I've been pondering this, and (a) spent most of the year listening to old jazz rather than new and (b) not sure I feel knowledgeable enough to comment on "Best." However, I know what I've enjoyed and listened to most, which are:
1. Mosaic Woody Shaw and Clifford Jordan sets. Resolved to treat myself to one of these babies this year, and the Woody Shaw was a natural choice. Then heard about the Clifford Jordan, just out last month, and that jumped into my cart as well. Both of these are just delightful in their differing directions - a concentrated dose of a giant's mature-career development in the case of Shaw, and a snapshot of an exciting moment in time in the case of Jordan. Still need more listens to get the Jordan in between my ears, but loving it more every time I hear it. The highlight is his "Glass Bead Games" - not to mention a Pharoah Sanders album I didn't even know existed.
2. My most listened to jazz albums have been mainly from Sunnyside Records. I really liked "Tootie's Tempo," which is kind of a stripped-down history of jazz all by itself; also the new Randy Weston/Billy Harper, which is still in its first few spins. Surprised to find that I listened to Kenny Barron's "Brazilian Knights" more than anything else this year...nothing really innovative, just a master beautifully playing music he loves. Just getting into the Edward Simon live album too...several more I've been hearing about but haven't checked out yet, so great year for Sunnyside.
3. Chicago jazz guys. Had a lot of fun keeping up with the local names doing cool things, like Rob Mazurek, Nicole Mitchell, many others. One of the things I listened to most this year was Ernest Dawkins' Afro Straight, in which a free-jazz lion takes on a straight-ahead set of standards, with an Afro-Latin backbone. Actually came out late last year, but I wanted to be sure to mention it because I love it so much. Similarly Pharez Whitted's For the People.
4. Best of all, going to live performances. Including Jazz Fest, I bet I went to 25 or 30 different shows this year - largely jazz, but lots of other stuff too. I saw Eric Bibb/Habib Koite, Bill Frisell twice, once with Charles Lloyd; many of the above-mentioned Chicago people; Miguel Zenon, Fred Hirsch, Brian Blade, John Scofield, Jack de Johnette (once w/ Abercrombie/Holland and once with Roscoe Mitchell/Muhal Abrams!), Wadada Leo Smith, etc etc. My resolution is to keep that going into 2014!
Page will be updated tomorrow with the Album of the Year, then get updated the following day with a sort of honorable mention of two albums by jazz musicians that really weren't jazz, but probably would've made the list if I hadn't gotten all purist and shit when I compiled the thing.
And there'll also be a post that "updates" my Best of 2012 list with a couple albums that, in retrospect, should've been included when I originally created it.
I can't believe how long I've had that Bryan & the Aardvarks in draft form on my site. That album, a Taylor Haskins overview, a variety of Bill Frisell articles (among others) have all been sitting in my draft queue gathering dust.
I am intrigued by the fact that Hagar's Song by Charles Lloyd and Jason Moran placed as the number one album on Gioia's list, which covers all genres, yet is not appearing at all on any of the jazz-specific lists. (I placed it high on my own list too, though with awareness that though I bought a fair bit of jazz this year, almost none of it was 2013 releases, so my comparison pool was not deep for jazz).
Random other thought, reading back up this thread to find the above info, I was struck by BT's turn of phrase referring to "albums of high visibility" - that's a great phrase to describe the celebrity albums, pointing to the relevant feature but remaining agnostic about not only musical quality but even popularity (I know those albums are in some sense popular, but for any one of them there are more people that do not like them than those who do). Perhaps the most salient feature of, say, a Miley Cyrus album is that it is visible to a large number of people who have no intention of listening to it.
I thought Hagar's Song was a decent album, very enjoyable, but with some dull moments that dragged on for a bit. For myself, when creating my own Best Of list, an album doesn't have to be without flaw, but those flaws need to be the result of risk-taking. Hagar's Song is a beautiful album, but if you're basically offering up "more of the good stuff," you'd damn well better hit the target flush.
Also worth noting, the difference in quality between, say, the #15 album of the year and #50 is pretty slim. I could've done a Top 100 of 2013, and still ended up shaking my head at the albums that got left off.
It isn't until you reach the top five (or so) that the album quality really jumps to an entirely new plateau. Those are the albums that really distinguished themselves.
