Jan 8 2018
So… about 2017, Part V: Two, not one
There’s some stuff I just don’t want to listen to anymore.
I’m a blogger, not a journalist. When I write, the words are meant to convey here’s what I like, not here’s what it is. That said, my perspective isn’t one of me me me. It’s not always about what I like. Many times, I recommend an album because I think others might like it, because what it is eclipses my personal preferences. Even if it’s an album that doesn’t much appeal to me in terms of casual enjoyment, there can be compelling aspects of the recording that make it deserving of a recommendation. It can be any number of factors that drive the decision making process, and even though the ratios may change, the theory of the math is pretty consistent: Feature compelling music.
It’s the same attitude I take to constructing these Best Of lists. I’m trying to represent the best jazz had to offer in a particular year. Among those included are albums that will get deleted from my music library once it’s a wrap on year-end projects. I listened to them as much as required to provide a well-balanced, thoughtful rundown. Tangentially, there are albums not included in the Best Of list that will never leave my music library, and will remain a fixture in my life. These favorite albums don’t always get included in a Best Of list, or if they do, their ranking may not accurately reflect the way they connect with me personally.
For any one particular year, my Best of list always looks different than my Favorites Of list. The Best Of list is something you see every year, but, in fact, there are two lists. My Favorites list is something I keep to myself. I’m not entirely sure why, but my gut tells me it’s important to do it that way, and so I do.
That said, I’d like to share some of my favorite albums of 2017, in no particular order, and some thoughts on each. These were albums that didn’t receive a mention on the Best of 2017 list. It’s an opportunity to feature even more music that brings some happiness to a world that needs as much of it as it can get.
Olivier Bogé – When Ghosts Were Young (Jazz & People)
Over the course of four recordings, Olivier Bogé has developed a talent at unleashing enchanting melodies that is as potent as anyone on the scene. His blend of modern jazz and folk is seriously charismatic, and the shifts between states of introspection and intensity should appeal to anyone who enjoys that same quality from the Brian Blade Fellowship. When Ghosts Were Young was one of the final cuts for the Best of 2017 list, and it’s indicative of just how deep the talent pool ran on that year. This is a solid album, and one I’m pretty well addicted to.
I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.
Christian Meass Svendsen – Avin (Nakama Records)
I have been captivated by Avin since its opening notes first hit my hears many months ago. The reverie on a relationship by bassist Christian Meass Svendsen has all of the melancholy heartbreak and sublime joy of that subject, and susses it out in a way that incites introspection yet carries with the ease of a lullaby. Nakama Records, which is really the loose collective of like-minded musicians, isn’t really a jazz label per se… their music spans a number of influences and genre. As such, Avin is very much a work of folk and chamber, and even with my very broad definition of what qualifies as jazz for this site, I decided to exclude it from Best Of list consideration. But of greater importance is the observation that Avin may very well be the most gripping, beautiful album I’ve heard in 2017. Svendsen’s emotional weight carries through loud and clear, and forges a connection to the music through an empathy from anyone who’s ever experienced the peaks and valleys of love.
Read more on Bird is the Worm.
Hampshire and Foat – Galaxies Like Grains of Sand (Athens of the North Records)
The modern distillation of cosmic jazz from keyboardist Greg Foat and guitarist Warren Hampshire is one where rich melodies melt away into an atmospheric bliss, and the cadence of the melt are the building blocks of the casual grooves that gently propel each song forward, providing a sense of structure to the otherwise formless parade of vivid imagery. Galaxies Like Grains of Sand is a natural extension of Foat’s excellent 2015 release The Dancers at the Edge of Time, an album that Hampshire contributed to and which earned the #7 slot on this site’s Best of 2015 list. Their 2017 release was one of the final cuts for the Best of 2017 list, but remains a fixture on my personal listening queue. This is a gorgeous recording, and I don’t anticipate ever feeling any less strongly about it as the years pass on by.
Read more on Bird is the Worm.
