Bird is the Worm Best of 2015: Albums 16-20

Today’s post reveals the 16th through the 20th Bird is the Worm Top 30 jazz albums of 2015.

*****

A Best Of album has to hit me right in my heart and provoke a strong emotional reaction. A Best Of album has to engage my head and elicit a cerebral connection. Give me some intrigue. Show me your music has got personality. Extra points are awarded for doing Something Different. I want to hear music that embraces the best qualities of creativity. Strong musicianship alone is not enough. Many excellent albums fall short of earning a slot on the list. It literally pains me when I see some of the albums that aren’t included on my Best Of lists. 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.

No matter how diligent a listener is and no matter how thoroughly that person covers the music scene, there will always be albums that slip through the cracks. The equation of scarcity of time vs. the overflow of music always leaves a trail of victims in its wake. It’s also a matter of subjectivity. I do my best to make objectivity the guiding force of all my decisions, judging each album’s qualities without consideration for my own personal preferences… at least, as much as I am humanly able. I can say for certain, my Best of 2015 list has ended up much different than my personal Favorites of 2015 list. No attempt to encapsulate the 2015 jazz recordings landscape will be fully comprehensive, but I humbly offer up my list with a confidence that these albums represent the best that 2015 had to offer. But it’s a list that’s likely to gain some addenda with the passing of time. The process of discovery never truly ends.

As with any Best Of year, 2015 is more accurately represented by the date range of November 1st, 2014 to October 30th, 2015. This ain’t no damn pop music… there’s definitely love at first sight with these recordings, but for a Best Of list, there’s gotta be some time allowed, also, for assessing the times for acclimation, absorption and endurance of these recordings.

What you’ll read below are not reviews. They are simple one-take thoughts, reminiscences, fragments of recollections, and brief opinions about how each album struck me both now and when I first heard it or anything I just felt like noting about the album as I quickly typed up these tiny synopses. I’ve provided a link to a more formal write-up following each entry, and that’s where you go to find out what’s what about each recording. Those write-ups are accompanied with embedded audio of an album track, 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 about the album. Follow those links. They might just lead to your next most favorite album ever.

So, with all that out of the way…

Let’s begin.

16.  John Zorn – Pellucidar: A Dreamers Fantabula (Tzadik)

There is something otherworldly about the melodic approach of John Zorn and his Dreamers ensemble (guitarist Marc Ribot, keyboardist Jamie Saft, vibraphonist Kenny Wollesen, drummer Joey Baron, percussionist Cyro Baptista and bassist Trevor Dunn), and the way they use it to evoke their own breath of serenity.  This music has edge.  This music has within it a voice that could shatter glass.  If heat is needed, this music can provide it.  Fire, too.  Yet, there is an abiding sense of tranquility that never seems to stop informing the events as they play out, no matter how volatile they may become.  Zorn & the Dreamers ensemble don’t strike out to new territory on this recording.  It is a similar mix of jazz, surf, folk, rock, and mysticism.  But with each subsequent recording, they keep revealing new, fascinating elements of that familiar ground.

No further reading at this time.  Long-form piece scheduled for January 2016.

*****

17.  Sam Sadigursky – Follow the Stick (Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records)

I love how this album spans the time between something old and something new, how it sounds two feet in classic jazz territory even as it clearly leaves its footprints in the modern bop of today.  As a listener, it’s easy to fall victim to the pull from both eras… wanting to hear something fresh and new while simultaneously desiring the comfort of reliving the music that initially got things rolling.  Clarinetist Sadigursky negates that decision by supplying the elements of both.  His clarinet’s enchanting dancing motion is complemented excellently by Chris Dingman’s vibes and marimba, and it’s like watching fireflies twirl about on a Summer eve.  And with pianist Bobby Avey and drummer Jordan Perlson giving the music some weight and presence, the music’s spry action is nicely counterbalanced by a low center of gravity, providing the music both sky and soil, flight and foundation.  All of this, plus each song on the album is so damn tuneful, this music just never grows old, always giving a charge of electricity with the very first notes of the very first track.  So good.

