theloniousmonk a glorious intro to my hero was the "Always Know" double-album, but it's out of print (was on CD for a while, good luck); newbies can get "Monk's Greatest Hits", which is readily available. anything by Monk is essential, though I find I do go back most often to his CBS period (get the new 3-CD set "The Columbia Years: 1962-1968"!) and the Black Lion sessions. get "Big Band & Quartet In Concert" immediately, and, if you wanna splurge, try the 15-disc "Complete Riverside Recordings" box, actually a bargain! Monk changed modern music from funk to freejazz; he even influenced brainwilson! (by the way, you do have the deluxe edition of thebeachboys' "Pet Sounds", don't you?)
thesabribrothers "Pakistan", part of an early '70s Unesco series, is your best introduction to the greatest singers of all time!
jimihendrix if you don't have "Electric Ladyland", get the remastered CD now!
various "Voices of forgotten worlds": a lovely boxed and bookletted assortment of ethnicity, worldliness, or whatever they currently call normal people still doing their ancient thing!
williecolon & rubenblades "Siembra" - to my ears, the unchallenged masterpiece of innovative '70s salsa!
herbiehancock my personal favorites are those albums on either side of "Headhunters": "Sextant" (recorded in '73) & "Thrust" (aug. '74), but you should eventually get everything from, say, "Speak like a child" to "Manchild", and take it from there according to taste.
eddiehenderson impossible to find, "Inside out" (oct. '73) is the final and very best example of "Sextant" period spiritual electric jazz. another gem is "Realization" (feb. '73).
mikeclarke & pauljackson "The funk stops here" - one of pop/funk's greatest rhythm sections (from sonny&cher to Hancock) stretches out. I kind of prefer this peppy, unpretentious "club" outing - as far as their playing goes - to the recent "The Return of the Headhunters" (although that's got a few truly superior moments, Clarke in particular seem often unnecessarily subdued and the whole thing is sometimes a bit belabored and weary; get it anyway! and if you like the singing style, look for quincyjones' classic "Mellow Madness" album). More awe-striking than either, musically, is the post-"Thrust" Herbie Hancock Japanese release "Flood", an imperishable monument to the genre when it was still fresh. Groove + deep modern harmony and chops...
dmitrischostakovich get the 5th symphony, possibly the old andréprevin version, reissued on budget CD but hard to find, and listen to it until you can sing along. then get keithjarrett's Schostakovich CD (and, while you're at it, get Jarrett's "My song" and "Expectations")
Jarrett reminds me of jonimitchell (he covered "All I want"): you do already have "Blue", "Miles of aisles" and "Mingus", don't you? (charliemingus' "Changes One" and "Changes Two", at least, should be kept nearby)
And thinking of this soulful, expressive woman brings to mind so many other extraordinary female voices of different eras and styles: billieholiday, helenward, ellafitzgerald, ruthbrown, chakakhan, tracychapman, janisjoplin, chrissiehynde, mavisstaples, arethafranklin, joanbaez (one of erikacecchini's favorites)... whew... which reminds me of the fun 5-CD box (various artists) put out recently by good old Rhino records, "Respect", dealing with "a century of women in music", worth getting...
henryroelandbyrd (professor longhair) "Crawfish Fiesta" is a must, to understand where rock'n'roll and everyone from elvispresley (the singing) to dr.john (hey, get his definitive "Desitively Bonnaroo" immediately, along with the other allentoussaint-produced classic, "In the right place"!), themeters (the Rhino collection is a good start) to the nevillebrothers (get "Yellow moon", at least) came from. even raycharles!
steviewonder need I say that you absolutely need everything he did in the '70s, at least the four central masterpieces from "Talking book" to "Songs in the key of life"?
various "The Rough Guide to..." get 'em all (there's a new one partly dedicated to one of my favorite groove-forms: Domenican Bachata)!
donnyhathaway "Donny Hathaway Live" - you need "The ghetto" now!
kingcurtis "King Curtis live" - you need "Memphis soul stew" right now!
towerofpower - every album has a few scintillators, try the latest live CD!
lesmccann & eddieharris "Second movement"; contains McCann's masterpiece "Samia" (also available on Rhino's Atlantic Jazz series), the classic song "Universal Prisoner", plus three great extended jam tracks. McCann's "Invitation to openness" is cool, too!
sylvesterstewart (sly stone) golden-age "Stand", "Greatest Hits" (for the singles "Hot fun in the summertime" and "Thank u falettin' me be mice elf"), "There's a riot goin' on " & "Fresh" should be coveted. nothing before or after quite like them. I have everything of his and why shouldn't you?
