Reflecting on 2022: New-to-You Jazz Favorites

[HutchFan]

Since the end of 2022 is right around the corner, I thought I'd start another Favorite Jazz Discoveries of the Year thread.  

If you were sitting in a bar with some jazz-loving friends, what artists & albums would you tell them about that you discovered this year?  As usual, let's not limit ourselves to new releases; the recording date doesn't matter, as long as you discovered the music in the last 12 months or so. 

*******************

Here's a dozen new favorites of mine:

- Gary Bartz - Ju Ju Man (Catalyst, 1976)
- Abdullah Ibrahim/Dollar Brand - Blues for a Hip King (Kaz Records, 1970s) - recordings made in South Africa with Basil "Mannenberg" Coetzee
- George Russell - Live in an American Time Spiral (Soul Note, 1983)
- Dave Holland - The Seeds of Time (ECM, 1985) 
- Bill Perkins - Journey to the East (Contemporary, 1985) 
- Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy - Twilight Dreams (Venture, 1987)
- Geri Allen - Twylight (Minor Music/Verve, 1989)
- John Lewis - Midnight in Paris (EmArcy, 1989)
- Conrad Herwig - New York Hardball (Ken Records, 1990) - with Richie Beirach
- The Manhattan Project - The Manhattan Project (Blue Note, 1990) - with Wayne Shorter, Stanley Clarke & Michel Petrucciani 
- Alan Broadbent - Trio in Motion (Savant, 2020)
- Renee Rosnes - Kinds of Love (Smoke Sessions, 2021)

 

I also spent a TON of time this year listening to jazz vocalists, enough to compile them in a separate list:

- Jackie & Roy - Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most (Storyville/Black Lion, 1955)
- Mel Torme - Mel Torme and the Marty Paich Dek-Tette (Bethlehem, 1956)
- Jackie & Roy - Like Sing: Songs by Dory & André Previn (Columbia, 1963)
- Carmen McRae - Live at Sugar Hill San Francisco (Time/Mainstream, 1963)
- Sammy Davis Jr. - The Wham of Sam (Warner Archives, 1960s) - with Marty Paich arrangements
- Carol Sloane - Sophisticated Lady (Trio/Audiophile, 1977)
- Lorez Alexandria - How Will I Remember You? (Discovery, 1978)
- Helen Merrill & Gordon Beck - No Tears, No Goodbyes (Owl, 1984)
- Nancy Harrow - You're Nearer (Tono Records/Baldwin St, 1986)
- Marlene Ver Planck - Sings Alec Wilder (Audiophile, 1986)

*******************

So which new-to-you albums have left the most lasting impression on YOU in 2022? 

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by HutchFan

[soulpope]

21 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

....

- Helen Merrill & Gordon Beck - No Tears, No Goodbyes (Owl, 1984)
....

That's a good one .... took me quite some time to appreciate it though ....

[HutchFan]

28 minutes ago, soulpope said:

That's a good one .... took me quite some time to appreciate it though ....

Merrill and Beck are so sympathetic, a terrific combination.  

 

I'd love to hear about any of your recent discoveries that have become favorites, soulpope.  Anything spring to mind?

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by HutchFan

[soulpope]

8 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

Merrill and Beck are entirely sympathetic, a terrific combination.  

 

I'd love to hear about any of your recent discoveries that have become favorites, soulpope.  Anything spring to mind?

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/SICJ-41

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/SICJ-42

These both Tommy Flanagan "Super Jazz Trio" platters from 1979 and 1980 finally broke through with me ....

[HutchFan]

2 minutes ago, soulpope said:

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/SICJ-41

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/SICJ-42

These both Tommy Flanagan "Super Jazz Trio" platters from 1979 and 1980 finally broke through with me ....

Yes, those are wonderful albums!  I've had their first one (on a French RCA LP) for a few years -- but I only got the second disc recently. 

I could have easily included it on my list.  Great stuff!  

 

[soulpope]

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/UCCU-8268

First time on CD me believes ....

[JSngry]

I think it was 2022 that I got busy with Sun Ra and put together personal compilations of all the Chicago material, in chronological/session order (as best as possible), and then doing the same the NYC years. This then led to a lot of purchases of later stuff, although not complete, which once you get into that period, becomes impossible for all but the most devoted collectors.

