One of the December rituals in the jazz writing community is for each individual writer to produce a list of “Top 10 CDs of the Year.” Although I find this process to be terribly self-indulgent, ascribing import to the writer that he or she may or may not deserve, I have also found the process of thinking back on the year through the lens of the musical soundtrack that accompanied it quite enjoyable.
So I give you, o faithful readers, the Official Lubricity First Annual List of Arbitrary Length Detailing a Number Of Excellent Jazz Musical Products To Which I Have Enjoyed Listening During The Past Year:
The Claudia Quintet, Royal Toast
Hot Club of Detroit, It’s About That Time
Ideal Bread, Transmit: Volume 2
Stephan Crump’s Rosetta Trio, Reclamation
Steve Coleman, Harvesting Semblances and Affinities
I listened to A LOT of jazz CDs this year — way more new releases than ever before, for sure — and these really stood out. Feel free to chime in with a comment and let me know if I missed some good ones — given the sheer volume of excellent music that is released each year, I’m always game for more!
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December 17, 2010 at 10:53 am
carlyle smith
Good list but I would definitely add Christian Scott – Yesterday, you said tomorrow
and Robert Glasper – Double Booked
December 18, 2010 at 5:46 am
arodjazz
I heard both of those — definitely not a fan of YYST; Double Booked struck me as solid but not spectacular. Plenty of opinions to go around, thanks for the suggestions!
December 18, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Barry Dallman
Hi Alex
I’ve just discovered Jason Moran’s Ten this week and have been enjoying it quite a lot.
Here in the UK, the best selling jazz magazine (Jazzwise) does a round up of several jazz journalists’ albums of the year. You might be interested to know that Phonesis came top with Alive. I still haven’t heard it yet but am hearing so much about it that I’m almost afraid too now if in case it doesn’t live up to the hype!
There are also a few albums on the list that I haven’t heard so will be checking them out now – thanks for the heads up!
December 19, 2010 at 8:28 am
arodjazz
I head “Alive” under very different circumstances — just another CD that came in the mail — and was captivated enough to keep it in my car CD player for a few cycles. It walks the line really well between intelligence and groove.
December 18, 2010 at 6:34 pm
Jon Wertheim
double booked is a 2009 record, commenters…
also, great to see matt’s xmas disc on a top of ’10 list, instead of just getting seasonal notice. thanks for the list, alex. enjoyed your kenny g article as well. i did something similar a while back.
peace,
j
December 19, 2010 at 8:25 am
arodjazz
I saw your Kenny G thing, Jon — much more in-depth than I dared to venture! I came upon Matt Wilson’s music this year for the first time (when he was King of Winter JazzFest) and couldn’t leave him off of my 2010 list.
December 19, 2010 at 9:30 am
Jon Wertheim
He was a 2010 discovery for me, too. Much too long to go without that dude, that’s for sure. And yeah, you’ll find Kenny’s music is very infectious – in a horrible, plague-related way…
Peace,
J
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