Gifts for the listener who’s heard everything… for your jazz-beyond-jazz companeros . . . for yourself . . .<\/p>\n
Gifts for the listener who’s heard everything… for your jazz-beyond-jazz companeros . . . for yourself . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-62","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"tag-best-2007-recordings","8":"tag-jazz-gift-ideas","9":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-10","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":748,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2012\/01\/nea-jazz-masters-concert-webcast-program-to-continue.html","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":0},"title":"NEA Jazz Masters concert webcast, program to continue","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"January 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The National Endowment of the Arts, formally inducting its 30th class of \u00c2\u00a0\"Jazz Masters\" with a concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center January 10 2012 that is being webcast live\u00c2\u00a0on\u00c2\u00a0WBGO Jazz 88.3FM\u00c2\u00a0 and\u00c2\u00a0SiriusXM Satellite Radio's Real Jazz Channel XM67, (starting at 7:30 pm ET) has announced that Jazz Masters will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/neajazzmasters-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":281,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/12\/jazz_best_lists_of_2009.html","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":1},"title":"Jazz best lists of 2009","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"December 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Chicago Trib cultural critic Julia Keller decries year-end \"best of\" lists for their \"chilly, retrospective nature,\"for \u00a0their by-definition 12-month perspectives trumping spontaneous enthusiasm, and for their reinforcement of consensus. Nonsense. Here are three opportunities to see what jazz critics are recommending as 2009's hot recordings, and there's some consistency, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2548,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2019\/01\/legacies-of-music-makers.html","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":2},"title":"Legacies of Music Makers","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"January 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The deaths of multi-instrumentalist Joseph Jarman, best known as the face-painted shaman of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Alvin Fielder, re-conceptualizing drummer, remind us that artists' contributions to music extend beyond recordings and awards. Read my essay at NPR Music, commissioned by Nate Chinen of WBGO, on the enduring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":76,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/02\/butch_morris_jazz_conductor.html","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":3},"title":"Butch Morris, jazz conductor","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"February 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"(slightly corrected version)Conductor of improvisation Lawrence Douglas \"Butch\" Morris is an East Village charmer, now-too-infrequent cornetist and internationally-known instigator of large ensemble music made spontaneously in real time by free-from-convention individuals. During a radio interview for the NPR show News & Notes, Butch identifies himself as a jazz musician not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":664,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2011\/12\/favorite-recordings-2011-many-more-than-10.html","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":4},"title":"Favorite recordings, 2011 — many more than 10","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"December 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Lists of top projects of the year are expected from arts journalism - my apologies for being so late this year, but I needed to re-visit many of the the 1200 cds and dvds I received as promotional samples from Thanksgiving 2010 - TG 2011. \u00c2\u00a0Here are some favorites --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/sonny-rollins-vol-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1162,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2013\/01\/images-of-a-jazz-conference.html","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":5},"title":"Images of a Jazz Conference","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"January 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Jazz Connect, a confederation of jazz activists including principals of JazzTimes magazine, \u00c2\u00a0AllAboutJazz.com\u00c2\u00a0and Thirsty Ear Recordings, produced a free multi-meeting conference with no specific theme other than what's happening in the musical \"community\" now, on Jan 10 and 11 at the New York Hilton. (Correction: JazzTimes is NOT part of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"JazzConnectConference1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/JazzConnectConference11.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI won’t say these are all the year’s “best” recordings, but they’re the one’s I’ve listened to the most for inspiration, surprise and pleasure.
\nClick on the title to buy online- many available as MP3 downloads as well as CD.
\n“More” will take you to my earlier posts on the recording or artist.
\nHere they are, in no particular order:
\n• Herbie Hancock — River: The Joni Letters<\/i><\/a> (Verve)
\nVery rich intepretations that deepen an already deep songbook, and a sumptuous yet straightforward jazz-and-vocals production, result in the pianist’s best since Gershwin’s World, with reference to Native Dancer, too. more 1<\/a> more 2<\/a>
\n• Maria Schneider – Sky Blue<\/i><\/a> (ArtistShare) – Beautiful realizations of an acutely personal music for jazz orchestra and those who revel in its sonic lushness. more 1<\/a> more 2 <\/a>
\n• Indigo Trio (Nicole Mitchell, Harrison Bankhead, Hamid Drake) – Live in Montreal<\/i><\/a> (Greenleaf) – Ms. Mitchell’s flute beguiles for the entirety of the album, no mean feat but with acknowledged debt to fluid Chicago-bred bass and drums. Mitchell’s several other larger-scale albums<\/a> of this year are worthy, too.
\n•Taylor Ho Bynum and Tomas Fujiwara – True Events<\/i><\/a> (482 Music) – Abstract but in-touch trumpeter-drum duets, the players well-met, loose yet focused.
