We’ve got a fresh weekly top-ten up, and JAZZ rules this week making up almost a third of our list! Last week’s top-seller, IDLES Ultra Mono, slid to number ten, and THELONIOUS MONK’s Palo Alto has stormed into the top spot. The sessions that make up the Palo Alto record could easily have been lost to history. These live takes were pulled from an unlikely concert at a California high school. Recorded in 1968, this is Mr. Monk in peek form working through a creative high.
Our number two record is also a set of unearthed lost recordings from an absolute jazz legend. The Lost Berlin Tapes from ELLA FITZGERALD makes for a thematic one-two punch atop our charts. All these tracks are pulled from a club date in Berlin dating to 1962. A snapshot of one of the greats in her prime.
SUFJAN STEVENS latest record The Ascension also has its highest yet placement in our charts landing in the third spot. This new record finds the songwriter channeling some understandable and righteous rage over synth heavy tracks. In a way it’s the blown up counterpoint to 2014s Carrie & Lowell. Dig into it with this interview with The Atlantic.