As I’ve done for the last few years, I create a couple of lists that are loosely grouped by impact – if it feels like something I’d play on a jukebox or has lyrics, if it creates a sharp impression that might reverberate later – if I feel like it’s a “song” I put it in songs. It goes here if it feels spacious or dreamy, like architecture or a painting or landscape. Obviously, in a lot of cases, these distinctions are porous.
Similarly to my songs list, there was so much good shit this year and I’m looking forward to getting this posted so I can really dig into everyone else’s lists.
- Wadada Leo Smith and Amina Claudine Myers, “Central Park at Sunset”– Two veterans of Chicago’s AACM movement – equally prominent as composers and virtuoso instrumentalists – teamed up for a duo record Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens that’s as rich, sprawling, and vibrant as the urban park that inspired it. This particular piece reaffirms the poetry in both artists’ playing – I’m not sure anybody plays a sunset on any instrument as well as Smith, and those delicate and powerful chords from Myers are like the shifting moods of a summer breeze.
- Mary Halvorson, “Desiderata” – I liked both of the last two Halvorson records on Nonesuch, but Cloudward synthesized those pleasures and reaffirms her Amaryllis octet as one of the great working ensembles, able to conjure any mood, any atmosphere her writing requires and bring in their own personalities without overwhelming the overall tone. A band of leaders that are always in service of the music. The way the jaunty swing in the beginning shatters into abstraction to flow back together in a new form is a Halvorson trademark, executed perfectly here.
- David Murray Quartet, “Free Mingus” – Elder statesman and master at blending the melodic and the free, David Murray, assembles a brilliant quartet with pianist Marta Sanchez, bassist Luke Stewart, and Russell Carter, for his breathtaking record Francesca. On this track the band digs into an undulating saloon song tempo with the intensity and beauty it demands – that flow from Murray’s solo into Sanchez’s brings me to the edge of my seat every time, and every bit of the record is this good.
- Vijay Iyer/Linda May Han Oh/Tyshawn Sorey, “Ghostrumental” – The second record with Iyer’s world-beating trio with Linda May Han Oh and Tyshawn Sorey exceeded even the high expectations I had. Thick grooves that shifts almost imperceptibly into deep abstractions and switch up again without feeling like an exercise, and melodic cells that swirl around and lock into place. There are a lot of piano trios on the playlist this time because all of them kicked enormous amounts of ass. Maybe my favorite moment on this track is Oh’s rich bass solo and the surprising, no-bullshit but also unshowy comping from Iyer and Sorey behind her.
- Soundwalk Collective featuring Patti Smith, “Pasolini” – As someone who’s as much a film nerd at heart – at least they took up equal headspace in my adolescence – and who’s off and on written poetry since I was a teenager, both Patti Smith and the subject of the piece, Pasolini, loom very large in my psyche. I also love Soundwalk Collective’s playing with time, geography, specifics. So Correspondences Vol. 1 hit me right where I live. This is a gorgeous, mysterious piece.
- Nduduzo Makhathini, “Water Spirits: Izinkonjana” – South African pianist/composer Nduduzo Makhathini’s second Blue Note album uNomkhubulwane is a gorgeous, meditative work immaculately played by his trio of Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere and Francisco Mela. The little shifts in this piece, the way a bluesy run gives way to bright crispness and then they conjure clouds in the water, keep me coming back.
- Six Organs of Admittance and Shackleton, “Spring Will Return/Oliver’s Letter” – I didn’t have this collaboration between freak-folk/noise-rock chameleon Ben Chesney (as Six Organs of Admittance) and dubstep pioneer Shackleton (I think I bought everything on Skull Disco for at least a few years) but this droning, atmospheric track captures both artists’ mature powers and finds new textures where they intersect. Meditative like the last piece but not at all like the last piece.
- Cassie Kinoshi’s seed., “iii sun through my window” – Saxophonist/composer from the incredible London scene and her seed collective’s record Gratitude. This track conjures a pastoral lushness with an underlying tension that I find gripping and intoxicating.
- J. Pavone String Ensemble, “Embers Slumber” – I first saw Jessica Pavone at the exact same time I first saw Mary Halvorson, when Gerard Cox brought their long-running duo to town, and have been a fan ever since. The shadowy, rapturous Reverse Bloom features a trio of Abby Swidler on viola and violin, Aimée Niemann on violin, and Pavone on viola and compositions. This closing track alternates between heartbeat pizzicato and long, arco lines curling like smoke. The exquisite pace lets every element burst and then fade, letting the decay play off one another like the shadows in a Twombly mobile.