End result was a much more fuller understanding of Ra's mythologies and musical messages related to same. It was one of the more fulfilling things I've done in a while, taking a body of work like this and looking at it as it was constructed instead of just listening to a bunch of records that were quite often a bit from here, a bit from there, and a lot of everything. That's fun and informative, of course, but Ra definitely directed his/the energies in different ways at different sessions, and it's been fun to listen to it that way.

I say I think it was 2022, because I just returned to the office this week,and the time before that - almost 3 years - I honestly couldn't tell you for sure what I did musically between 2020-2022 with any absolute certainty.

[jazzbo]

45 minutes ago, soulpope said:

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/UCCU-8268

First time on CD me believes ....

Actually it was on cd in 1987 in Japan, in 1988 in US and Europe, in 2005 in US and Europe, and again 2011 in Japan.

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, jazzbo said:

Actually it was on cd in 1987 in Japan, in 1988 in US and Europe, in 2005 in US and Europe, and again 2011 in Japan.

Thnx .... obviously I missed out on all of these 🧐😁 ....

[Rabshakeh]

Jolted by the recent double post in Listening To…, mine is the Black and Blue label. I wasn’t even aware of it until February this year, when someone I think posted Earl Hines’ and Budd Johnson’s The Dirty Old Men. I’ve been completely hooked by it since. It helps that the label has such a high success rate.

[JSngry]

Sure about this one - 2022 was the year that I took a really deep dive into the world of Carla Bley. As with Ra, a full(er) picture arrived, and it was beautiful.

[Simon8]

I took a "jazz combo" class for beginners this year and tried to revive my trumpet, so listened more attentively to trumpet players. I knew him, but Blue Mitchell was my "discovery". Love his tone and feel. Made a little playlist with my favorites from these two quartet records and it makes for a really good "album".

 

    

[HutchFan]

18 hours ago, Simon8 said:

I took a "jazz combo" class for beginners this year and tried to revive my trumpet, so listened more attentively to trumpet players. I knew him, but Blue Mitchell was my "discovery". Love his tone and feel. Made a little playlist with my favorites from these two quartet records and it makes for a really good "album".

You cannot go wrong with Blue Mitchell !!!   

 

[John Tapscott]

I think the Freddie Hubbard Mosaic is superb. It wasn't all new to me, but I was lacking several of the albums. This set has given me much listening pleasure.   

[kh1958]

Favorite new to me jazz musician discoveries in 2022:

Mahmoud Chouki: Guitarist from Morocco, now based in New Orleans. Debut performance at 2022 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival with his New World Ensemble was fantastic.

Selene Saint-Aime: Bandcamp discovery. AFro-French bassist/singer. Both of her CDs are wonderful.

[JSngry]

Not jazz per se (although I couldn't imagine it being what it is without a pretty keen jazz awareness), looking to spend the next week or so delving into some of the later electronic music of İlhan Mimaroğlu. Early indications are that it's gonna be a fun ride! 

[Rabshakeh]

I have been listening to a lot of 2022 releases by newer artists this week, whilst away at a wedding in Singapore and holiday in Malaysia. 

I am not sure that it has been a bumper year for classics, or that there is all that much that I would recommend, but it does feel like the sudden upspring of newer younger players in around 2017-8 has suddenly this year turned into a flood. There is a lot of fairly populist jazz and jazz-ish music out there suddenly by newly emerging musicians, many of them from the UK or SA. That is on top of the now-usual stuff from International Anthem etc.

Perhaps it is an effect of COVID causing records to be released early or to be delayed until now, suddenly leading to three years worth of new music at once.

[Gheorghe]

On 11/19/2022 at 6:58 PM, JSngry said:

 

the later electronic music of İlhan Mimaroğlu.

When I was for the first time in Turkey in the mid 80´s (it was still comfortable, not so many hotels like now), I was quite astonished how many younger people love jazz. The simple early "try" of a holiday resort with some spartanical constructed "bungalows" had a big hole in the wall were we slipped out and there was a little improvised "bar" for locals, where we´d go and the guys were eager to talk jazz with us. One of them knew Mr. İlhan Mimaroğlu personally. He had a house in that area. Also Ahmed Ertegün had a big house there. And in that wonderful small town "Bodrum" was a mini-jazzclub with all them great albums, Trane, Rollins, and at that early time of CDs it had CD only and the best equipment for that time. Really astonishing in a relative poor country as it was then. 
They urged us to come to play, they wanted to organize a festival for the following year, but it didn´t happen, and the logistics would have been a mess......

