Top Free Jazz Albums
Rank All Time Artist Album Subgenre(s) Other Genre(s) Year
1
449
 Albert Ayler Spiritual Unity 1965
2
527
 Ornette Coleman Free Jazz 1961
3
1095
 Peter Brötzmann Machine Gun European Free Jazz 1968
4
1097
 Sun Ra Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra 1965
5
1290
 Cecil Taylor Unit Structures 1966
6
1297
 John Coltrane Ascension Spiritual Jazz 1966
7
1601
 Anthony Braxton For Alto 1971
8
1613
 Cecil Taylor Conquistador! 1968
9
2024
 Sun Ra The Magic City 1966
10
2226
 Albert Ayler Albert Ayler in Greenwich Village 1967
11
2287
 Don Cherry Eternal Rhythm 1969
12
2349
 John Coltrane Interstellar Space 1974
13
2351
 Sun Ra Space Is the Place 1973
14
2451
 Sun Ra Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume 2 1966
15
2463
 John Coltrane Meditations 1966
16
2491
 Cecil Taylor Live at the Cafe Montmartre/Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come 1963
17
2596
 Ornette Coleman Science Fiction 1972
18
2628
 Cecil Taylor Silent Tongues 1975
19
2629
 Pat Metheny & Ornette Coleman Song X 1986
20
2697
 Alice Coltrane Universal Consciousness Spiritual Jazz 1971
21
2924
 Jimmy Giuffre Free Fall 1963
22
2972
 Sun Ra and His Astro-Infinity Arkestra Atlantis Experimental Big Band 1969

Albums "bubbling under" the all-time top 3000:
Sun Ra Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy 1967
Roscoe Mitchell Sextet Sound 1966
Cecil Taylor The World of Cecil Taylor/Air 1961
Art Ensemble of Chicago Fanfare for the Warriors 1973
Julius Hemphill Dogon A.D. 1972
Sun Ra Other Planes of There 1966
Archie Shepp The Magic of Ju-Ju 1967
Pharoah Sanders Black Unity Spiritual Jazz 1972
Sun Ra When Sun Comes Out 1963
Albert Ayler Nuits de la Fondation Maeght Vol. 1 1976
Evan Parker Saxophone Solos European Free Jazz Free Improvisation 1976
Don Cherry Symphony for Improvisers 1967
John Coltrane Live at the Village Vanguard Again! 1966
Matana Roberts Coin Coin Chapter 4: Memphis 2019
Cecil Taylor For Olim 1987
Ornette Coleman The Art of the Improvisers 1970
Ornette Coleman Ornette on Tenor 1962
Sam Rivers Streams 1973
Sun Ra Arkestra Sunrise in Different Dimensions Post-Bop 1981
Archie Shepp The Way Ahead 1968
Albert Ayler Ghosts/Vibrations 1965
Ornette Coleman & Charlie Haden Soapsuds Soapsuds 1979
Ornette Coleman Sound Grammar 2006
Joe Harriott Abstract 1962
Archie Shepp Mama Too Tight 1966
Evan Parker 50th Birthday Concert European Free Jazz 1994
The Revolutionary Ensemble The People's Republic 1975
Sam Rivers Crystals Experimental Big Band 1974
12Twelve L'univers Post-Rock 2006
Ornette Coleman Ornette! 1962