Special year-end mention for "Whatever" by trumpeter Leron Thomas. Muscular, straight-ahead jazz that really stood out for me every time I heard it over the last few months (came out in Sept). Leron seems like an interesting guy, who I guess has bounced around various genres, all self-produced/released.
Free EP on Bandcamp from a few years ago, kind of in the alt/indie/hip-hop vein, if that narrows it down.
@Jonah, I didn't realize until reading a couple days ago, Leron is the guy who sang "Two Sleepy People" at the Jason Moran Fats Waller Dance Party this summer!
Yes, and he contributes to Moran's Fats Waller recording, due out in 2014.
Y'know, I'd have to go back and look, but I may have gotten into it with him on the AAJ forum back in the day. I had some back and forth with an odd sort of fellow who said nothing in the modern jazz sphere was special, and we traded some very strange conceptual posts. Can't recall if it was, in fact, Leron, but I feel like one of my forum mates mentioned that's who it was. Been a while.
P.S. Never got to spend as much time with Whatever as I would've liked. Still sitting in my queue.
The P4K readers poll results are up. Kanye finished first in: Best Musician Twitter; Best Live Act; Favorite Album Cover; Most Overrated Album; Most Underrated Album; and Album of the Year.
I am intrigued by the fact that Hagar's Song by Charles Lloyd and Jason Moran placed as the number one album on Gioia's list, which covers all genres, yet is not appearing at all on any of the jazz-specific lists.
Two points:
- Would you really find it notable that album X places highly on person A's list but not others'? I think the explanatory power of idiosyncrasy deserves much respect regarding individual favorites.
- Your statement doesn't actually apply to Hagar's Song, which, at #3, appeared quite often in the 136-critic NPR jazz poll:
Wayne Shorter, Without a Net (Blue Note) 359 (46)
Craig Taborn, Chants (ECM) 164.5 (26)
Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran, Hagar's Song (ECM) 160 (24)
C
Would you really find it notable that album X places highly on person A's list but not others?
Not in the slightest, but that's not exactly what I said; genre expertise was in play. I just found it (in passing) curious that an album atop a thoughtful, informed best-of-all genres list was not appearing on the equally thoughtful lists I saw that narrowed the field to its particular genre. That's a little more specific than being on one person's list and not another - heavens, my own list bears relatively little resemblance to most others I've seen. But we would all I suspect have found it at least passingly curious if Kanye's thing had topped the general best album lists and not appeared at all on various hip-hop-specific lists.
I found it curious specifically as in: I wonder if that's just chance (most likely so) or are the people who mainly listen to/focus on jazz hearing it in a different way? Just chance/different perceptions, or something interesting about how the album was received? Likely no way to know, and probably just random variation; it just struck me as intriguing.
I had not seen the NPR poll, so it turns out the real explanation is probably SSS (small sample size), i.e. I have not read enough lists. Thanks for the link.
I was asked to participate this year, and my ballot appears there with the others. Obviously, it matches what was posted as the top ten on my own site.
Something to keep in mind about someone who covers many genres vs. just jazz... due to the natural scarcity of time and energy, someone who listens to music across the board isn't going to hear as much jazz as someone who focuses on it exclusively... that's going to cause some variances. And then there's even differences between only-jazz writers... several of those who participated in the jazz critics poll admit that they only listened to 50-100 new releases for the entire year... so they, also, aren't going to be providing a very comprehensive analysis of what jazz really had to offer during the year.
That Wayne Shorter album really shouldn't be appearing in a top ten list. It's a very good album, but it has too many weak spots to be considered one of the ten best of the year. And ECM Records was WAY overrepresented this year. It wasn't that strong of a year for them as to nab as many slots as they did. I think both the Shorter and ECM selections were as much about reputation as the quality of the music. But that's just what I think.
Not in the slightest, but that's not exactly what I said; genre expertise was in play. I just found it (in passing) curious that an album atop a thoughtful, informed best-of-all genres list was not appearing on the equally thoughtful lists I saw that narrowed the field to its particular genre.
Hm, I had in mind with my comment jazz lists, just because Gioia's first and foremost a jazz critic and scholar, a longstanding member of the jazz literati - that he posts an non-genre-specific list at all strikes me as more idiosyncratic than a jazz album topping it. He is one of the 136 (oops, I mean, 137)!
