Pick up the December 2020 issue to discover the Top 20 reissues/archive albums of the year. Black Art Jazz Collective - Ascension (HighNote) Spotify. As a solo artist or with her band … They manage to capture my imaginations!” – Felix Biller (PRIM, Austria), Totem feat. By Fred Kaplan. Shabaka and the Ancestors - We Are Sent Here By History. Vitriol and the Third Oraculum (2020) Free Jazz Favorite tracks: “Vitriol” 3.5: Free Jazz Favorite tracks: “Vitriol” 3.5: 47: 47. Top 20 Jazz Albums of 2020 Jon Newey Friday, November 27, 2020 The ultimate guide to the year's best new jazz albums as voted for by Jazzwise's peerless panel of reviewers – including the complete original Jazzwise reviews. Ralph Alessi by Ferdinando Romano, “Not very often a young jazz artists coming from Asia has Grammy Awards nomination. Her pianist Paul Smith comps with unusually sharp curves. The following is a list of music albums, EPs, and mixtapes released in 2020.These are notable albums, defined as having received significant coverage from reliable sources independent of … Disc 1, titled “The Digital World,” is a bit heavy-handed, but Disc 2, “Our Natural World,” is a wondrous jewel. Dolly Parton Sells Out Big Time With This Super Bowl Ad, Don’t Let Queen Latifah’s Acting Career Overshadow Her Rap Legacy, SOPHIE’s Music Was Completely Artificial and Utterly Real, Why Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” Had the Biggest Debut Since “WAP”. ), it’s nice to be reminded of how much you can still do with a traditional acoustic jazz album.” – Lucas Gillan (Lucas Gillan’s Many Blessings, USA), “Listen to the Gilles Peterson show which featured SAULT, the anonymous collective, who dropped two albums in short order this summer. All contents © 2021 The Slate Group LLC. Red Piano. It’s been a shitstorm of a year, in many ways the worst of my many decades, but it’s been a terrific year for jazz albums, maybe because the music that soothes the savage breast is more soothing when the era is this savage, but I think these recordings—10 new, three newly unearthed from the distant past—will endure. Maria Schneider is the most brilliant big-band composer of our time, a master of stacked harmonies but also of propulsive rhythms, which she laces with stirring Americana or a Latin tinge, and the musicians in her “jazz orchestra,” as she calls it—many of whom have been following her lead for a couple of decades—are as tight as they come and fine soloists too. A lot of 2020 jazz, just like a lot of 2020 life, took shape in isolation. Jazz gets (wrongly) criticized as a style of music that's … No one scores inner voices as rich as hers. In 2020, the music’s popularity has maintained its status quo while finding new ways to surprise its audiences and further expand its boundaries. Salute to the Sun Matthew Halsall 2020 $1.35. (And, if you’re looking for more great music to check out, we’d of course suggest you take a look at some of these brilliant albums we’ve been working press for this year! Track 6  ( I Dare You To Love Me ) has an international go-to anthem feel with its  rhythm & lyrics.” – Simone Rudolphi (Musicphotograp, UK/Germany), “Great feel good music. Sonny Rollins is the greatest living jazz improviser, and this treasure from the vaults—one studio session and two live dates from 1967 in the Netherlands—finds him in peak form, taking songs on soaring spaceflights, fueled by the avant-garde drummer Han Bennink and the lushly melodic bassist Ruud Jacobs. The track with Cécile McLorin Salvant singing the Mal Waldron/Billie Holiday tune “Left Alone” is worth the price of admission. Yet jazz artists from around the world went on to release an impressive amount of great music — for some, the best of their careers. You can cancel anytime. Feel free to share this article – or just your favourites – with friends and colleagues on social media. Blues Bash! In this age of crossing genres, electronics, and experimentation (all of which is great by me! Duke Robillard 2020 $1.50. Updates Jazz albums; Acid Jazz Free Jazz Bebop Big Band Cool Jazz Jazz Fusion Soul Jazz Swing Vocal Jazz Early Jazz World Jazz. The rest is gold.). No album more perfectly captures 2020.” – AJ Dehany (Freelance, LondonJazz, UK), “It’s just spectacular. Thanks for signing up! Ella Fitzgerald, The Lost Berlin Tapes. Her latest is inspired by her longtime battle against digital rip-off artists and privacy invasion. Learn how your comment data is processed. Twenty years of a new phase of the music is now in the books, and the defining ideas are established. It lasts about 10 seconds. Best Jazz albums of 2020 You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. Apple Music. A list of the greatest jazz albums