Begin the Countdown

Last year I came up with seven categories that served as organizing principles and guideposts for how I hear the music that I hoped would help others understand more or less what to expect from each CD. For that effort, presented on December 12, 2012, I equated the texture and feel of the music to paintings. The categories were:

• Straight Ahead, Right Down the Middle, Mainstream Jazz
• Modern Mainstream Jazz
• Modern Lyrical Jazz
• Modern Impressionistic Jazz
• Modern Abstract Jazz
• New Sounds of New Age Jazz
• Latin Jazz

I will use those definitions again for these listings. [For fun, I also posited another scale during the year equating music to film characters, the James Bond to Lisbeth Salander scale, that could equally apply.]

Okay, so after sorting and sifting and noodling, and then doing it all again, I pulled out 65 CDs that I felt comfortably calling my favorites for the past year. Then after even more noodling and sorting, I actually came up with a very comfortable top 25, those I most enjoyed. Before listing my top 25, which will come in a subsequent post, here is a list of the 22 piano solos or trios from the remaining 40 that represent the "honorable mentions".

• Straight Ahead, Right Down the Middle, Mainstream Jazz (Bond, James Bond)


• Gerry Gibbs Thrasher Dream Trio, "Gerry Gibbs Thrasher Dream Trio" (Whaling City Sound 2013): No thrashing at all, just some tightly played originals and covers by Gibbs and his more famous partners, Ron Carter and Kenny Barron. 
• Harold Mabern, "Live at Smalls" (Smalls Live 2013): Doesn't get more mainstream than hearing an old master like Mabern on tunes like "Alone Together" or "Road Song", let alone a really fun version of "Sesame Street." Seven tunes give everyone a chance to stretch it out and enjoy themselves. 
• Jimmy Amadie Trio, "Live at the Philadelphia Museum of Art" (TPRecordings 2013): Sadly Amadie recently passed away, but not before he played this concert, his first in on the order of 30 years or so. His back story is amazing, and so too is his play. Pure mainstream jazz on 12 classics. Mainstream music does not get any better than this. 
• 
  
• Modern Mainstream Jazz



• Steve Kuhn, "The Vanguard Date" (Sunnyside 2013): Technically I suppose this is a re-issue, but whatever the case its one great outing, with Ron Carter and Al Foster there to make up a classic trio. Its not pure mainstream/down the middle -- there is too much wonderful free-flowing improvisation for me to put it there. Kuhn never disappoints. 
• Bob James, "Alone" (Red River 2013): Yes that Bob James. He is a heck of a pianist as he has demonstrataed in the past when not playing "soft jazz", and as he shows here with some wonderfully soft and lyrical takes on standards, his own songs, and some from modern pop. Very nice. 
• Alan Broadbent, "Heart to Heart" (Chilly Bin Records 2013): Downbeat gave it five stars. It's that good. It's a demonstration of what a piano can do in the hands of an outstanding player. Beauty abounds.  
• The Aperturistic Trio, "Truth and Actuality" (Inner Circle Music 2013): James Weidman on piano, Steve Williams on drums, and Harvie S on bass provide a nice set of modern jazz music in a classic piano trio. 
• Lisa Hilton, "Getaway" (Ruby Slippers 2013): Lisa Hilton has not gotten the credit she deserves as a solid modern jazz pianist and hopefully this will open some minds to her music. With Nasheet Waits on drums and Larry Grenadier on bass, this is a modern set of compositions by Hilton herself. Very upbeat, very classy. 
• Modern Lyrical Jazz

• Marc Cary, "For the Love of Abbey" (Motema 2013): Cary worked with Abbey Lincoln for years and this solo piano outing conveys his love in some beautiful, lyrical versions of her songs. It's magical music. 
• Julian Waterfall Pollack, "Waves of Albion" (Berthold Records 2013): Simply beautiful display of touch and sensuality. A few originals, a few traditional songs like "Shenandoah" and "Amazing Grace." This came real close to the top 25, it's fantastic.
• Alessandro Lanzoni Trio, "Dark Flavour" (CamJazz 2013): From the young artist series by CamJazz, a trio that sounds like they've been at it for a while. Lovely music, taste, and sensitivity, and interesting takes on Monk to boot.  
• Ramberto Ciammarughi, "New Music for Two" (CamJazz 2013): With Miroslav Vitous on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums, this is a very beautiful and classy live concert full of moving passages and creative improvisations.   
• Modern Impressionistic Jazz


• K-Trio, "Meatball Evening" (Dimma 2013): There's a pretty lively jazz scene in Iceland and K-Trio is at the heart of it. It's a bit abstract, a bit moody at times, and a lot of fun is had by all. 
• Aaron Parks, "Arborescence" (ECM 2013): Not the Parks we know from his more mainstream outings, this one is more in the realm of creative modern classicism, and its a beauty. By the way, a more mainstream Parks can be found on his website in a free download-only concert from Japan, and it too is recommended. [And another by the way, by the time all my lists are completed, I believe i will have had 12 ECM productions on them. It was a heck of a year for the label.]
• Iiro Rantala, Michael Wollny, Leszek Mozder, "Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic I " (ACT 2013): Some solos, some duos, and one trio with all three players at once pouring their hearts into a mix of jazz classicism. Jazz variations of Bach, a rhumba by Chick Corea, Svantetic from Komeda and a number of originals. Beautiful music. 
• Sunna Gunnlaugs, "Distilled" (Sunny Sky Records 2013): Perfectly balanced trio with husband Scott McLemore on drums and Porgrimur Jonsson on bass. Another Icelander, perhaps the most famous in the jazz world. This is beautiful stuff full of magic and sensuality. 
• Tingvall Trio, "In Concert" (Skip Records 2013): Another one of the modern piano trios that are popping up in Europe and following the path blazed by est and others. The trio have several other CDs out, each of which is great, and this captures them live playing some of their best tunes. 
• Modern Abstract Jazz


