Missing Essentials: The Basic Idea

As I noted a couple posts back when I was talking about working to get more jazz into my life and into this here blog (note to self: go back and see what I am supposed to be doing), I mentinoed that I was developing a strategy (okay it is more of a hook really) for writing about "not new" music. After all, there is a ton of great music that isn't new that deserves some attention, right? So here is the approach.

We are going to start up a new series of occasional posts called "Missing Essentials" in which we look at a particular artist or band, albums and songs we love and currently own, and wonder out loud if there are other albums by said artist or band that others would consider essential.

This idea comes from the fact that when I was younger, I often set out to own "everything" by certain groups which inevitably led me to buy less than stellar albums and then inevitably led to the realization that I didn't need to own everything by a particular artist or band. As I have grown older those realizations have morphed into a certain sense that, in fact, once I have a few albums by a particular artist or band, I feel as if I perhaps "have enough" and don't worry too much about getting more by that group.

In fact, as I thought about this idea, I wondered if I thought there was an artist or band that I did think one would want to have every album they produced. And, really the only band that came immediately to mind, and that might not be coincidence given what was released today, was The Beatles (okay, minus the Yellow Sub soundtrack which I never really think of as one of their core albums). This is not to say that there aren't others--in fact, I hope to hear from some of you on that point.

This line of thinking though, leads to the real possibility that I am missing really important, historic, well, essential albums by an artist or band. Of course I am not thinking about new bands that have just released their first or second great album, but rather bands that have been around a bit or have broken up that have a catalog of albums to consider.

So that is what we intend to get your input on in the future, but until then, let's hear what artists/bands you think deserve to have their entire oeuvre collected.