# What is the best big band jazz album of all time?

> Big band jazz is music at its most majestic — dozens of musicians swinging in perfect unison, building to huge ensemble climaxes. From Ellington's elegance to Buddy Rich's firepower, vote for the greatest.

*By YPB Team · Published April 21, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-big-band-jazz-album-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Ellington at Newport**
   Duke Ellington's 1956 Newport performance — big band's most legendary live document.
2. **The Atomic Mr. Basie**
   Count Basie's 1958 album — big band swing at its most explosive.
3. **Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert**
   Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall concert — jazz's arrival in the concert hall.
4. **Out of the Cool**
   Gil Evans's 1961 arranger's-jazz masterpiece — subtle, sophisticated, stunning.
5. **Concert in the Garden**
   Maria Schneider Orchestra's 2004 Grammy-winning modern big band masterpiece.
6. **Big Swing Face**
   Buddy Rich Big Band's 1967 live album — the most thunderous big band drumming ever recorded.
7. **Black, Brown and Beige**
   Duke Ellington's 1958 sacred jazz suite with Mahalia Jackson — spiritual big band.
8. **Consummation**
   Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra's 1970 Blue Note date — post-bop big band's masterpiece.
9. **Sketches of Spain**
   Miles Davis and Gil Evans's 1960 orchestral masterwork — Spanish tone poems in jazz form.
10. **Porgy and Bess**
   Miles Davis and Gil Evans's 1959 reimagining of Gershwin — big band lyricism.
11. **Thundering Herds**
   Woody Herman's great post-war bands captured in their full swinging power.
12. **Infernal Machines**
   Darcy James Argue's Secret Society 2009 debut — big band reinvented for the 21st century.

Tags: music, jazz, 60s, classic, 50s