Jonah:
That Wayne Shorter album really shouldn't be appearing in a top ten list. It's a very good album, but it has too many weak spots to be considered one of the ten best of the year.
"Should"? A less appropriate word to describe music rankings doesn't exist!
Makes sense. I was thinking of Gioia's list less as a jazz list because of its avowed scope and actual diversity. And I was intrigued-because-ignorant, not casting any aspersions.
"Should"? A less appropriate word to describe music rankings doesn't exist!
Lol, I know, I know. I have a column draft that I began over a year ago. I only got one sentence into it, and then must've gotten interrupted or maybe I was drunk and easily distracted, but the only thing typed in the draft file is this...
"I know I shouldn't let it bother me, but there is something about the Grammys' flagrant obliviousness that enrages me every time."
The moment is gone and that article isn't going anywhere, but I can't summon the willpower to delete it. That one would've been a doozy.
I'm guessing what reaches people about saxophonist Charles Lloyd's ballad playing is that all those multi-noted flutters can still fool you into thinking you're hearing John Coltrane.
So writes the NPR list commentator; I may well not be "people" but that's not even slightly true for me. What reaches me in Lloyd I think is timbre and sensibility, not the flutters.
If should shouldn't apply to lists than I wouldn't think I should be interested in them at all. Miley Cyrus should not appear at the top of a jazz list, or at least not this year. A critic making a valid criticism of a jazz album which seems to me (who's never heard it) to be resting on its laurels is different in quantity but not in kind from saying Miley Cyrus shouldn't be at the top of a jazz list. If expertise isn't playing in critics lists then why would anyone care?
Because "quality" in art resides solely in a judger's brain. Any sort of aesthetic consensus exists not due to the "goodness" or "badness" of the sounds, but because some/many people share physiologies (and backgrounds/experiences/etc) sufficient to react similarly. "Should" seems to me to ignore that reality, and worse, encourages the notion that quality is a characteristic of art that exists outside the perceivers, available to be correctly perceived. I'm a big language-affects-thought guy, and I genuinely cringe when I see that kind of language, since it exacerbates a longstanding problem. Particularly with aesthetic discussions, I'm a fan of using E-Prime.
Of course these lists only interest people due to overlapping aesthetics, but at the same time, it's perfectly consistent for two jazz critics to judge a given album differently, and I can't imagine a reasoned argument that a considered judgment of any kind "should" be different than it is. Perhaps that's intended as code for "I think if they listened more and thought more, they'd start agreeing with me", but that kind of codespeak prejudices thought and exacerbates bias, imo.
- A few highlights:
1. 1.Tim Hecker, "Virgins" (Kranky) There's something magical about an album you can play for a friendwho knows nothing about the artist and little about the genreand they are taken aback, stopped in their tracks, and immediately latches on.
- Jon Whitney
3. 3.Boards of Canada, "Tomorrow's Harvest" (Warp) Didn't Emeralds split up? It's obvious who bought their gear.
- Jon Whitney
5. Autechre, "Exai" (Warp)
21. Mika Vainio, "Kilo" (Blast First Petite)
27. The Knife, "Shaking the Habitual" (Mute) "Yawn. They didn't even make an effort. Just turn a drum machine on and leave the room for about 10 minutes. Where are the damn hooks this time? Where are the fucking songs you jerks? What a lazy-ass piece of rubbish."
- Jon Whitney
43. Main, "Ablation" (Editions Mego) "Main was one of the first forays I had into avant garde music as a teenager, so I will always have a soft spot for Robert Hampson's work. Even with that aside, Ablation feels like a Main album should. Not entirely removed from his recent solo works, but still retaining a signature, unique sound."
- Creaig Dunton
76 - Jacob Kirkegaard, "Conversions" (Touch)
85. The Stranger, "Watching Dead Empires In Decay" (Modern Love)
99. Silverman, "Finisterre" (Trademark of Quantity)
Single of the Year
3.Autechre, "L-Event" (Warp)
Live album/vault recording/reissue (or otherwise not really a "new full-length album")
6.Bernard Parmegiani, "De Natura Sonorum" (Recollection GRM) "When Bernard Parmegiani passed away in November, the world lost a giant of electronic music. This reissue of his masterpiece came as an unfortunately timely reminder of the power, inventiveness and beauty of his work. He will be sorely missed."
