"Best Historical Releases 2020"

[ghost of miles]

One 2020 flashback that's hopefully more enjoyable than the year in general (granted, a low bar to clear):

Best Historical Releases 2020

Also realizing that I'm long past due figuring out a way to incorporate exclusively vinyl reissues (such as Blue Note's Tone Poet series) into these surveys.  I can't honestly feature or say anything about them, because I don't buy new vinyl (for a variety of reasons)* and such releases never get serviced to radio (at least that I'm aware of).  But I'm certainly aware that vinyl is the more popular format now for reissues and archival recordings.  I may just start posting a general supplementary list of LPs that came out in the past year, more as a reference point than anything else.  

*Rare exceptions made for titles like the Sonny Clark trio album that came out on Record Store Day a couple of years ago and was initially announced as vinyl-only, though it was subsequently released on CD as well. 

[JSngry]

The 2020 Joe Castro box deserves recognition as well, I think. Maybe not HISTORICAL, but look at the people on there, and listen to how well they play and how often...don't sleep on the worthiness of this set!

[Brad]

This is the JazzTimes one. They had the Monk issue as number 1.

https://jazztimes.com/features/lists/year-in-review-the-10-best-historical-recordings-of-2020/nggallery/image/1-theloniousmonk-copy/#view

[Dan Gould]

41 minutes ago, JSngry said:

The 2020 Joe Castro box deserves recognition as well, I think. Maybe not HISTORICAL, but look at the people on there, and listen to how well they play and how often...don't sleep on the worthiness of this set!

I wonder if this kind of attention was paid to the first box. I'd hope that it was.  I still need to pick this up especially for the unissued Teddy Edwards.

 

(Actually I saw that split LP on the What Are You Listening to thread, Sonny live on one side and Teddy Edwards with Joe Castro on the other, and thought that's the perfect way to put this music together - the original Atlantic session, the unissued takes and that half a record. Ought to fit a CDR.)

[EKE BBB]

No love for the Dexter/Tete on Storyville, I’m afraid. 

[sidewinder]

[Dan Gould]

1 hour ago, EKE BBB said:

No love for the Dexter/Tete on Storyville, I’m afraid. 

Which I definitely prefer to the later one selected, not least due to that Gran Senor from Catalonia.

 

[ghost of miles]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

The 2020 Joe Castro box deserves recognition as well, I think. Maybe not HISTORICAL, but look at the people on there, and listen to how well they play and how often...don't sleep on the worthiness of this set!

I actually have the set but got it so late in the year that I've listened only to the first 1-2 discs so far.  Thought about listing it simply on the basis of that and how much I enjoyed the first set, but didn't feel right including it at this point... will probably append it to the 2021 list.

[ghost of miles]

6 hours ago, EKE BBB said:

No love for the Dexter/Tete on Storyville, I’m afraid. 

That one somehow slipped by me... I'm sure I missed discussion of it here on the board.  Btw I've added posters' suggestions and favorites here to the bottom of the post (as I did for last year's program).  Also tacked on the Blakey, which was one that made it into the show, but which I inadvertently left off the overall list.

Best Historical Releases 2020

[cliffpeterson]

How about No Business's release of Volumes Three and Four from the Sam Rivers Archives series, "Ricochet" and "Braids", respectively?

 

see, e.g.:http://www.nobusinessrecords.com/ricochet.html

 

[Ken Dryden]

Part of the problem of putting together such a list is the erratic servicing of historical releases to both radio and print/online media. It is hard to buy everything that it is issued and I'm not about to vote on reissues or boxed sets that I haven't heard. 

The Monk Palo Alto was interesting, but not worthy of #1. 

 

[ghost of miles]

26 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

Part of the problem of putting together such a list is the erratic servicing of historical releases to both radio and print/online media. It is hard to buy everything that it is issued and I'm not about to vote on reissues or boxed sets that I haven't heard. 

The Monk Palo Alto was interesting, but not worthy of #1. 

 

Agreed about servicing.  And I may not be quite as vigilant about keeping up with all manner of historical releases and reissues as I have been in the past--this board and other forms of social media are helpful in that regard.  I'm also fortunate that my local record store does a great job of displaying such titles of interest--that's how I found out that the Pullen/Graves Yale concert had finally been reissued on CD.  It's also hard at times to keep up with the flood of new material by modern-day artists.

Re Monk Palo Alto, I've always stayed away, in my own year-end lists, from any kind of ranking.  

5 hours ago, cliffpeterson said:

How about No Business's release of Volumes Three and Four from the Sam Rivers Archives series, "Ricochet" and "Braids", respectively?

 

see, e.g.:http://www.nobusinessrecords.com/ricochet.html

 

I'll add these to the listener-and-reader-suggestions list.  Hadn't heard of them, so thanks for the heads-up... I am a Rivers fan.

[felser]

I'll take the Tuby Hayes as the reissue event of the year.  The Doug Carn and the Shirley Scott are great music, but just straight reissues.  I've not heard the Monk or the Castro yet.

Edited January 12, 2021 by felser

[ghost of miles]

1 minute ago, felser said:

I'll take the Tuby Hayes as the reissue event of the year.  The Doug Carn and the Shirley Scott are great music, but just straight reissues.  I've not heard the Monk or the Castro yet.

The NPR jazz poll requires that entries be ranked--so for the three historical-related titles that I was allowed to choose, I put the Hayes box first.  It made such a huge swath of previously-hard-to-find music available in one fell swoop and did a great service in elevating the profile of a musician not well-known at all (or so it seemed to me) outside UK jazz circles.  Not to mention the extensive booklet that Simon Spillett wrote for it.

[sidewinder]

The Tubby Hayes Fontana Box would be hard to beat in any poll - it came out in 2019 I think though.

[ghost of miles]

4 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

The Tubby Hayes Fontana Box would be hard to beat in any poll - it came out in 2019 I think though.

This is an ongoing conundrum when it comes to the parameters of year-end polls (whether we're talking historical or modern recordings).  Iirc Francis Davis advises those who vote in the NPR poll to use Thanksgiving or thereabouts as a cutoff date.  The Hayes box came out quite late in 2019, and I don't think I got my copy (I bought it through Amazon UK) until right around Christmas.  Same thing happened with Mosaic's Mobley and Herman sets.  Releases that come that late in the year often don't get attention in the form of media/online response until the next year's already started--not to mention that listening all the way through something as large as the Hayes box, while an absolute pleasure, takes a fair amount of time.  Anyway, the Hayes box didn't get nixed when I submitted my NPR ballot, so they're evidently cool with counting it as a 2020 release.

[sidewinder]

Fair enough - UK Jazz Journal are counting the Hayes as a 2019 release in their 2020 ‘round up’ as well.

[mjazzg]

It was delayed until December

[sidewinder]

5 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

It was delayed until December

And almost sabotaged by those idiots at Yodel, as I recall..

[Ken Dryden]

I agree that new & historical releases that appear at the close of a year get overlooked. But voting for them in either year is better than seeing a poll when aritsts are ranked even though they were dead or otherwise inactive prior to the year being considered.

[Jim Duckworth]

  My favorite this year would have to be the Woody Herman Mosaic set.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Jim Duckworth
clarity