These are just a few of my favourite live albums. Closing your eyes and listening to these albums on some headphone will transport you straight into a private concert.
Body Heat
James Brown
This is such an unbelievable album. The energy in the room is so electric, you can hear it through the record. No spoilers but you’ll hear PLENTY of stars in the room getting shouted out.
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Live At The Jazz Cafe, London: The Complete Show
D'Angelo
This album was originally released to take advantage of D’Angelo’s popularity and the success of his debut, Brown Sugar, since his sophomore release wasn’t ready yet. Listening to the crowd in this recording, it’s like you can hear that they knew this was a historic evening with a once-in-a-generation artist.
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Live At The Forum Los Angeles - April 25, 1970
Jimi Hendrix
Probably one of the more popular bootleg albums around. This set was never professionally recorded, but there was a common practice amongst bootleggers at the time to pay the engineers at the venue to let them attach a recorder to the board. This is one of those recordings with a flyer used as the cover. Not as “clean” sounding as an official recording, but I kinda prefer it as it is. The recording is just as raw as the performance.
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Broadcasting Live
Michael Jackson
The first five songs on the A side arefrom Michael Jackson’s performance at the Super Bowl XXVII halftime show on January 31, 1993.
The final track on the A side is from Bill Clinton's Presidential Gala on January 19, 1993. Michael dedicates his performance of “Gone Too Soon” to the memory of Ryan White, a teenager who became a poster child for HIV/AIDs a few years prior.
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Change, Change, Change (Live At The Roxy)
Les McCann
What I like most about this album is that it allows you to hear Les McCann in a way you never really have before. I don’t just mean how he opens up when performing live — I mean that this album has a slightly more rock-tinge to it than Les’ typical soulful-sometimes-funky-jazz. I’m not sure what the reasoning for this more rock-influenced sound is, but I appreciate that this album offers a different perspective.
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Steppin' Out
Joan Armatrading
I enjoy this album because of Joan’s voice and performance, but I wish it was longer. This album has a DVD that was released 25 years later, which has a far more thorough tracklisting.
This album was never planned to be released. Joan Armatrading was in a dispute with A&M at the time and holding off on turning in her next studio album. She agreed to record and release an album from her ongoing tour while continuing to negotiate with the label.
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Uptown Rulers! (Live On The Queen Mary)
The Meters
This is a FUN album, which makes sense when you learn that it was recorded during an album release party for the album “Venus and Mars” by Wings. Linda and Paul McCartney hosted the party on board the Queen Mary ship in 1975, and invited The Meters to perform.
A lot of people consider this album to capture “the best” of a Meters performance. I never got to witness them live, but I can only imagine the energy of their shows by listening to this.
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The Köln Concert
Keith Jarrett
This is a well-known album, and I could be mistaken but I don’t think the full story behind this album is as well-known. Long story short, Keith wanted this performance recorded to show what happens when a concert promoter fails to provide a properly tuned piano. The result is this emotionally-driven improvisation album, that’s gone on to be the best selling piano solo album of all time.
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The Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra At Pleyel; Paris, France
Dizzy Gillespie And His Orchestra
Not only is the music amazing, but the sound on this record is impeccable. Salle Pleyel is a historic venue with some of the best acoustics in the world.
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At The Blue Note
Sarah Vaughan