{"id":1424,"date":"2015-12-04T15:22:04","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T15:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/?p=1424"},"modified":"2015-12-04T16:11:49","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T16:11:49","slug":"gene-seymours-top-ten-jazz-discs-for-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/?p=1424","title":{"rendered":"Gene Seymour&#8217;s Top Ten Jazz Discs for 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Simpsons - Even God Hates Jazz\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Xoaj05WhsjA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, yeah, whatever&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>But if all that&#8217;s true, then why, I keep asking every year, is there so much good-to-great &#8220;product&#8221; (a euphemism I loathe, but am stringing along, hoping it&#8217;ll take the hint from the diminishing effect of quote marks) that still comes out? Why is it that I made up this year&#8217;s list thinking that there were so many discs I could have easily included that didn&#8217;t even make the Honorable Mention cut? Why is it that any of the top five on this list could have easily been number one and why could any of the ones below them, even the Honorable Mentions, could have slipped into the top five?<\/p>\n<p>Why? Why ask why?<\/p>\n<p>An answer &#8212; not &#8220;the&#8221; answer &#8212; is that whatever infrastructure that used to be in place for promoting and marketing music is in worse shape than some of our bridges, tunnels and highways. In fact, there might not even BE an infrastructure so much as a make-it-up-as-we-go-along system that spreads and circulates the word on artists and &#8220;product.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Or not. I don&#8217;t know, really. As with everybody else who still cares, I go with my gut. And what my gut tells me is that jazz, whether God likes it or not, is finding a way to move along on its own power regardless of who&#8217;s noticing at this point. And my top five especially give me hope that the music is not just moving along or getting by, but transforming itself into something not even Lisa Simpson or Mayor Quimby will recognize at first. I say it every year at this time and I will find some way of saying it again next year.<\/p>\n<p>And I&#8217;m not giving up my compact discs either. Why? Vinyl. That&#8217;s why. You all said THAT was dead, too, once.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/For-One-to-Love.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1435\" src=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/For-One-to-Love-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"For One to Love\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/For-One-to-Love-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/For-One-to-Love-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/For-One-to-Love.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>1.) Cecile McLorin Salvant, <em>For One to Love<\/em> (Mack Avenue)<\/strong> \u2013 Her debut album two years ago was one of those once-in-a-generation calling cards in which soul, grace, power and intelligence materialize in one implausibly commanding 24-year-old package. She could have easily followed it up with another m\u00e9lange of classic or out-of-left-field standards and maintained her front-running status as the Next Great Jazz Vocalist without making your jaw drop as she did when introducing herself. But damned if she doesn\u2019t do that to you again, and then some, with a bold concept album whose range and depth are reminiscent of similar innovations from this year\u2019s centennial birthday boy Frank Sinatra during the fifties (\u201cOnly the Lonely\u201d) and sixties (\u201cSeptember of My Years\u201d). The songs on this album are connected in some way with what it\u2019s like to for one\u2019s looks to be scrutinized and summarily judged. I\u2019d also be inclined to label her effort here as an attempt to filter The Male Gaze through a prism of her own design. But why limit oneself, or her, to one gender\u2019s glancing assessments? The biggest tip-off is \u201cLook at Me,\u201d one of her five original compositions here, in which self-conscious doubt starts seeping into an otherwise idyllic romance. (\u201cWhy don\u2019t you look at me\/ the way you look at all the other girls you see?\u201d) along with its companion, \u201cLeft Over\u201d (\u201cI wonder if he even knows my name\u201d) Such plaintive, yet pointed inquiries make themselves known in other selections, such as \u201cStepsister\u2019s Lament\u201d from Rodgers and Hammerstein\u2019s \u201cCinderella\u201d and that sweet swinging Bacharach-David tune, \u201cWives and Lovers,\u201d which she nonchalantly hits over the fence and through the windshield of a neighbor\u2019s car parked four houses away. Her penchant for unearthing early blues (Spencer and Clarence Williams\u2019 \u201cWhat\u2019s the Matter Now?\u201d) also melds easily with the overall concept, whose poignancy is offset by the ferocious jolts of hope and mother-wit infusing \u201cThe Trolley Song\u201d and an especially breathtaking \u201cSomething\u2019s Coming.