Among the festivals I was able to attend in 2023, I note first of all Montenegro’s JAM (=Jazz Appreciation Month), organised by Maja Popovic throughout that country during April. Its highlight was the concert by the marvellous group TRIGON, founded in Chisinau (Eastern Moldova) in 1992, and which continues to be active ever since under the direction of viola-virtuoso Anatol Stefanet.

Last spring I participated, as an emcee, in the Jazz in Church Festival, organized in the premises of the Evangelical Church in Bucharest by Cristian Moraru. A revelation of this festival was the recital of a "Eurasian" duo, made up of graceful Japanese performer Mieko Miyazaki, on the traditional instrument koto, and French saxophonist Franck Wolf.

In June I was invited by Romania's Federation of Jewish Communities to participate in the 120th anniversary of Dadaism-coryphaeus Victor Brauner (b. Piatra Neamț 1903 - d. Paris 1966), which took place in the Baal Shem Tov Wooden Synagogue of Piatra Neamț. The main organiser was writer Emanuel Nadler, custodian of this Synagogue dating back to the Middle Ages. My contribution consisted in presenting CONSTRUCT, an artistic documentary film by Sorin Iliesiu about Marcel Iancu, close friend of Brauner and Tristan Tzara (the three of them launched the Dadaist movement in Zurich in 1916). The picture’s avant-garde-cum-free jazz soundtrack was conceived and performed by Andrei Tanasescu as a solo piano suite.

Other memorable events: the tenth edition of the excellent Jazz Festival in the Bran Mediaeval Castle, located in southern Transylvania/central Romania (with Lia Doru Trandafir, Paul Tutungiu, Alex Priscu as deserving managers); the impressive recitals given by Azerbaijan’s Rain Sultanov/soprano sax & Shahin Novrasli/piano in some Transylvanian locations; the Romanian tour of Triosence led by pianist Bernhard Schuler, a group nicknamed "the New Faces of German Jazz" (organiser: Ciprian Moga); the 32nd edition of the Festival managed by Johnny Bota at the Timisoara Philharmonic; the Retracing Bartok concert performed by John Surman, Mat Maneri, Lucian Ban & Brad Jones in Timisoara (European cultural capital in 2023); the masterful recital of American vibraphonist Eldad Tarmu - together with bassist Johnny Bota and Hungarian drummer Gyorgy Jeszenszky – at Cluj’s Sala Urania. It was an emotional reunion, after at the beginning of the century Eldad had been a teacher for five years in Timișoara at Romania’s first Jazz Faculty. Last but nost least, two enticing performances by the Duo Alex Harding/bar s & Lucian Ban/p & el-p, put on by Thomas Mendel in Ban’s home-city Cluj.

My favorite albums for 2023 are, in no particular order: 

- SUN RA / 'Paradiso 1970 Amsterdam' (Nederlands Jazz Archief) 

- CHET BAKER / 'Blue Room' (same) 

- TEUS NOBEL / 'After Hours' (TNMCD) 

- VINCE MENDOZA & METROPOLE ORKEST / 'Olympians' (Modern Recordings/BMG) 

- FRED HERSCH/ESPERANZA SPAULDING: 'Alive at the Village Vanguard' (Palmetto Recordings) 

all the best, Jeroen de Valk / www.jeroendevalk.nl 

My favorite 20 albums for 2023.

• Áron Tálas - New Questions, Old Answers
• ARTEMIS - In Real Time
• Ben Wendel - All One
• Billy Childs - The Winds of Change
• Bobby Sanabria - Vox Humana
• Chuck Owen - Renderings
• Clark Sommers - Feast Ephemera
• Darcy James Argue - Maximum Dynamic Tension
• Hugues Mayot & L'Arbre Rouge - Invocations
• Jalen Baker - Be Still
• Kenny Barron - The Source
• Lakecia Benjamin - Phoenix
• Lauren Henderson - Conjuring
• Leon Foster Thomas - Calasanitus
• Nicole Zuraitis - How Love Begins
• Peter Somuah - Letter to the Universe
• Sammy Figueroa - Searching For A Memory (Busco Tu Recuerdo)
• Tim Garland & Jason Rebello - Life to Life
• Vince Mendoza - Olympians
• Walter Smith III - return to casual

Read my summary for the year in Jazz on 33third.org

Noteworthy Jazz and Jazz-Adjacent Artists who Appeared on the Spotlight On podcast in 2023. 