- SML, “Three Over Steel” – SML set the bar high – in a year full of contenders – for smart, surprising groove music. This quintet of Anna Butterss on bass – on this track sometimes so heavy and thick it feels like a tuba in the best way – Jeremiah Chiu on synths, Josh Johnson on sax (those overlapping curlicues resist being easily grasped but also rebel against not being an earworm), the always subtle and response Booker Stardrum on drums and percussion, and Greg Uhlman on guitar. This track is a party starter in the world I want to live in.
- Dave Guy, “Footwork” – As with many things, I have Andrew Patton to thank for hipping me to Ruby, a record led by longtime Daptone – more recently of The Roots – trumpeter Dave Guy. This Latin-flavored piece feels like the first rays of sunshine on a cobblestone street, with Guy’s sing-along trumpet leading a dance over lush beds of percussion.
- Adam O’Farrill, “Dodging Roses” – Another favorite trumpet player, Adam O’Farrill, continues to top himself with the addictive HUESO, featuring a tight quartet of frequent collaborators including his brother Zack, bassist Walter Stinson – I’ve been blown away by that rhythm section hookup live and on record before, but they’ve never sounded better – and saxophonist Xavier Del Castillo. Crystalline writing given added life by the personalities of these players and a tribute to the kind of telepathy you hear at the absolute highest levels of this kind of small-group jazz.
- Happy Apple, “Turquoise Jewelry” – Another stunner from this band led by drummer Dave King (The Bad Plus, Fellwalker) with bassist Erik Fratzke and saxophonist/keyboardist Michael Lewis. I love the stop-start and the subtlety of this one.
- Caroline Davis and Wendy Eisenberg, “Accept When” – Saxophonist/synth player Caroline Davis put out multiple records that killed me this year, but this duo with guitarist Wendy Eisenberg vibrated strings in my heart I didn’t know existed, or had maybe forgotten about. That stretch toward the midpoint when their unison voices sing “Synchronicity” over and over, and then the instruments take over with this subtle, picked melody from Eisenberg and long tones from Davis, tentative at first and then stretching further and further out… good lord. One of my musical moments of the year.
- Erik Friedlander, “Shrimping (Mod 9)” – Erik Friedlander is one of my favorite cellists in any contexts, but there’s something special about his writing when he applies it to a specific thematic context. His instrumental dissection of MMA, Dirty Boxing, with a sympathetic quartet of Uri Caine on piano, Mark Helias on bass, and Ches Smith on drums, is my favorite record in years. This bouncy but restrained track is a prime example of what I loved about the record.
- Dirty Three, “Love Changes Everything II” – A new Dirty Three record is always a cause for celebration in my world, and the magnificent Love Changes Everything is my favorite since She Has No Strings, Apollo, maybe my favorite since Whatever You Love, You Are. I have countless records in my collection all three of these Australian players are on – none of them bad – but that unmistakable language when they get together is to be savored.
- Marquis Hill featuring Samora Pinderhughes, “Balladesque (Nothing to Lose)” – Chicago-native trumpeter Marquis Hill assembled a dream team including Makaya McCraven, Jeff Parker, Caroline Davis, Josh Johnson, and Juan Pastor, to tackle six of his compositions and tunes by fellow Chicagoans on his Composers Collective: Beyond the JukeBox record. The vocals by Samora Pinderhughes on this one are the icing on the cake.
- Patricia Brennan, “Los Otros Yo” – Vibes and marimba wizard Patricia Brennan wrote many of my favorite tunes this year and assembled an astonishing band to tackle them – including her bandmate in Halvorson’s Amaryllis, Adam O’Farrill, alongside Jon Irabagon and Mark Shim on reeds, and Marcus Gilmore on drums. This track grabbed me from that horn fanfare on the intro and never let me go.
- Alabaster DePlume, “Honeycomb” – London-based poet and saxophonist Alabaster DePlume floored me with a beautiful EP this year, Cremisan: Prologue To a Blade that leads off with this gorgeous, melancholy duet for reeds and piano.
- Max Richter, “The Poetry of Earth (Geophony)” – In a Landscape distilled the particular pleasures I get from Max Richter’s compositions, a series of pastoral watercolors that have enough tension to stay consistently interesting. One of my records of the year for both self-soothing and trying to go deeper.
- Pat Thomas, “The Oud of Ziryab” – I loved London pianist Pat Thomas’s work with free jazz titans like Derek Bailey, but this was my first exposure to his solo piano conception and every track on The Solar Model of Ibn Al-Shatir knocked me for a loop.
- Matt Wilson, “Good Trouble”- One of the shows I was sorriest to miss this year was the Jazz Arts Group bringing drummer/composer/bandleaders Matt Wilson back to the Lincoln with his killer band promoting the record this is the title track (composed with sax player Jeff Lederer) of a tribute to the late Senator John Lewis and, more broadly, a hard-swinging tribute to community in all its stripes.
