From Jazz Club To Juke Box; Best Selling Jazz Singles of 1961

Jazz musicians in the Fifties enthusiastically embraced the long playing record, which allowed them to record the same extended improvisations that they were making in a live setting. Nevertheless, alongside this more purist jazz recording practice, 45rpm jazz singles continued to be released in small batches throughout that decade, to satisfy frequenters of juke joints and bars in African American communities. When Ray Bryant’s catchy gospel-based single Little Susie crashed into the Billboard R&B charts in March 1960, record companies began to take notice of the untapped potential of this jazz crossover style, targeted at an emerging audience of beatniks who had begun to congregate in jazz clubs at the end of the 1950s. The cross fertilisation from jazz to pop music via the 45rpmsingle was a major influence on the music of the 1960s. Focusing on the pivotal year of 1961, this CD cherry picks that year’s bestselling singles as well as some of its most influential jazz recordings, offering the listener a new perspective on the popularisation of jazz.