 

My "new to me" faves of this year was not necessarly jazz records since I don´t have that much time to spin them, and in my case my favourites were new, young musicians, who attended jam sessions at the wonderful Viena jazz club "zwe". Most of them are students at the important jazz schools around here and some of them are really hot and it was a pleasure to get to know them and play with them. 
The most astonishing "discovery" I had was in summer, when quite "out of nowhere" an alto player came down with his saxophone. He was very very heavy, I think Fats Navarro would have been  slim compared to him, and I invited him on stage and oh oh, he was FANTASTIC. His sound reminded me of Jackie McLean and also his approach to the tunes. And like McLean he would start let´s say a bop tune in a more conventional manner with that wonderful "sharp" tone and would burst out, in a highly emotional way. It was heaven on earth to have this unknown guy on stage. We all hurried up to him during intermission and asked him who he was and he said he was from the States and just passin´ thru Viena, obviously on holiday, doin´ Europe and looking for clubs where there is jam sessions. 

The few records I bought was mostly from fellow musicians to dig some of their tunes that I liked....but there will be my birthday and it is not excluded, that my wife ordered some albums I may have talked about......, I always like those surprises.......

[HutchFan]

This thread isn't limited to new releases, but -- just to stir the pot a little -- here is the New York Times list of their "Best (ahem!) Jazz Albums of 2022":

1. Cécile McLorin Salvant, ‘Ghost Song’
2. Immanuel Wilkins, ‘The 7th Hand’
3. Fred Moten, Brandon López and Gerald Cleaver, ‘Moten/López/Cleaver’
4. Anteloper, ‘Pink Dolphins’
5. David Virelles, ‘Nuna’
6. Samara Joy, ‘Linger Awhile’
7. Moor Mother, ‘Jazz Codes’
8. Angelica Sanchez Trio, ‘Sparkle Beings’
9. Makaya McCraven, ‘In These Times’
10. Samora Pinderhughes, ‘Grief’

 

Thoughts?

 

********************************

 

More grist for the mill of conversation.  Another year-end list from Jazzwise:

1 Cécile McLorin Salvant 
Ghost Song 
Nonesuch

2 Charles Lloyd 
Trios: Chapel 
Blue Note 

3 Immanuel Wilkins 
The 7th Hand 
Blue Note 

4 Mary Halvorson 
Amaryllis/Belladonna 
Nonesuch 

5 Fergus McCreadie 
Forest Floor 
Edition 

6 Redman, Mehldau, McBride, Blade 
Long Gone 
Nonesuch 

7 Avishai Cohen Trio 
Shifting Sands 
Naīve 

8 Nduduzo Makhathini 
In The Spirit of Ntu 
Blue Note 

9 Trish Clowes 
A View With A Room 
Greenleaf Music 

10 Terri Lyne Carrington 
New Standards Vol.1 
Candid 

11 Julia Hülsmann Quartet 
The Next Door 
ECM 

12 Tigran Hamasyan 
StandArt 
Nonesuch 

13 Julian Lage 
View With A Room 
Blue Note 

14 Oded Tzur 
Isabela 
ECM 

15 Gareth Williams 
Short Stories 
Miles Music

16 Arun Ghosh 
Seclused In Light 
Camoci 

17 Ches Smith 
Interpret It Well 
Pyroclastic Records 

18 Charles Lloyd 
Trios: Sacred Thread 
Blue Note 

19 Brad Mehldau 
Jacob's Ladder 
Nonesuch 

20 Alina Bzhezhinska 
Reflections 
BBE

 

IMO, the idea that there's such a thing as the "best jazz" during any given year is a misguided, silly notion. 

However, I am interested in hearing what YOU may happen to think about these releases -- or any others that grabbed your ears in 2022.

 

Edited December 1, 2022 by HutchFan

[ejp626]

After a fairly long hiatus, I've started listening to BBC Radio 3 again, specifically to the J to Z and Music Planet programs.  I've been exposed to a few interesting and new-to-me artists like Snarky Puppy (who remind me of Acoustic Ladyland) and Kokoroko.

[soulpope]

Bought this platter as new release "back then" and actually didn`t care much ..... in 2022 i`ve made another deep dive into Charlie Haden`s sideman recordings and stunbled over this recording again .... this is a beautiful homage to the music of Charles Mingus and a mighty fine hour of John Handy ....