Javon Jackson gives Peter Bradley's art a swinging soundtrack

Benjamin Koppel plays jazz with a novelist's narrative

Simon Berz creates art with drums, sound, and trash

Joe Mills (Aver) of Move 78 decodes jazz from the algorithms

EMBER are a jazz trio with a collective mindset

Brandon Seabrook’s magic clusterf**k of merciless banjo torture

Brian McCarthy blends jazz, astronomy, and the AfterLife

LILAMORS electronically redefine the jazz trio

Danny Fox loves good jazz and great pizza

Bruno Råberg pushes the boundaries of acoustic bass

Marijus Aleksa

Dominic Miller

Monika Herzig

Jane Ira Bloom & Mark Helias

Christopher Hale

Conic Rose

Bart Wirtz and Emiel van Rijthoven of WAAN

Best of 2023 So Far (August 28, 2023)

Miguel Zenon & Luis Perdomo - El Arte del Bolero Vol.2 (Miguel Zenon)

Eddie Palmieri presents Sonido Solar (TRR Collective)

Doug Beavers - Luna (Circle 9 Records)

Artemis - In Real Time (Blue Note Records)

Jonathan Suazo - Ricano (Ropeadope)

https://danouellette.net/f/jazz-beyond-intel-december-2022-top-ten-plus-three-dot-lounge

Jazz remains a thing of great beauty and intrinsic value, a lively art worthy of our support and admiration. That's despite the best efforts of the likes of Spotify and other bean-counting music industry profiteers to ensure that sales of recordings profit platform owners to the greatest degree possible and financially benefit the actual music makers (the "content creators") to the least degree legally permitted. Consequently, it’s more difficult than ever for musical artists to sustain life by solely focusing on their artistic efforts.

Sadly, in 2022 public radio overlords – at WUSF-FM in my town, Tampa, and elsewhere -- continued dismantling decades-long traditions, ditching originally produced jazz programming and replacing it with generic news broadcasts, consequently damaging local musical communities.

Still, jazz art flourishes, with challenging and provocative music presented live and on recordings by younger and established players alike, in communities around the globe. 

Here are some of my favorite jazz releases of 2022, in alphabetical order:

New Releases

Martin Bejerano, #CubanAmerican (Figgland)

Jeff Coffin, Between Dreaming and Joy (Ear Up) 

Billy Drummond and Freedom of Ideas, Valse Sinistre (Cellar)

Al Foster, Reflections (Smoke Sessions) 

Tom Harrell, Oak Tree (HighNote) 

Julian Lage, View With a Room (Blue Note)

Chuck Owen and the Jazz Surge, Within Us: Celebrating 25 Years of the Jazz Surge (MAMA) 

Redman Mehldau McBride Blade, LongGone (Nonesuch)  

Joel Ross, The Parable of the Poet (Blue Note)  

Snarky Puppy, Empire Central (GroundUp) 

Historical

Bill Evans, Morning Glory (Resonance) 

Bill Evans, Inner Spirit (Resonance) 

Jack McDuff, Live at Parnell’s (Soul Bank)

 

 

In terms of music and life, it seemed to me that 2022 was in many ways an extension of 2020 and 2021.  Opportunities for straight ahead jazz seemed to be fewer and farther between as the industry embraced music that sports more extreme outlooks.  As a full time educator and active musician, my time for enjoying music has become limited these days, so quite honestly the time I do have is devoted to music that truly moves me and that is usually material within the swing tradition.  As such, my list of favorite new recordings for 2022 is slim.  But I have decided to focus on music that often gets overlooked and make that my muse.  So, this list includes a deep dive into what inspires me: the ever-growing vinyl reissue market. 

Top New Music Releases 2022:

Larry Goldings/Peter Bernstein/Bill Stewart- Perpetual Pendulum (Smoke Sessions)

Joshua Redman/Brad Mehldau/Christian McBride/Brian Blade- LongGone (Nonesuch)

Ron Carter- Finding the Right Notes: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (In+Out Records)

Steve Davis- Bluesthetic (Smoke Sessions)

Tony Monaco- Four Brothers (Chicken Coup)

Brian Lynch- Songbook Vol.1: Bus Stop Serenade (Hollistic MusicWorks)

Top Discoveries of 2022:

Elvin Jones- Revival: Live at Pookie’s Pub (Blue Note)

Ahmad Jamal- Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse 1963-1964 (Jazz Detective)

Ahmad Jamal- Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse 1965-1966 (Jazz Detective)

