Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers · 1958 Spin it Again - Art Blakey hits the kit like he's settling a debt, and somehow Bobby Timmons' gospel-drenched piano makes that feel like the only reasonable response.

Thelonious Monk · 1957 Spin it Again - Monk wrote the title track so knotty his own band couldn't play it clean, so they spliced together two takes and called it done, and somehow that's the most honest thing on the record.

Miles Davis · 1959 Spin it Again - Miles Davis got five musicians in a room with almost no rehearsal and they all played like they were thinking out loud, which is harder than it sounds.

Harry Partch · 1952 Spin it Again - Harry Partch built his own instruments just to make sounds Western tuning wouldn't allow, and this is the record where that stubbornness finally had somewhere to go.

Bill Evans · 1958 Spin it Again - Bill Evans alone at the piano in 1958, holding one bass note for eleven minutes while the right hand just wanders, and somehow that's enough.

Bill Evans · 1959 Spin it Again - Bill Evans in 1959, playing piano like he was working something out privately and just forgot to close the door.