Top 10 (in order, all genres considered, not including any clients, which was very hard this year)
1. John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble – Eternal Interlude (Sunnyside) – The most musically adventurous record I heard all year. Their live concerts (which I saw twice in 2009 were unbelievable studies in concentration, improvisation and group dynamics). John Hollenbeck is a master composer and arranger and conceptualist. His recent bonanza (three-fer) at (le) Poisson Rouge was one of my top three live concert experiences of 2009.
2. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast (Fat Possum) – The most beautifully crafted folk rock album of the year from songwriting to lyrics to production to packaging. Andrew Bird is no slouch. Props to Fat Possum too.
3. AlasNoAxis – Houseplant (Winter & Winter) – This band is the “jazz” equivalent of Tortoise or Orbital or (insert amazing instrumental rock band here). Just freaking amazing. Jim Black is a monster. But then so are multi-reedist Chris Speed (founder of Skirl Records), bassist Skuli Sverisson and guitarist Hilmar Jensson. Buy it. See all their albums in one place. Their Philly Ars Nova Workshop show in June was probably my top live music experience of 2009.
4. Various Artists – Dark Was the Night (4AD) – An amazing indie rock meeting of the minds to benefit the Red Hot AIDS charity with all original material curated by the Aaron and Bryce Dessner (from The National) including David Byrne, Cat Power, The Books, Buck 65, Beirut, Beach House, Blonde Redhead, Arcae Fire, Dirty Projectors, Andrew Bird, Bon Iver, Kronos Quartet, Iron & Wine, Yo La Tengo, Spoon, My Morning Jacket, Grizzly Bear, Feist, The Decemberists, The New Pornographers and many more. A MUST HAVE!
5. Lucky 7s – Pluto Junkyard (Clean Feed) – A really strong free outing by a mixture of New Orleans and Chicago’s avant jazz players who were brought together by the aftermath of Katrina including vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz (more on him below), trombonists Jeff Albert (NOLA) and Jeb Bishop (Chicago), cornetist Josh Berman (more about him below), NOLA bassist Matthew Golombisky, Chicago saxophonist Keefe Jackson and NOLA drummer Quin Kirchner. Here’s their website.
6. Peter Bernstein Trio – Monk (Xanadu/The Orchard) – One of the year’s most understated records, Bernstein handles the music of Monk beautifully on this trio outing with drummer Bill Stewart and bassist Doug Weiss. Bernstein is not suprisingly one of the most in-demand NY-based guitarists. This is a real sleeper.
7. Q-Tip – Kamaal the Abstract (Jive) – the LONG-AWAITED “jazz” album from former A Tribe Called Quest emcee Q-Tip finally dropped for public consumption this year after the record label shelved it from release after advance copies had gone out to press for being too “avant-garde.” This album is so funky you cannot help but shake your ass. Serious. For hardcore jazz geeks, notable special guests include saxophonists Kenny Garrett and Gary Thomas, plus Q-Tip’s close musical associate, guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. Q-Tip’s actual new album from 2009, “The Renaissance” is also a very fine effort – also including Rosenwinkel, keyboardists Marc Cary and Robert Glasper, bassist Derrick Hodge, Norah Jones and soul crooner Raphael Saadiq.
8. Various Artists – Open Strings: 1920s Middle Eastern Recordings – New Responses (Honest Jons) – I took the following from the product description because I didn’t know how otherwise to put my feelings on this music to words. Just beautiful. “Delving for a fourth time into EMI’s Hayes Archive, Honest Jons trawl a treasure trove of old 78s from Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Turkey, all united by the theme of virtuoso string instrument performances. Originally recorded during the 1920s these revelatory selections have been all-but consigned to obscurity ever since, but now a whole new audience awaits the arresting talents of musicians like Abdul Hussein Khan Shahnazi, Kanoni Artaki and the incredible Nechat Bey – whose hypnotic bowing performance on ‘Husseini Taxim’ converges on the outright otherworldly.”
9. Kurt Elling – Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman (Concord) – Some might be surprised to see Kurt Elling on my list but I am a firm believer that Elling is the best male vocalist currently singing jazz (a close second is Andy Bey, followed by the underrated old-school hipster Giacomo Gates. Jon Hendricks and Mark Murphy’s voices have really suffered with time, imo). Elling’s accompanist and musical director Laurence Hobgood is just about as good a mainstream modern jazz pianist as you will find today. Hobgood released his own record this year on NAIM Records that I failed to check out (just got 4 stars in Down Beat). His Grammy-nominated arrangement of the title track on Elling’s record featuring the ETHEL String Quartet is something I played at least 50 times alone this year. A superbly executed album with notable contributions from saxophonist Ernie Watts in the “Coltrane chair.”
10. Josh Berman – Old Idea (Delmark) – Another excellent free-bop effort by one of Chicago’s leading avant-gardists, trumpeter/cornetist Josh Berman. Shockingly this is his recording debut as a leader after countless sessions as a sideman on some records that have defined Chicago’s “new thing” over the last 10 years. This CD features a host of the hottest musicians on that scene: vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz (consistently one of the most exciting and captivating new musicians on today’s jazz scene), Arkansas-born tenor saxophonist (and another Chicagoan to watch) Keefe Jackson, Anton Hatwich on bass and Nori Tanaka on drums.
Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)
Jason Adasiewicz’s Rolldown – Varmint (Cuneiform) – See above on Adasiewicz (pronounced ad-uh-she-vits) – if I had had spent a bit more time with this record it might have made my Top 10 list.
Ran Blake – Driftwoods (Tompkins Square) – This original faculty member of the New England Conservatory’s jazz program released a record of film noir tunes plus vocal standards (without words) which Ran Blake used to hear and love (especially music from The Spiral Staircase and Vertigo). I kept meaning to spend more time with this record as the year wore on as I think Blake is a underrated master (thankfully NPR acknowledged his genius on Weekend Edition Saturday here). I lost the physical CD in one of my moves and thus had to listen digitally but really loved what I heard. Almost made the Top 10. Thanks to Gunther Schuller for “discovering” Blake when the pianist was a janitor at Atlantic Records after having just moved to New York City from Connecticut. Many of my peers and jazz musicians cite Blake as a major influence on their playing.
Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport (ATP Recordings) – not as good as this UK duo’s debut, still an entrancing electronic wall of sound. Saw them live at Market Hotel in Bushwick, Brooklyn this November. Was a total dump but a decent noise show.
Blakroc – Blakroc (Blakroc Project) – A bizarre project of The Black Keys plus rappers/friends(?) the RZA, Raekwon, Q-Tip, Mos Def, Jim Jones, Pharoahe Monch, etc. Still surprisingly good. Saw them on Jimmy Fallon with RZA. That sealed the deal.
M. Ward – Hold Time (Merge) – One of the more thoughtful songwriters we have today. His involvement in Monsters of Folk kind of overshadowed this album, which I thought was pretty strong, and at the time seemed to be garnering quite a bit of attention. Will be interesting to see if it holds up towards the end of the year.
The Heartless Bastards – The Mountain (Fat Possum) – Just good rock music. I dunno what else to say. It’s not a coincidence that two records on this list come from Fat Possum, a label that consistently puts out great music in a great many genres from blues to punk rock.
Manuel Valera – Currents (MaxJazz) – A dangerously underrated Cuban pianist and composer who previously self-released a couple records with contributions from saxophonist Seamus Blake, among others plus a CD last year for Anat Cohen’s Anzic imprint. This fine piano trio session with James Genus on bass and Ernesto Simpson on drums is sublime music making including very special renditions of the late Kenny Kirkland’s “Dienda” and Irving Berlin’s “How Deep is the Ocean” plus several fine originals.
Edward Simon – Poesia (Sunnyside) – I liked this record, this trio’s second for the Italian Cam Jazz label. His bandmates are the iconic Brian Blade on drums and John Patitucci on bass. Their 2006 session Unicity was stronger to my ears (perhaps because I had more time with it), but this one is nothing to shake a stick at. And it’s from another grossly underrated Venezuelan pianist who did a long stint in Terence Blanchard’s band.
Ben Wendel – Simple Song (Sunnyside) – This saxophonist has had my ear since his LA-based band Kneebody released their self-titled debut on Dave Douglas’ Greenleaf Music label back in 2005. He further grabbed my ear as a sideman on Todd Sickafoose’s Tiny Resistors.
John Zorn – O’o (Tzadik) – Billed as an “exotica” record by Zorn, this is, to my ears, nothing more than a fairly straight-ahead, sometimes swinging version of Electric Masada. But man does Jamie Saft play his ass off on this. Wow. Also notable this year from Tzadik was Stolas (featuring Masada Quintet with Joe Lovano subbing for Zorn and adding Uri Caine on piano).
Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca (Domino) – One of the best indie rock records of the year which I didn’t have enough time to really dig into – but what I’ve heard is very convincing. This band has serious compositional and textural chops. They are surely going to be a force to be reckoned with in years to come. Their collab on Dark Was the Night with David Byrne was stunning. Worth the hype.
Dan Auerbach – Keep it Hid (Nonesuch) – A strong debut by the electric blues guitarist and vocalist from The Black Keys.
The Wood Brothers – Up Above My Head (Indirecto) – Not nearly as good as their last Blue Note effort, Loaded, this record of folk covers was pleasant the few times I heard it.
Probably more to come on this subject. I have a number of records I’ll probably be checking out in the days and weeks to come based on other people’s lists. A good place to look for lists by critics in the jazz genre is Jazzhouse Diaries as well as the upcoming Village Voice Jazz Poll. Another place to look for genre lists is PopMatters’ The Best Music of 2009 (multiple lists for all genres) and NPR’s Best Music of 2009.
And of course I’m still working on my top records of the decade list, which is mostly a silly concept but allows me to look back on the decade and rediscover a lot of music that brought me and others enjoyment this past 10 years. What can I say? I like making lists – of records.