Fave Jazz of 2017 and the 2017 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll

The results of the 2017 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll, as usual conducted by Francis Davis, were posted on the 20th of December. The winner in what I thought would be a close race from a year with so much great jazz, but no clear consensus recording, turned out to be Vijay Iyer Sextet's Far From Over in something of a landslide. Further proof that Iyer is cementing a place as a universally respected artist. It was one of several excellent albums from what turned out to be a terrific year for jazz in the running for place on my ballot, losing out in the very last minute. Which is to say, on any other day it might have been included, as could a handful of others.

For me as I'm sure for many others, it makes little sense to set a top 10 in stone. Heck, a top 10 itself doesn't really make all that much sense. By the end of a given year, my fave list usually consists of a few -- most often three or four, sometimes less rarely more -- releases that have engaged, enthralled and moved me profoundly in ways that set them apart from all the other great music I might have heard that particular year. After that, there's a selection from a further pile of terrific albums that float in the zone just below. Picking the remaining releases from that stack to create a top 10 is a rather off the cuff exercise, the results depending on several, seemingly haphazard things such as day form, how recently I've heard a particular recording, and so on and so forth.

In any case, my ballot for the 2017 Jazz Critics Poll can be accessed via this link (more specifically on this page: scroll down or do a page search). But for my personal run down of my favorite jazz albums of the year, I'll instead go with the format I have used in recent years, and separate them into a three categories that makes more sense to me. Happy listening, and Happy Holidays!

MUSIC FOR THE AGES:

• William Parker Quartets: Meditation / Resurrection (AUM Fidelity) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen July 3., 2017] -- The New York eminence has achieved similar artistic heights previously, but the juxtaposition of his two celebrated quartets -- one groove focused and bop-tinged, the other more abstract and experimental, with Parker and drummer Hamid Drake's distinctive rhythmic interplay the beating heart of both -- mirrors two sides of Parker's qualities as composer, band leader and musician, providing a rich picture of a remarkable artist in the process. Few if any create avant-jazz this warm, engaging, energetic, burning and soulful as Willim Parker does.
• Angles 9: Disappeared Behind the Sun (Clean Feed) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, Febrary 27., 2017] -- Angles 9 come at you as a boisterous, mini big band, with poignant melodies, similarly captivating rhythms and deceptively unruly music that mines the tension between sorrow and joy, with winning results.
• Harriet Tubman (feat. Wadada Leo Smith): Araminta (Sunnyside Records) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, March 6., 2017] -- Araminta is a onse the most unsettling yet uplifting and powerful collection of music Harriet Tubman have made yet, and one of this year's most gripping listening experiences.

ON HEAVY ROTATION:

• Trio 3 (Andrew Cyrille, Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman): Visiting Texture (Intakt Records) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, April 10., 2017]
• Jaimie Branch: Fly or Die (International Anthem) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, May 29., 2017]
• Eric Revis: Sing Me Some Cry (Clean Feed) [reviewed for Jazznytt #244]
• AKMEE: Neptun (Nakama Records) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, June 19., 2017]
• Cortex: Avant-Garde Party Music (Clean Feed)[reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, October 16., 2017]
• Mike Reed, Flesh & Bone (482 Music) [reveiwed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, August 28., 2017]
• Aki Takase & David Murray: Cherry - Sakura (Intakt Records)
• Matt Mitchell: A Pouting Grimace (Pi Recordings)
• Gard Nilssen Acoustic Unity: Live In Europe (Clean Feed)
• Kate Gentile: Mannequins (Skirl Records) [reviewed for Jazznytt #244]
• Vijay Iyer Sextet: Far From Over (ECM) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, September 18., 2017]
• Nate Wooley: Knknighgh (Minimal Poetry for Aram Saroyan) (Clean Feed) [reviewed for Jazznytt #244]
• Team Hegdal: Vol. 4 (Particular Recordings Collective)
• Alexander Hawkins: Unit[e] (self-released) 
• Hegge: Vi är ledsna men du får inte längre vara barn (Particular Recordings)
• Lisa Mezzacappa: avantNOIR (Clean Feed) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, February 20., 2017]
• Matthew Shipp Trio: Piano Song (Thirsty Ear) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, February 6., 2017]
• Pedro Melo Alves' Omniae Ensemble: Omniae Ensemble (Nischo)
• Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Fukushima (Libra Records) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, December 18., 2017]
• Large Unit: Fluku (PNL) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, December 18., 2017]

