It’s fun to picture a burly trucker barreling down Route 66 listening to a Coleman Hawkins 8-Track at full blast, but the scarcity of jazz in this format is pretty good proof that it didn’t happen very often. The 8-Track was mostly a medium for country music, and many 8-Tracks were sold at truck stops – hence, not a lot of jazz.
But some jazz did get manufactured in shiny plastic boxes, and some of it fetches a great deal on eBay these days. I once saw a copy of Bitches Brew on 8-Track on display in a North Beach record shop. I offered the owner $50 for it – and he laughed at me. “Not for sale,” he said, and he wasn’t budging. I haven’t seen Bitches Brew on 8-Track again, but I have found some fine jazz albums in the format…
Miles Davis | Live Evil
Lester Young | Soul Parade
Louis Armstrong | Greatest Hits
Stan Getz/Joao Gilberto | Getz/Gilberto
Eric Dolphy | The Greatness Of Eric Dolphy
Charles Mingus | Soul Fusion
Jimmy Smith | Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
Gene Ammons | Gene Ammons And Friends At Montreux
Roland Kirk | Left & Right
Charlie Parker | Summit Meeting At Birdland
Charlie Barnet | The Stereophonic Sound Of Charlie Barnet
Duke Ellington | Hail To The Duke
Tags: Charles Mingus, Charlie Barnet, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Eric Dolphy, Gene Ammons, Jazz, Jimmy Smith, Joao Gilberto, Lester Young, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Stan Getz
