Pazz 'n' Jop 2011: notes

As you may know by now, The Village Voice's 2011 Pazz 'n' Jop Critics Poll results were announced last night. The albums winner is tUnE-yArDs' w h o k i l l, which surprised me a bit, albeit pleasantly so; even if it is some way down on my personal 2011 favorites list, I can hear why it is an affecting record, warts and all. The singles winner is Adele's Rolling in the Deep, which seemed like a safe bet beforehand.

My ballot can be found here. My top seven records have been pretty much nailed on for a long time. Those seven records stand out, for me, by being more consistent and more solid works than the rest, and I attempted to indicate that by the scores I handed out for my ballot. Below those seven, there has been some fluctuation -- compare my pazz 'n' jop ballot to the latest revision of my favorites list -- though have revisited Paul Simon numerous times lately, I'm tempted to put it in the same category as my top 7.

A couple of points:

• None of my top 10 albums finished in the poll's top 10, but two are in the top 20, Frank Ocean and Fucked Up. If we go to the top 25, there are three counting Pistol Annies.
• My number one pick, Wussy's Strawberry, landed at 109th place, getting ten mentions.
• I was the only one to vote for Avram Fefer's Eliyahu and Wadada Leo Smith's Heart's Reflections (misspelled in the poll). Both are jazz records, and Eliyahu got only two votes in Rhapsody's Jazz Critics' Poll, from Tom Hull and myself, so that's no surprise, really. Darius Jones Trio's Big Gurl (Smell My Dream) , the third jazz record I voted for, got two more votes, from Steve Dollar and Tad Hendrickson.
• Matana Roberts' Coin Coin Chapter One... was the highest placed jazz album at 78, unless you count Colin Stetson, which we probably should, at 42.
• My sole Norwegian pick, Razika's giddy ska tale about the pains of growing up in "Vondt i Hjertet", got one other vote, incidentally by current poll organizer Maura Johnston.

Hoping to post some non-list related writing here during next week. I have a piece on jazz drumming in the pipeline plus, hopefully, a 2011 catch-up of Listening Booth notes, and the return of The 1984 Box Set.

2010 Voice Jazz Poll - Moran the same

The 2010 Voice Jazz Poll just went online, not surprisingly won by Jason Moran's well made, but not terribly exciting Ten (and I stand by my claim that the Monk cover is not very good at all). I find the choice a bit uninspired, but there you go. Nice to see Mary Halvorson, Henry Threadgill, Nels Cline and Mostly Other People do the Killing among the top 50, and Threadgill deservedly won best reissue.

Very disappointed, 'though, that Adam Lane's wonderful Ashcan Rantings nor Mark Lomax Trio's bluesy-and-kicking The State of Black America are not on the list at all. Was Tom Hull the only one voting for them? Lane's record was released late in the year (in November, if I remember correctly), so that may have played a part, and both his and Lomax's are on failry small labels and may have limited review copies available, but surely records as good as these must have been picked up by a few others ("go buy a copy, you tight ass") and my disapointment stands nevertheless (naturally, differences in taste come into play as well. I'm just being a bit of an ass here to get my feelings accross). I guess it is up to mr. Hull and myself to continue to spread the word about these two very good records.

EDIT: just got around to the individual ballots, and both Troy Collins and Jeff Stockton have Ashcan... in their top 10s, Ludwig van Trikt have Lomax' as his third favorite of 2010.

Comments on the year in jazz by Tom Hull can be accessed here, and his thoughts on the poll itself here. Good comments regarding review copies, or "who gets what", and we seem to be on the same page re: Moran. Some of his older records are very good indeed.

2009 Voice Jazz Critic's Poll + Happy New Year

My personal fave jazz records of 2009 with comments will be posted sometime over the weekend. My apologies for the delay. Until then, a happy new year to all readers & music fans (jazz and other), plus a few thoughts on the 2009 Voice Jazz Critics' Poll results that were posted on Tuesday (29th of Dec.).

The list turned out to be pretty interesting. The top two of Vijay Iyer's Historicity and Henry Threadgill's This Brings Us To, Vol. 1 are both great records and near the top of my list, too. Darcy James Argue's on 4th (winner in the debut category) and Steve Lehman's on 5th are also enjoyable releases. My fave of the year, Darius Jones Trio's Man'ish Boy made it into the top 20 (17th, 2nd best debut), while J.D. Allen Trio, David S. Ware and Tyshawn Sorey also made the list. Nice to see Allen Toussaint, Bill Frisell, Wadada Leo Smith and Ben Alison there, too. I've yet to hear the latest Bill Dixon as well as the FLY record.

Dissapointing, though, not to see personal favorites (and great records) such as Fully Celebrated's Drunk On the Holy Ones, Matthew Shipp's Harmonic Disorder, and Mike Reed's About Us anywhere. Perennial entries by Joe Lovano (ok-ish record) and Keith Jarret (yawn) makes me think too many Jazz critics have lazy ears, don't search hard enough for good music anymore, or are plainly just too conservative. Fair enough, I just wanted to have a pop there.

Happy New Ears

I've been on the road for much of the festive period, hence the lack of updates and Songs of the Week. Regular posting should resume by the end of the week, including my annual year in jazz thing-a-ma-jig. In the meantime, you can have a look at this year's Village Voice's jazz poll, won by none other than Sonny Rollins.

Happy New Year to all.