\u201d It almost frightens you to keep listening. Yet you have to. And of course, it all wouldn\u2019t work nearly as well without the pliant and comparably ingenious accompaniment of pianist Aaron Diehl, bassist Paul Sikivie and drummer Lawrence Leathers.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/The-Epic-Cover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1436\" src=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/The-Epic-Cover-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Epic Cover\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/The-Epic-Cover-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/The-Epic-Cover-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/The-Epic-Cover-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/The-Epic-Cover.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>2.) Kamasi Washington, <em>The Epic<\/em> (Brainfeeder)<\/strong> \u2013 I suspect this will likely lead most of the lists my peers are assembling for the year\u2019s best jazz albums. If the level of emotional investment shown in the previous entry hadn\u2019t moved me more, I\u2019d have been right along with them. This represents one of those occasions where you\u2019re not only recognizing artistry on these three discs, but what this whole work represents: A heady return to the notion of orchestrated jazz as a source of emphatic, unmediated ecstasy; the difference here from the raw, searching energies summoned by John Coltrane, Su Ra, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and generations of \u201cNew Thing\u201d acolytes and fellow travelers from the past being a wider accessibility to beat and tone. Because of Washington\u2019s Los Angeles roots, I kept thinking about great bandleaders and mentors from that scene such as Gerald Wilson and Horace Tapscott whose charts roared, stomped and often sprawled the way these pieces do. But because of the conspicuous presence of Washington\u2019s keening, quicksilver tenor sax on Kendrick Lamar\u2019s <em>To Pimp a Butterfly<\/em> (which, if you were holding my feet to the fire, I\u2019d be ready to declare the Album of the Year among all genres), I also recognize in this <em>Epic\u2019s<\/em> conception Hip-Hop\u2019s big, avid ears for blending rogue sounds. In this case: tiers of percussion propelling choirs of angels, street-hard horns breaking and merging at will and, once in a while, the familiar sound of a Hammond B-3 organ (summoned by keyboardist Brandon Coleman). It\u2019s an achievement of such conspicuous heft and dimension that it makes you wonder if Washington\u2019s trying to do too much at once. But just when you think those aforementioned energies are flagging, something, maybe a speed run by the bassist known as Thundercat, an extended comp by acoustic pianist Cameron Graves, an incisive lead vocal by Patrice Quinn or a fervent, reasonably straightforward take on \u201cClair de Lune\u201d comes along to sustain the sense of the ground beneath one\u2019s feet rumbling. It\u2019s not that <em>The Epic\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0represents anything new under the sun. (It even revives \u201cCherokee,\u201d for Charlie Ventura\u2019s sake!) But it makes you aware of how long it\u2019s been since jazz music made you want to reach for the sun, much less stare at it without fear.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/The-Thompson-Fields.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1437\" src=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/The-Thompson-Fields-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Thompson Fields\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/The-Thompson-Fields-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/The-Thompson-Fields-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/The-Thompson-Fields.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>3.) Maria Schneider Orchestra, <em>The Thompson Fields<\/em> (ArtistShare)<\/strong> \u2013 In a year when the overall level of jazz composing, arranging and orchestration challenged the adequacy of one\u2019s supply of superlatives, it altogether figured that the redoubtable Schneider would put forth what, up to this still-relatively-early point in her brilliant career, could well be her masterpiece: An eight-piece suite, a decade or so in the making, evoking the outward graces and cherished epiphanies of the Minnesota prairie where she grew up. The music at first lulls you into thinking this handsomely packaged selection will be nothing but daydreams bathed in twilight pastels. (Not that there\u2019s anything wrong with that.) But Schneider, whose ability to \u201cplay\u201d an 18-piece orchestra has never before been as consummate or as confident as it is here, layers her pastoral vision with themes that thicken, recede and recharge with the mercurial impulses of Nature itself. After all, the weather isn\u2019t always sunny and warm in one\u2019s past, or, to be sure, in one\u2019s present either. As with every great bandleader, Schneider allows her soloists near-collaborative space to enhance her vision, as in the cases of pianist Frank Kimbrough and guitarist Lage Lund replicating the tension between memory and reality on the title piece or Rich Perry\u2019s inquisitive tenor sax summoning the persisting lure and unfulfilled yearning of \u201cHome.