Top Ten of 2012

[Mark of Cenla]

I have only heard three jazz albums that came out this year, and I really like all three of them.

Brad Mehldau Trio - Ode
Chick Corea, Eddie Gomez, Paul Motain - Further Explorations
Pat Metheny - Unity Band

Peace and goodwill.

[charlesp]

But, Dave Douglas' Be Still on his Greenleaf label will be on my final "best of 2012" list

Charles

[CraigP]

Here's my top releases for 2012 in order; you can read capsule descriptions on my blog, along with a separate list of honorable mentions and a few that came in late.

Michael Formanek - Small Places (ECM)

Michael Attias - Spun Tree (Clean Feed)

Simon Nabatov - Spinning Songs of Herbie Nichols (Leo)

Tomas Fujiwara – The Air is Different (482 Music)

Harris Eisenstadt - Canada Day Octet (482 Music)

Nils Wogram - Complete Soul (nwog)

Angelica Sanchez - Wires & Moss (Clean Feed)

Eric Revis – Parallax (Clean Feed)

Vijay Iyer - Accelerando (ACT)

[Roger Thornhill]

I haven't heard as much as I would have liked but here's my few.

Tim Berne - Snakeoil
Jeff Parker - Bright Light in Winter
Christine Tobin - Sailing to Byzantium
John Surman - Saltash Bells
Josh Berman - There Now
Rob Mazurek - Stellar Pulsations
Bevan/Morris/Buck/Lash - Tony-Joe Buck Lash
Stuart McCallum - Distilled Live
Leo Smith - Ten Freedom Summers

The last is a very recent acquisition but feels like a monumental work already. I feel slightly abashed that I've neglected his work for a while.

[nouvortne]

2012 I like:

"Now Here This" by John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension,
"The Mothership Returns" by Return To Forever
"Unity Band" by Pat Metheny
"Blue Moon" by Ahmad Jamal
"Till Brönner"
"Conflict Of A Man" by ERIMAJ
"Renaissance" by Marcus Miller

That are my favourates.

[Frisco]

I think that there were a lot of very good releases this year. Only a few that really stand out above all the others though. I get to hear a lot, working for radio, but still haven't heard many of the Clean Feeds and others. I'll list a few "tiers" of my favorites:
(1)
Wadada Leo Smith - Ten Freedom Summers - Cuneiform
William Parker Orchestra - Essence of Ellington - Centering
Frank Wright Quartet - Blues for Albert Ayler - ESP Disk
Connie Crothers & David Arner - Spontaneous Suites for 2 Pianos - Rogue Art
Platform 1 (Vandermark, Broo, Swell/etc) - Takes Off - Clean Feed
Mary Halvorson - Bending Bridges - Firehouse 12
Dennis Gonzalez - Ressurection and Life - Ayler Records
Ellery Eskelin/Devin Gray/Dave Ballou/Micheal Formanek - Dirigo Rataplan - Skirl Records
Hal Russell - NRG Ensemble (reissue) - Nessa
Michael Formanek - Small Places - ECM
(2)
Pharoah Sanders - In The Beginning - ESP Disk
Trio M - The Guest House - Enja
Charlotte Hug & Frederic Blondy - Bouquet - Emanem
Jason Kao Hwang - Burning Bridge - Innova
Carlos Zingaro - Live at Total Meeting - No Business
Jason Robinson - Tiresian Symmetry - Cuneiform
Sean Conly/Alex Harding/Darius Jones/Chad Taylor - Grass Roots - Aum Fidelity
Simon Nabatov - Spinning Songs of Herbie Nichols - Leo
Foxes Fox (Evan Parker) - Live at the Vortex - Psi
Simon H. Fell - Positions & Descriptions - Clean Feed
(3)
Paul Dunmall - Thank You to John Coltrane - Slam
Sam Rivers Trio - Reunion Live in NY - Pi Recordings
Henry Threadgill - Tomorrow Sunny/The Revelry - Pi Recordings
Klang (James falzone) - Brooklyn Lines/Chicago Spaces - Allos Documents
Aki Takase & Han Bennink - Two for Two - Intakt
Evan Parker/Okkyung Lee/Peter Evans - Bleeding Edge - Psi
Jurg Wickihalder European Quartet - Jump! - Intakt
Crispell/Dresser/Hemingway - Play Braxton - Tzadik

[Sand]

Yeah, many concerts this year; locally and at the great Hagenfesten in Sweden.
Surprisingly, months with Beethoven; symphonies, violin sonatas, piano concerts, etc

Apart from that some recorded music that I remember:


Amina Alaoui/ Gharnati - En concert (her dcm release lead me to this one - older probably, but just great)


Anders Jormin - Ad Lucem


Bobo Stenson Trio - INDICUM


Food/Thomas Strønen - Mercurial Balm


Två för Tommy - LP with vibraphone player Mattias Ståhl, Patrick Boman & Fredrik Ljungqvist (Free Fall update)


Stefano Battalgia - The River of Anyder


Michael Formanek - Small Places


Gismonti/Haden/Garbarek - MAGICO - CARTE DE AMOR


Masabumi Kikuchi Trio


Abercrombie/Lovano Quartet - Within A Song


John Surman - Saltash Bells


Fujiwara - The air is different

[Dick Bowman]

My tuppence-worth (in chronological order)...

