Someone in another thread noted the absence of jazz on Obner yearend lists. Perhaps it might be interesting if those who do listen to jazz post their favorite (or something interesting) of the year... with the idea it is contemporary, recorded in 2006, not something pulled from the historical canon.

My contribution:

Tomasz Stanko Quartet - Lontano

With his inevitable Miles-like intonation and silence, the old Polish trumpeter takes his young quartet into a world of both traditional ensemble playing, improv, and dissonance. Easy to listen to, both cool and Cool, and challenging.

Well, I just bought Triosk - The Headlight Serenade today and am listening to it for the first time now. I'll post some thoughts later (like, 2 or 3 listens later).

I've seen mentions and reviews of older stuff by this group but not for this one. Anybody else heard it?

So far, it's pretty nice.

the only jazz I bought last year was released well before 2006.

Ditto

I'm tempted to pick up Calvin Keys "Vertical Clearance" though. Here's his bio for anyone interested and here's a review

Yeah, this is great - especially wintry, too, to my ears. Harry, did you hear the NPR piece on him a couple months back? Worth a listen..,

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6397911

Stop buying old jazz. There's amazing things happening in jazz today and everyone's busy obsessing over stuff that happened 40-60 years ago. Okay, fine, don't stop buying it, but at least put it aside for awhile and delve into the new stuff that's around. I'm constantly amazed at the incredible music that goes utterly ignored and then see people say that jazz is dead. ALL of the people who like Miles need to check out Dave Douglas immediately, for starters. The guy hasn't been named jazz trumpeter of the year multiple times for nothing (among MANY other awards).


I haven't checked out that Tomasz Stanko disc, but I love the album Wasilewski, Kurkiewicz, Miskiewicz (his backing band) put out, Trio. I WILL be getting that Stanko disc soon - if his backing band is that good, I'm sure he's that good too.

Kenny Garrett's Beyond The Wall has been getting a lot of play by me lately, as has Branford Marsalis' Braggtown.

We all have to prioritize our listening somehow. Its not that jazz is dead, its just that I'd suspect that any list of the 500 most essential jazz albums probably wouldn't include anything recorded after 1980. Given how relatively little jazz discussion goes on here, I'd assume that few of us own anything approaching 500 jazz albums or cds.

I still think its good advice to focus your jazz purchases on releases from the late 40's through the mid 70's. Will you maybe miss some very good albums, sure. But that's bound to happen either way.

But that's like saying that someone should focus their rock buying and listening to music recorded from 1960-1980. Maybe that's when all the biggest revelations and the most important changes were being made, but that doesn't mean that's when we should all have stopped listening. Jazz is very much as alive and breathing as rock, it's just a much smaller genre. If more people would start looking at the new breed with more interest as they do rock musicians, it wouldn't be viewed as dead in the first place. There's a lot more innovation going on in jazz than there is been in rock.

Well, just off the top of my head, this is crazy talk. Like a rock aficionado saying nothing after Pink Floyd is worth listening to.

Great jazz artists of the last 20 years:

Pat Metheny. John Scofield. Marsalis brothers, James Carter, Anthony Braxton, Joe Henderson, Eric Truffaz and gazillion (often Scandinavian) Europeans....Nils Petter Molvaer!

i got a couple good jazz albums for last year. drinky, that triosk is pretty good, i almost forgot about it though.

wayne horvitz gravitas orchestra - way out east is my favorite tho.

the ornette coleman is good
the andrew hill
nels cline
matthew shipp

couple others that i had

Hey now, I never claimed that there isn't new music in any genre "worth listening" too. But let's face it there is far more music worth listening to than there is time to listen or money to devote to buying.

Thus we all have to prioritize somehow. I'd similarly argue that if you were to only own 100 Rock Records, very few of them should be from the last fifteen years. I think most of us wish to own many more Rock albums than we do Jazz albums however.

I'm pretty much in the "anything after 1979 is crap" camp... but I did like Jason Moran's effort from this year. Will probably make my top 20.

I contend that anyone who says something like "anything after 1979 is crap" is simply not listening to the right stuff. Lots and lots of great stuff is going on, especially if you're listening to someone like Moran. Going by that, you'd probably like Nels Cline's latest, New Monastery (a tribute to Andrew Hill,) or any of Matthew Shipp's stuff, or check out the many, many projects that Tim Berne works on. Lots of great, forward-thinking stuff going on out there.

On a different note, Dylan fans should check out Jamie Saft's Trouble - a whole album of Dylan covers, two of which feature Mike Patton and Antony on vocals (separate tracks.) Some of it's great, some of it falls a bit flat, but I think Saft's a great pianist nonetheless.

