This month, we have celebrated the vision of King Crimson, with interviews with artists who either played with or were inspired from Robert Fripp. In light of that, we’ve put together a TOP TEN list of modern albums that have created sounds that at first made everyone wonder “what was that?!?” and thus advanced the sounds of music. Obviously, we could include by Charlie Parker, Benny Goodman, Charlie Christian and Louis Armstrong, but we’ll limit it to the long-playing album era.
- Brian Eno: Here Come The Warm Jets-To this day, most people don’t realize how revolutionary Brian Eno was, being one of the very first musicians to focus on electronics and loops. This album, which includes Robert Fripp, was, and is, a musical gauntlet, mixing the past and the still distant future
- Brian Eno: Another Green World-This album is regarded as the first “ambient” album, mixing soft
electronics with rich voices, and once again, Fripp’s guitar. The result is a mesmerizing and pastoral classic - King Crimson: In The Court of the Crimson King- People still wonder what the heck that last note is on “20th Century Schizoid Man”, but there’s more to it than that. The musical dots and dashes of “Moonchiled” and use of mellotron throughout sent musicians running to the music stores to see what could be imitated and recreated
Weather Report: Weather Report-People still debate on how Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul created those eerie sounds on “Eurydice”, while the entire album pushed forward the vision started by their former boss Miles Davis on Bitches Brew- Weather Report: Black Market-Jaco Pastorius debut on “Cannon Ball” was like a
gauntlet thrown down to all bass players, as was… - Jaco Pastorius: Jaco Pastorius-you were either inspired by Jaco’s jaw dropping solo on “Donna Lee” or
decided you’d never try playing the bass again. The four minute mile of bass playing was broken. - Pat Metheny: Bright Size Life-When it first came out, Metheny’s debut with Jaco Pastorius and Bob Moses sold under 1000 albums. But over time, it slowly started getting into everyone’s mind, possibly for the simple reason Metheny rejected the idea that
“faster is better” and showed that you can say more by saying less. 
- Herbie Hancock: Headhunters-Jazz suddenly got funky, with Hancock along with a sharp team of Harvey Mason/dr and Bernie Maupin/reeds getting down and deep with a mix of relentless rips, weird sounds and expansive solos.
- Miles Davis: Bitches Brew-this is the album that probably started it all, with Miles plugging in, bringing in a mix of young kids like
Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, Lenny White and John McLaughlin, and sending shock waves in directions of both rock and jazz circles. - Don Ellis: Live At Monterey-People still wonder what Don Ellis could have accomplished if his life had not been cut short. This big band album, which includes a young Tom Scott and Ira Schulman, is simply other worldly yet wonderfully accessible. There are the weirdest of time signatures that are tighter than Kim
Kardashians leggings, and solos that will make your head spin. Suddenly, everything else sounded stale