• Eric Revis, "City of Asylum" (Clean Feed 2013): Creative abstractions with Kris Davis on piano and Andrew Cyrille on drums.
• Matthew Shipp, "Piano Sutras" (Thirsty Ear 2013): Shipp was prolific in 2013. This is a solo outing of 13 small compositions that can be at times angular, at others lyrical, and always fascinating. It's definitely outside the box, but also it's definitely Shipp, and that's good. 
• Craig Taborn, "Chants" (ECM 2013): Not sure if this should be in the modern impressionistic group or this one. Either way it is an exercise in creative listening among three partners that we should be glad to be in on. Engaging, mellow and interesting. 
• Hot Eskimos, "Songs from the Top of the World" (JR Music 2013): Another young jazz trio from Iceland rethinking a number of modern pop tunes from groups like the Sugarcubes and from Bjork. But if you didn't know the sources, and I don't, you'd be fine. It's another in the line of modern piano trios seeking new sources and ideas to bring to the table.
• In the Country, "Sunset Sunrise" (ACT 2013): Yet another in the fine line of European piano trios, Very expressive players with a sweeping vision of their jazz.   
• New Sounds of New Age Jazz (Lisbeth Salander)
• none
• Latin Jazz
• none

My next post will be of the other 18 "honorable mentions". 

Flying First Class

Not really first class, but the music through my headphones was. I listened to four new piano recordings, three hours and forty-five minutes of beautiful music. Three piano trios and one solo piano recording.  Each one is easily recommended.

The Eri Yamamoto Trio, "Firefly" (AUM 2013) was the first in line. Yamamoto is a fixture on the New York jazz scene, with multiple recordings, most recently on AUM Fidelity; a regular gig at Arthur's Tavern since 2000 with her long-standing trio; a record of international accomplishments with other fine artists; but a reputation that seems hidden to the general jazz listening public. I wrote an extensive post about the trio on April 18th last year, and this is the first CD that they have made since. It has all the characteristics of its predesessors -- creative melodies and varied tempos, expressive language communication between the three partners, some quiet reflection, some eplosions of sound. Modern impressionistic music by a veteran trio; "Memory-Dance" and "Echo" are beautiful meditations, "A Few Words" and "Heart" energized creativity. It all adds up to a wonderfully diverse and comfortable listening experience.

Bill Cunliffe Trio "River Edge, New Jersey" (Azica 2013) mixes six Cunliffe originals with two classics -- "You the Night and the Music" and "The Girl from Ipanema" -- and some modern music from Bjork and Harry Nilsson into a worderfully diverse and set by this verteran trio. Cunliffe on piano is a 57 year old veteran who recorded his first CD as a leader in 1993, and since then has over a dozen releases. He has interpreted old and new before -- one CD was interpretations of Paul Simon, another a tribute to Bud Powell. The trio -- Martin Wind on bass and Tim Horner on drums -- play in a modern mainstream style and do it with class and taste. This is a wonderful straght-ahead CD.

Marc Cary, "For the Love of Abbey" (Motema 2013) solos on this set of 14 songs dedicated to Abbey Lincoln, with whom he played for 12 years, following his working assocaition with Betty Carter first. Eight of thehe pieces are from Lincoln's songbook and they are majestically played by Cary with a great deal of emotion and drama. The songs cover the full range of emotion Lincoln put into her songs, from hushed quiet to soaring delivery, always keeping close to the melodies but with a great deal of thought and interpretation added. this is a terrific set of music with a freshness brought to the songs by Cary's wonderful delivery. It includes a nice booklet describing the music and thought that went into this recording as well.

Finally the last and most surprising one of all, Emily Bear, "Diversity" (Concord 2013). Emily Bear is an 11 year old prodigy, another in the line of them that includes such notables as Grace Kelly, Eldar,  and overseas Francesco Cafiso. But for each of these players, who have continued to develop their talents and abilities and sound, there are others who have fallen back. I have no clue which way Emiy Bear will go, but when Quincy Jones is her producer and mentor, when her drummer is Francisco Mela who is a wonderful leader in his own right, then it's worth taking notice of this release. And its a very nice release, twelve compositions by Bear (add that to the mix!) that plumb a range of sounds and styles, that are each concise but allow for nice interpretations and improvisations by the band members, and that flow with emotions well beyond the feelings I would expect from an eleven year old, and you have a CD to hear and a musician to follow. Nice modern mainstream music.

These four CDs made for a nice, relaxing flight, and should make for a nice time for piano trio lovers.