I didn't listen to any Jazz in 06'. But as far as New Jazz goes, I really liked that Soweto Kinch from either last year or the year before. Guillermo Klein has released some stuff I like too.

And the Dirty DozenBrass Band - Funeral for a Friend is easily one of the best records this decade.

Terence Blanchard? I defy anyone who likes the "golden age" of jazz not to listen to his recent things (Flow) and think this is important music.

Jan Gabarek, Joshua Redman. Brad Mehldau, Dave Holland, John Abercrombie, William Parker, David Ware, Charlie Haden, Joe Lovano, Ted Nash, Dave Douglas... so much good music that you would miss.

You don't, should not, refuse to buy My Morning Jacket because you don't have any Allman Bros. You don't not listen to Belle and Sebastien because you haven't heard all the Left Banke records.

You're absolutely right and I do like Douglas, Ware, DeFrancesco, Osby and Shipp to name a few. There's just so much more during the Golden Age and seemingly everything released then is worthy of your attention. On a grand scale, I can't compare the two era's. BTW, the next set of RVG's are set to hit in February & March.

Ongoing jazz discussion is vital... now that our NPR has abandoned all music programming, there's no outlet for me to hear new jazz.

I don't even listen to radio, period! It's all recommendations and sound clips that get me into things. All About Jazz is a great resource - great reviews and a comprehensive release schedule that shows stuff I see nowhere else, plus a great message board, too. Those guys is some freaks about jazz there.

I like jazz, but do tend to gravitate toward the older stuff if for no other reason than the sheer volume of quality stuff that is easy to hear and pick up. I liken it to reggae. While there is still good stuff coming out....I really liked Sizzla's Waterhouse Redemption this year...if I want to pick something up its just so much easier to grab something older since I'm just not really into dancehall for the most part. So, if I wanna lsiten to roots and dub, the odds that I can find anywhere near the volume of recordings from this decade rather than say the 70s is pretty miniscule.

I guess really I come down somewhere in the middle of the argument since I do like to be open to newer jazz when I do hear it and stuff like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band disc mentioned earlier is absolutely wonderful. I just don't come across it that often and new jazz seems to be even harder to come across than other types of music since, at least around where I am, the jazz radio either plays old jazz or they play the newer stuff mixed in with really crappy soft jazz stuff.

Also, while their is still quality music, the sound of jazz has mostly changed from what I've heard. Frankly, from free jazz and fusion forward I pretty much don't have much use for what I hear. Maybe there are more artists now harkening back to a time when jazz music was actually entertaining to listen to rather than just soemthing to show off the artist's chops. But, most of what I've heard is either willfully obtuse or the kind of crap my mother-in-law will play during Easter dinner.

I'll try to give a listen to stuff mentioned on the other posts and hopefully I'll find stuff I like. I'm sure there's plenty out there I would. But, actually hearing new jazz today isn't all that easy.

Additional suggestions...keeping in mind my disdain for free jazz, fusion and kenny g sounding crap...are greatly appreciated.

(I guess I shouldn't admit that I'm listening to Chet Baker in New York right now.)

Ok, specific and focused.

Nils Pettar Molvaer

I put him at my #1 last year on the Obner list. He is pure jazz, in the tradition of Miles, but he has hip-hop beats, ambient soundscapes, large and spacious arrangements, challenging harmonics, but never busy or showing chops purely to show chops.

Trad jazz enthusiasts can appreciate his timbre and taste, rock indie enthusiasts will appreciate his drums and bass, a dash of world music and a splash of electronic. Khmer (1999), Ether (2001), ER (2005) all good places to start.

I'll absolutely check at least something by him out. Sounds interesting. Thanks.

And, of course, I will blame you if I don't like it and curse you for making me spend $15 bucks.

and bonus points for the fact that the first guy I regularly bought pot from was named Nils

I post over there as well but there is so much to muddle through. A few of those guys believe everything they hear/buy is the best record ever. I have to take a lot of what I read over there with a grain of salt. That said, a great resource.

I'ma try him out. Thanks Harry!

Check out Dave Douglas' Keystone, too - they seem to mine a similar territory here but with very, very different outcomes. (I've still got to pick up that Molvaer . . . I've only heard bits here and there and it does indeed sound very good. Strange that he never really hit the American market, but maybe with Thirsty Ear and the Blue Series behind him he finally will.)

Yeah, I just read it from time to time, no posting. I'm lost enough as it is just keeping up reading the board. They are an enthusiastic bunch, however.

Spectacular. 2006.