vilayatkhan & bismillahkhan classic "Duets" has, unpardonably, never been released on CD, and my vinyl copy in its tattered sleeve has long been furrowed fallow; I'd buy 3 copies! EMI, do you hear me!!!
edwardellington the "Duke"! "Ellington '55" is the one to get, just recently released on CD (I actually bought 3 copies fom Amoeba in Frisco the day it came out, just in case somebody were to change their mind!); also, "And his mother called him Bill", dedicated to the great billystrayhorn.
jamesbrown "Star time" - you need this big red box-set now!!!!
various "The secret museum of mankind", a multi-volume selection of old "ethnic" '78s; I adore them!!
various "Musica Sarda" is the classic 3-volume vinyl record box set to get to know traditional Sardinian music from lullabies to country dances, but it's been deleted for decades. Just slghtly easier to find, because of CD reissues, are musicologist Bentzon's late '50s/early '60s of the launeddas ("is launeddas" is the simple title of the copy I have), startling ancient bagless ancestor of the bag-pipe... perhaps even easier to find is the CD of epic launeddas duets (more like duals) by masters efisiomeloni&antoniolara...
pygmies get "Heart of the forest" and "Bayaka" now!
jackbruce "Harmony row" ('71), his finest hour, a truly epic achievement!
harrypartch "The music of Harry Partch" is a good intro to this genius.
theincrediblestringband well I like 'em! try "wee tam & the big huge" and "no ruinous feuds" for a sample of their breadth. robinwilliamson and mikeheron have put out some nice if, in my opinion, uneven solo stuff over the years; "29 words" on Mike Heron's recent CD, "Where the mystics swim", is one of my favorite songs of all time, period!
benjaminbritten "Peter Grimes" is amazing, but if opera is not your thing, get the "Four Sea Interludes" (best version, unfortunately out of print: vanbeinum, concertgebouworchestra)
milesdavis if you don't have everything originally released from, say, "Nefertiti" to "On the corner", don't hesitate! If you can't afford them all, get "Live/Evil" now and, if you survive the experience, save up for the rest!
michaelbloomfield related to the above, though you'd never guess it, is "Super session" (stevestills/bloomfield/kooper), because Miles once stated that major stimulus for what became "Bitches Brew" came (apart from digging ramseylewis' sound) from seeing the "Super session" band live - he went again and insisted on puzzled johnmcglaughlin and daveholland going, too! get Bloomfield's "electricflag" stuff, too.
paulbutterfield "In my own dream" ('68) has never come out on CD, but it rules!! plenty of great music on the others. and you definitely can find and dearly need the two "Better days" CDs right now!! On a related note, the vastly under-rated (or anyway under-mentioned) alkooper, who, I seem to remember, guests on "In my own dream", was the lurking genius behind bluesproject, BS&T (blood,sweat&tears), early electric bobdylan (Dylan! get "John Wesley Harding" if you don't have it!) and countless other historic events... check him out in any context!
weatherreport get everything up to jacopastorius' last collaboration (and, at the very least, get P's eponymous solo album, the new remaster with bonus tracks). lots of good related stuff earlier and later, too. be sure to get joezawinul's eponymous solo album and his live Syndicate CDs. oh, all right, get everything anyone even fleetingly related to them has ever done (starting with miroslavvitous' "Mountain in the clouds", also released as "Infinite search")
lightnin'hopkins someday "Something blue" will be reissued on CD and this world will be a much richer place. Stop press: it seems to be available (with the title "Shaggy Dad") from www.shaggydogg.com!
buddyrich & allahrahka "rich à la rahka"; you'll never find this weird early '68 recording, but if you do, have fun with their astonishing extended "duet"!
gustavmahler get the 5th symphony, leonardbernstein is great, and patiently memorize it! Then get the "Song of the Earth", the 6th symphony, and start randomly hoarding the rest.
docwatson the album "Doc Watson" is pure gold
thestaplesingers "Greatest hits" is a necessity
jeffersonairplane "Crown of creation": epochal!
ericanderson "'Bout changes and things" volumes 1 & 2 are momentous!
hermetopascoal anything is deeply satisfying!
frankzappa I worshipped everything up to "200 motels", the movie of which I snuck off campus in Missouri to see 13 times, then a friend played me pierreboulez' "Le marteau sans maître" and edgarvarése's "Ionization" and I realized where a lot of what fascinated me was coming from (of course, I already had thepenguins' "Earth angel"); tons of great stuff throughout his exemplary career, including related weirdness like wildmanfischer and the girlstogetheroutrageously (gto's), Zappa's early girl-group with my late sister-in-law sweet Sandra)... and captainbeefheart's "Trout mask replica", which you certainly need.