- John Kealy
26. Robert Wyatt, "68" (Cuneiform)
43. Francois Bayle, "Les couleurs de la nuit" (Sub Rosa)
Act of the Year
1. The Legendary Pink Dots' It was truly a banner year for them. LPD's campaign to bankrupt every fan of theirs by issuing FOUR albums of new material along with multiple expanded reissues seems to be having some success. Well done.
- Jon Whitney
2. Tim Hecker Much like The Legendary Pink Dots, Tim Hecker is creatively restless and constantly evolving. Unlike the Dots, Hecker quietly surfaced just long to drop an absolutely brilliant album, then quickly vanished from the spotlight yet again. And he definitely won't re-appear until he has painstakingly crafted something similarly stunning. I love that about him."
-Anthony D'Amico
Lifetime Achievement Recognition
Jason Molina
Worst Album of the Year
1.Arcade Fire, "Reflektor" (Merge)
2.Vampire Weekend, "Modern Vampires of the City" (XL)
3.The Men, "New Moon" (Sacred Bones)
4.!!!, "THR!!!ER" (Warp)
5.Darkstar, "News from Nowhere" (4AD)
6.Queens of the Stone Age, "...Like Clockwork" (Matador)
7.Smith Westerns, "Soft Will" (Mom + Pop Music)
8.Chvrches, "The Bones of What You Believe" (Glassnote)
9.Cut Copy, "Free Your Mind" (Modular)
10.Majical Cloudz, "Impersonator" (Matador) I'm disappointed The Knife wasn't in this list. Barf.
- Jon Whitney
Comments
1. Mosaic Woody Shaw and Clifford Jordan sets. Resolved to treat myself to one of these babies this year, and the Woody Shaw was a natural choice. Then heard about the Clifford Jordan, just out last month, and that jumped into my cart as well. Both of these are just delightful in their differing directions - a concentrated dose of a giant's mature-career development in the case of Shaw, and a snapshot of an exciting moment in time in the case of Jordan. Still need more listens to get the Jordan in between my ears, but loving it more every time I hear it. The highlight is his "Glass Bead Games" - not to mention a Pharoah Sanders album I didn't even know existed.
2. My most listened to jazz albums have been mainly from Sunnyside Records. I really liked "Tootie's Tempo," which is kind of a stripped-down history of jazz all by itself; also the new Randy Weston/Billy Harper, which is still in its first few spins. Surprised to find that I listened to Kenny Barron's "Brazilian Knights" more than anything else this year...nothing really innovative, just a master beautifully playing music he loves. Just getting into the Edward Simon live album too...several more I've been hearing about but haven't checked out yet, so great year for Sunnyside.
3. Chicago jazz guys. Had a lot of fun keeping up with the local names doing cool things, like Rob Mazurek, Nicole Mitchell, many others. One of the things I listened to most this year was Ernest Dawkins' Afro Straight, in which a free-jazz lion takes on a straight-ahead set of standards, with an Afro-Latin backbone. Actually came out late last year, but I wanted to be sure to mention it because I love it so much. Similarly Pharez Whitted's For the People.
4. Best of all, going to live performances. Including Jazz Fest, I bet I went to 25 or 30 different shows this year - largely jazz, but lots of other stuff too. I saw Eric Bibb/Habib Koite, Bill Frisell twice, once with Charles Lloyd; many of the above-mentioned Chicago people; Miguel Zenon, Fred Hirsch, Brian Blade, John Scofield, Jack de Johnette (once w/ Abercrombie/Holland and once with Roscoe Mitchell/Muhal Abrams!), Wadada Leo Smith, etc etc. My resolution is to keep that going into 2014!
http://www.birdistheworm.com/best-of-2013/
Page will be updated tomorrow with the Album of the Year, then get updated the following day with a sort of honorable mention of two albums by jazz musicians that really weren't jazz, but probably would've made the list if I hadn't gotten all purist and shit when I compiled the thing.
And there'll also be a post that "updates" my Best of 2012 list with a couple albums that, in retrospect, should've been included when I originally created it.
