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Top 10 2005


Lazaro Vega

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Top 10 Jazz 2005

Blue Lake Public Radio

Lazaro Vega, Jazz Director

Dizzy Gillespie – Charlie Parker: Town Hall, New York City, June 22, 1945; Uptown.

Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane: At Carnegie Hall; Blue Note.

Sonny Rollins: Without A Song, The 9/11 Concert; Concord.

Roscoe Mitchell Quintet: Turn; Rogueart.

Rova, Orkestrova: Electric Ascension; Atavistic.

Wayne Shorter: Beyond the Sound Barrier; Verve.

Maria Schneider: Concert in the Garden, ArtistShare.

Billy Bang: Vietnam: Reflections; Justin Time.

Organissimo: This is the Place; Big O.

Lorraine Feather: Dooji Wooji; Sanctuary.

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Top 10 Jazz 2005

Blue Lake Public Radio

Lazaro Vega, Jazz Director

Dizzy Gillespie – Charlie Parker: Town Hall, New York City, June 22, 1945; Uptown.

Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane: At Carnegie Hall; Blue Note.

Sonny Rollins: Without A Song, The 9/11 Concert; Concord.

Roscoe Mitchell Quintet: Turn; Rogueart.

Rova, Orkestrova: Electric Ascension; Atavistic.

Wayne Shorter: Beyond the Sound Barrier; Verve.

Maria Schneider: Concert in the Garden, ArtistShare.

Billy Bang: Vietnam: Reflections; Justin Time.

Organissimo: This is the Place; Big O.

Lorraine Feather: Dooji Wooji; Sanctuary.

Thanks Lazaro for all your support. :)

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Top 10 Jazz 2005

Blue Lake Public Radio

Lazaro Vega, Jazz Director

Dizzy Gillespie – Charlie Parker: Town Hall, New York City, June 22, 1945; Uptown.

Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane: At Carnegie Hall; Blue Note.

Sonny Rollins: Without A Song, The 9/11 Concert; Concord.

Roscoe Mitchell Quintet: Turn; Rogueart.

Rova, Orkestrova: Electric Ascension; Atavistic.

Wayne Shorter: Beyond the Sound Barrier; Verve.

Maria Schneider: Concert in the Garden, ArtistShare.

Billy Bang: Vietnam: Reflections; Justin Time.

Organissimo: This is the Place; Big O.

Lorraine Feather: Dooji Wooji; Sanctuary.

Thanks Lazaro for all your support. :)

And you speak on behalf of Diz, Bird, Monk, and Trane? :P

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Trane made the list with Monk as a new release. The Half Note is a helluva record, but it isn't new. Just picked it up. There's also Omar Sosa's "Mullatos;" The Ken Walker Sextet disc; Grachan Moncur's Octet Cd; the great Drew Gress recording "7 Black Butterflies;" George Russell's "80th Birthday Concert;" Charles Lloyd's "Jumping the Creek." Put Lorraine on there as a nod to trad jazz and to have one vocal record (the other "canidate" would be Fred Hersch's "Leaves of Grass" with Kurt Elling singing Walt Whitman). Feather's is a swinging big band oriented CD of mostly Ellington music with her lyrics. That was in there for Mr. and Mrs. America. So, who else is going to chime in with their top ten?

Edited by Lazaro Vega
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Ken Dryden (All Music Guide, All About Jazz, Coda, All About Jazz-New York, Hot House) + member of the Jazz Journalist Association and a contributor to Jazz Notes on occasion...)

My top ten list, combining new issues, reissues, boxed sets and historical discoveries (a banner year for the latter!):

Top ten of 2005 (in no particular order)

Denny Zeitlin: Solo Voyage (Maxjazz)

Dizzy Gillespie/Charlie Parker: Town Hall, New York City, June 22, 1945 (Uptown)

Thelonious Monk/John Coltrane: At Carnegie Hall (Blue Note)

Lorraine Feather: Dooji Wooji (Sanctuary)

Gene Bertoncini: Quiet Now (Ambient)

Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax (Rounder)

Dave Brubeck: London Flat, London Sharp (Telarc)

Mark O’Connor’s Hot Swing Trio: Live in New York (Omac)

Mel Torme/Gerry Mulligan/George Shearing: The Classic Concert Live (Concord)

Count Basie: The Complete Clef/Verve Count Basie Fifties Studio Recordings (Mosaic)

Since every organization requested a top ten list, that's what I provided, though I would have preferred

to do separate ones for new releases vs. reissues/historical discoveries.

Edited by Ken Dryden
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John Coltrane - One Up,One Down - Live at the Half Note (Impulse)

Dizzy Gillespie & Charlie Parker at Town Hall 1945 (Uptown)

Stan Kenton and the Los Angeles Neophonic Orchestra - New Horizons - Vol. 1 (Tantara)

Joe Locke & the Milt Jackson Tribute Band - Reve-lation (SharpNine)

Don Menza - Menza Lines (Jazzed Media)

Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane - At Carnegie Hall (Blue Note)

Johnny Richards Select (Mosaic)

Carl Saunders - Can You Dig Being Dug? (Itsus Jazz)

Bud Shank & Phil Woods - Bouncin' With Bud (Capri)

Walt Weiskopf & Andy Fusco - Tea for Two (Criss Cross)

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  • 2 weeks later...

What does it say about us as jazz listeners, aficianados, lovers and advocates when the majority of the ten best discs come from dead artists?

Not to take away the importance of newly found material, but shouldn't these lists celebrate the new rather than rehash the old?