\n•NuBlu Orchestra Conducted by Butch Morris<\/i> <\/a>(Digipak) – The international innovator of spontaneous large-group composition conducts a session of electro-funky genre-benders weekly at an East Village hipsters’ bar – this recording is a sample.
\n•Nas\/Miles Davis “Freedom Jazz Dance” on Evolution of a Groove<\/i><\/a> (Columbia Legacy). A track hip enough in its extrapolation of Miles to justify such of the other four remixes as Santana adding himself to “In A Silent Way.”
\n•Trio M (Mark Dresser, Myra Melford, Matt Wilson) — Big Picture<\/i><\/a> (Cryptogrammaphone) – Exciting, upbeat, lyrical, balanced, original piano-bass-drums, with heart. Hear also Melford’s duets with saxophonist Marty Ehrlich, Spark!<\/i><\/a>.
\n• Ned Rothenberg – Inner Diaspora<\/i><\/a> (Tzadik) – A gifted and disciplined reedsplayer – alto sax, bass clarinet, Japanese shakuhachi – accepts label-producer John Zorn’s concept of “radical Jewish music” as a soul-searching imperative, which can also be enjoyed just ’cause it sounds good: risk-taking, thorny, not inaccessible though; satisfying.
\n•Bobby Hebb —That’s All I Wanna Know<\/i><\/a> (Intuition) – The most lived-in r&b album I heard this year, the composer of “Sonny” plays low-down bluesy guitar and likewise sings, backed by just enough horns and capable rhythm.
\n• Consider The Source – Esperanto<\/i> (self-produced, appears unavailable online–but a few freebie samples<\/a>) — Gabriel Marin is a ferociously unself-conscious psychedelic-mircotonal alt.rock guitarist, like a young New Yorker Jimmy Page way-out-of Dick Dale, and his CTS instrumental trio mates are equally hard-rocking (they record with vocals as Earth Stood Still)
\nHistoric releases:
\n• Miles Davis — The Complete On The Corner Sessions<\/i><\/a> (Columbia Legacy) Incomparable treasure-trove of jazz beyond jazz, trumpeter-reconceptualist Davis’s most intense, innovative electric maximalist music more <\/a>
\n• John McLaughlin, Jaco Pastorius, Tony Williams — Trio of Doom<\/i><\/a> (Columbia Legacy) – One-time-only meeting of three Miles’ influenced fusion virtuosos; scorching macho posturing.
\n• Charles Mingus – Music: Cornell 1964<\/i><\/a> (Blue Note) – Saxophonist\/flutist Eric Dolphy is one of the pivotal ’60s improvisers, and to have such a full, fresh entry in his discography, in Mingus’ top-notch band at its height, is a gift. more<\/a>
\n• Albert Ayler — The Hilversum Session<\/i><\/a> (ESP-Disk): Ecstatic tenor saxophonist Ayler meets quicksilver trumpeter Don Cherry, far-flung improvisation the result.
\nMy suggestions for the jazz-beyond-jazz newcomer (or gap-fillers for a veteran listener’s collection) are here: Jazz-Beyond-Jazz Essentials <\/a>.
\nOf course, I’m more than pleased if you give appropriate parties (you’ll know who they are) my new book Miles, Ornette, Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz.<\/a>. In it I share my discovery and pursuit of these three avatars of the avant garde and their work, and offer guidelines for listeners seeking an introduction to or way deeper into the challenges of some of today’s really resounding music.
\nI proudly recommend the Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz and Blues <\/a>as well. As its senior editor, I presided over a crew of the most knowledgable, best writing jazz journalists I could find. I can’t take credit for the bountiful visuals that really add to the history and bios within, but they really make the historical and biographical entries shine. More objective reviewers have call it “an ideal introduction” and “the best book of its kind.”
\nTwo others books: I’ve just begun Ned Sublette’s The World That Made New Orleans<\/i><\/a>, and recommend it as an enlightening history that depicts just what’s at stake in the future of that Caribbean-American cultural capitol. And the novel I read the most greedily this year (with connections to jazz-beyond-jazz that I’ll elaborate upon, sometime): Octavia Butler’s Fledgling<\/i><\/a>. To call this a vampire story is insufficient. I read hardboiled urban noirs for their grit, wit and drive: Fledgling<\/i> ain’t in that genre, and may be science fiction\/horror\/fantasy\/feminist adventure, whatever — it’s fine storytelling about a deep character and intriguing ideas.
\nDon’t neglect the best gift of all: there’s no substitute for immediate experience<\/i>. Stretch those ears, try something daring, support live music, take that hard-to-buy-for someone out to hear jazz beyond jazz.
\nHappy holidays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"