Top Jazz Albums of July 9, 1983

Let's take a look at what was topping the various jazz album charts on July 9, 1983.

	Billboard	Cash Box	Radio & Records
1	Jarreau Al Jarreau	In Your Eyes George Benson	Low Ride Earl Klugh
2	Low Ride Earl Klugh	Travels Pat Metheny Group	In Your Eyes George Benson
3	The Hunter Joe Sample	Jarreau Al Jarreau	Jarreau Al Jarreau
4	Star People Miles Davis	The Genie Bob James	Journey to a Rainbow Chuck Mangione
5	The Genie Bob James	Low Ride Earl Klugh	The Genie Bob James
6	Friends Larry Carlton	Star People Miles Davis	Les Fleurs Ramsey Lewis
7	Autumn George Winston	Friends Larry Carlton	Friends Larry Carlton
8	Mirage a Trois Yellowjackets	The Hunter Joe Sample	Mirage a Trois Yellowjackets
9	Dave Grusin and the New York/L.A. Dream Band	Mirage a Trois Yellowjackets	Travels Pat Metheny Group
10	In Your Eyes George Benson	Journey to a Rainbow Chuck Mangione	The Hunter Joe Sample

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Exclusive MFD meta-analysis of the above charts:

1. Jarreau (26 points)
2. Low Ride (25 pts)
3. In Your Eyes (20 pts)
4. The Genie (19 pts)
5. Friends (14 pts)
6. (tie) The Hunter and Star People (12 pts)
8. Travels (11 pts)
9. (tie) Mirage a Trois and Journey to a Rainbow (8 pts)
11. Les Fleurs (5 pts)
12. Autumn (4 pts)
13. Dave Grusin and the New York/L.A. Dream Band (2 pts)

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Listen to selected tracks from the above albums and other 1983 releases, courtesy of Dr. Smooth:

Billboard's Top Jazz Artists 1976-85

Not sure if they still do it, but years ago Billboard would list its top jazz artists in its year-end issues, based on album sales for that year. Here's a sample list from 1982:

I'm guessing the results were based on both chart peak as well as the number of weeks the artists' albums spent on the charts. Regardless, I took the results of the 10 lists from the years 1976-85 and ran them through a simple algorithm. Here's a countdown of the top ten jazz artists for the decade along with albums that placed on the Billboard Jazz Album charts during those years:

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CHUCK MANGIONE

Album	Jazz Chart
Bellavia	7
Encore	24
Main Squeeze	4
Chase the Clouds Away	30
Land of Make Believe	21
Feels So Good	1
The Best of Chuck Mangione	23
Children of Sanchez	1
Live at the Hollywood Bowl	5
Fun and Games	1
Tarantella	10
Love Notes	8
70 Miles Young	19
Journey to a Rainbow	10
Disguise	26

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DAVID SANBORN

Album	Jazz Chart
Taking Off	19
Sanborn	10
Promise Me the Moon	27
Heart to Heart	16
Hideaway	2
Voyeur	1
As We Speak	1
Backstreet	1
Straight to the Heart	1

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SPYRO GYRA

 

Album	Jazz Chart
Spyro Gyra	14
Morning Dance	2
Catching the Sun	1
Carnaval	2
Freetime	1
Incognito	2
City Kids	2
Access All Areas	1
Alternating Currents	3

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BOB JAMES

Album	Jazz Chart
Three	2
BJ4	3
Heads	1
Touchdown	1
Lucky Seven	3
"H"	3
All Around the Town	3
Sign of the Times	2
Hands Down	3
The Genie	5
Foxie	3
12	5

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THE CRUSADERS

Album	Jazz Chart
Chain Reaction	1
Those Southern Knights	2
The Best of The Crusaders	18
Free as the Wind	1
Images	1
Street Life	1
Rhapsody and Blues	1
Standing Tall	2
Royal Jam	5
Ghetto Blaster	3

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AL JARREAU

Album	Jazz Chart
Glow	9
Look to the Rainbow	5
All Fly Home	2
This Time	1
Breakin' Away	1
Jarreau	1
High Crime	2
In London	10

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PAT METHENY

Album	Jazz Chart
Bright Size Life	28
Watercolors	28
Pat Metheny Group	5
New Chautauqua	3
American Garage	1
80/81	4
As Falls Wichita...	1
Offramp	1
Travels	3
Rejoicing	4
First Circle	2

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EARL KLUGH

Album	Jazz Chart
Earl Klugh	16
Living Inside Your Love	8
Finger Paintings	6
Magic in Your Eyes	4
Heart String	2
Dream Come True	4
Late Night Guitar	4
Crazy for You	2
Low Ride	2
Wishful Thinking	1
Nightsongs	4
Soda Fountain Shuffle	3
Key Notes	30

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GROVER WASHINGTON, JR.