No wonder it's so hard to find gigs these days. We're competing against corpses.

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Well, I'm married to one and it appears the additives to my brain food are having their desired effect.

Yeah I can't defend that. The Drew Gress recording 7 Black Butterflies where drummer Tom Raney plays out of his mind great, or anything by Braxton from this last year, the String Trio of New York with Oliver Lake...Weak choice on my part.

Feather's vocal versions of Ellington's music made me listen to the originals, Doin' the Voom Voom, Dooji Wooji, Harlem Airshaft, and that was something. One of Dick Hyman's arrangements is there so you know it is listenable professonalism. Feather's record is hipper than a pretty girl holding a red balloon. How can a record make your day for an hour and still be on the "best of list"? Sentimentality recovering associations of summer 2005. That's the sad truth. I went to her "Calistoga Bay" like a toddler to M and M's because I thought it would remind people of The Fruitport Pavillion.

Feather's disc is what some people would call "kicky."

The propensity of singers with a theater background who picked jazz as a vehicle for their CDs in 2005 is a thread, but, granted, not a "best of" 2005, more like something that is grinding away like a mechanical tennis ball launcher. The way some of these people project emotions in jazz sounds like a clumsey Ethel Merman, or lieder rhythm sung laser pitch perfect, or cafinatted faux riff singers who couldn't throw out an honest feeling with a gun to their heads. Feather put her theater into the lyrics, and backed the showbiz into the words which allowed the music to, as Ellington's music always has, swing.

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What does it say about us as jazz listeners, aficianados, lovers and advocates when the majority of the ten best discs come from dead artists?

Not to take away the importance of newly found material, but shouldn't these lists celebrate the new rather than rehash the old?

No wonder it's so hard to find gigs these days. We're competing against corpses.

Yep.

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What does it say about us as jazz listeners, aficianados, lovers and advocates when the majority of the ten best discs come from dead artists?

Not to take away the importance of newly found material, but shouldn't these lists celebrate the new rather than rehash the old?

No wonder it's so hard to find gigs these days. We're competing against corpses.

I agree with this statement 100%.

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What does it say about us as jazz listeners, aficianados, lovers and advocates when the majority of the ten best discs come from dead artists?

Not to take away the importance of newly found material, but shouldn't these lists celebrate the new rather than rehash the old?

No wonder it's so hard to find gigs these days. We're competing against corpses.

I agree with this statement 100%.

And, in some cases, I'm not sure the corpses are being exhumed and displayed in a manner consistent with the decedent's wishes.

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What does it say about us as jazz listeners, aficianados, lovers and advocates when the majority of the ten best discs come from dead artists?

Not to take away the importance of newly found material, but shouldn't these lists celebrate the new rather than rehash the old?

No wonder it's so hard to find gigs these days. We're competing against corpses.

I agree with this statement 100%.

And, in some cases, I'm not sure the corpses are being exhumed and displayed in a manner consistent with the decedent's wishes.

:tup:tup:tup Well said,all. My sentiments exactly. Help keep the LIVING musicians living.

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Well, it's time to jump in on Laz's side on Lorraine Feather. Dooji Wooji wasn't on my top ten list but I respect her for her brilliant lyric writing ability and I do enjoy her last two albums - particularly, Such Sweet Thunder - then Dooji Wooji. She's not a bad singer, either.

I know, her career's been all over the map...TV, Movies, smooth, commercials, but, she's come around to being a force in lyric writing and an intelligent interpreter of (thus far) Waller and Ellington compositions. Christ, Billie Holiday is her godmother! She has cream of the crop players on her CDs - Shelly Berg, Greg Field and Dave Carpenter to name a few. I don't think it's a scam and I would bet that Lorraine's detractors either:

1. Have a problem with Leonard or

2. They've never heard one of her CDs.

Just a guess. ;)

By the way, what does, "She's an advertiser" mean?

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I would bet that Lorraine's detractors either:

1. Have a problem with Leonard or

2. They've never heard one of her CDs.

Just a guess. ;)

1. Right (but irrelevant)

2. Wrong

What I really have a problem with is the re-imaging of that which needs no re-imaging, especially when that re-imaging is in the service of an esthetic that is in direct oppostion to that which is being re-imaged. At best, it's unnecessary. At worst, it's rape.

And worse than worst, it's the new LCJO Mingus album, upon which I'm constrained by doctor's orders from commentating...

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At best, it's unnecessary. At worst, it's rape.

Holy f*cking shit! :blink: Don't hold back, Jim.

Guess there's no point in asking, Maybe you missed the point?

So, Carmen McRae and Jon Hendricks raped Monk's tunes on Carmen Sings Monk? According to your theory they did.

Edited by RonF
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So, make something better. I'm sure we'd all follow. :)

That's an unfair statement, though.

You're never going to do better than Diz and Bird or Trane and Monk. You can only do different, and maybe you'll be lucky enough to do different at their level. But, by definition, you can't do better than the best.

But, because we'd rather celebrate the past (which we should) and IGNORE the present and future (which we shouldn't), the jazz world is at a point where we're chasing ghosts. And to chase a ghost when Mehldau, Douglas, Osby, Lovano, Keezer, Tardy, Rosenwinkel, Turner, Organissimo, and countless others are right here in our midst? What can be said about that? No wonder Jamie Cullum and Norah Jones are the acts being promoted by jazz labels. The jazz "fans" won't even support the real thing. And in the rare case where they will, there had damn well better be some 60 year old tunes on the CD, because, after all, who actually wants to hear an original thought?

It's a crying shame is what it is.

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