{"id":6244,"date":"2016-12-24T01:44:04","date_gmt":"2016-12-24T01:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=6244"},"modified":"2016-12-24T01:44:04","modified_gmt":"2016-12-24T01:44:04","slug":"best-jazz-of-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2016\/12\/24\/best-jazz-of-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Jazz of 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20160307-paa-jason-moran-veterans-room-091_cp-640x447\"<\/a>
\nFirst, my contrarian uncool confession: I don’t love\u00a0lists. I just don\u2019t think music is a competition. Nor is writing about it, for me, a ratings game. (I prefer telling stories and reviewing each recording in its own context.) Still, I see the point, know the drill and have my choices, which honor worthy recordings and form a guide to satisfying listening. And this time of year is about giving: What readers want is lists, so critics need\u00a0give accordingly.
\nTruth is, I\u2019ve found that the making of these lists\u2014the consciousness, conversations, even arguments they generate in the context of the many other lists made by critics, bloggers and even musicians\u2014does in fact add up to meaningful context. That point was best driven home or me by actual public conversation at a \u201cYear in Jazz\u201d panel hosted by my colleague Nate Chinen and presented by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem a few years ago.
\nMost of colleagues love lists\u2014especially year-end ones. Few have gone about compiling lists\u00a0with the rigor and passion of Francis Davis, who, a\u00a0<\/em>decade ago, corralled 30 writers to create a list of the finest jazz albums of 2006 for the\u00a0Village Voice. Now, Davis’s poll lives on as the\u00a0NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll, and he has more than\u00a0quadrupled his forces \u2014 137 voters.
\nIm honored each year to answer Davis’s call.
\nYou can find this year’s results here<\/a>.
\nBest if you let Davis set the context, which he does each year in an essay<\/a>. This year’s pull-quote: “The year belonged to what I think of as avant elders, or better yet, the avant gentry \u2014 musicians who have remained in the jazz vanguard for three to five decades now.”
\nHe got that part right.
\nHere’s my list (and apologies that I couldn’t come up with a recording debut of the year (Davis’s strict rules require that the musician have no previous recorded output, which slims the field).<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Jason Moran,\u00a0The Armory Concert<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(Band Camp)<\/li>\n
  2. Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith,\u00a0A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(ECM)<\/li>\n
  3. Tyshawn Sorey,\u00a0The Inner Spectrum of Variables<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(Pi)<\/li>\n
  4. Henry Threadgill Double Up Ensemble,\u00a0Old Locks and Irregular Verbs<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(Pi)<\/li>\n
  5. Pedrito Martinez,\u00a0Habana Dreams<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(Mot\u00e9ma)<\/li>\n
  6. Andrew Cyrille,\u00a0The Declaration of Musical Independence<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(ECM)<\/li>\n
  7. Ren\u00e9 Marie,\u00a0Sound of Red<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(Mot\u00e9ma)<\/li>\n
  8. Herlin Riley,\u00a0New Directions<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(Mack Avenue)<\/li>\n
  9. Evan Christopher,\u00a0Bayou Chant<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(STR Digital)<\/li>\n
  10. Adam O’Farrill,\u00a0Stranger Days<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(Sunnyside)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    REISSUES\/HISTORICAL RELEASES<\/b><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Miles Davis,\u00a0Freedom Jazz Dance: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 5<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(Columbia Legacy)<\/li>\n
    2. David S. Ware & Matthew Shipp,\u00a0Live in Sant’Anna Arresi 2004<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(AUM Fidelity)<\/li>\n
    3. Charlie Haden & Gonzalo Rubalcaba,\u00a0Tokyo Adagio<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(Impulse! -15)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      VOCAL<\/b><\/p>\n