff" – 2:57
  8. Charlie Parker's Re-Boppers – "KoKo" – 2:57
  9. Charlie Parker – "Embraceable You" – 2:14
  10. Charlie Parker – "Embraceable You" – 2:01
Side eight
  2. Charlie Parker Quintet – "Klacktoveedsedsteen" – 3:02
  3. Charlie Parker Sextet – "Little Benny" – 3:30
  4. Charlie Parker's All Stars – "Parker's Mood" – 3:01
  5. Erroll Garner – "Fantasy On 'Frankie and Johnny" – 2:55
  6. Bud Powell Trio – "Somebody Loves Me" – 2:48
  7. Sarah Vaughan – "Dancing in the Dark" – 2:37
  8. Sarah Vaughan – "Ain't No Use" – 3:55
  9. Lennie Tristano – "Crosscurrent" – 2:52
Side nine
  2. Miles Davis and His Orchestra – "Boplicity" – 3:02
  3. Tadd Dameron's Sextet – "Lady Bird" – 2:54
  4. Dexter Gordon Quartet – "Bikini" – 3:32
  5. Thelonious Monk Quartet – "Misterioso" – 3:22
  6. Thelonious Monk Quintet – "Criss-Cross" – 3:00
  7. Thelonious Monk – "Evidence" – 2:35
  8. Thelonious Monk Quintet – "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" – 4:32
  9. Thelonious Monk – "I Should Care" – 3:16
Side ten
  2. Thelonious Monk – "Blues Improvisation" – 2:54
  3. Miles Davis with Gil Evans' Orchestra – "Summertime" – 3:22
  4. Sonny Rollins Quartet – "Blue 7" – 11:22
  5. Modern Jazz Quartet – "Django" – 5:34
  6. Charles Mingus and His Orchestra – "Hora Decubitus" – 4:44
Side eleven
  2. Sonny Rollins Plus 4 – "Pent-Up House" – 7:32
  3. Cecil Taylor – "Enter Evening" – 11:05
  4. Miles Davis Sextet – "So What" – 9:11
Side twelve
  2. Ornette Coleman – "Lonely Woman" – 5:02
  3. Ornette Coleman – "Congeniality" – 6:45
  4. Ornette Coleman – "Free Jazz" – 10:14
  5. John Coltrane – "Alabama" – 5:07

Personnel

;"Maple Leaf Rag"
;"Maple Leaf Rag
;"Hellhound on My Trail"
;"St. Louis Blues"
;"Lost Your Head Blues"
;"Dippermouth Blues"
;"Grandpa's Spells"
;"Dead Man Blues"
;"Black Bottom Stomp"
;"Cake Walking Babies "
;"Blue Horizon"
;"Carolina Shout"
;"Struttin' with Some Barbeque"
;"S.O.L. Blues"
;"Potato Head Blues"
;"Hotter Than That"
;"West End Blues"
;"Weather Bird"
;"Sweethearts on Parade"
;"I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues"
;"Riverboat Shuffle"
;"Singin' the Blues"
;"The Stampede"
;"Wrappin' It Up"
;"Moten Swing"
;"I Ain't Got Nobody"
;"Honky Tonk Train"
;"Body and Soul"
;"Body and Soul"
;"The Man I Love"
;"He's Funny That Way"
;"All of Me"
;"You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To"
;"Willow Weep for Me"
;"Too Marvelous for Words"