- Asher Gamedze and the Black Lungs, “Elaboration” – Another drummer/composer on the rise, South Africa’s Asher Gamedze assembled an octet and worked with one of my heroes, poet Fred Moten, on a spoken word meets fire music masterpiece I’m still unpacking, Constitution. This mostly words and drums duet of a track is maybe the purest distillation but it’s an unskippable record.
- Immanuel Wilkins, “MOSHPIT” – Saxophonist/composer Immanuel Wilkins released a magnum opus Blues Blood this year and it’s another landmark flag-planting from an artist who’s better every time I see him – last time was Winter Jazzfest 2022, be damn sure I’m going to see this live at Big Ears in the spring.
- Kronos Quartet featuring Jlin, “Maji” – The long-running lineup of the Kronos Quartet took a well-deserved victory lap this year before two seats switched members, including their spectacular Sun Ra tribute Outer Spaceways Incorporated. This track finds them collaborating with Chicago electronic artist Jlin – the only artist I’ve seen get a standing ovation in the middle of their set at Big Ears this year – on an infectious tune that samples Sun Ra’s “Hidden Spheres.”
- Love Higher, “Crush” – Another recent favorite electronic artist of mine, Love Higher splits her time between Columbus and New York and is moving the dance floor culture in both scenes, with her own work, curating series like Errant Forms, and even acting in the Cameron Granger film that formed the spine of one of my favorite art shows this year. The EP this is the title track from is one of my favorite dance records in a while.
- J. Rawls, “Fresco” – Sticking with the Columbus theme for a moment, legend J. Rawls released a stellar record Bump the Floor. The light, staccato house-echoing flavor of this was infectious.
- Nubya Garcia, “The Seer” – My favorite of the current London saxophonists bringing contemporary flavors to a rock-solid grasp of the jazz tradition, Nubya Garcia’s Odyssey is the best synthesis yet of her varied interests, all filtered through her molten-gold, unmistakable sax tone.
- Matt Mitchell, “Angled Langour” – Another crushing piano trio record – Zealous Angles – captures Mitchell’s working trio with Chris Tordini on bass and Dan Weiss on drums, and it has all the heaviness you’d expect from those three names but also, as on this track, reminds us how much intensity and delicateness they can balance, how many Kandor-style worlds they can build in these bubbles of restraint. Beautiful.
- Marta Sanchez, “3:30 AM” – This Marta Sanchez record – also featuring Tordini in the bass chair alongside Savannah Harris on drums – felt like it had a similar powerful and restrained quality, an intense rhythm engine pushing right into the red, that I loved on its own but while playing with the list really felt nice between these other two pieces. A standout on a record – Perpetual Void – with no shortage of standouts.
- Oneida, “Gunboats” – Opening with a heavy-motorik drum beat and squealing feedback, “Gunboats” instantly landed in the classic rager category for me of a band that has more of those deep rocking expansive jams that hold my interest all the way through than anybody still working I can name. This closed the snarling, searching Expansive Air on a fist-pumping note.
- Kris Davis Trio, “Knotweed” – I was lucky to see this trio the week the record came out, and it made my shows of the year list. Maybe my single favorite pianist of my generation with the best rhythm section she’s had – Robert Hurst and Johnathan Blake – tearing into her excellent compositions. Probably the hardest time I had picking a single track to represent on this playlist.
- Tyshawn Sorey, “Your Good Lies” – I’ve been lucky enough to see Sorey’s current trio of Columbus native Aaron Diehl on piano and Harish Raghavan on bass twice in the last year, and they only grow into their power and rapport with one another. The Susceptible Now, the new record of standards, is the finest document yet of this working unit and this tightly arranged expansion of the Vividry song might be its crowning achievement.
- Brian Charette, “6:30 in the Morning” – Brian Charette, with a pulse-pounding quartet of Cory Weeds on tenor, Dave Sikula on guitar, and John Lee on drums paid tribute to B3 legend Jack McDuff in high style on You Don’t Know Jack! and they conjure the lighter Latin flavor of this McDuff composition beautifully.
- James Carter, “Prince Lasha” – I don’t know why it took this long for a solo baritone saxophone record from James Carter, but it felt like answering (a very specific subset of) my prayers when it happened. An essential document from probably the finest practitioner of the instrument working today.
- Nicole Connelly, “Sky Piece” – The presence of drummer Kate Gentile got me to check out Stamp in Time, and the writing and playing of trombonist Nicole Connelly (with Zachary Swanson rounding out the trio, along with Andrew Hadro guesting on bari on this track) kept me enthralled. The floating, plaintive quality here is always held together and held aloft by a tensile strength, with one of my favorite tones on trombone I’ve heard in a while.
- Ibrahim Maalouf, “Timeless” – Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf was one of my favorite discoveries at an early (for me) Winter Jazz Fest, and I’ve been enraptured by his sound and writing ever since. Trumpets of Michel-Ange is a stunning cross-cultural achievement highlighting the quarter-tone trumpet Maalouf’s father created and on this track including guests like the kora master Toumani Diabaté.
