Dec 17, 2017
It’s time once again for me to close out the year with my annual “A Few of My Favorite Things” podcast. This is the chance I get to go back through the music I have had the privilege to listen to during the year, and present some of my favorites to you.
I prefer not to think of this as a true “Best of” list, but rather a way of commenting and making recommendations to you on those that caught my fancy and earned repeat playings on my stereo in 2017. I created five somewhat arbitrary categories for my presentation to allow me to highlight veteran performers, newcomers, tribute albums or projects, special collaborations, and reissued or archival releases.
This year was especially difficult, and I think you’ll enjoy my choices. And they are:
New Things from Old Friends
Matt Wilson – Salt and Honey: Music Inspired by the Poetry of Carl Sandburg
Sean Jones – Live from Jazz at the Bistro
Jimmy Greene - Flowers: Beautiful Life, Volume 2
Jane Ira Bloom – Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson
Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition - Agrima
Those Hitting Their Stride
Tyshawn Storey - Verilisimitude
Brian Landrus Orchestra - Generations
Noah Preminger – Meditations on Freedom
Linda May Han Oh – Walk Against the Wind
Christian Sands - Reach
Tributes to Musical Greats
John Beasley’s Monk’estra - `Monk’estra, Vol. 2
Organissimo – B3atles: A Soulful Tribute to the Fab Four
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, feat. Jon Batiste and Wynton Marsalis – The Music of John Lewis
Various Artists – For Oscar, With Love
Gregory Porter – Nat King Cole & Me
Reissue or Archival
Jaco Pastorious – Truth, Liberty & Soul – Live in NYC: The Complete 1983 NPR Jazz Alive! Recording
Wes Montgomery – In Paris: The Definitive ORTF Recording
Stan Getz Quartet – Newport Jazz Festival 1964
Alice Coltrane - World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane
Thelonious Monk - Les Liasones Dangeruese
Collaborations
Omer Avital and Avi Avital – Avital Meets Avital
Jamie Saft, Steve Swallow, and Bobby Previte with Iggy Pop – Loneliness Road
Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau - Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau
Anat Cohen & Marcello Gonclaves- Outra Coisa
Jack DeJohnette, Larry Grenadier, John Medeski, John Scofield – Hudson
2017 was also the year that JazzTimes magazine’s readers chose “Straight No Chaser” as Best Podcast for the first time. This was an honor beyond anything I had hoped when I started this project more than a decade ago. To me, it means that I’m doing something right on my end, and I hope I can keep doing it well into the future. A Happy New Year to you all!
Musical selections for Podcast 606 include:
Matt Wilson - "As Wave Follows Wave" from Salt and Honey: Music Inspired by the Poetry of Carl Sandburg
Brian Landrus Orchestra - "Arise" from Generations
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, feat. Jon Batiste and Wynton Marsalis – "Spanish Steps" from The Music of John Lewis
Alice Coltrane - "Rama Rama" from World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane
Jack DeJohnette, Larry Grenadier, John Medeski, John Scofield – "Up on Cripple Creek" from Hudson