Pepper Adams- Live at Room at the Top (Real to Reel)

Top Vinyl Reissues of 2022:

Blue Mitchell- Bring It Home to Me (Blue Note Tone Poet)

Harold Vick- Steppin’ Out (Blue Note Tone Poet)

Grant Green- Feelin’ the Spirit (Blue Note Tone Poet)

Bobby Hutcherson- Stick-Up (Blue Note Tone Poet)

Roy Brooks- Roy Brooks Beat (Verve By Request)

Bill Evans- You Must Believe in Spring (Craft Recordings)

Mongo Santamaria- Sofrito (Craft Recordings)

Yusef Lateef- The Three Faces of Yusef (Riverside-Vinyl Me Please)

Melvin Sparks- Spark Plug (Prestige-Vinyl Me Please)

Lee Morgan- Take Twelve (Jazzland- Vinyl Me Please)

Phineas Newborn, Jr.- Here is Phineas (Atlantic- Vinyl Me Please)

Not a big fan of rankings, nor of presuming that I know which recordings were the year's best. So here are my ten favorite recordings released between Dec. 1, 2021 and Dec. 1, 2022, arranged in alpha order by title.

Similar lists appear at PostGenre and will post soon at Tom Hull's mammoth yearend concatenation. I'll probably have more to say about these recordings--and probably a few late additions--at my own site, let's call this, depending on my ambition.

Amyrillis and Belladonna, Mary Halvorson (Nonesuch)

For The Love Of Fire And Water, Myra Melford's Fire And Water Quintet (RogueArt)

Ghost Song, Cécile McLorin Salvant (Nonesuch)

Good Time Music: Community Music, Vol. 2, Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra with Catherine Russell (Royal Potato Family)

New Gospel Revisited , Marquis Hill (Edition Records, Ltd.)

New Standards Vol. 1, Terri Lyne Carrington (Candid)

Other Zones, Michael Formanek Quartet (Circular File Records)

Séances, Trevor Dunn’s Trio-Convulsant avec Folie à Quatre (Pyroclastic Records)

Seismic Shift, John Escreet (Whirlwind Records)

The Bottom, Luke Stewart's Silt Trio (Cuneiform)

Reissues or Historical albums

Albert Ayler, Revelations (Elemental Music)
Ahmad Jamal, Emerald City Nights: Live At The Penthouse 1963-1964 (Jazz Detective Records)
Cecil Taylor, The Complete, Legendary, Live Return Concert (Oblivion Records)

Lagniappe

• 589 recordings qualified for consideration (509 qualified last year; I get a lot of music).
• Of these, 24 made the not-so-shortlist for this page
• Here are the other 14 as they stand today (in alpha order by artist):

JD Allen, Americana, Vol. 2

David Binney, Tomorrow’s Journey

Amanda Ekery, Some (more) Short Songs

Bill Frisell, Four

Art Hirahara, Verdant Valley

Miles Okazaki, Thisness

Aaron Parks, Volume 1

Redman, Mehldau, McBride, Blade, LongGone

Matthew Shipp Trio, World Construct

Tyshawn Sorey Trio, Mesmerism

Tyshawn Sorey Trio +1, The Off-Off Broadway Guide to Synergism

Thumbscrew, Multicolored Midnight

Dan Weiss, Dedication

various artists, John Zorn's Bagatelles

Here are my ten favorite new albums of 2022. A full write-up on each of these, as well as my selections for numbers 11 through 25 can be found at PostGenre.

1. The Philadelphia Experiment (Christian McBride, Questlove, Uri Caine, DJ Logic), Live at Newport Jazz 2017 (Newport Jazz)

2. Columbia Icefield, Ancient Songs of Burlap Heroes (Pyroclastic)

3. Jamaaladeen Tacuma & Mary Halvorson, Strings & Things (self-release)

4. Sélébéyone, Xaybu: The Unseen (Pi)

5. Mary Halvorson, Amaryllis and Belladonna (Nonesuch)

6. Wayne Shorter, Terri Lyne Carrington, Leo Genovese, esperanza spalding, Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival (Candid)

7. Steven Bernstein, Manifestos of Henryisms (Community Music, Vol. 3) (Royal Potato Family)

8. Wolfert Brederode, Matangi Quartet, & Joost Lijbaart, Ruins and Remains (ECM)

9. Ulf Ivarsson & Bill Laswell, Nammu (Ropeadope)

10. Sam Gendel, Cicada Lite (Live in Texas) (Beyond Language)