Bird is the Worm Best of 2013: Albums 16-20

Today’s post reveals the 16th through the 20th Bird is the Worm albums of the year.

*****

For each album considered for inclusion, I was looking for it to hit me right in my heart, provoke a strong emotional reaction.  I was also looking for it to engage my brain, provide some intrigue or fascination with the music being presented.  Extra points were awarded for doing Something Different or building on a premise that embraced the best qualities of creativity.  Strong musicianship alone is not enough.  Many solid albums didn’t make the list.  It literally pains me when I see some of the albums that weren’t included.  But I listen to a lot of music, and one of the rare downsides to encountering so much great Jazz is that some of it won’t receive the recognition it deserves.  So there you have it.

These are not reviews.  They are simple thoughts, reminiscences, fragments of recollections, and brief opinions about how each album struck me both now and when I first heard it.  There is a link to a more formal review following each entry… that’s where you go to find out what’s what about each recording.  Most reviews are accompanied with embedded audio so you can hear some of the music, as well as personnel and label information, links to artist, label, and retail sites, and anything else that seemed relevant at the time I wrote the review.

Let’s begin…

*****

16.  Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society – Brooklyn Babylon

I keep shaking my head each time I’m reminded that I haven’t yet reviewed this album, but when I consider everything bouncing around in my head about this recording, it’s really no wonder at all.  Argue’s sophomore release has all the excitement of his debut, with the added bonus of it being a companion piece of a multi-media event.  His inventive sound for jazz orchestra continues to round itself out, even as it heads out in new directions.  A recording that keeps revealing new aspects of itself, inciting a brand new sense of excitement with each listen.

Released on New Amsterdam Records.

A Bird is the Worm article HERE.

*****

17.  Alan Blackman – The Coastal Suite

A suite based on a one-day cycle on the water’s edge, and married to watercolor paintings of an artist who specializes in that theme, this sublime recording has all the serenity of that landscape, as well as its nuanced unpredictability.  I was taken right in by this mesmerizing recording, an album which has become a bit of a refuge for me from those days when life just won’t get the hell out of my face.  Along with the below link to the review, if you search on Blackman’s name on my site, you’ll pull up a video for which album music is set against the paintings associated with the various songs.  Just beautiful music… the kind in which the artist succinctly translates the source of inspiration and leaves plenty of room for the listener to personalize the music to themselves.

The album is Self-Produced.

A Bird is the Worm review HERE.

*****

18.  Frank Wess – Magic 101

A bittersweet entry for this one.  Veteran saxophonist (and flautist) Wess recently passed away, not long after the release of this album, and just before the follow-up (hitting the streets in 2014).  The most straight-ahead and old-school of all the albums in this year’s Best Of list.  What I find most remarkable about the album is how much listening to it made me feel like back in the day when I was just discovering Jazz and picking up albums by McCoy Tyner and Donald Byrd and Red Garland… this sense of excitement, about this new music, sounding so fresh and alive and vibrant, with no thought to the fact that it was decades old, because it sounded like today.  Well, this music is from Today, and it sounds like it, even as it breathes the bop and swing and swagger of Jazz from fifty years ago.  Outstanding.

Released on IPO Recordings.

A Bird is the Worm review HERE.

*****

19.  Will Martina – Modular Living By Design

Not easy leading a jazz ensemble as cellist, but Will Martina has pulled off the feat successfully on his last two recordings.  The previous release The Dam Levels was remarkably straight-ahead.  On his newest, he dips more into the chamber jazz thing, but pianist Jason Lindner knows how to work a groove, and drummer Richie Barshay can work the crease between jazz and indie-rock, and so the album has more intimate warmth than a stately elegance more common to chamber jazz recordings.  That makes this a winner, with a series of sublime pieces that twitter with life and glide along on pretty melodies.

The album is Self-Produced.

A Bird is the Worm review HERE.

*****

20.  Operation Northwoods – The Bureau of Fiction

A chamber jazz recording that makes as effective use of silence and pauses as any recording released in 2013.  An album for the late nights when the city is asleep and you don’t want to play anything that might wake it and shatter the beautiful silence.  And, yet, this isn’t sleepy music.  With no bass or drums, the quartet has to share the heavy work on developing a tempo, and their punchy attitude keeps things lively.  But the real joy on this recording are the sublime fragments of melody that the quartet lifts up into the air and lets hang there for a brief, beautiful moment before drifting delicately away… just to be replaced by the next, and the next, and the next.  A gorgeous recording, in a cerebral sort of way.

Released on PJCE Records.

A Bird is the Worm review HERE.

*****

Tomorrow’s post reveals the Bird is the Worm numbers 11-15 2013 albums of the year.

Cheers.