NPR Jazz Poll 2018

The 2018 NPR Jazz Critics Poll has been published - read it here - and, as usual, my list is both quite different and in sync with my fellow critics/reviewers.  In a year that has so many exemplary large ensemble recordings, only one is in the Critics Poll and that's Henry Threadgill's 14 or 15 Kestra: Agg: "Dirt...And More Dirt" but precious others make the Top 50.  I may be one of the only writers who did not vote for the Wayne Shorter 3 CD ""Emanon", not because it was not worth the money I paid but because there could have so much more music. The "classical" CD is brilliant as are the live ones but they're so short.  Mr. Shorter's Quartet - Danilo Perez (piano), John Patitucci (bass) and Brian Blade (drums) - is one of the brilliant improvising units of this or any century/ galaxy but Blue Note could only find two sets to release.  Am I being chintzy? Probably.  I will admit to playing the CDs over and over, enjoying every minute, and actually wanting more.  It's like the John Coltrane's "Both Directions at Once", a group of unreleased tapes from 1963, that displays a working unit at the height of its powers, it's leader searching different routes while his group play with fire, intelligence, and abandon.  I'm not a complete-ist, I do not need to hear every note a great artists plays but sometimes it's fun to hear musicians being human, being friends, collaborators, and adventurers.

Here's the list I submitted. Once again, I'm grateful to Francis Davis for again inviting me to participate and for all the hard work he and Tom Hull do to put all the entries together.  My list is below (without commentary). If you saw the list I put together in December, you'll know there were 50 contenders for these 10 spots.

Here you go:

Top 10 Albums 2018

Step Tempest (steptempest.blogspot.com)

Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble - "The Lullaby Project (and Other Works for Large Ensemble)" – (Tapestry Records)

Rudy Royston – “Flatbed Buggy”– (Greenleaf Music)

Jim McNeely & The Frankfurt Radio (HR) Big Band – “Barefoot Dances and Other Visions”(Planet Arts)

Kate McGarry, Keith Ganz, & Gary Versace – “The Subject Tonight is Love”(Binxtown Records)

Dafnis Prieto Big Band – “Back To The Sunset”(Dafnison Music)

Henry Conerway III.  "With Pride For Dignity" (self-released)

Cecile McLorin Salvant – “The Window”(Mack Avenue)

Ambrose Akinmusire – “Origami Harvest” – (Blue Note Records)

Benjamin Boone/Philip Levine – “The Poetry of Jazz” – (Origin Records)

 Miles Okazaki – “Work: The Complete Works of Thelonious Monk” – (self-released/Bandcamp)

Reissues and Historical

John Coltrane – “Both Directions At Once – The Lost Album” (Impulse)

Wes Montgomery - "Wes Montgomery In Paris: The Definitive ORTF Recording” (Resonance Records)

Fred Hersch Trio - “Heartsongs” (Sunnyside Records)

Best Vocal Album

Kate McGarry, Keith Ganz, & Gary Versace – “The Subject Tonight is Love”(Binxtown Records)

Best Debut

Henry Conerway III.  "With Pride for Dignity" (self-released)

Best Latin Jazz Album

Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble - "The Lullaby Project (and Other Works for Large Ensemble)" – (Tapestry Records)