THOROUGHLY ENJOYED:

• Craig Taborn: Daylight Ghosts (ECM) 
• Liza Mezzacappa: Glorious Ravage (self-released)
• David S. Ware Trio: Live in New York 2010 (AUM Fidelity) [reviewed for Jazznytt #244]
• Satoko Fujii Orchestra Tokyo: Peace (Libra Records)
• Pereservation Hall Jazz Band: So It Is (Legacy)
• Wadada Leo Smith: Najwa (TUM) [reviewed for Jazznytt #245]
• CP Unit: Before the Heat Deadth (Clean Feed)
• Tyshawn Sorey: Versimilitude (Pi Recordings) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, August 21., 2017]
• Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition: Agrima (self-released) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, November 20., 2017]
• Roswell Rudd-Fay Victor-Lafayette Harris-Ken Filiano: Embrace (RareNoise) [reviewed for Jazznytt #245]
• FCT (Francesco Cusa Trio meets Carlo Atti): From Sun Ra to Donald Trump (Clean Feed)
• Eivind Opsvik Overseas: Overseas V (Loyal Label) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, March 20., 2017)]
• Kirk Knuffke: Cherryco (SteepleChase)
• Atomic: Six Easy Pieces (Odin) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, Febrary 27., 2017]
• Nicole Mitchell and Haki Madhubuti: Liberation Narratives (Black Earth Music)
• JD Allen: Radio Flyer (Savant) [reviewed for Jazznytt #244]
• Goncalo Almeida-Rodrigo Amado-Marco Franco: The Attic (NoBusiness)
• Steve Coleman's Natal Eclipse: Morphogenesis (Pi Recordings) 
• Miguel Zenón: Típico (Miel Music) 
• Nicole Mitchell: Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds (FPE Records) 
• Max Johnson: In the West (Clean Feed) [reviewed for Jazznytt #244]
• Jonas Sjøvåg, Karl Seglem, Sigurd Hole: West Wind Drift (Shipwreckords)
• Angelica Sanchez Trio: Float the Edge (Clean Feed) [reviewed for Jazznytt #243]
• Harris Eisenstadt Canada Day Quartet: On Parade in Parede (Clean Feed) 
• Billy Meier: Introducing... Billy Meier (Just For the Records)
• The Mess (Brandon Lopez, Chris Corsano, Sam Yulsman): Holy Holy (Tombed Vision Records)
• Brandon Seabrook: Die Trommel Fatale (New Atlantis)
• The Necks: Unfold (Ideologic Organ)
• Trespass Trio: The Spirit of Pitesti (Clean Feed) 
• John Pål Inderberg Trio: Linjedalsleiken (Ponca Jazz Records)
• Jane Ira Bloom: Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson (Outline) 
• Roligheten: Homegrown (Clean Feed)
• The Microscopic Septet: Been Up So Long it Looks Like Down to Me: The Micros Play the Blues (Cuneiform Records) 
• Amor Amok: We Know Not What We Do (Intakt Records) 
• Roots Magic: Last Kind Words (Clean Feed)
• Led Bib: Umbrella Weather (RareNoise Records)
• Mind Games: Ephemera Obscura (Slean Feed)
• Tim Berne's Snakeoil, Incidentals (ECM) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, September 18., 2017]
• Wadada Leo Smith: Solo: Reflections and Meditations on Monk (TUM) [reviewed for Jazznytt #245]
• Scheen Jazzorkester & Audun Kleive: Politur Passiarer (Losen)
• Ross Hammond: Follow Your Heart (Prescott Recordings)
• Jeremy Pelt: Make Noise (High Note)
• Julia Ulehla & Aram Bajakian/Dálava: The Book of Transfigurations (Songlines Recordings)  
• 1982: Chromola (Hubro)
• Noah Perminger: Meditations on Freedom (self released)
• Ahmad Jamal: Marseille (Jazz Village) 
• Friends & Neighbors: What's Wrong (Clean Feed)
• Ben Allison: Layers of the City (Sonic Camera Recordings) [reviewed for Jazznytt #244]
• Jeremy Pelt: Make Noise! (HighNote)