Read more on Bird is the Worm (LINK).

*****

18.  Wayne Horvitz – Some Places Are Forever Afternoon (Songlines)

This album isn’t a huge departure from some of Horvitz’s past recordings that are directly influenced by chamber and folk.  It’s a sound similar to what we’ve heard before.  But where past recordings in this vein have suggested possibilities and provided glimpses of avenues for exploration, Some Places Are Forever Afternoon embodies a fullness of that vision, a complete manifestation of that sound in its totality.  With the theme of a poet and the photographs of Montana territory that capture the environment that poetry was created within, Horvitz’s 2015 release is eminently picturesque, its music bathed in imagery of flowing green fields, pocked with the mud and ice of winter’s scars and bounded up by snowcapped mountain ranges on distant horizons, of endless highways marked by backroad motels and taverns and off-road cabins found at the end of winding dirt trails.  Melodies are delivered crisply, but the lovely harmonies give them a fuzzy presence, not unlike the faint glow of sunlight as it casts itself out across the floor and instills a gentle hush in the room.  Joining Horvitz and his piano & keyboards are Ron Miles on cornet, Sara Schoenbeck on bassoon, Peggy Lee on cello, Tim Young on guitar, Keith Lowe on bass and Eric Eagle on drums, thus combining his chamber music Gravitas Quartet and his jazz-folk Sweeter Than the Day ensemble… a match that takes Horvitz’s compositions to an entirely new plateau.  Horvitz has his own brand of tranquility, no matter what project he’s working on… it always has qualities that can be traced back to his singular vision.  This session gives that tranquility a life and beauty like none before.

Read more on Bird is the Worm (LINK).

*****

19.  Orrin Evans – The Evolution of Oneself (Smoke Sessions)

I eagerly look forward to each new Orrin Evans recording.  In a talent pool that’s plenty deep, he’s slowly distinguishing himself as one of the best on piano today.  His recordings tend to remain in bop territory, and when he does utilize outside influences, he brings them into his gravitational pull rather than venture out to gather them in.  That’s why on this excellent trio set with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Karriem Riggins, he can hit notes that are straight-ahead, traditional and modern both, while also getting in expressions that take paths through R&B, hip hop, country and pop music territories, and it’s cohesive package that clearly originates from one perspective.  The live set behaves as an encapsulation of Evans’ past work, of everything that led up to this moment in time… an avenue for reviewing the past by way of defining the state of his sound today.  That characteristic comes through strong.  This, plus some masterful technique displayed by the trio is why this lively set has such a huge presence.  If you’re looking through these lists for a jazz piano album, you can’t do better than this one here.

Read more on Bird is the Worm (LINK).

*****

20.  Ruben Machtelinckx – Flock (El Negocito)

This album is pure tranquility.  Comprised of the guitars and banjos of Machtelinckx, the guitar of Hilmar Jensson, the tenor sax and clarinets of Joachim Badenhorst and the bass of Nathan Wouters, this quartet dives head-first into one dreamy melody after the next as they give shape and form to their particular brand of folk-jazz.  The music is sparse, using few words as it conjures up vivid imagery to last a lifetime.  Even when the rhythm develops a bit of a chatter, it never comes anywhere close to cracking the thick serenity.  The thing that has worked in its favor in the year since it was released is that so many of the albums that traverse this territory rely on ambiance or cinematic vagueness to create the environment from which the serenity gradually emanates… but this quartet works their magic through the use of definitive song structures, of melodies that ring with clarity, with a percussive approach that feeds into them, and the strong sense of intent and direction.  That’s why this album has staying power where similar albums might fade from memory over time, and it’s why this beautiful album stays beautiful no matter how long or how often it sees the light of a play button.  Simple songs that evoke complex imagery and emotions.  Just gorgeous music.

Read more on Bird is the Worm (LINK).

*****

Tomorrow’s post reveals the 2015 Bird is the Worm #11–#15 albums of the year.

Check out the entire Best of 2015 List

Cheers.

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