Cheers.
Spin -- 0
Paste -- 0
Stereogum -- 0
Quietus -- 0
Q -- 0
Rolling Stone -- 0
Mojo -- 0
Bird is the Worm - 30
Does this mean I win?
/monies
How about this one then ?
Lucid Culture The Best Jazz Albums of 2013
Got 1:
#2 Claudia Quintet.
Need to start knocking some of those off.
Random other thought, reading back up this thread to find the above info, I was struck by BT's turn of phrase referring to "albums of high visibility" - that's a great phrase to describe the celebrity albums, pointing to the relevant feature but remaining agnostic about not only musical quality but even popularity (I know those albums are in some sense popular, but for any one of them there are more people that do not like them than those who do). Perhaps the most salient feature of, say, a Miley Cyrus album is that it is visible to a large number of people who have no intention of listening to it.
It isn't until you reach the top five (or so) that the album quality really jumps to an entirely new plateau. Those are the albums that really distinguished themselves.
Free track at AAJ
Free EP on Bandcamp from a few years ago, kind of in the alt/indie/hip-hop vein, if that narrows it down.
@Jonah, I didn't realize until reading a couple days ago, Leron is the guy who sang "Two Sleepy People" at the Jason Moran Fats Waller Dance Party this summer!
Yes, and he contributes to Moran's Fats Waller recording, due out in 2014.
Y'know, I'd have to go back and look, but I may have gotten into it with him on the AAJ forum back in the day. I had some back and forth with an odd sort of fellow who said nothing in the modern jazz sphere was special, and we traded some very strange conceptual posts. Can't recall if it was, in fact, Leron, but I feel like one of my forum mates mentioned that's who it was. Been a while.
P.S. Never got to spend as much time with Whatever as I would've liked. Still sitting in my queue.
Link.
Craig
- Would you really find it notable that album X places highly on person A's list but not others'? I think the explanatory power of idiosyncrasy deserves much respect regarding individual favorites.
- Your statement doesn't actually apply to Hagar's Song, which, at #3, appeared quite often in the 136-critic NPR jazz poll:
I found it curious specifically as in: I wonder if that's just chance (most likely so) or are the people who mainly listen to/focus on jazz hearing it in a different way? Just chance/different perceptions, or something interesting about how the album was received? Likely no way to know, and probably just random variation; it just struck me as intriguing.
I had not seen the NPR poll, so it turns out the real explanation is probably SSS (small sample size), i.e. I have not read enough lists. Thanks for the link.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/bestmusic2013/2013/12/16/251761858/the-2013-npr-music-jazz-critics-poll
And the individual ballots, which are listed over on Tom Hull's site...
http://hullworks.net/jazzpoll/13/index.php
I was asked to participate this year, and my ballot appears there with the others. Obviously, it matches what was posted as the top ten on my own site.
Something to keep in mind about someone who covers many genres vs. just jazz... due to the natural scarcity of time and energy, someone who listens to music across the board isn't going to hear as much jazz as someone who focuses on it exclusively... that's going to cause some variances. And then there's even differences between only-jazz writers... several of those who participated in the jazz critics poll admit that they only listened to 50-100 new releases for the entire year... so they, also, aren't going to be providing a very comprehensive analysis of what jazz really had to offer during the year.
That Wayne Shorter album really shouldn't be appearing in a top ten list. It's a very good album, but it has too many weak spots to be considered one of the ten best of the year. And ECM Records was WAY overrepresented this year. It wasn't that strong of a year for them as to nab as many slots as they did. I think both the Shorter and ECM selections were as much about reputation as the quality of the music. But that's just what I think.
Jonah: "Should"? A less appropriate word to describe music rankings doesn't exist!
Lol, I know, I know. I have a column draft that I began over a year ago. I only got one sentence into it, and then must've gotten interrupted or maybe I was drunk and easily distracted, but the only thing typed in the draft file is this...
"I know I shouldn't let it bother me, but there is something about the Grammys' flagrant obliviousness that enrages me every time."
The moment is gone and that article isn't going anywhere, but I can't summon the willpower to delete it. That one would've been a doozy.
