HERC Listens To Jazz

Longtime viewers know HERC loves him some music but he's never been much into jazz of any kind until the last two years or so when he made a somewhat focused and concentrated effort to both listen to more and learn more about jazz.  Several events set the wheels in motion and guided him along the way: a marathon watching and attentive re-watching of Ken Burns nineteen hour Jazz series from 2001, discovering Groove Notes and their list of 1000 Jazz Albums You Should Hear Before You Die, listening to an hour of jazz music every morning for more than a year including damn near every jazz playlist over on Songza and befriending fellow music lover Mark, who happens to be somewhat of a huge jazz fan.  In fact it has been Mark's ongoing series of Billboard Number One Jazz Albums posts over at his other site 1976-1985: My Favorite Decade that drives today's post.  Applying everything he has gleaned over the past two years as well as his still developing taste for jazz, HERC will name his favorite Number One Jazz Album from each of the ten posts Mark has upped, essentially one album for each year from 1976 through 1985.

1976

1977

1978


1979


1980


1981


1982


1983


1984


1985

So, it appears HERC likes the music of George Benson. And so much more.  It seems HERC's favorite jazz albums of the decade 1976-1985 never peaked at the top of the chart so here they are, in no particular order with the years they peaked as well as their peak positions:

1981

#18

1980
#16


1981

#3

1979

#2

1983

#5

1981
#10


1982
#37


1983
#2

1980
#10


1984
#7


Jazz is a very diverse and welcoming genre.
Let the commenting commence!

Mark's latest project

sweet neon jazz art at top of post