Album	Jazz Chart
Mister Magic	1
Feels So Good	1
A Secret Place	1
Live at The Bijou	1
Reed Seed	1
Paradise	2
Skylarkin'	1
Baddest	5
Winelight	1
Anthology (Motown)	11
Come Morning	1
The Best is Yet to Come	2
Inside Moves	3
Anthology (Elektra)	37

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GEORGE BENSON

Album	Jazz Chart
Breezin'	1
Good King Bad	3
The Other Side of Abbey Road	28
Blue Benson	23
In Flight	1
In concert - Carnegie Hall	6
Weekend in L.A.	1
Livin' Inside Your Love	1
Give Me the Night	1
The George Benson Collection	1
In Your Eyes	1
20/20	3

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Music ads for 1980 releases

Two Hit Wonders 1976-85 [15 of 16]

*to qualify as a MFD two hit wonder, the artist or group can have placed only two singles in the Billboard Top 40 and those two singles must have entered the Top 40 during the years 1976-85. Many of these artists are occasionally mistaken for a one hit wonder or have hit other charts in Billboard, but each hit the Top 40 only twice. In no particular order, here's four of the 64 that I found:

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ROBBIE DUPREE
Born Robert Dupuis on 12/23/46 in Brooklyn, New York. Singer/songwriter.

Title	Top 40 Debut	Chart Peak
Steal Away	5/3/80	6
Hot Rod Hearts	8/9/80	15

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CHUCK MANGIONE
Born on 11/29/40 in Rochester, New York. Flugelhorn player.

Title	Top 40 Debut	Chart Peak
Feels So Good	3/18/78	4
Give It All You Got	2/16/80	18

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ROCKWELL
Born Kennedy Gordy on 3/15/64 in Detroit. R&B singer. Son of Motown chairman Berry Gordy.

Title	Top 40 Debut	Chart Peak
Somebody's Watching Me	2/11/84	2
Obscene Phone Caller	6/23/84	35

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FRED KNOBLOCK
Born J. Fred Knobloch on 4/28/53 in Jackson, Mississippi. Pop-country singer/songwriter.

Title	Top 40 Debut	Chart Peak
Why Not Me	7/26/80	7
Killin' Time (with Susan Anton)	12/27/80	28

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Data and artist descriptions taken from The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 7th edition (2000).

Chuck Mangione - Tarantella (1981)

Released: 1981 (A&M) Produced by: Chuck Mangione Peak on the US Billboard 200: 55

Side One	Side Two
Tarantellas The XIth Commandment Suite	Legend of the One-Eyed Sailor Bellavia Hill Where the Lord Hides

Side Three	Side Four
Lake Placid Fanfare Things to Come 'Round Midnight Manteca	My One and Only Love All Blues

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In 1977, Mangione hit it big with his Feels So Good album and single then he followed it up in 1978 with a live album - most likely a calculated effort to introduce his new fans to his older material. It worked. Also in 1978, he soundtracked The Children of Sanchez motion picture. His true follow-up to Feels So Good didn't come until 1979, when he released the single "Give It All You Got" from the Fun and Games album. This double LP live album, Tarantella, was released in 1981 and quickly disappeared. Maybe only three years between live albums containing much of the same music was too much to ask of record buyers? It has never been officially released in any digital format that I can find, I'm guessing due to licensing fees and general record label nonsense. I've got a vinyl copy. I listened to the heck out of this release when it first came out. The concert featured several guest stars, most notably Chick Corea and Dizzy Gillespie. But it was great group of musicians he put together for the show:

Recorded live at The Americana Hotel Ballroom, Rochester, New York, on December 27, 1980, the concert benefited victims of a recent, massive Italian earthquake. The Americana became a Holiday Inn in 2015.

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Cash Box, May 5, 1981, p. 19

Billboard, May 5, 1981, p. 66

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• Tarantellas (3:55) - Actually two traditional tarantellas arranged by Chuck's brother, pianist Gap Mangione.
• The XIth Commandment Suite (12:39) - a shorter version of this Mangione original was included on his 1977 Feels So Good album. In the intro to this suite, Mangione introduces über-drummer Steve Gadd and states that he wrote this suite for Gadd's recital back in 1968 at the prestigious Eastman School of Music.

• Legend of the One-Eyed Sailor (7:47) - All songs on side two are Mangione originals, slightly rearranged for this particular ensemble. This tune originally appeared on Mangione's 1973 Land of Make Believe album.
• Bellavia (7:03) - A ballad that carries Chuck's mother's maiden name. Originally the title track of a 1975 album.
• Hill Where The Lord Hides (6:20) - Originally on a 1970 Mercury album titled Friends and Love, it was released as a single and peaked at #76 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early '71.

• Lake Placid Fanfare (:17) - a brass fanfare written by Mangione for ABC's coverage of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. Used here as walk-on music for Dizzy Gillespie.
• Things to Come (5:38) - a screaming, blazing bop showcase Gillespie wrote in the 1940's and used with big bands for the remainder of his career.
• 'Round Midnight (8:26) - Thelonious Monk's 1944 standard ballad is given the big band treatment.
• Manteca (11:05) - one of Gillespie's most famous compositions, this 1947 tune is considered one of the foundational pieces in the Afro-Cuban jazz genre. Gillespie not only features on trumpet, he also plays the mouth harp here.

• My One and Only (11:59) - Mangione and Chick Corea share an intimate duet on this 1952 standard by Guy Wood and Robert Mellin.
• All Blues (8:30) - the entire ensemble ends the album with a jam cover this Miles Davis' tune which originally appeared on the legendary Kind of Blue album in 1959. 

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