2010 jazz critics top 50 releases

[alocispepraluger102]

voice jazz critics poll

[Van Basten II]

Where is the Douglas ?

[Head Man]

voice jazz critics poll

Not many clunkers in that list!

[alocispepraluger102]

voice jazz critics poll

Not many clunkers in that list!

i'm more partial to the rereleases, not the least of which are air and dameronia.

Edited January 1, 2011 by alocispepraluger102

[mjazzg]

voice jazz critics poll

Not many clunkers in that list!

i'm more partial to the rereleases, not the least of which are air and dameronia.

some kind of testament to Moran's release that it appeared on every critic's list whilst only two others appeared on more than half.

[alocispepraluger102]

a tabulation of sales numbers would be interesting.

john hollenbeck did an award winning release a very few years ago which i dont think sold 500 copies.

[GA Russell]

Thanks for that link, aloc!

I too would like to see the sales figures. Heck, I'd like to see the sales figures of all jazz albums.

[alocispepraluger102]

Thanks for that link, aloc!

I too would like to see the sales figures. Heck, I'd like to see the sales figures of all jazz albums.

one might need an electron microscope.

[MomsMobley]

aloc beat me to the sales #s joke.

Moran is a well-marketed fraud, &/or mediocrity, even in a niche market.

granted it took a while but if he's the fucking future of the music someone ought to put it down now and we can all move on.

but he's the 'right' mixed-race and had EMI promotion long enough to be the (fake) avant- Wynton (Marsalis, alas, not Kelly).

am fucking baffled people enjoy Jarrett/Haden even as nostalgia but if it helps Eicher put out dozens of vastly superior records a year... so be it.

[Chuck Nessa]

[Uncle Skid]

Glad to see Halvorson's "Saturn Sings" on the list... one of my favorites this year.

[alocispepraluger102]

aloc beat me to the sales #s joke.

Moran is a well-marketed fraud, &/or mediocrity, even in a niche market.

granted it took a while but if he's the fucking future of the music someone ought to put it down now and we can all move on.

but he's the 'right' mixed-race and had EMI promotion long enough to be the (fake) avant- Wynton (Marsalis, alas, not Kelly).

am fucking baffled people enjoy Jarrett/Haden even as nostalgia but if it helps Eicher put out dozens of vastly superior records a year... so be it.

yours is the big O post of the year. thank you.

[Stefan Wood]

whatever.

[JohnS]

Oh dear, I didn't buy any of the new releases and I don't feel that I'm missing very much.

[alocispepraluger102]

in the late 60s-early 70s, i recall going to the music store 2 or 3 times a day for my newest 'fix'.

now, i go(online) maybe 5 times a year.

has the music changed, or have i?

Edited January 2, 2011 by alocispepraluger102

[AllenLowe]

I actually think there's a lot of good new stuff out there, excellent musicians playing creative music (though I have to admit that they rarely hold my attention for the length of the CD; this, however, may be just an age issue, as at 56.7 I have listened to just too much already and I tend to impatiently just want to get on with my own boring life) -

[alocispepraluger102]

I actually think there's a lot of good new stuff out there, excellent musicians playing creative music (though I have to admit that they rarely hold my attention for the length of the CD; this, however, may be just an age issue, as at 56.7 I have listened to just too much already and I tend to impatiently just want to get on with my own boring life) -

after finishing recording my broadcasts for the week, saturday and half of sunday are days of silence. i treasure them.

[Larry Kart]

Go to the VV Poll individual ballots (including yours' trulys) for many more names than those that made the Top 50 list. (Only two of my top ten are on the overall top 50, FWTW.) Also, I haven't totaled things up, but when you see the affiliations of the various people who voted, the poll seems heavily centered on New York City; like they're maybe five people from the Voice itself.

[Larry Kart]

A quick check of the individual ballots (and one can't always tell about locale from the info given) reveals that of 120 total ballots, 52 of those were cast by people who are based in the New York City or thereabouts (I include New Jersey, Philadelphia, etc.) and/or affiliated with NYC publications. Also, though sadly I didn't count, there seem to be way more than five VV-affiliated people who have ballots. Finally, I can't be entirely sure, but it looks like there were only five or so ballots cast by people who live somewhere other than North America.

[alocispepraluger102]

Go to the VV Poll individual ballots (including yours' trulys) for many more names than those that made the Top 50 list. (Only two of my top ten are on the overall top 50, FWTW.) Also, I haven't totaled things up, but when you see the affiliations of the various people who voted, the poll seems heavily centered on New York City; like they're maybe five people from the Voice itself.

thanks, larry.