Reissues and vault music:

• Dave Holland: Conference of the Birds (ECM) 
• Spontaneous Music Ensemble: Karyobin (Emanem)
• Thelonious Monk: Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1960) (Sam Records) [reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, May 8., 2017)
• Winston Mankunku Ngozi Quartet: Yakhal' Inkomo (Jazzman Holy Grail Series)

Listening Booth: Fave music a bit past the half way point, published reviews April through July 3rd, Geri Allen RIP & more

This post should have been posted a month ago, but events has prevented me from finishing it. Since July is a quiet month for me in terms of writing, I don't feel too bad posting it at the end of the summer break.

The few months prior to the summer break were difficult ones. Not only did my dad die in May, just before that and in the weeks following, so did Chris Cornell, Geri Allen, Prodigy, and then Khelan Phil Cohran, all of them musicians who have made an impact on me at least to some extent over the years. Following their respective deaths, I've found solace, power and courage in the music they made, in particular in the case of Cornell and Allen. And as for my dad, some of the music he loved. But life goes on, and additionally, there has been so much great new music released so far this year (and much more just over the horizon) to keep me occupied and to lift my spirits.

None more so than William Parker's terrific, riveting and uplifting Meditation / Resurrection double album, which showcases two of his quartets -- the actual William Parker Quartet as well as In Order to Survive. It's a truly wonderful release. Parker has hit similar heights on record previously, but part of what makes this one so interesting is how the two albums both contrast and mirror each of the two groups, both among the best jazz ensembles of the past few decades, and in doing so revealing the breadth of Parker's work in the quartet format as well as how his singular voice as a musician and composer permeates the music of both, with the unparalleled rhythmic power duo of Parker and Hamid Drake at their respective cores. As I wrote in the conclusion of my review for Musikkmagasinet, whether the music swings hard or moves in more abstract, exploratory patterns, absorbing melodies and impelling grooves never too far away, and few if anyone today makes avant-jazz this warm, energetic, soulful, fiery and engaging quite like Parker and his trusted cohorts.

A couple of words, too, for Geri Allen. I was a tad late to Allen's music, admittedly, not really digging into her discography until I re-listened to and was subsequently captivated by her trio recording Printmakers (Minor Music), featuring Andrew Cyrille on drums and Anthony Cox on double bass, for the 1984 project I started almost 10 years ago. Geri Allen was a terrific pianist and a talented composer whose artistic practice followed its own path. Much has been made of Allen's ability to operate on either side of the trad./mainstream and the avant-garde so-called divide, but to me she rendered such a division pointless, and thus paved the way for how great musicians such as the bassist Eric Revis (who also has a new, really good album out) seem to think and work today. It was as if she ripped away the wires of a dividing fence and danced between the posts with grace and vivacity.

Printmakers remains a fave, but there are many other great recordings with Allen, both as a sidewoman and as a leader and co-leader. From her work with Oliver Lake, Steve Coleman, and Wallace Roney, to the trio recordings with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian and later Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, up to the very recent group she had with David Murray and Terri Lyne Carrington, and many others, including an album with Ornette Coleman. She'll be sorely missed.

Published reviews, April through July 3rd.