released so far this year, as chosen by BBC Music Magazine critics Garry Booth, Barry Witherden and Roger Thomas This is the one album on this list that was recorded during—and in response to—the pandemic. Ran Blake and Christine Correa, When Soft Rains Fall. Matthew Shipp is one of the most uncompromising jazz pianists, grounded in Monk, Paul Bley, Cecil Taylor, and Sun Ra. The year 2020 may very well go down in infamy for the COVID-19 pandemic, protests and the presidential election, but it also served as inspiration for artists. Perfume Genius and Dua Lipa had us dancing in our homes, Thundercat and Angelica Garcia dug deep to reach new heights, and long-running acts like the Strokes, AC/DC, and Stephen Malkmus reminded us that rock isn't dead. Join the mailing list for more free content, or become a member of Jazzfuel Manager (members.jazzfuel.com) for 1-to-1 support & feedback. Get past it. We update links when possible, Here, he and singer Christine Correa (a former student of his) cover all the songs on Billie Holiday’s 1958 album Lady in Satin, but unlike that session’s lush orchestral backdrop, it’s just Correa—hitting every note with a smoky indigo blue—backed by Blake’s strangely dissonant chords. The story of jazz in the past five years has been the … “I’ve always been a huge fan of Matt’s, so it’s no surprise that his new album would be my favorite. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. I think Scott was absolutely able to put together a production that Joe would have been proud of…” – Matteo Finali (Final Step, Switzerland), “Really original and heartfelt.” – Patrick Naylor (musician, UK) [note: check our interview with Ben Wendel here! On this album, Braufman re THE BEST OF JAZZ ALBUMS 2020 - THE WICKED SOUND Year in review: 25 of the best jazz albums of 2020. By joining Slate Plus you support our work and get exclusive content. The Best Jazz Fusion Albums of 2020. All rights reserved. The 2020 YEAR END TOP 100 Album Chart includes the years most played Smooth Jazz Albums as reported by SmoothJazz.com Global's diverse panel of Smooth Jazz radio stations around the world. Lontano Anja Lechner & Francois Couturier 2020 $2.05. Your email address will not be published. He unleashes ballads in a dreamlike flow. In 2020, Soul, Jazz and R&B artists have delivered exceptional projects, albums and EPs alike, that produced a slew of songs that kept us going through the many seasons, quarantines, lockdowns, tiers and more. Just amazing. And, if you’re looking for more great music, take a listen to our New Jazz Releases playlist. Release date: September 11. Jazz in the 21st century is no longer young. The Best Jazz Albums Of 2020. Send me updates about Slate special offers. Moses Boyd - Dark Matter. The best of movies, TV, books, music, and more, delivered to your inbox three times a week. It’s mesmerizing. The best jazz recordings released in 2020. Monk, though ailing, is in crisp form, and his bandmates—Charlie Rouse on sax, Larry Gales on bass, Ben Riley on drums—play with keen intensity. If you’ve followed our #New Music Friday posts throughout the year, then you know we love Jazz here at Hifitrends. We’ll thus continue last week’s focus as we hear from exceptional releases by Charles Lloyd (shown here), Matt Wilson, Matthew Shipp, Black Art Jazz Collective, and more. Great grooves, happy tunes, if perhaps it’s not jazz. The Month In Jazz – December 2020. This concert from 1962, its tapes found in producer Norman Granz’s private archive, captures the Queen of Song at the height of her powers, unfurling ballads like “Angel Eyes” with shivering purity and—though she was never known as a blues singer—the likes of “Good Morning Heartache” and “Cry Me a River” with a belting fervor. These are our 100 favorite albums of 2020. (Warning: The album begins with a loud, ugly blare. March 13, 2020. The music floats and sways in a different atmosphere. View reviews, ratings, news & more regarding your favorite band. We encountered an issue signing you up. One of Monk’s last dates, in 1968, at Palo Alto High School, booked by one of its students, recorded by a janitor, the tapes just recently found, this may have the most unusual backstory of any jazz artifact, but it’s no mere curiosity. Join Slate Plus to continue reading, and you’ll get unlimited access to all our work—and support Slate’s independent journalism. The album has garnered widespread critical acclaim and stands out as a long-lost treasure brought to the fore in 2020.” – Rebecca DeLamotte (Americas Musicworks, US). If you buy something through our links, With this in mind, Stingray DJAZZ's editor selected 10 jazz albums that left the biggest impression among all the releases of 2020. The