AllMusic’s Favorite Jazz Albums of 2008
December 8th, 2008 | 9:00 am est |
Azymuth - Butterfly
Brian Blade Fellowship - Season of Changes
Anthony Braxton - Beyond Quantum
James Carter - Present Tense
Francisco Mora Catlett - Outerzone
Gerald Cleaver - Gerald Cleaver’s Detroit
Bill Dixon/Exploding Star Orchestra - Bill Dixon with Exploding Star Orchestra
Dave Douglas & Keystone - Moonshine
Lisle Ellis - Sucker Punch Requiem
Kenny Garrett - Sketches of MD
Billy Harper - Blueprints of Jazz, Vol. 2
Charles Lloyd - Rabo de Nube
Rudresh Mahanthappa - Kinsmen
The Bennie Maupin Quartet - Early Reflections
Willie Nelson/Wynton Marsalis - Two Men with the Blues
Jason Palmer - Songbook
Evan Parker/Transatlantic Art Ensemble - Boustrophedon (In Six Furrows)
William Parker - Double Sunrise Over Neptune
Steve Reid Ensemble - Daxaar
Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures - Dream Garden
Heikki Sarmanto - Moonflower
Todd Sickafoose - Tiny Resistors
Alex Sipiagin - Out of the Circle
Nick Vayenas - Synesthesia
Spike Wilner - 3 to Go
Jacob Young - Sideways
Ahmad Jamal’s It’s Magic should be on this list.
~Austin
Your reviewers came up with Some nice selections; however,I noticed some glaring omissions: particularly “Earfood’ (Roy Hargrove), my personal favorite of the year. Other great jazz CDs not on your list, besides the “It’s Magic” (Ahmad Jamal) already noted: “Rainbow People” (Steve Turre); “Deloverly” (Cassandra Wilson); “The Traveler” (Kenny Barron); “Gentle Storm” (Don Braden); “Pass It On” (Dave Holland Sextet); “Across the Crystal Sea” (Danilo Perez & Claus Ogerman); “The Orchard” (Lizz Wright); and “You are There” (Roberta Gambarini & Hank Jones), which did not become available in the USA until 2208.
last sentence above should read 2008, not 2208.
whoa nice list! i slept on a lot of hot albums this year! i gotta get to work!
a couple of new jazz releases i enjoyed that weren’t on this list are Elephant9 - Dodovoodoo and the new Medeski, Martin and Wood
Nine Compositions 2003-Anthony Braxton
Trio Viriditas:Live at Vision Festival VI
Four Improvisations (Duo) 2007-Braxton/Morris
Quartet (Moscow) 2008 -Anthony Braxton
Redwoods-Eri Yamamoto
1. Mostly Other People Do the Killing - This Is Our Moosic
2. Fieldwork - Door
3. Ben Allison - Little Things Run the World
4. Roy Campbell - Akhenaten Suite
5. Braxton, Graves, Parker - Beyond Quantum
Some people don’t know how to read: Beyond Quantum MADE the list . . d’uh.
As for Bill and his Braxton fixation, maybe he should see a shrink about his obsession and get some help.
Great list. There are some real unexpected choices; obviously some thought went into this.
12+1tet (Victoriaville) 2007-Anthony Braxton (My shrink asked why I hadn’t included this.)
7k Oaks-7000 Oaks (When does Alfred Harth get a bio?)
I put Dave Douglas’ Moonshine in my 2007 list. :)
Here’s my Top 25 instrumental albums of 2008 (mostly jazz):
http://jazzsick.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/favorite-instrumental-albums-of-2008/
~Dan
http://jazzsick.wordpress.com/
Wynton and Willie,
I love both of these gentlemen and the music they have created but this CD makes me cringe.
As I walked through the store while this played I couldn’t help but feel embarrased for both gentlemen.
I do love the lists though and many thanks to AMG.
How can you overlook Roy Hargrove last year? He respectfully blends the sounds of old school Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard with new ideas that have never been heard before. He might be the most exciting jazz musician to follow today.
If you want you will find my bio in the German and the English Wikipedia pages.