Best Unknown Jazz Album

Curtis Counce "You Get More Bounce with Curtis Counce".

anyone know dolo coker? virtually impossible to find jazz pianist. i bought an unopened vintage lp of his ('All Alone') because i liked the cover and i cant turn down virgin vinyl (for five bucks) and it wound up being a total score.

Francy Boland/Kenny Clarke "Now Hear Our Meanin'." Screaming Big Band European style.

JC--May I vote for an xlnt all-time cover as well? You gotta love those 50's ta-ta's!

Art Ensemble of Chicago: Les Stances A Sophie or A Jackson in Your House
Sun Ra: Other Voices, Other Blues
Evan Parker: Breaths and Hearbeats
All of the above are 'free improv' of one sort or another. This genre is pretty 'outside' (not a single mention in Ken Burns' "Jazz" on PBS) which is too bad. If you can handle mid to late Coltrane, these guys are well worth checking out. The Sun Ra one is very rare, but he was very prolific (had his own label) and uneven so try to listen to a bunch before deciding that you understand what he was up to. Evan Parker is technically astonishing sax player - he can play two melodies simultaneously on one instrument - who, after producing tons of unlistenable material in the 70's and 80's, is now making what I think is the most original music out there, jazz or otherwise; oddly beautiful.