list below is a roundup of the 5-, 4.5- and 4-star reviews that ran in the print edition of DownBeat during 2020. ... BBC Jazz Club Sessions 1965-1966 The Don Rendell & Ian Carr Quintet 2020 $2.96. Recorded live at Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theatre in 2018, on his 80th birthday, the tenor saxophonist Charles Lloyd rekindles his long-standing status as the West Coast Coltrane, fusing a hard tone and sheets-of-sound rapture with a swaying swing. … At age 35, Aaron Diehl is the most elegant young pianist on the scene, equally accomplished with Ellington, Gershwin, Philip Glass, jazz standards, and the blues. Slate relies on advertising to support our journalism. So with all the Best Jazz Album lists coming out, we just had to put our two cents in. Some songs are heartbreakingly beautiful (Every Day With You), some are absurdly hilarious (Space Force March), and some are both (Man Bun). Please try again. On December 6, 2020 December 12, 2020 By hifitr5_wp. Nigerian pop continued to establish itself more firmly on the international stage in 2020 with successful albums by Burna Boy, Davido, Tiwa Savage, Tems and more. Affiliate Disclosure: as an Amazon Associate we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases. A Rite for All Souls by The Mark Harvey Group, Kites & Strings by Benjamin Rosenblum Nebula Project, Reflections of the Eternal Line by Florian Arbenz & Greg Osby, Oleś Brothers & Piotr Orzechowski – Waterfall: Music of Joe Zawinul, All The Little Things You Do by Rebecca Hennessy, ‘Songs and Stories’ by Callum Au + Claire Martin, We’re New Again by Gil Scott-Heron & Makaya McCraven, Atlântico by Mário laginha, Julian Argüelles, Helge Andreas Norbakken, Lo Sagrado – Silvana Estrada & Charlie Hunter, Straight on Til Morning by Natalie Williams. By Ran Blake and Christine Correa. You’ve run out of free articles. And you'll never see this message again. Matthew Shipp Trio, The Unidentifiable. This was a challenging year for most people. These two fine musicians give an assured and inventive duo performance that sits well alongside any of the genre released this year.” – Jim Burlong (Jazz Views, UK), “Original choice and interpretation of Zawinul’s music.” – (Krzysztof Komorek, Donos kulturalny, PL), “It’s refreshing and classic, timely and needed.” – (Aimee-Jo Benoit, Canada), All the Little Things You Do by Rebecca Hennessy, “High-level thought-through modern compositions for an unusual ensemble, extremely strong line-up of high-level players with utmost respect to jazz tradition.” – Daniel Bulatkin (B/Y Organism, Czech Republic). Learn more about the Jazzfuel affiliate policy here. The 2-CD set, a powerful and important historic recording, reaches across nearly 50 years from a time of great social turbulence in the US to deliver a timeless message of peace and healing that resonates today. The perfect album to feel that little bit better about 2020.” – Nadja von Massow (nadworks, UK), “Great compositions with constant conversations between trumpet and guitar, wide range of colors, great vintage feel production and masters lineup.” – Saso Popovski (Jazz Factory Festival, NMK), “This album is very timely and manages to capture the essence and emotion of many of the issues the world is facing today. but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. This trio album lets you hear strands from all of them, but there’s also a lyricism and a riveting soulfulness that he doesn’t display very often. It’s that time of year when magazines and blogs are publishing their round up lists of best jazz albums of 2020. It is clear that the album has made a huge impression and captured the moment perfectly. Affiliate Disclosure: as an Amazon Associate we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases. I’m finding a lot of jazz quite intellectual at the moment!” – James Pettinger (Stablefolk, UK), “I love both Joe Zawinul’s music and Scott Kinsey’s work. Piano legend Chick Corea represents the wide spectrum of his keyboard influences on his new… takes Matt’s exuberance, humor, and gift for melody and creates a genuinely engaging album from start to finish. Deneka Peniston. Before digging into what our critics said about your favorite albums this year, take look back at top-rated recordings from 2019 and 2018. A basic blues, a dark waltz, a spiritual, a meditative muse, a riff on Ethiopian pop, but listen how the players shift from melody to harmony to counterpart to experimentation, so effortlessly, tunefully, often daringly. Rather than put together an article of music we’ve been enjoying this year, we instead asked the Jazzfuel community to share their favourites of 2020. Exodus. If you’re a Jazzfuel subscriber and