\u201d Too often, Schneider\u2019s work as a composer-arranger incites comparisons to her inspirations\/mentors Bob Brookmeyer and Gil Evans (about whom more later on this list). Now, she stands alone as a musical force capable of inspiring others. And if I were to make any comparisons at this point, it would be less towards other bandleaders than towards poets, to whose influence she has been paying homage on recent discs. In particular, her work on <em>Thompson Fields<\/em> reminds me of Robert Frost, another pastoralist whose darker, more ambivalent approaches to the passages of time and the seasons are often overlooked at first glance because of the elemental beauty of his tone. In both his case and hers, the subtler sense of unease aroused by their respective visions incline you to be more solicitous to the living things around you \u2013 and to treat their mysteries with respect and discretion.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Juneteenth-cover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1438\" src=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Juneteenth-cover-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Juneteenth cover\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Juneteenth-cover-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Juneteenth-cover-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Juneteenth-cover.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>4.) Stanley Cowell, <em>Juneteenth<\/em> (Vision Fugitive) <\/strong>\u2013 Now 74, Cowell has been among the underappreciated stalwarts \u2013 and treasures \u2013 of American music. As with generations of jazz masters who found themselves marginalized in the cultural firmament even as they were becoming more autonomous as producers (he was one of the co-founders of the legendary Strata-East independent label in the seventies), Cowell spent most of the last several decades in academia while continuing to write, perform and record in a variety of settings as sideman and leader. He has also been one of the few pianists whose solo work is as textured and broadly realized as any combo\u2019s repertoire. This unaccompanied performance of a work originally written for large ensemble commemorating the 150th anniversary of Emancipation, or at least its informal announcement in Texas in 1865, feels very much like a splendid gift to his abiding fans as well as a moving tribute to Cowell\u2019s resilience. Because he shares a Toledo, Ohio birthplace with the great virtuoso Art Tatum, Cowell lays claim to the same faultless command of time and space that Tatum displayed in his own formidable body of solo recordings. He also weaves references to, and extensions upon, such disparate tunes as \u201cThe Battle Hymn of the Republic,\u201d \u201cStrange Fruit,\u201d \u201cDixie\u201d and other Americana redolent of the surging, shape-shifting referencing of Charles Mingus, only with a more probing and nuanced approach. With the issues animating the Civil War gaining more urgency in the years since Cowell was commissioned (in 2012) to compose this suite, \u201cJuneteenth\u201d feels at once both topical and enduring; news that, for better and worse, stays news.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Bird-Calls-cover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1439\" src=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Bird-Calls-cover-300x274.jpg\" alt=\"Bird Calls cover\" width=\"300\" height=\"274\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Bird-Calls-cover-300x274.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Bird-Calls-cover.jpg 548w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>5.) Rudresh Mahanthappa, <em>Bird Calls<\/em> (ACT)<\/strong> \u2013 Modernism meets post-modernism and the former gets a \u201cfly\u201d face-lift it can grow with. <em>Bird Calls<\/em> is (far) less a \u201ctribute album\u201d to Charlie Parker than a young alto-sax daredevil\u2019s attempt to connect with the divinities that made Parker soar into uncharted changes more than 70 years ago. Mahanthappa borrows or, more appropriately, \u201csamples\u201d themes, licks and riffs from the Parker canon and uses them as propellant for his own fire-breathing inventions. The familiar fanfare from the \u201cParker\u2019s Mood,\u201d for instance, is transfigured on \u201cTalin is Thinking\u201d into a incantation setting the table for a dirge drastically different, yet no less resonant or far-reaching than the original while \u201cMaybe Later\u201d cheekily elbows tropes from \u201cNow\u2019s the Time,\u201d Parker\u2019s slow-hand blues that midwifed both bebop and post-war rhythm-and-blues, and creates a bouncy number that swings more like an uptown rave than a downtown slide. The only thing that strongly evokes Parker throughout is the insurgent, turbo-charged drive to Make It New; and, in the process, to expand the possibilities for jazz to emerge from the chrysalis of its established traditions into something resembling full, unrestrained flight. Trumpeter Adam O\u2019Farrill, pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist Francois Moutin and drummer Rudy Royston robustly share their leader\u2019s commitment to this process and, you hope, other attempts at homage to past masters will take the hint.