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Bill Milkowski Best of 2021 List

29 Dec 2021 6:48 PM | Bill Milkowski

The Top Ten: 

1. Henry Threadgill, Poof (Pi Recordings)               

2. Charles Lloyd & the Marvels, Tone Poem (Blue Note)                                     

3. Terence Blanchard, Absence (Blue Note)                                                                 

4. Andrew Cyrille Quartert, The News (ECM)                                                    

5. Dave Holland, Another Land (Edition)                                                                      

6. Brian Lynch, Songbook, Vol. 1: Bus Stop Serenade (Hollistic Music Works)         

7. Dave Stryker, As We Are (Strikezone)                                                                       

8. Alex Conde, Descarga for Bud (SedaJazz Records)                                            

9. Michael Feinberg, Hard Times (Fresh Sound)                                               

10. Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra, Community Music, Vol. 1: Tinctures in Time (Royal Potato Family) 

The Other Forty:

11. Miguel Zenon, Law Years: The Music of Ornette Coleman (Miel Music)

12. Eric Wyatt, A Song of Hope (Whaling City Sound)

13. Dan Wilson, Vessels of Wood (Mack Avenue)

14. Kurt Elling w/Charlie Hunter, Super Blue (Edition)

15. Gerry Gibbs Thrasher Dream Trios, Songs From My Father (Whaling City Sound)

16. John McLaughlin, Liberation Time (Abstract Logix)    

17. Renee Rosnes, Kinds of Love (Smoke Sessions) 

18. Pasquale Grasso, Pasquale Plays Duke (Sony Music Masterworks)

19. Dave Stryker, Baker’s Circle (Strikezone)

20. Rale Micic, Only Love Will Stay (Whaling City Sound)

21. Orrin Evans, The Magic of Now (Smoke Sessions)

22. Nicole Glover, Strange Lands (Savant)

23. Charged Particles w/Tod Dickow, Live at the Baked Potato! (Summit)

24. Don Braden/Joris Teepe Quartet, In the Spirit of Herbie Hancock (O.A.P.)

25. Fred Hersch, Breath By Breath (Palmetto)

26. John Pizzarelli, Better Days Ahead (Ghostlight Deluxe)

27. Lorne Lofsky, This Song Is New (Modica Music)

28. Greg Belisle-Chi, Koi: Performing the Music of Tim Berne (Relative Pitch)

29. Alex Sipiagin, Upstream (Posi-Tone)

30. Fay Claassen & David Linx w/WDR Big Band Köln, And Still We Sing (Jazzline)                                                                 

31. Franco Ambrosetti, Lost Within You (Unit Records)     

32. Reggie Quinerly, New York Nowhere (Redefinition)    

33. Dr. Lonnie Smith, Breathe (Blue Note)        

34. David Kikoski/Boris Kozlov, Sure Thing (HighNote)       

35. Frank Kimbrough, Ancestors (Sunnyside)       

36. Martin Wind Quartet, My Astorian Queen (Laika Reocrds)    

37. Leon Lee Dorsey/Manuel Valera/Mike Clark, Freedom Jazz Dance (Jazz Avenue  1)                 

38. Alex Norris, Fleet from the Heat (SteepleChase)        

39. Dafnis Prieto, Transparency (Dafnison Music)          

40. Chuck Owen and the Jazz Surge, Within Us (Summit)         

41. Bill Charlap, Street of Dreams (Blue Note)  

42. Johnathan Blake, Homeward Bound (Blue Note)  

43. Brian Charette, Power from the Air (SteepleChase)       

44. Steve Slagle, Nascentia (Panorama Records)  

45. Eliane Elias, Mirror Mirror (Candid)       

46. Mark Masters, Masters and Baron Meet Blanton and Webster (Capri)    

47. Jeff Lederer, Eightfold Path (little i music)  

48. Graham Dechter, Major Influence (Capri)     

49. Roseanna Vitro, Sing a Song of Bird (Skyline)        

50. Mike Neer, Keepin' It Real (Mike Neer Music)

Best Historical Recordings/Reissues:

1. Hasaan Ibn Ali, Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album (Omnivore)

2. Roy Brooks, Understanding (Reel to Real)

3. Sheila Jordan, Comes Love: Lost Session 1960 (Capri)

4. Larry Coryell & Philip Catherine, The Last Call (ACT)

5. Roy Hargrove & Mulgrew Miller, In Harmony (Resonance)

6. John Coltrane, A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle (Impulse!)

7. Oscar Peterson, A Time For Love (Two Lions/Mack Avenue)

8. Bill Evans, Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans: A Career Retrospective (1956-1980) (Craft Recordings)

9. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings (Blue Note)

10. Harvie S w/Mike Stern and Alan Dawson, Going For It (Savant)


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