My ambivalence about year-end top-10 lists (or any top 10s not associated with ESPN or David Letterman) hasn’t changed much since last year. Yet if I look at these choices less as a winners’ circle and more as a distillation of larger stories and basic truths, I begin warming to the exercise. The story told by my list here was also last year’s best story, and among jazz’s longest-running tales: the deepening and broadening of Afro-Latin influence and expression within jazz’s ranks. I could have composed a reasonably satisfying top 10 this year solely of CDs by Cuban musicians. Such a list would have clouded my point, however, because a big part of the story is that Cuba is, well, just part of the story: Specific traditions from Puerto Rico, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and beyond are coming into clearer and more distinct view, not to mention a finer integration of the varying strands of tradition from regions within Cuba itself.
Here’s a prediction: In 2014, there will again be fools rewriting the worn-out premise that jazz is dead or dying and in need of a savior musician or next big stylistic wave. What those critics really mean (correctly, too) is that no single brand of jazz will ever again occupy a central place in this country’s popular culture and music market. Get over it. When I look at the year-end lists of smart jazz critics — there are plenty to be found at Francis Davis’s poll for NPR Music and at the website of the Jazz Journalists Association— I see mounds of worthy music from both stars and lesser-known musicians, much of it deserving of anyone’s top-10 consideration, none of it suggesting stylistic trends, and most of it challenging conformity. The lesson: Stop looking for a musical meteor that isn’t coming and instead take in the terrific constellation that now forms jazz.
Best Jazz of 2013
Michele Rosewoman’s New Yor-Uba30 Years: A Musical Celebration of Cuba in America (Advance Dance)
Pianist Michele Rosewoman first presented her New Yor-Uba ensemble at Manhattan’s Public Theater in 1983. It was startling then for its balance of unfettered jazz improvisation and undiluted Cuban folklore within a complex and often grand structure. It still is, as recorded here for the first time.
Dave Douglas QuintetTime Travel (Greenleaf)
Trumpeter Dave Douglas released a gorgeous CD of hymns last year, featuring singer Aoife O’Donovan and a brand-new quintet. On this purely instrumental CD, the quintet’s dazzling communion is the sole focus.
Miguel Zenón & The Rhythm CollectiveOye!!! Live in Puerto Rico (Miel)
Though his signature quartet is New York-based, for this release alto saxophonist Zenón led a piano-less quartet with fellow Puerto Rican musicians, recorded at Taller Cé, a short-lived performance space in San Juan, where he grew up. The fire and intricacy of rhythmic tensions is stunning.
Steve Coleman and Five ElementsFunctional Arryhthmias (Pi)
Coleman’s music is highly influential and yet no one can duplicate the layered and textured sounds and forms his groups produce. This edition of Five Elements features standout former members Anthony Tidd (on electric bass) and Sean Rickman (drums) alongside two stirring players just beginning to make bold marks as leaders themselves — guitarist Miles Okazaki and trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson.
Tim Berne’s SnakeoilShadow Man (ECM) Last year’s elegant debut by this quartet suggested a breakthrough for the alto saxophonist. Here, the group rapport based on Berne’s idiosyncratic compositions grows firmer and yet more daring. (Worth noting is pianist Matt Mitchell’s elegance and sensitivity; he’s also one key to Dave Douglas’s quintet.)
Charles Lloyd/ Jason MoranHagar’s Song (ECM)
The bond between tenor saxophonist Lloyd, who is 75, and pianist Moran, 38, within Lloyd’s working quartet is a wondrous thing to behold. Here, it’s just the two of them, in duo, with Lloyd also playing alto saxophone and bass and alto flutes. Jazz is often best understood through personal relationships and the flow of information across generations. Here’s more proof.
Pat MethenyTap: John Zorn’s Book of Angels, Vol. 20 (Nonesuch/Tzadik)
Save for some drums, this is all Metheny, on various guitars and other instruments, including piano, marimba, flugelhorn, and the Orchestrion, a one-man electromechanical orchestra of his own creation. He’s immersed himself in one deep pocket of Zorn’s growing body of Masada compositions to create mesmerizing music, rich with the nuances and details that reward repeated listening.
Gerald Cleaver’s Black HostLife in the Sugar Candle Mines (Northern Spy)
I’ve heard nothing quite like drummer Cleaver’s quintet, nor do I expect to soon. Here are discrete tunes that satisfy yet are constructed from and defined by the timbres and interplay of freely improvised jazz and experimental electronic music.
Pedrito MartinezThe Pedrito Martinez Group (Motema)
Percussionist and singer Martinez stands out within Rosewoman’s New Yor-Uba group. He anchored an all-star cast paying tribute to Spanish flamenco singer Camarón de la Isla. Yet his true identity and full collaborative powers shine best in the quartet he’s honed since 2008 through his three-nights-a-week residency at the midtown Manhattan Cuban restaurant Guantanamera. Here are dizzying rhythmic webs, songs within songs, and the thrill of real Cuban rumba transformed into something as hip and irresistible as great pop.
Wayne ShorterWithout a Net (Blue Note) With his current quartet (pianist Danilo Pérez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade), the eminent tenor saxophonist, now 80, has scripted a daring late-career chapter largely by eschewing song forms for improvised ebb-and-flow. Here the quartet digs yet deeper into the elegant challenge of his music and, joined by the chamber ensemble Imani Winds on the 23-minute “Pegasus,” it begins to realize yet grander ambitions.
Coulda, Maybe Shoulda, Made That List
Andy BeyThe World According to Andy Bey (HighNote)
Terence BlanchardMagnetic (Blue Note)
William ParkerWood Flute Songs (Aum Fidelity)
Chucho Valdés & the Afro-Cuban MessengersBorder-Free (Jazz Village)
Kidd Jordan/Hamid DrakeA Night in November (Valid)
Matthew ShippPiano Sutras (Thirsty Ear)
Bill FrisellBig Sur (Okeh)
Cécile McLorin SalvantWomanChild (Mack Avenue)
TarbabyBallad of Sam Langford (Hipnotic)
Oliver Lake Big BandWheels (Passin’ Thru)
Craig Taborn TrioChants (ECM)
Allen ToussaintSongbook (Rounder)
Ones to Watch
Jonathan FinlaysonMoment & the Message (Pi)
Matt MitchellFiction (Pi)
Yunior Terry & Son de AlturaMi Bajo Danzón (Palo Santo)
Trombone ShortySay That to Say This (Verve)
Reissues
New York Art QuartetCall It Art (Triple Point)
Jack DeJohnetteSpecial Edition (ECM)
Earl HinesThe Classic Earl Hines Sessions: 1928-1945 (Mosaic)
John ColtraneSun Ship: The Complete Session (Impulse/Mosaic)
Clifford JordanThe Complete Strata-East Sessions (Mosaic)
Most Charming
Allen ToussaintSongbook (Rounder)
Randy Weston & Billy HarperThe Roots of the Blues (Sunnyside)
Albert Heath/Ethan Iverson/Ben StreetTootie’s Tempo (Sunnyside)
Click here to see a slideshow of Larry Blumenfeld’s 2013 list of stand-out jazz artists.