[A Lark Ascending]

in the late 60s-early 70s, i recall going to the music store 2 or 3 times a day for my newest 'fix'.

now, i go(online) maybe 5 times a year.

has the music changed, or have i?

Almost certainly 'you' (or we!)! When we had heard very little everything seemed exciting. Several thousand recordings down the line (and god knows how much radio and live music) it's going to be incrementally harder for each new release to make an impression, however good it is.

Here's a UK poll from Jazzwise. Surprised at how conservative it is geographically - Jazzwise is normally a flag flyer for up-and-coming UK groups and jazz from Europe. Like the poll of this thread it's distilled from the choices of a range of critics.

NEW RELEASES

1 Phronesis - Alive (Edition)

2 Charles Lloyd - Mirror (ECM)

3 Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden - Jasmine (ECM)

4 Robert Wyatt, Gilad Atzmon, Ros Stephen - For The Ghosts Within (Domino)

5 Norma Winstone Stories Yet To Tell (ECM)

6 Dave Holland Octet Pathways (Dave 2)

7 Esperanza Spalding - Chamber Music Society (Heads Up)

8 Vijay Iyer - Solo (ACT)

9 Brad Mehldau - Highway Rider (Nonesuch)

10 Food Quiet Inlet (ECM)

REISSUES AND ARCHIVE

1 Loose Tubes - Dancing On Frith Street (Lost Marble)

2 Miles Davies - Bitches Brew 4Oth Anniversary Legacy Edition (Columbia)

3 Tubby Hayes Quartet - Lament (Solway)

4 Kenny Wheeler - Windmill Tilter (Best Goes On)

5 Arild Andersen - Green In Blue, Early Quartets (ECM)

6 Modern Jazz Quartet - Under the Jasmine Tree (Space Apple)

7. Thelonious Monk - Monk and Coltrane (OJC Riverside)

8 Jimi Hendrix Electric - Ladyland Experience (Hendrix/Sony Legacy)

9. Georgie Fame - Mod Classics 1964-1966 (BGP)

10 Shelley Mann - Live At The Black Hawk (AJC)

Individual choices in the current magazine (though not online). More interesting than the collective chart.

http://www.jazzwisemagazine.com/

Edited January 2, 2011 by A Lark Ascending

[David Ayers]

I'm amused that the poll-of-polls from Voice includes no fewer than FIFTY best CDs of the year plus historic/vocal/latin for a total 75. Except for 'critics' who get endless freebies I wonder who listens to all this stuff. I've heard maybe 10% of it. The length of the list and its format in which exact votes are recorded, hanging chads and all, reflects the vanity of the 'critics' much more than any desire to explain to a public what is a real priority and why. As Bev says most of this stuff is just rehashes of the already familiar. FIFTY records of the year? Why not a HUNDRED? Why not a THOUSAND? How many new records even WERE there? Where would you find them? Who on earth is buying them? Why not just list ALL the releases for the year and have done with it?

[papsrus]

I'm amused that the poll-of-polls from Voice includes no fewer than FIFTY best CDs of the year plus historic/vocal/latin for a total 75. Except for 'critics' who get endless freebies I wonder who listens to all this stuff. I've heard maybe 10% of it. The length of the list and its format in which exact votes are recorded, hanging chads and all, reflects the vanity of the 'critics' much more than any desire to explain to a public what is a real priority and why. As Bev says most of this stuff is just rehashes of the already familiar. FIFTY records of the year? Why not a HUNDRED? Why not a THOUSAND? How many new records even WERE there? Where would you find them? Who on earth is buying them? Why not just list ALL the releases for the year and have done with it?

The individual ballots list top 10s, which might be more helpful.

I don't fault the Voice for using the ballots to assemble a top 50, but you're right to point out it comes off as a bit inflated.

I don't believe I've listened to a single new release this year. But I suspect Larry Kart's 10 choices would likely offer me a better guide to selected releases than the Top 50 Voice list.

[A Lark Ascending]

There's a time honoured tradition of 'best ofs' - think of the endless TV programmes with the '100 Best Xs'.

But I doubt if many of the critics who contribute to these lists actually think of their choices as 'the best', more 'what they particularly enjoyed'. So the composite list can simply be seen as those discs that a fair number of critics shared a liking for in common.

These polls are best read in that way, rather than as some attempt to establish what is 'best'.

I know there are some vain souls who believe that what they approve of is 'the best'. I doubt that the majority of people take them very seriously.

[Jim Alfredson]

Go to the VV Poll individual ballots (including yours' trulys) for many more names than those that made the Top 50 list.

Where are the individual ballots?