# The 18 Best Jazz Albums of All Time

> From Miles Davis's modal calm to Ornette Coleman's break with chord changes altogether, these are the sessions that reset what jazz could sound like.

*By YPB Team · Published September 9, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-18-best-jazz-albums-of-all-time*

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1. **Kind of Blue**
   Miles Davis's 1959 modal-jazz landmark, the best-selling jazz album of all time.
2. **A Love Supreme**
   John Coltrane's 1965 four-part suite recorded as a spiritual devotion.
3. **Time Out**
   The Dave Brubeck Quartet's 1959 album built on unconventional time signatures like 5/4 and 9/8.
4. **Giant Steps**
   John Coltrane's 1960 album defined by rapid chord changes that became a saxophone rite of passage.
5. **Blue Train**
   John Coltrane's 1957 Blue Note session, his only date as leader for the label.
6. **The Shape of Jazz to Come**
   Ornette Coleman's 1959 album that helped launch free jazz by abandoning fixed chord changes.
7. **Mingus Ah Um**
   Charles Mingus's 1959 album blending gospel, blues, and big-band swing into a single suite.
8. **Moanin'**
   Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers' 1958 hard-bop album anchored by its gospel-soaked title track.
9. **Speak No Evil**
   Wayne Shorter's 1966 Blue Note album prized for its ambiguous, dreamlike harmony.
10. **Maiden Voyage**
   Herbie Hancock's 1965 concept album evoking the open sea through modal composition.
11. **Head Hunters**
   Herbie Hancock's 1973 fusion album that brought funk rhythm sections into jazz.
12. **Somethin' Else**
   Cannonball Adderley's 1958 Blue Note session featuring Miles Davis as a sideman.
13. **The Köln Concert**
   Keith Jarrett's 1975 solo piano improvisation, the best-selling solo album in jazz history.
14. **Bitches Brew**
   Miles Davis's 1970 double album that fused jazz improvisation with rock and electric instruments.
15. **Ellington at Newport**
   Duke Ellington's 1956 live album, credited with reviving his career after a marathon saxophone solo.
16. **Getz/Gilberto**
   Stan Getz and João Gilberto's 1964 album that carried bossa nova to a mass American audience.
17. **Saxophone Colossus**
   Sonny Rollins's 1956 album built around his calypso-inflected showpiece 'St. Thomas'.
18. **Out to Lunch!**
   Eric Dolphy's 1964 Blue Note album pushing hard bop toward the outer edge of free jazz.

Tags: music, jazz