Of course these lists only interest people due to overlapping aesthetics, but at the same time, it's perfectly consistent for two jazz critics to judge a given album differently, and I can't imagine a reasoned argument that a considered judgment of any kind "should" be different than it is. Perhaps that's intended as code for "I think if they listened more and thought more, they'd start agreeing with me", but that kind of codespeak prejudices thought and exacerbates bias, imo.
1:
Schafer: String quartets nos.8-12 (on my list too)
- And a bit surprised to see Per Nørgård there - Maybe I should check it out.
Soundeyet 50 FAVORITE 2013 ALBUMS
- and a #21.
#2 on the New Discoveries from Last.fm's Best of 2013
Emmelie de Forest (born 28 February, 1993) is a Danish singer, who won the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with her song Only Teardrops,
- With lists from Marsen Jules, Taylor Deupree etc.
- Darcy James Argue and Roomful of Teeth.
2013 Readers Poll - The Results
- With comments from the Brainwashed staff.
- A few highlights:
1. 1.Tim Hecker, "Virgins" (Kranky)
There's something magical about an album you can play for a friendwho knows nothing about the artist and little about the genreand they are taken aback, stopped in their tracks, and immediately latches on.
- Jon Whitney
3. 3.Boards of Canada, "Tomorrow's Harvest" (Warp)
Didn't Emeralds split up? It's obvious who bought their gear.
- Jon Whitney
5. Autechre, "Exai" (Warp)
21. Mika Vainio, "Kilo" (Blast First Petite)
27. The Knife, "Shaking the Habitual" (Mute)
"Yawn. They didn't even make an effort. Just turn a drum machine on and leave the room for about 10 minutes. Where are the damn hooks this time? Where are the fucking songs you jerks? What a lazy-ass piece of rubbish."
- Jon Whitney
43. Main, "Ablation" (Editions Mego)
"Main was one of the first forays I had into avant garde music as a teenager, so I will always have a soft spot for Robert Hampson's work. Even with that aside, Ablation feels like a Main album should. Not entirely removed from his recent solo works, but still retaining a signature, unique sound."
- Creaig Dunton
76 - Jacob Kirkegaard, "Conversions" (Touch)
85. The Stranger, "Watching Dead Empires In Decay" (Modern Love)
99. Silverman, "Finisterre" (Trademark of Quantity)
Single of the Year
3.Autechre, "L-Event" (Warp)
Live album/vault recording/reissue (or otherwise not really a "new full-length album")
6.Bernard Parmegiani, "De Natura Sonorum" (Recollection GRM)
"When Bernard Parmegiani passed away in November, the world lost a giant of electronic music. This reissue of his masterpiece came as an unfortunately timely reminder of the power, inventiveness and beauty of his work. He will be sorely missed."
- John Kealy
26. Robert Wyatt, "68" (Cuneiform)
43. Francois Bayle, "Les couleurs de la nuit" (Sub Rosa)
Act of the Year
1. The Legendary Pink Dots'
It was truly a banner year for them. LPD's campaign to bankrupt every fan of theirs by issuing FOUR albums of new material along with multiple expanded reissues seems to be having some success. Well done.
- Jon Whitney
2. Tim Hecker
Much like The Legendary Pink Dots, Tim Hecker is creatively restless and constantly evolving. Unlike the Dots, Hecker quietly surfaced just long to drop an absolutely brilliant album, then quickly vanished from the spotlight yet again. And he definitely won't re-appear until he has painstakingly crafted something similarly stunning. I love that about him."
-Anthony D'Amico
Lifetime Achievement Recognition
Jason Molina
Worst Album of the Year
1.Arcade Fire, "Reflektor" (Merge)
2.Vampire Weekend, "Modern Vampires of the City" (XL)
3.The Men, "New Moon" (Sacred Bones)
4.!!!, "THR!!!ER" (Warp)
5.Darkstar, "News from Nowhere" (4AD)
6.Queens of the Stone Age, "...Like Clockwork" (Matador)
7.Smith Westerns, "Soft Will" (Mom + Pop Music)
8.Chvrches, "The Bones of What You Believe" (Glassnote)
9.Cut Copy, "Free Your Mind" (Modular)
10.Majical Cloudz, "Impersonator" (Matador)
I'm disappointed The Knife wasn't in this list. Barf.
- Jon Whitney
Top 23 of 2013 (supplemental)