Been working my way thru some of the jazz LP's I've picked up recently, and wondered if my tastes are in line with the cognoscenti would consider 'essentials'. My top five, in no particular order:

Take the A-train - Ellington
Linus and Lucy - Guaraldi
Take Five - Brubeck
One o'clock Jump - Goodman
Pink Panther theme - Mancini

Any other suggestions or additions? What's your top five?

For me...

My Romance - Bill Evans
(Live, Keystone Corner, SF, USA 31/08, 07/09 1980, from 'Consecration 2') - this was 8 days before he died on the 15th September 1980. Absolutely storming improv with Joe LaBarbera (dr) and Marc Johnson (bass)

Miles' Mode - John Coltrane (from Coltrane)

High Plains Drifter - Bill Frisell (from Before We Were Born)

No Good Man - Billie Holiday (from Distinctive Song Stylings Decca A-652)

Soft Machine - Teeth (from Fourth) - at their best SM with Elton Dean do jazz with rock attitude, not the other way round.

I got the you don't know the half of it dearie blues. Ella.
Jet set. Mel.
Black coffee. Bobby D.
Is that all there is. Peggy Lee.
There are so many I like.

Dave Brubeck - Softly, William, Softly off the Concord on a Summer Night album.
You can actually hear the crickets chirping in the background.
It was a live performance.

Ella Fitzgerald - Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) live
The concert closes with Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing," complete with scat choruses and great solo work from Herb Ellis on guitar and Oscar Peterson on piano.
Ella Fitzgerald - Live in '57 and '63 ^^^

Sister Andrea, Mahavishnu Orch.
Out There, Eric Dolphy
In a Silent Way, Miles, or Santana's cover
Teen Town, Weather Report
Girl from..., Astrid Gilberto

Moanin' -Art Blakey & Jazz Messengers, also Lambert,Hendricks & Ross's version.
Take Five -Me too.
Whisper Not - Benny Golson