Leo Smith; Dark Lady Of The Sonnets; Tum
Matthew Shipp; Solos - The Jazz Session; Original Spin
Steve Swell; The Business Of Here; Cadence
Frode Gjerstad; PhilaOslo; Circulasione Totale
Andrew Lamb; Rhapsody In Black; NoBusiness
Frode Gjerstad; Dragon; PNL
Nicole Mitchell; Arc Of O; RogueArt
Peter Brotzmann; Solo + Trio Roma; Victo
Darius Jones; Grass Roots; AUM Fidelity
Kidd Jordan; On Fire 2; Engine Studios

Chopped out multiples from the same names, stuff that was so long in the can it should really have been a reissue, and so forth.

It rather saddens me that I'm not hearing many exciting new voices these days - maybe I'm finally just getting old, but there doesn't seem to be lasting substance to a lot of what's getting prominence.

[LWayne]

My top 10 new releases, not in any particular order, were:

Artist Title Label
1 Michael Formanek Quartet Small Places ECM Records
2 Frank Kimbrough Trio Live at the Kitano Palmetto Records
3 Tim Berne Snakeoil ECM Records
4 Odean Pope Odean Pope Three In & Out Records
5 Ryan Truesdell-Gil Evans Project Centennial Artist Share
6 Henry Threadgill and Zooid Tomorrow Sunny/ The Revelry Spp Pi Recordings
7 Chick Corea, Paul Motian, Eddie Gomez Further Explorations Concord Records
8 Vijay Iyer Accelerando ACT Records
9 George Cables My Muse High Note
10 Stanley Cowell Its Time Steeplechase

My top 5 reissues, archival finds, "new releases" of previously recorded music:

Artist Title Label
1 Keith Jarrett Sleeper ECM Records
2 Bill Evans Live at Art D' Lugoff's "Top of the Gate" Resonance Records
3 Bobby Hutcherson Spiral Blue Note Japan
4 Donald Byrd The Creeper Blue Note Japan
5 Stanley Turrentine Aint No Way Blue Note Japan

Lastly, my 5 favorite shows that I attended:

Performer Venue Date
1 Michael Formanek Quartet Windup Space-Baltimore, MD. Saturday, October 06, 2012
2 "The Great Flood"-Bill Frisell Trio Thurber Theater, Ohio State-Columbus, OH. Saturday, March 31, 2012
3 Roy Haynes" Fountain of Youth" Band New Hazlett Theater-Pittsburgh, PA Saturday, September 22, 2012
4 Brad Mehldau Trio Alte Oper, Frankfurt Germany Sunday, November 25, 2012
5 Enrico Rava Tribe Albright Knox Art Gallery-Buffalo, NY Sunday, February 26, 2012

Great year for Jazz, but, perhaps without the depth as in past years.

Regards,

LWayne

[HLJ]

Christian aTunde Adjuah- Christian Scott
4 MFS Playing Tunes-Branford Marsalis
Renaissance-Marcus Miller
Radio Music Society-Esperanza Spalding
Black Radio-Robert Glasper
Seeds From The Underground-Kenny Garrett
Made Possible-The Bad Plus
The Mothership Returns-RTF
Ten Freedom Summers-Wadda Leo Smith

Peace and all that.

[jesus marion joseph]

4 MFS Playing Tunes-Branford Marsalis

Reminds me that my copy is in my car still, unlistened to.

[steve(thelil)]

Might as well get started, and any year that kicks off with two outstanding jazz accordion albums is going to be an odd year!

Richard Galliano -- Nino Rota (a beautiful tribute album with John Surman and Dave Douglas aboard)

Guy Klucevsek -- Multiple Personality Reunion Tour (about as many different ensembles as there are cuts. One of Guy's best, which makes it very good indeed!)

Charlie Haden/ Hank Jones -- Come Sunday (I loved Steal Away by the same duo. I like this one even better. A gorgeous album.

Billy Hart/ Ethan Iverson/ Mark Turner/ Ben Street -- All Our Reasons (a beautiful album by a group with a great sound, continuing to reward repeated listenings)

Trio M -- The Guest House (First listen to this group of Myra Melford, Matt Wilson and Mark Dresser knocked me out; eagerly awaiting a second tour of the house.)

Tim Berne -- Snake Oil (Berne is always interesting, but this one is not really grabbing me the way I hoped for.

I don't understand how these artists can be that good if I've actually heard of them.