Each year, we ask our writers and editors to select their top 10 albums of the past 12 months. Even in a year as fraught as this one — COVID-19, economic hardship, racial strife and election uncertainty — jazz artists produced some outstanding work. Here are the albums that made enduring the period between September 2019 and October 2020 a bit more bearable for
JAZZIZ staff and contributors. Each list is topped by the critic’s number one pick and a brief description of the music therein.
HRAYR ATTARIAN
Ivo Perelman and Matthew Shipp Amalgam (Mahakala Music)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNhaJkBZqAU
At once stimulating and introspective, tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp’s 10th duet album is an entirely improvised 12-part suite. The music moves from passionate and angular discourse to elegiac and virtuosic contemplations. What is perhaps most remarkable is that each musician expresses his individuality while being entirely in sync with the other. With its fiery poetry and melancholic and haunting ambiences, the brilliant
Amalgam makes for a captivating listening experience.
Majamisty Trio
Organic (Mistyland)
Carla Marciano Quartet
Psychosis: Homage to Bernard Hermann (Challenge)
Artemis
Artemis (Blue Note)
Lakecia Benjamin
Pursuance: The Coltranes (Ropeadope)
Roscoe Mitchell
Distant Radio Transmission (Wide Hive)
Ryan Cohan
Originations (Origins)
Jeremy Cunningham
The Weather Up There (Northern Spy)
Carla Bley/Andy Sheppard/Steve Swallow
Life Goes On (ECM)
Cecilie Strange
Blue (April)
LARRY BLUMENFELD
The Sam Rivers Trio Ricochet (No Business)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoCe9XJUzlY
Fierce but often funny, wild-eyed yet thoroughly organized, Sam Rivers, who died in 2011 at age 88, blazed a singular trail through jazz. Playing tenor and soprano saxophones, or flute, he sounded edgy or warm or both simultaneously, exuding authority yet never settling into anything conventional. His piano playing was equally distinctive. These previously unreleased 52 minutes and 14 seconds of continuous music catch Rivers leading his best trio, with bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Altschul, at San Francisco’s Keystone Korner club in 1978, recapturing a moment that still sounds current.
Ambrose Akinmusire
On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment (Blue Note)
Carla Bley/Andy Sheppard/Steve Swallow
Life Goes On (ECM)
Lucian Ban/John Surman/Mat Maneri
Transylvanian Folk Songs (Sunnyside)
Tim Berne’s Snakeoil
The Fantastic Mrs. 10 (Intakt)
Lee Konitz Nonet
Old Songs New (Sunnyside)
Thelonious Monk
Palo Alto (Impulse/Legacy)
Maria Schneider Orchestra
Data Lords (ArtistShare)
Edward “Kidd” Jordan/Joel Futterman/William Parker/Hamid Drake
A Tribute to Alvin Fielder, Live at Vision Festival XXIV (Mahakala Music)
Robby Ameen
Diluvio (Origin)
LISSETTE CORSA
Javier Massó/Pepe Rivero/Ivan Melon Lewis/Luis Guerra Tumbao en Madrid (Cezanne Producciones)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv1nkuPcmdk
Beyond showcasing the wizardry of four piano virtuosos,
Tumbao en Madrid further cements Spain’s capital city as an epicenter of world-class Afro-Cuban jazz. These pianists represent the latest wave of Cuban piano masters who are following in the footsteps of giants such as Chucho Valdés and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and are part of a larger web of contemporary jazz musicians from the Caribbean island who call Madrid home. The album’s 12 solo original tracks are divided equally among the four friends, each displaying his distinct and deeply personal expression of the ever-evolving contemporary jazz idiom. Inspired by thematic explorations across the elements of earth, wind, fire and water, the intimate session straddles dichotomies between awe-inspiring intricacy and elegant simplicity, further plunging the listener into emotional depths conjured through lightning-fingered phrasing, sweeping melodies, alluring lyricism and angular mischievousness.
Tumbao en Madrid is a defining album that connects these versatile performers to a moment in time and a singular place.