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Synovial-Joints-cover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1440\" src=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Synovial-Joints-cover-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Synovial Joints cover\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Synovial-Joints-cover-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Synovial-Joints-cover-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Synovial-Joints-cover.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>6.) Steve Coleman, <em>Synovial Joints<\/em> (PI)<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cDoctor\u201d Coleman continues the inquiry into the human body he commenced two years before with <em>Functional Arrythmias<\/em> (also on PI) and expands his bag of implements beyond those of his customary quintet of trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson, bassist Anthony Tidd, guitarist Miles Okasaki and, this time, drummer Marcus Gilmore to include a few more horns, a flute and piccolo, a string quartet, a pianist (David Bryant) and a singer (Jen Shyu) who join him on the eponymous four-part exploration\/appreciation of, as Coleman writes in the liner notes, \u201cthe joints that bind the human musculoskeletal system [that] function as a means of connecting bones, binding tissue and provid[ing] various degrees of movement for our bodies.\u201d Yes, I had the exact same thought: What a fine dance performance routine this music would serve. And the pull-pull interplay between strings and horns, bass lines and modes encourage one to imagine knees, elbows, legs and shoulders accommodating themselves to whatever groove gets transmitted as permission to ambulate. This disc doesn\u2019t just go inside on \u201cAcupuncture Openings\u201d and \u201cCeltic Cells\u201d (not those in the body, but in medieval clusters of otherwise scattered visionaries. They also spend time in the Sahara desert on \u201cHarmattan\u201d and \u201cNomadic.\u201d Wherever they go, Coleman\u2019s ad-hoc musical aggregation sustains an engaging blend of the spontaneous and the deliberate that keeps mind and body in constant motion at delightfully varied speeds. It\u2019s even fun if you\u2019re just walking at a normal pace and this quirky music\u2019s somehow playing \u2013 in more ways than one \u2013 through your ears.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Lines-of-Color-cover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1441\" src=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Lines-of-Color-cover-300x263.jpg\" alt=\"Lines of Color cover\" width=\"300\" height=\"263\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Lines-of-Color-cover-300x263.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Lines-of-Color-cover.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>7.) ) Ryan Truesdell Gil Evans Project, <em>Lines of Color<\/em> (ArtistShare)<\/strong> \u2013 Despite several albums of live performances by his big band released during the last 15 years of his life, so much of the reputation of arranger-bandleader-composer-enabler-of-the-cool Gil Evans (1912-1988) remains tethered to studio work, most especially whenever Miles Davis was involved. Thus, Ryan Truesdell, to whom so much is already owed for his Evans project\u2019s award-winning 2012 debut. <em>Centennial<\/em> (also on ArtistShare), continues to restore Evans\u2019 body of work and its myriad possibilities for revision. Here, he \u00a0also helps re-establish \u00a0the exuberant interaction of big band music with its audience &#8212; even if it\u2019s sitting and drinking along, as opposed to dancing, which for all I know happened, too, at midtown Manhattan\u2019s Jazz Standard, where these sessions were recorded. Take, just as an example, the project\u2019s reiteration of Evans\u2019 arrangement of Bix Biederbecke\u2019s \u201cDavenport Blues.\u201d On the 1959 Pacific Jazz album, <em>Great Jazz Standards<\/em>, the piece is carried along by the late trumpeter Johnny Coles\u2019 soft, cool and dry solo, this version\u2019s rhythmic pulse is amplified by drummer Lewis Nash\u2019s down-and-dirty beat and trumpeter Mat Jodrell\u2019s flamboyantly vertical solo. I thought Evans\u2019 1965 version of \u201cGreensleeves\u201d would be a non-starter without Kenny Burrell\u2019s guitar up front, but trombonist Marshall Gilkes busts the arrangement wide open. Because Truesdell is as much curator as orchestrator, he also uses such occasions for lesser-known or previously unrecorded Evans, notably \u201cAvalon Town,\u201d which he\u2019d written during his mid-1940s apprenticeship with Claude Thornhill, during which he began tinkering with impressionism and modulated brass.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Conduct-of-Jazz-cover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1443\" src=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Conduct-of-Jazz-cover-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Conduct of Jazz cover\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Conduct-of-Jazz-cover-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Conduct-of-Jazz-cover-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Conduct-of-Jazz-cover.