The Jazz.com Blog
December 11, 2008 · 6 comments
The 50 Best Jazz CDs of 2008
How many jazz CDs were released during the last year? Certainly more than one thousand, and probably more than two thousand. We highlight an outstanding track from a new CD five times per week as part of our Song of the Day feature, and we always have plenty to consider for the honor.
Needless to say, it's hard to navigate through all this music and pick out the best of the yearand all the harder since some very fine music comes to us via obscure indie releases, self-produced projects and low profile disks from overseas. (Note that Mark Saleski will be offering his picks here for the best self-produced and small indie label releases of the year in a few days time.)
But I have narrowed my list of favorites down to fifty outstanding releases, grouped below by the featured instrument of the project leader. I will be publishing separate lists on the best blues and world music CDs of the year, and other contributors to jazz.com will be offering their own selectionsso the list below is focused specifically on my favorite titles from jazz artists. Certainly there were fine disks that didn't make the cut, but jazz fans won't go wrong by picking up any of the releases listed here.
By the way, tracks from each of these CDs have been reviewed on jazz.com. The reviews can be found by using the search engine in the sidebar on the Music page.
The 50 Best Jazz CDs from 2008
Sax
James Carter: PresentTense
Charles Lloyd: Rabo de Nube
Joe Lovano: Symphonica
Rudresh Mahanthappa: Kinsmen
Donny McCaslin: Recommended Tools
James Moody & Hank Jones: Our Delight
Tim Ries: Stones World
Sonny Rollins: Road Shows, Vol. 1
Miguel Zenn: Awake
Piano
Nik Bartsch's Ronin: Holon
Taylor Eigsti: Let It Come to You
Vijay Iyer: Tragicomic
Brad Mehldau: Brad Mehldau Trio Live
Robert Mitchell 3io: The Greater Good
Aaron Parks: Invisible Cinema
Vassilis Tsabropoulos: Melos
McCoy Tyner: Guitars
Marcin Wasilewski: January
Trumpet
Mathias Eick: October
Roy Hargrove: Earfood
Wynton Marsalis & Willie Nelson: Two Men with the Blues
Nicholas Payton: Into the Blue
Enrico Rava & Stefano Bollani: The Third Man
Vocals
Claudia Acuna & Arturo OFarrill: In These Shoes
Patricia Barber: The Cole Porter Mix
K.J. Denhert: Dal Vivo a Umbria Jazz
Alyssa Graham: Echo
Kate McGarry: If Less is More . . . Nothing is Everything
Cassandra Wilson: Loverly
Norma Winstone: Distances
Yoon Sun Choi: Imagination: The Music of Joe Raposo
Guitar
Gene Bertoncini: Concerti
Bobby Broom: The Way I Play
Lionel Loueke: Karibu
John McLaughlin: Floating Point
Pat Metheny: Day Trip
Kurt Rosenwinkel: The Remedy
Bass / drums / percussion
Ben Allison: Little Things Run the World
Brian Blade: Season of Changes
The Brubeck Brothers: Classified
Charlie Haden: Rambling Boy
Dave Holland: Pass It On
Wolfgang Haffner: Acoustic Shapes
Susie Ibarra: Drum Sketches
Marilyn Mazur: Elixir
George Schuller: Like Before, Somewhat After
Big Band
David Berger Octet: I Had the Craziest Dream
Vince Mendoza: Blauklang
Bob Mintzer Big Band: Swing Out
Vanguard Jazz Orchestra: Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard
This blog entry posted by Ted Gioia.
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A very awsome matter
I think this one is definitely one of the best Jazz CDs released in 08. http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=292946642&s=143441
Nice to see JC at the top of the horn list. He plays with such exuberance and love for all kinds of jazz that I will buy his records without consulting any sources. It seems with this record, too, that--though I think you're right in saying he can swing you through multiple moods in a track--he's deferring to the group more than he ever has on his own records. Oddly, I found that disappointing! I thought his "archaeological choices" were fascinating as usual, but I felt the same way I feel after some Rollins records of the last decade: he doesn't give himself enough room. And "reserved" just ain't his thing. I hope he has not been reading his reviews (I notice the current Penguin Jazz Guide's really let his recent work have it). I was reading a Gary Giddins piece a few weeks ago where he talks about how difficult life can be for a jazz great from his/her mid-thirties to his sixties--when it's "comeback time." Maybe this is happening to Carter. By the way, I saw him sitting in for David Murray in the WSQ a few years ago and I wish they'd recorded it. He played like a one-man New Orleans funeral within those wild arrangements. They must have been on their way to my city when they stopped and did this gig at an urban high school--watch all four parts, and dig the faces of the kids and teachers! Here's the You Tube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyaPO87woGE
Wow, I expected something deeper. This read like a conventional wisdom watch. I'm glad to see that the most heavily promoted CDs of the year are also the best!
Have you had a listen to "Letter to Herbie" by John Beasley with Roy Hargrove, Christian McBride, and Jeff Tain Watts. Some badass arrangements and cool originals. EY
Yes, I listened to John Beasley's CD, and reviewed one of the tracks. Walter Kolosky also reviewed a track from the CD. You can find both reviews with the search box in the upper right corner of this page.