40 Year Itch : Creem Magazine's Top 10 Jazz Albums of 1973

Creem Magazine readers clearly prefer jazz with rock song structure so their Top 10 reads like a Who's Who of fusion ..minus anything with funk overtones like Headhunters or Donald Byrd. At the end of the list see Downbeat Magazine's list.

10. 

Considered by many at the time as the best guitarist in the world

9.

Brazilian crossover artist hit the Top 20 Billboard album charts with Deodato 2

8.

Two John Coltrane covers on this lp by Sir Chinmoy devotees

7.

A year after Last Tango in Paris , the Argentinian sax player returns home

6.

Jarrett's first album for Impulse! is out of print

5.

Deodato's first US album featuring the #2 single, a funky take on the 2001 theme "Also Sprach Zarathustra"

4.

It was an album before it was a group.

3.

Weather Report's fourth album and the last to feature founding bassist Miroslav Vitous.

2.

Mahavishnu drummer recorded debut with Jan Hammer and future Deep Purple guitarist Tommy Bolin.

1.

Loud rocking and then delicate fusion . A road map for every other jazz fusion band out there.

DOWNBEAT'S TOP JAZZ ALBUMS OF 1973

CRITICS POLL ( tied)

Tyner plays keyboards like they are African percussion instruments

Charlie Parker disciple got more experimental as the years went by

READERS POLL