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>8.) Matthew Shipp Trio, <em>The Conduct of Jazz<\/em> (Thirsty Ear)<\/strong> \u2013This is the small group album many of us have been waiting for from Wilmington\u2019s Excitable Renegade. His knotty, multi-clustered attack on the piano is as relentless as ever with his themes and motifs rolling, tumbling and shifting direction with seemingly inexhaustible inventiveness. The first few bars of \u201cInstinctive Touch\u201d (along with the title itself) announces to the uninitiated how insistently he\u2019s willing to stress test a motif until it breaks apart to reveal some promising new form of life. Yet it\u2019s the title track that discloses something new to the mix; an exuberant drive that somehow seems more contained and yet more fluid and expansive. I\u2019m going out on a limb by saying that it\u2019s the addition of drummer Newton Taylor Baker to the tandem of Shipp and bassist Michael Bisio, whose solos likewise seem to have gained greater breadth and openness. Baker\u2019s playing, both with the others and on its own, stretches and spreads out along with Shipp\u2019s and Bisio\u2019s, establishing keener interaction within the trip and helping Shipp\u2019s compositions, whether as crypto-funky as \u201cBlue Abyss,\u201d or as discursive as \u201cPrimary Form\u201d reach trajectories that challenge listeners without leaving them stranded or shortchanged. Mostly, it\u2019s fun. Which is how jazz at whatever level of ambition or comprehension is supposed to \u201cconduct\u201d itself.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Intents-and-Purposes-cover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1444\" src=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Intents-and-Purposes-cover-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Intents and Purposes cover\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Intents-and-Purposes-cover-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Intents-and-Purposes-cover-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Intents-and-Purposes-cover.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>9.) Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet, <em>Intents and Purposes<\/em> (Enja)<\/strong> \u2013 The year\u2019s notable contribution to the file marked, Discs-I-Couldn\u2019t-Keep-Out-Of-My-Player-Without-Knowing-Exactly-Why is a disarming and surprisingly illuminating inquiry into the oft-discredited realm of what we used to know in the 1970s as jazz-rock fusion. Because so much of the music associated with that genre leaned on synthesizers, wah-wah pedals and other plug-in accessories, purists of all persuasions suspected both its players and its repertoire of coasting on waves of bombast and white noise. Abbasi\u2019s guitars, assisted by Bill Ware\u2019s vibes, Stephan Crump\u2019s upright bass and Eric McPherson\u2019s trap set, excise the bubbles and fuzz from one\u2019s memories of Herbie Hancock\u2019s \u201cButterfly,\u201d Billy Cobham\u2019s \u201cRed Baron,\u201d Chick Corea\u2019s \u201cMedieval Overture\u201d and Pat Martino\u2019s \u201cJoyous Lake,\u201d among others, to reveal their sinewy lyricism without muting their sounds or constricting their energies. These guys come on strong enough to make you check the cover again to make sure nobody\u2019s packing a concealed amplifier.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Heads-of-State-Search-for-Peace-e1430418654102.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1445\" src=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Heads-of-State-Search-for-Peace-e1430418654102-300x270.jpg\" alt=\"Heads-of-State-Search-for-Peace-e1430418654102\" width=\"300\" height=\"270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Heads-of-State-Search-for-Peace-e1430418654102-300x270.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Heads-of-State-Search-for-Peace-e1430418654102.jpg 440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>10.) Heads of State, <em>Search for Peace<\/em> (Smoke Sessions)<\/strong> \u2013 This gathering of gray eminences \u2013 saxophonist Gary Bartz, pianist Larry Willis, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Al Foster \u2013 isn\u2019t out to re-invent the wheel, or anything else. This is about as unassuming as \u201cstraight ahead\u201d jazz gets these days, given its selection of standards, both familiar (\u201cImpressions,\u201d \u201cLotus Blossom,\u201d \u201cI Wish I Knew\u201d) and not quite as well known that you don\u2019t need to mention their composers\u2019 names (Benny Carter\u2019s \u201cSummer Serenade,\u201d Jackie McLean\u2019s \u201cCapuchin Swing\u201d). There are also two pieces, \u201cSoulstice\u201d and \u201cUncle Bubba,\u201d written by Bartz \u2013 and as masterly as the other esteemed \u201cheads\u201d are, it is Bartz to whom this album truly belongs and whose playing throughout is a clinic in lyricism, timing and tone. At 75, he is a living exemplar of the alto saxophone and all you have to do is listen to him lay out on something like \u201cCrazy She Calls Me\u201d to bask in the reflected glory of someone who knows exactly what to say, how to say it and where each bend and curve in a variation needs to go. Jazz doesn\u2019t always have to change the world, or even rearrange the furniture in your head, to be great. Sometimes, all it needs is a rich, ripe and still evolving gift such as Bartz\u2019s to remind you why you don\u2019t really care what anybody else says about jazz music\u2019s alleged \u201cdeterioration\u201d or \u201cdemise.