• Trio 3: Visiting Texture (Intakt Records) Reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, April 10., 2017. Original grade 5 out of 6. A

• Thelonious Monk: Liaisons Dangereuses (1960) Reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, May 8., 2017. [Link to online version] Not graded (part of an article). A

• Jaimie Branch: Fly or Die (International Anthem) Reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, May 29., 2017. [Original grade 5 out of 6. A-

• Akmee: Neptun (Nakama Records) Reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen,June 19., 2017. Original grade 5 out of 6. A-

• William Parker Quartets: Meditation / Resurrection (AUM Fidelity) Reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, July 3., 2017. Original grade 6 out of 6. A+

• Linda May Han Oh: Walk Against Wind (Biophilia Records) Reviewed for Jazznytt #243, Summer 2017. Not graded. B+

• The Angelica Sanchez Trio: Float the Edge (Clean Feed) Reviewed for Jazznytt #243, Summer 2017. Not graded. A-

Additional published writing: "Opp med Shipp-farten", on Matthew Shipp, Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, April 3., 2017 and Chris Cornell obit, Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, May 22., 2017.

Fave new releases, January through the first week of July 2017:

For the ages:

• William Parker Quartets: Meditation / Resurrection (AUM Fidelity)
• Angles 9: Disappeared Behind the Sun (Clean Feed)
• Harriet Tubman feat. Wadada Leo Smith: Araminta (Sunnyside Records)

Heavy rotation:

• IDLES: Brutalism (Balley Records)
• Jens Lekman: Life Will See You Now (Secretly Canadian)
• Trio 3 (Andrew Cyrille, Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman): Visiting Texture (Intakt Records)
• Jaimie Branch: Fly or Die (International Anthem)
• Arto Lindsey:  Cuidado Madame (Northern Spy Records)
• Khalid: American Teen (Right Hand Music)
• Akmee: Neptun (Nakama Records)
• Alexander Hawkins: Unit[e] (self-released)
• Lisa Mezzacappa: avantNOIR (Clean Feed)
• Matthew Shipp Trio: Piano Song (Thirsty Ear)
• Craig Taborn: Daylight Ghosts (ECM) 
• David S. Ware Trio: Live in New York 2010 (AUM Fidelity) 
• Emperor X: Oversleepers International (Tiny Engines)

Thoroughly enjoyed:

• Satoko Fujii Orchestra Tokyo: Peace (Libra Records)
• CP Unit: Before the Heat Deadth (Clean Feed)
• Eivind Opsvik Overseas: Overseas V (Loyal Label)
• Atomic: Six Easy Pieces (Odin)
• Preservation Hall Jazz Band: So It Is (Legacy Recordings)
• Lithics: Borrowed Floors (Water Wing Records, 2016)
• Orchestra Baobab: Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng (World Circut Records) 
• Wire: Silver/Lead (pinkflag)
• The Mountain Goats: Goths (Merge Records)
• Goncalo Almeida-Rodrigo Amado-Marco Franco: The Attic (NoBusiness) 
• Priests: Nothing Feels Natural (Dischord Records)
• Steve Coleman: Morphogenesis (Pi Recordings) 
• Saint Etienne: Sound of Water Heavenly Recordings)
• Miguel Zenón: Típico (Miel Music) 
• Nicole Mitchell: Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds (FPE Records)
• Angelica Sanchez Trio: Float the Edge (Clean Feed) 
• JD Allen: Radio Flyer (Savant Records) 
• Oumou Sangare: Mogoya (No Format)
• Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: The Nashville Sound (Southeastern)
• Spoon: Hot Thoughts (Matador)
• Harris Eisenstadt Canada Day Quartet: On Parade in Parede (Clean Feed)
• Brandon Seabrook: Die Trommel Fatale (New Atlantis)
• Bardo Pond: Under the Pines (Fire Records)
• Sunny Sweeney: Trophy (Aunt Daddy Records)
• Tresspass Trio: The Spirit of Pitesti (Clean Feed)
• The Microscopic Septet: Been Up So Long it Looks Like Down to Me: The Micros Play the Blues (Cuneiform Records) 
• Diet Cig: Swear I'm Good at This (Frenchkiss Records)
• Syd: Fin (Columbia)
• Amor Amok: We Know Not What We Do (Intakt Records) 
• Led Bib: Umbrella Weather (RareNoise Records)
• Nnamdi Ogbonnaya: DROOL (Father/Daughter Records) 
• Brandon Seabrook: Die Trommel Fatale (New Atlantis Records) 
• The Necks: Unfold (Ideologic Organ) 
• Low Cut Connie: Dirty Pictures (Part 1) (Contender) 
• Omar Souleyman: To Syria, With Love (Mad Decent)
• Ross Hammond: Follow Your Heart (Prescott Recordings)
• Jeremy Pelt: Make Noise (High Note)
• Julia Ulehla & Aram Bajakian/Dálava: The Book of Transfigurations (Songlines Recordings) 
• Noah Perminger: Meditations on Freedom (self released)
• Benjamin Brooker: Witness (Rough Trade)
• Cloud Nothings: Life Without Sound (Carpark Records)

