Top 50 Jazz Albums of 1979

According to the December 22, 1979 edition of Billboard magazine. Chart peaks are from that publication's jazz, pop, and R&B album charts, respectively. If the album was released in a year prior to 1979, that information is noted following the album title.

	Album	Artist	Jazz	Pop	R&B
1	Street Life	The Crusaders	1	18	3
2	Livin' Inside Your Love	George Benson	1	7	4
3	Touchdown ('78)	Bob James	1	37
4	Reed Seed ('78)	Grover Washington, Jr.	1	35	7
5	Pat Metheny Group ('78)	Pat Metheny Group	5	123
6	Carmel	Joe Sample	1	56	25
7	Children of Sanchez ('78)	Chuck Mangione	1	14	37
8	Mr. Gone ('78)	Weather Report	1	52
9	Flame ('78)	Ronnie Laws	1	51	16
10	Morning Dance	Spyro Gyra	2	27	33
11	Angie	Angela Bofill	5	47	20
12	All Fly Home	Al Jarreau	2	78	27
13	Paradise	Grover Washington, Jr.	2	24	15
14	Feets Don't Fail Me Now	Herbie Hancock	2	38	16
15	Heart String	Earl Klugh	2	49	32
16	Feels So Good ('77)	Chuck Mangione	1	2
17	New Chautaqua	Pat Metheny	3	44
18	Cosmic Messenger ('78)	Jean-Luc Ponty	2	36
19	Patrice ('78)	Patrice Rushen	5	98	27
20	Secrets ('78)	Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson	4	61	10
21	Intimate Strangers ('78)	Tom Scott	6	123
22	Fever	Roy Ayers	6	67	25
23	You Send Me ('78)	Roy Ayers	4	48	16
24	Images ('78)	The Crusaders	1	34	18
25	Follow the Rainbow	George Duke	3	56	17

	Album	Artist	Jazz	Pop	R&B
26	Together	McCoy Tyner	5	66
27	In Concert	Milestone Jazzstars	12	122
28	Carnival ('78)	Maynard Ferguson	9	113
29	Brazilia	John Klemmer	5	172
30	We All Have a Star ('78)	Wilton Felder	11	173	33
31	Tiger in the Rain	Michael Franks	6	68
32	Before the Rain ('78)	Lee Oskar	10	86	29
33	Live at the Hollywood Bowl	Chuck Mangione	5	27
34	Manhattan Symphonie ('78)	Dexter Gordon Quartet	11
35	Land of Passion	Hubert Laws	6	93	48
36	Awakening	Narada Michael Walden	9	103	15
37	Magic in Your Eyes ('78)	Earl Klugh	4	139
38	Mingus	Joni Mitchell	3	17
39	Exotic Memories	Lonnie Liston Smith	3	123	50
40	I Wanna Play for You	Stanley Clarke	5	62	36
41	Soft Space	Jeff Lorber Fusion	13
42	Hot Dawg	David Grisman	14
43	Light the Light	Seawind	8	143
44	Live	Jean-Luc Ponty	8	68
45	Legacy ('78)	Ramsey Lewis	10	149
46	Browne Sugar	Tom Browne	6	147	50
47	Secret Agent ('78)	Chick Corea	7
48	Part of You	Eric Gale	11	154
49	The Joy of Flying	Tony Williams	13	113
50	Groovin' You	Harvey Mason	11	149	48

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Speaking of jazz albums from 1979, why don't you give Dr. Smooth's flashback a listen: