Jazz – Best of 2018

Jan 11 2019

Best of 2018 #30: Get the Blessing – “Bristopia”

 

Get the Blessing is Exhibit A that the modern jazz sound remains in a perpetual state of metamorphosis.  GTB have a fresh sound all their own.  It’s not post-bop or avant-garde or really belonging to any particular school… just their own formula and their own sound, inventive and innovative and, yet, a cursory appraisal returns an opinion of, yeah, this is jazz.  On their 2018 release Bristopia, the quartet of bassist Jim Barr, drummer Clive Deamer, saxophonist Jake McMurchie and trumpeter Pete Judge reveal that their own personal creative evolution is also still underway, as the melodic grooves of previous recordings gain a bit more edge, and, as a result, heavy electronic effects possess an immediacy all their own, frantic almost, as if the wings of a butterfly fresh out of the cocoon.  This is one of the most original groups on the scene, and every note they play proves that assertion.

Released on Kartel Music Group.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.  Also, for Bird is the Worm.

Music from Bristol, UK.

Available at:  Amazon | Bandcamp

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Jan 7 2019

Best of 2018 #31: Anat Cohen & Fred Hersch – “Live in Healdsburg”

 

When I included this recording in my Best Jazz Albums of 2018 column on The Bandcamp Daily, I stated, “this album should also inspire gratefulness—that somebody was there to hit a record button, and that the world includes musicians capable of creating a sublime beauty in the suddenness of a single moment in time.”  Those words not only summed up my feelings as the year came to an end, but also represented the joy I felt the first time I heard the recording.  The night Anat Cohen and Fred Hersch gave this performance at the 2016 Healdsburg Jazz Festival, it showed us at our best.

Released on Anzic Records.

Read more on Bird is the Worm.

Music from Healdsburg, CA.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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Jan 7 2019

Best of 2018 #32: Anton Hunter – “Article XI”

 

There’s always the sense of a massive vision to this album, and it’s how Anton Hunter keeps the focus on the microcosm of the moment that cinches this recording as something special.  In my original write-up, I state that traversing this album is like a journey through the funhouse.  And while its lyricism, often absurd and capable of inciting tiny epiphanies, often does command center stage, the benefit of time slowly reveals that it’s the competing, complementary perspectives that is the true driving force… like watching simultaneous evolutions of worlds inside of worlds.

Released on Efpi Records.

Read more on Bird is the Worm.

Music from Manchester, UK.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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Jan 7 2019

Best of 2018 #33: David Dominique – “Mask”

 

When I wrote about this album for The Bandcamp Daily, I stated “Much in the same, mind-bending way one could draw a short line from a what-even-was-that Charles Mingus to traditional jazz and blues, so it is with the latest from David Dominique.”  And that, truly, sums up my fascination with this album.  Stare at a common image with all you got while simultaneously drifting off into daydreams, and eventually there grows a disconnect between what you are staring at and how the waking dream state colors and warps it into something strangely alien yet still hauntingly familiar.  That’s Dominique with jazz and blues.  You might encounter a Best Of list that has Mask situated in their top ten.  It’s a decision that should go without generating controversy.  There is something inarguably special about this album.

Released on Orenda Records.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Music from Los Angeles, CA.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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Jan 7 2019

Best of 2018 #34: OddAtlas – “OddAtlas”

 

I mean, damn, but do the quartet OddAtlas know how to make a melody simmer into a slow burn.  And it’s not the heat generated that forges the connection, but the hypnotic effect of the melody’s flickering light.  It transfixes the same whether the song smolders or shines bright.  The quartet of guitarist Federico Casagrande, saxophonist Warren Walker, bassist Sam Minaie, and drummer Caleb Dolister aren’t shy about mixing in heavy infusions of post-rock to their modern jazz sound, and the willingness to stomp instead of swing provides that much richer environment for melodies thrive.  This is a recording that I’ll be returning to for years to come.

Released on Ropeadope Records.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Music from New York City.

Available at:  Amazon | Bandcamp

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