\u201d If Bartz still believes, you should, too<\/p>\n<p><strong>HONORABLE MENTION<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Solo-Hersch-cover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1446\" src=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Solo-Hersch-cover-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Solo Hersch cover\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Solo-Hersch-cover-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Solo-Hersch-cover-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Solo-Hersch-cover-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Solo-Hersch-cover.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fred Hersch, <em>Solo<\/em> (Palmetto)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Myra Melford, <em>Snowy Egret<\/em> (Enja)<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Chris Potter Underground Orchestra, <em>Imaginary Cities<\/em> (ECM)<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Erik Friedlander, <em>Oscalypso<\/em> (Skipstone)<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Tigran Hamasyan, <em>Luys I Lus<\/em>o (ECM)<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Romain Collin,<em> Press Enter<\/em> (ACT)<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Albert \u201cTootie\u201d Heath, Ethan Iverson, Ben Street, <em>Philadelphia Bea<\/em>t (Sunnyside)<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Vijay Iyer Trio, <em>Break Stuff<\/em> (ECM)<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Liberty Elfman, <em>Radiate<\/em> (PI)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>BEST VOCAL: <em>For One to Love<\/em> HONORABLE MENTION: \u00a0Cassandra Wilson, <em>Coming Forth By Day<\/em> (Legacy)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Cuba-Conversation-cover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1447\" src=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Cuba-Conversation-cover-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Cuba Conversation cover\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Cuba-Conversation-cover-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Cuba-Conversation-cover-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Cuba-Conversation-cover.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>BEST LATIN ALBUM: Arturo O\u2019 Farrill &amp; the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, <em>Cuba: The Conversation Continues<\/em> (Motema)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Complete-Concert-by-the-sea.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1403\" src=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Complete-Concert-by-the-sea-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Complete Concert by the sea\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Complete-Concert-by-the-sea-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Complete-Concert-by-the-sea-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.geneseymour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Complete-Concert-by-the-sea.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>BEST REISSUE: <a href=\"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/?p=1399\">Erroll Garner, <em>The Complete Concert by the Sea<\/em> (Legacy)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yeah, yeah, whatever&#8230; But if all that&#8217;s true, then why, I keep asking every year, is there so much good-to-great &#8220;product&#8221; (a euphemism I loathe, but am stringing along, hoping it&#8217;ll take the hint from the diminishing effect of quote marks) that still comes out? Why is it that I made up this year&#8217;s list [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[447,766,599,769,446,762,763,743,110,760,755,142,768,415,407,761,759,765,757,758,756,403,764,767],"class_list":["post-1424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jazz-reviews","tag-aaron-diehl","tag-albert-tootie-heath","tag-arturo-ofarrill","tag-cassandra-wilson","tag-cecile-mclorin-salvant","tag-chris-potter","tag-erik-friedlander","tag-erroll-garner","tag-fred-hersch","tag-gary-bartz","tag-kamasi-washington","tag-kendrick-lamar","tag-liberty-elfman","tag-maria-schneider","tag-matthew-shipp","tag-myra-melford","tag-rez-abbasi","tag-romain-collin","tag-rudresh-mahanthappa","tag-ryan-truesdell","tag-stanley-cowell","tag-steve-coleman","tag-tigran-hamasyan","tag-vijay-iyer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1424"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1456,"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions\/1456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}