So much music, so little time — it’s absurd to whittle down this year’s “best” recordings to 10, an act that merely bows to convention. Why not 15? 25? 50? — if there are that many albums that reward repeated listening with enjoyment and revelation.
In almost random order:
James
Carter — Present Tense (Emarcy) — Outrageously accomplished reeds player
Carter and fellow virtuosi (D.D. Jackson, piano; Dwight Adams; brass, among
them) squeeze fresh thrills out of dramatic themes and basic arrangements, stretching
old school ways to suit themselves and wow us.
Rudresh
Mahanthappa, featuring Kadri Gopalnath and the Dakshina Ensemble — Kinsmen (Pi). Indian-American alto
saxophonist-with-a-Guggenheim and the unique maverick Indian
“classical” saxophonist expand on their mutual appreciation for similarities
and differences, backed by on-it electric guitar-violin-mrdingam-bass and
traps. Newly imagined music, rather than awkwardly hybrid or superficially mixed, and often hypnotic, sometimes searing.
Lafayette
Gilchrist and the New Volcanoes — Soul Progressin’ (Hyena) Simultaneously bold, blunt and sly, with bracing horn riffing, spunky solos and, underlying all, subtle references
and fascinating subversions from Baltimore-based pianist-composer Gilchrist.
Free Form
Funky Freqs — Urban Mythlogy Volume 1 (Thirsty Ear). Post- Hendrix guitar god Vernon
Reed meets harmolodic electric bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma and slammin’ Philly drummer
G. Calvin Weston. Play it loud.
Cassandra
Wilson — Loverly (Blue Note). Great song selection (starting with “Lover Come Back to Me,” including “Caravan”), smart ‘n’ spare
accompaniment and Ms. Wilson’s deceptively casual approach to lyrics front and
center makes this a welcome return to what she does best, which T-Bone Burnette quite misunderstood in Thunderbird, her previous release.
Lee Konitz
and Minsarah — Deep Lee (Enja). An intuitively-bonded piano-bass-drums trio that met at
Berklee School of Music embraces the graceful, wise, sensuous and spontaneous
abstractions of Jazz Master Konitz, who finds ever more melody in the nooks and
crannies of familiar intervals and progressions.
Sonny
Rollins, Road Shows, Vol. 1 (Doxy-Emarcy) Still champion Sonny
Rollins self-selects on-stage highlights from Poland 1980 to Carnegie Hall,
2007. His standard is notoriously high, and this collection meets it.
Mostly
Other People Do the Killing — This is Our Moosic (Hot Cup) Postmodernism at
its most engaging, four young men who know a lot of jazz past lay it all out, evidently for
fun, and surprise — one can almost sing along. Previously reviewed.
Joe Lovano,
Ravi Coltrane, Dave Liebman/Saxophone Summit – Seraphic Light (Telarc)Â — Three dedicated hornmen, with
ace rhythm (Billy Hart, drums; Cecil McBee, bass; Phil Markowitz, piano) and
guest trumpeter Randy Brecker collaborate in honor of the late Michael Brecker
with heartening depth. Also hear Lovano’s suave Symphonica with the WDR Big
Band and Rundfunk Orchetra (Blue Note).
Nicole
Mitchell —
Black
Unstoppable (Delmark) — Mitchell’s flute is a free-flowing wonderment, sustaining
constant interest in settings for her Chicago AACM-linked Ensemble, even when
they wander. Also available on DVD.
and/or Reissue:
Parker — Bird in Time 1940 – 1947 (ESP Disk) — An audio treasury, four ceds of varying
sound quality documenting the jazz revolutionary’s rise from obscurity to
immortality. For Bird devotees, but definitely for Bird devotees.
Sahib
Shihab and the Danish Radio Jazz Group (Oktav) — Produced in 1965 but
previously unreleased, nine tight bluesy little-big band pieces written,
arranged and conducted by a commanding baritone sax and flute soloist. Shihab,
ab expatriate who had collaborated with Monk, Blakey and Gillespie rewards
revisiting — and here gets excellend rhythm support from bassist Niels Henning
Orsted Pederson and drummer Alex Riel. Shoulda been on Blue Note, back in the
day.
Anthony
Braxton — The Complete Arista Recordings (Mosaic) Prolific, indefatigably
original and unabashedly ambitious (music for four orchestras?!), multi-reedist-composer-improviser
Braxton was as brilliant from ’74 to ’80 as he is now; the top notch
productions filling eight discs here retain their original daring and reveal
beauty not any better understood 30 years ago.
Most listenable
message album: Dr John and the lower 911 —Â City That Care Forgot (Blue Note).
Few New Orleansians have such a rich drawl, punchy piano style and the
righteous anger to ask “Say Whut?” and make it infectious. With ringers
Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, Terence Blanchard, Ani DiFranco, Trombone Shorty
and Terrance Simien all compelling attention.
Exemplary
Latin jazz:Â Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra — Song for Chico
(Zoho). Besides the estimable leader, an elite cast — Dafnis Prieto, Bobby Porcelli, Papo Vazquez, the late Mario Rivera and Tito Puente, Jim Seeley — contribute to the sophisticatdd swirl.
In-the
idiom-blues: Elvin Bishop — The Blues Rolls On (Alligator). See my previous brief.
Best Book on a Musical Movement: George E. Lewis — A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music  (University of Chicago Press). Previously reviewed here. (Of course I’m not going to plug my own Miles Ornette Cecil — Jazz Beyond Jazz at this juncture. . . )
Further recommendations of jazz-beyond-jazz: Wadada Leo Smith Golden Quartet — Tabligh (Cuneiform); Baker-Hunt-Sandstrom-Williams
— Extraordinary Popular Delusions (Okka); Mike Reed’s Loose Assembly, The
Speed of Change and Mike Reed’s People, Places and Things, Proliferation (both
on 482 Music); Gonzalo Rubalcaba — Avatar (Blue Note); Miles From India (Four
Quarters); Louis Moholo with Marilyn Crispell — Sibanya (We Are One)
(Intakt); Harris Eisenstadt, Guewel (Clean Feed); Tony Malaby Cello Trio,
Warblepeck (Songlines); Steve Lehman Quintet, On Meaning (Pi); Taylor Ho Bynum,
Asphalt Flowers Forking Paths (Hatology); William Parker at Vision Festival
xii, Double Sunrise Over Neptune (Aum); Mary Halvorson, Dragon’s Head
(Firehouse 12); Chico Pinherio & Anthony Wilson, Nova (Goat Hill
Recordings); Jamie Baum Septet, Solace (Sunnyside); Raphael Imbert Project, Bach/Coltrane (Harmonia Mundi), Toumani Diabate, The Mande Variations (Nonesuch).