Ibrahim Ferrer
Buenos Hermanos (World Circuit)
Kandace Springs
The Women Who Raised Me (Blue Note)
Hugh Masekela and Tony Allen
Rejoice (World Circuit)
Guerrilha Groove
Guerrilha Groove (self-released)
Gil Scott-Heron/Makaya McCraven
I’m New Here (XL)
Ella & The Bossa Beat
My Remedy (Magrusmusic)
Orlando “Maraca” Valle
Esa Flauta (EGREM)
Harold López-Nussa
Te Lo Dije (Mack Avenue)
Nubya Garcia
Source (Concord Jazz)
MICHAEL FAGIEN
Lee Ritenour Dreamcatcher (MLG)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x61kKB-yuUo
Full disclosure: Lee Ritenour and I were record label partners in the Verve Group back in the ’90s. Before then, I was just a fan, followed Lee’s heavy session work in the early ’70s, his fusion years and Japanese imports in the late ’70s, and his smoother days at GRP in the ’80s. So when we formed our boutique label, it was destined for success with Lee as the musical director on our first release,
A Twist of Jobim. As a critic, a friend and then a partner, I have frequently discussed with Lee everything from musical ideas to album titles to life in general. Doing a solo album has always been on his to-do list and with the state of the music business and the world in general, the time was right. In contradistinction to his supporting role in the studio, and in many of his own bands (including Fourplay) and collaborations, on
Dreamcatcher, you hear the genius of Lee without all the dressing. I’ve not included the album as my favorite this year because Lee’s my business partner, but because it serves as the reason why I chose him to be.
Grégoire Maret & Romain Collin featuring Bill Frisell
Americana (ACT)
Charles Pillow Ensemble
Chamber Jazz (Summit)
Wolfgang Muthspiel/Scott Colley/Brian Blade
Angular Blues (ECM)
Malcolm MacFarlane/Ross Milligan
Two Rivers Meet (self-released)
Amit Baumgarten Quartet
Times of Change (self-released)
Billy Childs
Acceptance (Mack Avenue)
Yellowjackets
XL (Mack Avenue)
Butcher Brown
#KINGBUTCH (Concord Jazz)
Nikol Bóková
Unravel (Animal Music)
SASCHA FEINSTEIN
Jimmy Heath Love Letter (Verve)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVNQv4SMolY
The final recording by saxophonist and NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath,
Love Letter presents eight exquisitely performed ballads that, collectively, leave the listener enveloped in gratitude. Heath, 93 at the time of the session, composed three of the tunes and arranged all but one. He enhances the revelatory vocal performances by Cécile McLorin Salvant (“Left Alone”) and Gregory Porter (“Don’t Misunderstand”) with elegance and empathy, as he does with other featured guests (Wynton Marsalis on “La Mesha”) and bandmates (most notably pianist Kenny Barron and vibraphonist Monte Croft). Tender yet assured, Heath’s tone suggests the essence of love formed from decades-old wisdom.
Artemis
Artemis (Blue Note)
Teodross Avery
Harlem Stories: The Music of Thelonious Monk (WJ3)
Carla Bley/Andy Sheppard/Steve Swallow
Life Goes On (ECM)
Michael Dease
Never More Here (Posi-Tone)
George Garzone/Peter Erskine/Alan Pasqua/Darek Oles
3 Nights in L.A. (Fuzzy Music)
Ahmad Jamal
Ballades (Jazz Village)
Wallace Roney
Blue Dawn — Blue Nights (HighNote)
Maria Schneider Orchestra
Data Lords (ArtistShare)
Eri Yamamoto & Choral Chameleon
Goshu Ondo Suite (AUM)
MARK HOLSTON
Conrad Herwig The Latin Side of Horace Silver (Savant)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dbVGphmpxA
Since launching his adventurous “Latin Side of” series 25 years ago, trombone virtuoso Conrad Herwig has applied his virile jazz-meets-Latin formula to the compositions of John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock. Horace Silver’s well-known standards prove to be a particularly simpatico fit for Herwig’s concept on his latest outing. The late pianist’s seldom performed masterwork, “The Gods of the Yoruba,” merits a standing ovation. Recorded live, the eight-song set sizzles with piquant rhythms, stabbing horn ensemble lines and high-wire soloing by the leader, pianist Bill O’Connell, trumpeter Alex Sipiagin and tenor man Igor Butman, among others. Special guest Michel Camilo injects his Dominican-bred style of high-energy keyboard bravado on three tracks, making the set all the more memorable.