Zach Rhea – Zach Rhea’s New Music Collective (Self-Produced)
Read up a little bit on Zach Rhea, and you’ll find his music interests span a pretty wide array of sounds and influences. The drummer’s listening habits clearly translate to his own music, because this eponymous debut of the New Music Collective mixes in some rock and pop and cinematic ambiance with its personal styling of a post-bop sound. Sometimes the music is catchy, sometimes it’s punchy, sometimes it coos softly and other times it burns wildly out of control. I find all of it quite charming, especially when the variations of expression are viewed in the context of the album as a whole, like the changing of seasons over the course of a year… all of those differences reveal themselves as facets of a singular event. It’s why I keep returning to this album time and again.
I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.
Morgan’ – Sémaphore (Self-Produced)
Ever since I first laid ears on this 4-track EP by the Morgan’ duo of clarinetist Hugo Proy and guitarist Vincent Guiot, I’ve been fascinated by its friendly chatter and moments of stunning beauty. They collaborate with one guest on each track, and each guest brings an unconventional instrument to the affair: sitar, didgeridoo, mandolin and synthesizers & effects. This album came out at the tail end of 2016, after the books were closed on the year, and at a time when the potential is high for an album to slip under the radar. I’m glad this one didn’t make it past mine, because I am truly enamored with it.
Read more on Bird is the Worm.
Saagara – 2 (Instant Classic)
Every year, there’s an album (or three) whose exclusion from the Best Of list truly haunts me. For 2017, it would appear Saagara‘s 2 has earned that distinction. Waclaw Zimpel’s Indian Orchestra concocted an intoxicating blend of Indian classical, folk and electronica, and it’s the kind of thing that becomes increasingly addictive with frequency of use. Clarinets and khanjira and thavil and violin and the electronic production of mooryc are the ingredients for this dizzying display of textures and kaleidoscopic transformations in expression. I guess I excluded it because it really falls outside the auspices of the jazz sphere, but I should’ve just said to hell with it and included this album. It’s amazing.
Read more on the Bird is the Worm.
And before signing off, one final mention should go to Jon De Lucia‘s 2017 release As the River Sings. You’ll be reading about that album tomorrow, but it’s music that has been filling up my house for many yesterdays all year long.
I listen to everything. At least, I try to. Every year, I toy with the idea of tracking just how many albums I listen to in a year, and how many cross my desk via unsolicited promos and new release listings on various retail and label sites. That first category? Maybe somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500. The second category… those albums that get just a few moments of my time to give me a reason to give more than that? Five times that amount. Maybe more. Tons.
It’s an odd sort of anguish to discover an excellent recording months after finalizing the year’s Best Of list. Anne Paceo‘s Yokai was my first experience with it. I was filing away my lists for 2012 (yes, I actually keep a handwritten list as I go through the new releases), when I noticed a follow-up mark next to Yokai and no final designation. It fell through the cracks. No big deal, I figured. I’ll give it a listen. I can always give it a write-up if I like the thing. Well, I did like the thing. A lot. So much, in fact, that I tried to travel back in time through sheer force of will so that I could add it to my Best of 2012 list. Once acknowledging my failure on that plan of action, the only avenue left to me was 
Paradigm Shift is the pattern of sharp images melting into alien shapes, and then reuniting again as something equally vivid, and strangely familiar. On this 2016 release, clarinetist Francesco Chiapperini and his InSight trio were an unending source of stunning waves of intensity and interludes of jaw-dropping beauty. The Aut Records label hit my radar in the latter half of 2016, and had I gotten around to Paradigm Shift a bit sooner, there’s no doubt it would’ve landed a spot on the Best of 2016 list.
It’s the way this music shifts between phases of immense orchestration and free improvisation that marks Libèrrim as a winning album. Drummer Arnau Obiols leads a quintet into the thick of a composition where every step is directed and every footprint’s shape predetermined, but these manipulations are not, in fact, enclosures, but instead behave as doorways to passages of wild spells of imagination. Aladid Records reached out to me in December of 2015, and it wasn’t until nearly a year after it was released that I finally got around to writing about Libèrrim. Had I gotten to it sooner, would it have found a home on the 
Les Amours Invisibles is not a process of construction, deconstruction and reconstruction… it’s how a flock of starlings come together as a murmuration then break off again into their individual flight patterns… yet still are locked in with one another. It’s where the togetherness of individual expressions are still part of the united whole. On his 2012 release, Laurent Rochelle guided his own melodic development to that of his ensemble’s in that same way, and it’s how he fluctuates between melodic nuance and the confluence of a grand unity that marks this recording’s success. It’s a gorgeous album, and I didn’t discover it until exploring through Rochelle’s back catalog after falling in love with 
Jan 11 2018
The Round-up: When the city sleeps, it dreams of you
Here is some very good new music.
Mikkel Ploug – Alleviation (Songlines Recordings)
Mikkel Ploug has a remarkable talent for creating music that is highly conversant, yet still casts a palpable serenity. The guitarist attains this balance flawlessly when matched against the vocal harmonics & electronics of Sissel Vera Pettersen and clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst with the trio Equilibrium, and it’s no different with his trio of bassist Jeppe Skovbakke and drummer Sean Carpio. So, it comes as no surprise that the same potent combination of activity and tranquility is present when Ploug offers up a solo session recording. As far as influence goes, Alleviation has an ephemeral nature, not owing itself to any one allegiance or school. But this is the kind of album where the only thing worth doing is sitting transfixed by its sheer beauty and just allowing that to become the atmosphere you breathe for as long as the album continues. Music from Copenhagen, Denmark.
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp – Amazon
Holophonor – Light Magnet (World Galaxy Records)
An enjoyable straight-ahead set from the septet Holophonor. The complementary melodic interactions between vibraphone and the wind instruments goes a long way to getting to the heart of this album’s success. Equally effective are how the ensemble coalesces around the various soloists, adding strength to those moments that call for intensity and providing nuance when softer voices are the course of action. Good stuff. The album is produced by Wayne Shorter, which can’t hurt to know. Music from L.A. & NYC.
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp – Amazon
Sjøvaag/Seglem/Hole – West Wind Drift (Shipwreckords)
This album may well be a cloud… ephemeral and hazy and a tendency to drift. But every now and then, the album suddenly darkens, the music gains a presence that wasn’t there before, and then suddenly the rains come pouring down. That’s the fallout of this live, improvised performance by the trio of drummer Jonas Sjøvaag, saxophonist Karl Seglem and bassist Sigurd Hole… an album that doesn’t ask anything of your attention until it suddenly grabs it tight and won’t let go. Music from Oslo, Norway.
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp – Amazon
Jim Hart & Alfred Vogel – Come Rain, Come Shine (Boomslang Records)
This interesting little duo collaboration between vibraphonist Jim Hart and drummer-percussionist Alfred Vogel certainly casts its charm via a diverse rhythmic display, but it’s how they shape melodic fragments between one another, as if passing an idea back and forth in quick succession, is where the real intrigue lies. That said, the twitchy rhythms and elastic tempos go a long way to supplying the fun, too.
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp
Bruno Delucchi Grupo – Las Meninas (Kuai Music)
There’s a lighthearted nature to this lovely album from pianist Bruno Delucchi, and it balances nicely with its deeply felt melodicism. Delucchi’s quintet hits the right balance between dedication to the composition and freedom to deviate from the preordained path. The influence of Argentinean folk is prominent, and how it brings out the album’s lyricism is a welcome effect. Very easy to fall for this one. Unfussy and gets right to the point. Music from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp – Amazon
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations - 2017 releases • 0 • Tags: Alfred Vogel, Boomslang Records, Bruno Delucchi, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Holophonor, Jim Hart, Jonas Sjøvaag, Karl Seglem, Kuai Music, Los Angeles (CA), Mikkel Ploug, Oslo, Shipwreckords, Sigurd Hole, Songlines Recordings, The Round-Up, World Galaxy Records