- Sarah Davachi, “Night Horns” – Sarah Davachi’s The Head As Form’d In The Crier’s Choir is another gob-smacking triumph, conjuring a diversity of moods from different instruments and combinations and a real mastery of all of them. This closing track, for pipe organ (also played by Davachi), is one of my favorite pieces to get lost in, always finding new threads.
- Painkiller, “Samsara III” – John Zorn reformed Painkiller with the original trio of Bill Laswell and Mick Harris, Harris of course doing samples and electronics instead of acoustic drums these days, and I was overjoyed to find the acid-fried intensity and chemistry are both not only intact but deepened.
- Kali Malone, “No Sun To Burn (for brass)” – I liked Kali Malone on records. Still, I became a massive fan seeing her live at the end of the night in one of the churches at Big Ears two years ago. All Life Long captures that power and the evolution of her compositional language better than any record before. This version of “No Sun to Burn” for a brass quintet – it also appears on the record in an organ arrangement – feels like the fog burning off a lake in the still morning.
- Walter Smith III, “24” – For his second Blue Note record, saxophonist Walter Smith III assembled a hard-to-top quartet of Jason Moran, Eric Harland, and Reuben Rogers (the aptly titled Three Of Us Are From Houston and Reuben Is Not) and they make a meal of Smith’s originals including this one, that feels tailor made for the sense of deeply serious play all of these musicians bring to the table, as well as a great Sam Rivers tune.
- JD Allen, “Know Rose” – Another tenor sax player at the top of his game, JD Allen, leans into denser, moodier territory on The Dark, The Light, The Grey, and The Colorful, and this sinewy, smoky ballad is right in his sweet spot. That tone needs to be luxuriated in.
- Tallā Rouge, “Shapes in Collective Space” – Tallā Rouge’s first record of compositions for viola duo, Shapes in Collective Space, finds whole universes in that range and a wildly expressive palate with these two players, Aria Cheregosha and Lauren Spaulding. It’s here because those tones at the beginning felt there was a shared feeling with the Allen piece right before and the Beethoven-ish sunrise elements of the Richard/Zahn piece after.
- Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn, “Traditions” – The single piece I knew had to be somewhere on a year end playlist but I struggled the most with figuring out if it was here or songs. This second collaboration between R&B powerhouse singer-songwriter Dawn Richard and avant-jam bassist/composer Spencer Zahn expanded on their language and opened up even more of their world to me. This tone poem – with minimal, sharply carved lyrics that imply whole lives intersecting – is one of the most moving things I heard all year. “On game day, my brother wears his Saints shoes. Must be a Frank thing, ’cause when I wear ’em, shit, they lose.”
- Carolyn Enger, “Orizzonte” – Pianist Carolyn Enger built Resonating Earth specifically to be a meditative, transportive work, and she chose the right composers for the job, especially Missy Mazzoli who put together this shadows-over-the-world miniature.
- MTB, “Angola” – This reteaming of the frontline of Brad Mehldau, Mark Turner, and Peter Bernstein (the MTB of the name) with the rhythm section of Larry Grenadier and Bill Stewart is a delight start to finish, with beautiful interplay that comes from walking the same roads as all five of these players have. This lighthearted but deep romp through Wayne Shorter’s “Angola” was a highlight for me.
- Dalia Stasevska and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, “Symphony No. II: The Faithful Friend: The Lover Friend’s Love for the Beloved” – Conductor Dalia Stasevska’s Dalia’s Mixtape bursts with ideas, colors, and gave me the most hope for the health of symphonic music of anything I’ve heard in years, including great new pieces from the likes of Anna Meredith, but I had to give it to this movement from a previously lost (I think) Julius Eastman symphony that moved me to tears on first hearing it.
- Brian Harnetty, “The Workbench” – One of Columbus’s finest composers, Brian Harnetty put out this stand-alone piece written in honor of his father and it’s both a moving tribute and an example of Harnetty working at the top of his game.
- Lara Downes, “America” – Pianist Lara Downes’ This Land is a stunning grappling with what this country we share means, full of both beauty and truth. My highlight was this Noah Luna arrangement of Simon and Garfunkle’s “America,” that opens the song up while keeping everything that’s good about it, played exquisitely.
- Shabaka, “As The Planets And The Stars Collapse” – One of my highlights of this year’s Big Ears – and an appearance as part of A Night at the East in WJF – was Shabaka’s new flute conception; I worried I was so deep into his tenor player bag that I’d have a hard time getting on board, but the first few notes put those fears to rest and the richly developed record keeps unfolding and revealing both its truths and more mysteries to me.
Screen of Distance 