Fahir Atakoğlu
For Love (Far & Here)
The Ted Moore Trio
The Natural Order of Things (Origin)
Maria Schneider Orchestra
Data Lords (Artist Share)
Eric Alexander
With Strings (HighNote)
Roberto Magris
Suite! (JMood)
Black Art Jazz Collective
Ascension (HighNote)
Fumi Tomita
Celebrating Bird (Next Level)
Antonio Adolfo
BruMa (AAM)
Samuel Torres
Alegría (Blue Conga Music)
JOHN MOORE
Irreversible Entanglements Who Sent You? (International Anthem)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoPfj_PosTg
This record’s fiery artistry would have been enough to land it in the top spot, but the fact that it’s themes so perfectly meet the cultural moment in 2020 make it an even more obvious choice. The quintet delves into a mix of free improvisation, funk and spiritual jazz that’s thrilling on its own. And when Camae Ayewa — also known as “Moor Mother” — delivers her spoken-word vocals with contained (but righteous) fury, it rises to the level of an urgent dispatch. As Ayewa declares on “No Más”: “No longer will we allow them to divide and conquer, divide and oppress, define our humanity.” Indeed.
Tyshawn Sorey
Unfiltered (self-released)
Maria Schneider Orchestra
Data Lords (ArtistShare)
Matthew Shipp
The Piano Equation (Tao Forms)
Ron Miles
Rainbow Sign (Blue Note)
Joshua Redman/Brad Mehldau/Christian McBride/Brian Blade
RoundAgain (Nonesuch)
Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead
Legacy Holder (Vision Ahead)
Jeremy Cunningham
The Weather Up There (Northern Spy)
Jeff Parker
Suite for Max Brown (International Anthem)
Lakecia Benjamin
Pursuance: The Coltranes (Ropeadope)
ERIC SNIDER
Ron Miles Rainbow Sign (Blue Note)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOncgZFkCdM
Cornetist Ron Miles brings back the same dream band that earned acclaim on 2017’s
I Am a Man. Guitarist Bill Frisell, pianist Jason Moran (whose styles make for an engaging contrast), bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Brian Blade sync up to present an aural feast on Miles’ nine pleasingly melodic compositions. The music is warm — not hot, not cool — with tempos that largely stay within medium range. The epic, 16-minute opener, “Like Those Who Dream,” smolders, blues-like, drifting along on a subtle shuffle. Whiffs of Americana crop up and join a handful of languidly swinging pieces. Miles’ round tone works sublimely with the alchemy his bandmates conjure. The music has its reflective, melancholy moments but above all sounds like reassurance.
Noah Preminger
Contemptment (Steeplechase)
Jeff Cosgrove/John Medeski/Jeff Lederer
History Gets Ahead of the Story (Grizzley Music)
Marcin Wasilewski Trio with Joe Lovano
Arctic Riff (ECM)
Bill Frisell
Valentine (Blue Note)
Kandace Springs
The Women Who Raised Me (Blue Note)
Russ Lossing Trio
Ways (ezz-thetics/Hat Hut)
Susan Alcorn
Pedernal (Relative Pitch)
Charles Lloyd
8: Kindred Spirits (Live From the Lobero) (Blue Note)
Matt Wilson Quartet
Hug (Palmetto)
NEIL TESSER
Mark Dresser Seven Ain’t Nothing but a Cyber Coup & You (Clean Feed)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiMusGNK9CU
I’m a sucker for music that combines discipline and freedom — music with structure but informed by iconoclasm and even a touch of anarchy; music by artists who long ago earned their free-music cred, and thus, with nothing to prove, have no qualms about darting back and forth from playing “outside” the jazz tradition to within its guidelines. All of which just begins to describe this raft of treasures from the always startling bassist Mark Dresser, in a reunion of his septet starring flutist Nicole Mitchell, reedist Marty Ehrlich and drummer Jim Black. Dresser writes that the album’s embrace of the jazz tradition stems not from an attempt at “‘accessibility’ but rather to infuse energy, beauty and remembrance.” Not surprisingly, he cites Mingus as an inspiration, and the results are challenging, rewarding and endlessly engaging.
Kris Davis
Diatom Ribbons (Pyroclastic)
Chad Taylor Trio
The Daily Biological (Cuneiform)
Eric Revis
Slipknots Through a Looking Glass (Pyroclastic)
Maria Schneider Orchestra
Data Lords (ArtistShare)
Rudresh Mahanthappa
Hero Trio (Whirlwind)
John Beasley
MONK’estra Plays John Beasley (Mack Avenue)
Kurt Elling
Secrets Are the Best Stories (Edition)
Jim Snidero
Project-K (Savant)
Gary Versace
All for Now (SteepleChase)
BOB WEINBERG
Liberty Ellman Last Desert (Pi)
If you hear echoes of Henry Threadgill’s gleefully exploratory compositional style on Liberty Ellman’s
Last Desert, it’s no surprise: The guitarist has been a member of Threadgill’s Zooid group for 20 years. So has tubaist Jose Davila, who joins him here, providing the surreal, often-carnival-like bottom end on a picaresque journey with a sturdy group of fellow adventurers. Alto saxophonist Steve Lehman and trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson lend fanfares and tart solos to Ellman’s heady soundscapes, as bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Damion Reid urge them forward with chugging, sometimes ragged, rhythmic propulsion. Ellman’s quixotic instrumental voice is sparse but impactful, as he folds into the ensemble sound, making it all the more profound when he takes the fore. His compositional voice remains central, expressed brilliantly by this outstanding sextet.