sergheiprokoviev get "Alexander Nevsky" for the exquisite song "The field of the dead"
johnkoerner "Spider" John! my favorite, the mid-'60s "Spider Blues", is out print, but buy any and all of the rest!
davebrubeck "Dave digs disney"; I swear it works, and how!
thebeatles I know you must have "Magical mystery tour" somewhere (if not, get it!): listen to it again now!! the music is sublime for the most part, and the lyrics! not until Public Enemy could major artists sing words like "baby you're a rich fag jew" with impunity! johnlennon was at his most Dylanesquely inscrutable and Suttcliffly truculent, with a billboard in the "All you need is love" video carrying the hidden message: "you poor arses"... (speaking of Beatles, if you're a rabid fan, check out georgeharrison's "Wonderwall" in DVD!)
did I say publicenemy? yo, I love all their stuff! man, the lyrics!! others in the same vein pale, if not suck, in comparison!
therollingstones after "Magical mystery tour", then get out (or get) the much-maligned "His satanic majesty's request" and realize how great it is. oh, and you need "Let it bleed".
richardstrauss "Death and transfiguration", "Till Eulenspiegel's merry pranks" (with the "Straight, no chaser" french horn riff)... listen till you can hum along! and one of my all-time favorite songs is "Als mir dein leid erklang" (spelling?)
donovanleitch my favorites: "Sunshine superman" (great), "Mellow yellow" (superb), "Wear your love like heaven" (the electric set from "Gift from a flower to a garden" - his finest)
johnhammond the eponymous first album is a joy.
robertjohnson get the complete works and shiver with awe and delight!
blindblake anything is great!
chickcorea after "Light as a feather" (go get it!), I honestly thought at first that "Hymn to the seventh galaxy" was a tongue-in-cheek take-off on McLaughlin's mahavishnuorchestra (whose "Inner mounting flame" you cannot survive without), but I gradually started taking it seriously and it certainly kicks the butt of all subsequent "Return to forever" records (billconnors is saintly!), so get it.
stangetz and joaogilberto "Getz/Gilberto" came out at the same time as "Meet the Beatles"; if you think either is (or both are) dated and corny, you're WRONG (by the way, dates and corn taste great together)!
joecocker "Stingray", his masterpiece, with Stuff and a horde of guests from samrivers to ericclapton, albertlee to petertosh and more... hard to find but never stop trying till you have it!
rycooder everybody, by now, has the buenavistasocialclub CDs (or at least the first one), but don't neglect Cooder's "Meeting by the river", "Jazz", "Bop 'til you drop", and the rest!
littlefeat first buy everything with lowellgeorge, shortly thereafter the rest!
edvardgrieg "Lyrische Stücke" - get the Deutsche Grammafon CD by emilgilels and your life will be the better for it! Speaking of classical pianists, I've always loved cliffordcurzon.
albertayler "Live at the village vanguard" - one awesome day, when I was in my early teens, I picked up this, ceciltaylor's "Conquistador" and pharoahsanders "Tauhid"; I suggest you do the same sooner or later and give 'em the benefit of the doubt; not easy material, but, as I found out, patience will pay off handsomely (may even mysteriously help you with "Live/Evil" when interspersed with James Brown and Sly ;-)!
garyburton "Alone at last" - just get it and relax!
bobmarley "Kaya" is the one!
mortonsubotnick "Touch" is the masterpiece; I've always imagined that electronics engineer Herbie Hancock first dreamed of getting someone like patrickgleeson in his band while he was grooving on this!
steelydan "The royal scam" on, eventually everything else (or do it right the first time and buy the complete remastered box set, "Citizen"). of course, donaldfagen's classic "The nightfly" is an absolutely must!
petersellers "A celebration of Sellers"; all english-speaking mammals should eventually own complete copies of the Goon Show tapes (or CDs) and videos, as well as all Peter Seller's movies and recordings, alongside their complete lennybruce, laurel&hardy, montypython (and related material), southpark and mr.bean collections. Yep, I'm afraid this is as non-negotiable a prerequisite for cultural well-roundedness as having tasted a peanut butter, jelly and marshmallow fluff doubledecker sandwich after a spicy vegetable Vindaloo.

 
enjoy this quick taste? tell me and I'll add more details and artists! It may be a small world, but it sure is full of music ;-)