Reissues and vault music:

• Dave Holland: Conference of the Birds (ECM)
• Thelonious Monk: Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1960) (Sam Records) 
• Prince: Purple Rain (Deluxe, Expanded Edition) (NPG Records/Warner)
• Soundgarden: Ultramega OK (Sub Pop)

 

Listening Booth: Published reviews and fave music of 1st quarter, January through March, 2017

Not too many albums covered here, partly because I did not write for the latest issue of Jazznytt, but worth the update nonetheless, not least because among these are some terrific albums. Below, 20 of the most notable new albums I heard form January through March (listed 20 because I had to stop somewhere. Albums to be released have not been included).

• Steve Swell Quintet: Soul Travelers (Rogue Art, released 2016) Reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, Januray 16., 2017. Original grade 5 out of 6. -- A-

•  The XX: I See You (Young Turks) Reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, Januray 16., 2017. Originally graded 5 out of 6. -- B+

• The Modern Times: This is the Modern Times (Drabant) Reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, Januray 30., 2017. Originally graded 4,5 out of 6. -- B+

• Matthew Shipp: Piano Song (Thirsty Ear) Reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, February 6., 2017. Originally graded 5 out of 6. -- A-

•  Liza Mezzacappa: avantNOIR (Clean Feed) Reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, February 20., 2017. Originally graded 5 out of 6. -- A-

•  Angles 9: Disappeared Behind the Sun (Clean Feed) Reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, February 27., 2017. Originally graded 5,5 out of 6. -- A

• Atomic: Six Easy Pieces (Odin/Grappa) Reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, Feruary 27., 2017. Originally graded 5 out of 6. -- A-

•  Harriet Tubman (feat. Wadada Leo Smith): Araminta (Sunnyside Records) Reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, March 6., 2017. Originally graded 5,5 out of 6. -- A

•  Eivind Opsvik: Overseas V (Loyal Label) Reviewed for Musikkmagasinet/Klassekampen, March 20., 2017. Originally graded 5 out of 6. -- A-

20 engrossing and enjoyable albums, January 1st. - March 31st.:

• Angles 9: Disappeared Behind the Sun (Clean Feed)
• Harriet Tubman (feat. Wadada Leo Smith): Araminta (Sunnyside Records)
• IDLES: Brutalism (Balley Records)
• Trio 3 (Andrew Cyrille, Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman): Visiting Texture (Intakt Records)
• Jens Lekman: Life Will See You Now (Secretly Canadian)
• Lisa Mezzacappa: avantNOIR (Clean Feed)
• Matthew Shipp Trio: Piano Song (Thirsty Ear)
• CP Unit: Before the Heat Death (Clean Feed)
• Eivind Opsvik Overseas: Overseas V (Loyal Label)
• Atomic: Six Easy Pieces (Odin)
• Lithics: Borrowed Floors (Water Wing Records, 2016)
• Orchestra Baobab: Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng (World Circut Records) 
• Led Bib: Umbrella Weather (RareNoise Records) 
• Priests: Nothing Feels Natural (Dischord Records)
• Miguel Zenón: Típico (Miel Music)
• Spoon: Hot Thoughts (Matador)
• Bardo Pond: Under the Pines (Fire Records)
• Sunny Sweeney: Trophy (Aunt Daddy Records)
• The Microscopic Septet: Been Up So Long it Looks Like Down to Me: The Micros Play the Blues (Cuneiform Records)
• Syd: Fin (Columbia)