you didn’t yet add your pick, check your inbox for the survey link! A brilliant album from one of my favourite cross-genre singers.”, Bull Frogs Croon (Instrumental) by Aoife O’Donovan, “Strong spiritual music, innovative sound of saxophone, interesting compositions.” – Lenny Sendersky (moon strings, Israel), “Ensemble of colors, sounds and good arrangements.” – (Gianmarco Scaglia, bassist, Italy), “A great album of both originals and standards, by the Scottish vocalist and guitarist Sophie Bancroft alongside the double bass of Canadian Tom Lyne. Dan Rosenboom Absurd in the Anthropocene (2020) Jazz-Rock, Avant-Garde Jazz, Jazz Fusion Favorite tracks: “Still,” “Heliopteryx,” “Forget What You Know,” “Drowning on the High Ground” 3.5 Slate may earn an affiliate commission. Slate has relationships with various online retailers. Dec 03, 2020 5:45 AM. And in the 3rd and thematic hour of our program, running from 11pm to 12am, the theme will be More Notable Jazz Albums of 2020. Artists took the tough year and turned it into great music and for that, we’re forever grateful. A mix of up-tempo rousers and haunting ballads, it’s a gorgeous album with a cooking band (pianist Gerald Clayton, guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Reuben Rogers, drummer Eric Harland) launching the master into some of his most gently adventurous flights. It’s filled with awe-inspiring compositions and musical performances by many top players on the NYC jazz scene, including Wallace Roney on trumpet who died of covid19 earlier this year and the incomparable vocals of Andy Bey on the title track.” – Mala Waldron / USA, Been Down This Road Before by Clifton Anderson, “Fresh and groovy” – Sharron McLeod (The Sharron McLeod Fauxtet, France), “First off Mário Laginha is THE best know improvising musician in Portugal and, sad to say, hardly recognised outwith. Although divergent in nature, both have the saxophonist showing off his oblique storytelling with a tart tone. Ben Perowsky (a drummer with roots in rock, pop, jazz, and the avant-garde), Chris Speed (a reedman of supple melodies and sinuous rhythms), and John Medeski (the organist from Medeski Martin & Wood, who fuses soul, swing, and wit in a single bar) join together for a session of casual headiness, covering Jaco Pastorius, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, and their own excursions in cannily original styles. Musically it brilliantly illustrates the range of emotions from sad and sorrowful to curious to joyful. The Month In Jazz – December 2020. The 2020 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll The best new and rediscovered jazz recordings that lit up the dark and unsettling year that just ended, as voted on by 148 jazz critics. Check out how beautiful it is!” – Magdaléna (Czech Republic), “A Rite for All Souls is a rare opportunity to hear a recently-rediscovered recording of 1971 concert by The Mark Harvey Group, a force in the avant-garde. This trio album spans his waterfront, and it’s all captivating, the more so with each successive hearing. 2. But thankfully, the music never stopped. French Paradox. On the third Black Art … The album opens and closes with Ullmann’s compositions taken from his 2019 album mikroPULS (Intuition, 2019). ), “Nikol combines masterful interpretation of demanding classical piano repertoire (Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Novák, Korngold and Svoboda) with her own pieces inspired by the classical composers. Stunning orchestrations, incredible vocals. Your email address will not be published. Webber/Morris Big Band, ‘Both Are True’ There’s little terrain that this big band is afraid to … Join the mailing list for tools, resources & ideas - all free, Join the Jazzfuel newsletter and get the free PDF in your inbox today. (If a performer was the focus of a major feature, it’s likely their album wasn’t reviewed, and that was a factor in its … It brings back the energy of live experience and I just can’t listen to it without feeling my body moving by itself!” – Paméla Malempré (Aubergine Artist Management, BE), “I find the combination of beautiful poetry and outstanding string arrangements fascinating and addictive. What follows is a collection of these recommended albums – in no particular order – with some comments about why they were so special to the musicians and industry folk who took part. By JAZZ.FM91. “The drummer Jakop Janssønn has created a stunning and magical universe, with the unusual combination of violin, tuba and drums.” – Ola Asdahl Rokkones (Norway), “Fig Tree” is the sixth album of Polish guitarist Przemysław Strączek. The results varied widely but all had the feel of artists who thrive … By Raphaël Pannier Quartet.