Jazz... your bag daddio..? nice

Looking back on the year, the following were the 2022 jazzish records that saw sustained listening. I had no idea Stick Up! had a re-release this year but would cosign that as a strong release any year it crops up!

Joel Ross - The Parable of the Poet
Ezra Collective - Where I'm Meant To Be
Makaya Mccraven - In These Times
DOMi & JD BECK - NOT TIGHT
John Scofield - John Scofield
Binker and Moses - Feeding the Machine
Alabaster DePlume - Gold

I couldn't even come up with 10 new releases that I'd played more than a few times. Lots of good ep's and 7" this year though. I included represses that I've played a lot.

Mother - Cleo Sol
Black Acid Soul - Lady Blackbird
John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman - John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman
Vol 1. - Le Volcans de Benin
Piper At The Gates Of Dawn - Pink Floyd
Season For Love - Willie Hutch
Phonograph Phoenix - DJ Abilities
Radio Waves - Verbz & Mr Slipz
Ini Kamoze - Ini Kamoze
Stareside - Billow Observatory

Listened to a lot of Techno this year, and Jazz.

Stick Up! is a Tone Poet, so it get's that lovely laminated gatefold with photos, and superior vinyl pressing, highly recommended.

Need to do listen to Alabaster DePlume more, as well as that Charles Stepney album on International Anthem.

For me it was the Charles Lloyd trios LPs.

Edit to add.. the Stepney thing is great.

I was actually trying to think this week about what my top10 albums for 2022 might be. Looking 11-12 months back is kinda tough (for me anyway). Few have stuck to the TT for very long as I'm constantly chopping and changing. Still there were some hidden gems again this year.

(in no particular order)
EABS - 2061
Kokoroko - Could We Be More
Brian Jackson - This Is Brian Jackson
Daniel Casimir - Boxed In
Sault - X
Ezra Collective - Where I'm Meant To Be
Doomcannon - Renaissance
Luke Una - E Soul Cultura (by far the best compilation of this year if you ask me)
...

• Also enjoyed: The Smile, The Comet Is Coming, Str4ta, Lady Blackbird, Camilla George, anything by Pharoah Sanders/Alice Coltrane at the minute...
  
• Not getting what the fuss is about with Alabaster Deplume, Makaya McCraven, ...
  

https://youtu.be/dbDqnJbWlrc

Willie Bobo, class

Some fine recommendations listed by others, this is a great thread for jazz fans and newbies alike. A genre so vast too

Thank you! An excuse to switch off Gary Davies whilst madame run watches the dancing.

Edit to add... the East coast love affair re-edit of Prince that Gilles P bangs out but us mere mortals cannot buy is a banger.

Edit again.. Simple Headphone Mind being finally reissued.

Listed under extra-juicy-Latin Jazz..

Willie Bobo has created some fine work
jazz, funk, salsa for the after hours scene

Dig My Feeling 2016

I don't have any top ten new releases but for me this year was about getting back into Jazz and discovering new to me sounds particularly
Charles Lloyd and Matthew Halsall who is probably my favourite artist right now (that obviously changes with the weather)

Shabaka Hutchings in conversation on 6Music's The First Time (last Sunday)...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001g2qx

Really digging this end of year list from the great Rush Hour record shop in Amsterdam.
https://www.rushhour.nl/top-25-albums-2022.

Some excellent Jazz and Jazz-ish stuff (amongst others) on there. Touching Bass had passed me by until I checked them out from this list. The comp is ace, Neo-soul, hip-hop and jazz (with a Nala Sinephro track) to techno bangers. Contour is future Neo-soul, and cktrl (not featured on that list, only ep's so far) is recommended for lovers of the aformentioned Sinephro, and Floating Points Promises album.

Also on the list is Ron Trent's 70s/80s fusion meets Kraftwerk LP. Tumi Mogorosi's (Shabaka & the Ancients drummer) acoustic jazz with choir album, that actually works better than Kamasi Washington's stuff.

Heading to Amsterdam on Friday for Christmas and Rush Hour is top of my list. Been digging more 90s electronica this year but also getting back to more jazz roots.

Some of my faves of the year (discoveries, not released this year):

Hiromasa Suzuki – Skip Step Colgen
Jack DeJohnette – Parallel Realities and
Arturo Sandoval – No Problem (live at Ronnie's)
Snarky Puppy – Empire State
Nubiyan Twist – Freedom Fables
Daniel Maunick –Persistence (jazzyish)
Finally seeing Bill Frisell live with Brussels Philharmonic

If 9/8 is your thing ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBgbjuMmT58&ab_channel=FerencNemeth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwzwfg_5QuE&ab_channel=JazzyNorbi

On the favourite things of 2022.. got into Hatfield and the North.. always loved Wyatt and Ayers but thanks to streaming.. sort of jazz adjacent..

Reading the Guardian's top ten pushed me back to this.. A record that confounded me 25 years ago and ended up as a jazz cigarette tray.

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Kokoroko currently playing, that bass on the first tune, wow!

..bit late to the party but gotta say that record sounds so nice. 🥰
Did like the slightly more "raw" sound of their EP even more, but still great 👌

..bit late to the party but gotta say that record sounds so nice. 🥰
Did like the slightly more "raw" sound of their EP even more, but still great 👌

I've got to say that I'm (slightly) disappointed by how the LP sounds. I didn't really notice at first as the music is so good. But after 6 months of regular listening, it definitely sounds "flat" next to pretty much any other LP that I own and the lack of dynamics is obvious. Still very good music, just a big shame imo about the end product from a listener's POV.

My final vinyl purchase for 2022 was Ezra Collective's Juan Pablo The Philosopher (sort of 4-track mini album) which is awesome AND comes with great SQ (cut at 45RPM which helps).

Hey guys,
I’m going through a coleman hawkins, sonny rollins, Ben Webster sort of phase. I’m liking that breathy, open almost baggy sounding saxophone.
Any recommendations of new sax players with this sort of voice?

I'm going to quote myself here...
"gotta say... I'm loving the new Jeff Parker!"

Incase anyone thought I was talking about his recent folk album... I wasn't.
I was referring to 'Mondays at the Enfield tennis academy'...
I'm loving it so I thought I'd mention it again! 😍

Have you given Camilla George a listen?

ps: she plays the New Gen Jazz Festival in Shoreham-by-Sea next month (with a bunch of other Young'uns including a few sax players I wasn't aware of). Many names to check out.

pps: I'm personally very much looking forward to Lakecia Benjamin's next LP out in the spring. Different style but awesome still (imo).

Yes! The music sounds so compressed, with no dynamics. Tried vinyl, cd and streaming with no difference. I'd imagine they're great live, shame the LP doesn't potentially capture that.

Second Camilla George.

Also recommend cktrl. Whilst he plays sax, he's also a multi-instrumentalist. His records are quite ambient verging into classical at times, highly recommended.

https://youtu.be/WllyqecIVLI

forgotten this track has west coast hip hop break beat written all over it.

Probably why I’m posting well after hours

Some cool jazz fests popping up over the next few months:

New Generation Jazz at the Ropetackle (Shoreham-by-Sea) - 3 consecutive Wednesdays (booh) starting with Camilla George and Romarna Campbell on 1st Feb.

Brick Lane Jazz festival - April 14-16th massive hotter than hot line-up including Ashley Henry, Jas Kayser, Seed. etc...

Watford Jazz Junction festival - May 18-21st including Zara McFarlane, Omar, Xhosa Cole Quartet...

Thanks for sharing :)