Ron Miles
Rainbow Sign (Blue Note)
Edward “Kidd” Jordan/Joel Futterman/William Parker/Hamid Drake
A Tribute to Alvin Fielder, Live at Visions Festival XXIV (Mahakala)
Abbey Rader/John McMinn
Duo From the Heart (Abray)
Anne Mette Iversen Quartet + 1
Racing a Butterfly (BJU)
Marcin Wasilewski Trio with Joe Lovano
Arctic Riff (ECM)
Jimmy Heath
Love Letter (Blue Note)
Chad Taylor Trio
The Daily Biological (Cuneiform)
Carla Bley/Andy Sheppard/Steve Swallow
Life Goes On (ECM)
JD Allen
Toys/Die Dreaming (Savant)
JONATHAN WIDRAN
Gregory Porter All Rise (Blue Note)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjILTwRfGDk
Meeting this collective moment of anxiety, social justice and reckoning like no other jazz recording this year, Gregory Porter’s first set of originals since 2016 takes jazz and R&B to church. In uplifting, energizing flashes — including the London Symphony Orchestra strings and a 10-piece choir — of bold resolve, the singer tackles faith, relationships, racism and other relevant issues. Unlike many gospel-fired artists, Porter makes faith and rebirth palatable for secular listeners as well, while also throwing down some edgy roots-blues. With spiritual revival and redemption driving a multi-faceted artistry as prone to freewheeling jams as subtle balladry, the collection feels like a clarion call for listeners to take a stand and set their sights on a higher purpose.
Artemis
Artemis (Blue Note)
Catie Waters
Colors (Trippin ’N’ Rhythm)
Johnny Britt
Mo Jazzin (J-JAMS)
Paul Brown
Ones Upon a Time (Woodward Avenue)
Carol Welsman
Dance With Me (Justin Time)
Chelsey Green and the Green Project
Reenvisioned (Chelsey Green)
Antonio Adolfo
BruMa (AAM)
DW3
DW3 (Woodward Avenue)
Dave Koz
A New Day (Just Koz)
BRIAN ZIMMERMAN
Chick Corea Plays (Concord Jazz)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYT83-1fJE0
It’s been an unusual year for live jazz, to say the least. For some of us, it’s been months since we’ve seen a living, breathing jazz musician in person. Fortunately, 2020 has gifted us with a slew of great live recordings to get us through this drought, with perhaps the most exciting entry being the two-CD set
Plays by keyboardist Chick Corea. Recorded in 2018 in various concert halls in the United States and Europe, the album finds Corea taking the stage alone to interpret pieces by Scarlatti, Chopin, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk and more. Corea’s playing is unmistakably his own — playful yet piercing, always surprising — but there’s an air of deference that hovers over the proceedings, as if the presence of these master composers is ringing in the overtones. There are also some breathtaking instances of audience interaction, such as when Corea invites a handful of concertgoers onto the stage to create real-time musical “portraits,” or when a volunteer is plucked from the crowd to play an on-the-spot duet (with staggeringly good results). These moments, enchanting as they are on tape, stand to highlight just how magical they would have been in person, and that’s exactly what gives this album its emotional power. Any year is a good year for a new Chick Corea album. But in 2020, it’s especially gratifying.
Rudresh Mahanthappa
Hero Trio (Whirlwind)
Kassa Overall
I Think I’m Good (Brownswood)
Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis
The Music of Wayne Shorter (Blue Engine)
Thundercat
It Is What It Is (Brainfeeder)
Artemis
Artemis (Blue Note)
Christian Sands
Be Water (Mack Avenue)
Bobby Watson/Vincent Herring/Gary Bartz
Bird at 100 (Smoke Sessions)
Benny Benack III
A Lot of Livin’ To Do (BB3)
Maria Schneider Orchestra
Data Lords (ArtistShare)
Feature image of Jimmy Heath by Carol Friedman
