BEST OF JAZZ & IMPROVISATIONAL MUSIC, 2020
John Pietaro
from UltimateClassicRock |
It would be a fool’s errand in a covid-damaged society to attempt a peaceably gathered year’s end “Best of” list, in jazz or any other genre or medium. But artists of jazz and all avant gardes have been especially susceptible to the considerable financial ebbing and health concerns of this period. Discussing this concept with my wife (and best critic) Laurie, I was caught by her knowing response: “It’s not so much a Best of”, she said, “but a TEST of 2020”. And with so much challenge about us this year, arts implosions being but a skimming of the national surface, I wholeheartedly agreed to offer my “Test of 2020”. It’s one founded on survival and resilience. It is also founded on the power of creativity, whether there is a market or not, as a model for the thriving of us all.
This year, in addition to watching beloved venues
shutter (including Café Bohemia where my poetry/jazz series West Village Word
was housed oh so briefly), seeing great byways of life and commerce silenced
and feeling the struggle and pain of so many, I had to contend with the death
of my mother and the rapidly progressing dementia which has leveled my father who
is residing in a nursing home. The tremors cross-country were played out in the
streets after glaring, violent police murders and the rise of the BLM movement,
along with the slow, laborious onset of the election and ensuing insanity spewing
from the White House and all walks of the right-wing. And of course, the
fight-back against such insanity has too been happily on the rise.
Perhaps the one strength grown of this year from Dante’s
fifth circle has been self-contained boldness. Artists of every stripe have
poured themselves into practice and expression born of the lockdown and in
spite of it. Musicians, dancers, spoken word artists and actors have premiered remote
performances across the globe while increasing amounts of visual artists and non-performing
writers have made grand use of the internet to present works recent and vintage.
And a most welcome shift has been the numbers of remote performances encompassing
all of the above. Critics, relying on this advanced viewry, have sought to find
fresh means to convey our perceptions, including criticism of the connection’s sound
and visual clarity, which reminds us of the shifts in quality of recordings in
each epoch, from acoustic to electric recording processes, and 78 RPM to LP, Hi-Fi
to stereo, CD to download and back to disc and “vinyl”. Here’s just one more
demarcation and the technology has quickly kept up with it.
I’m happy to report that during the lockdown I
completed a full poetry collection, The Mercer Stands Burning, published
in November by Atmosphere Press, wrote numerous pieces for journals and
magazines, completed much of a new short story collection and laid the ground
work for And I Became of the Dark, a new album by my poetry/free jazz
ensemble the Red Microphone. It was finally recorded on the cusp of December by
an expanded line-up that I’m very excited about. Hoping this will be available
via a noted underground label soon. It has been a tumultuous and memorable
time.
So, in memory of those lost this year as well as the
surging need for survival on every level, here is THE TEST OF 2020…
Album of the Year:
Anne Waldman, Sciamchy (Fast Speaking Music)
Album, Duet:
Ran Blake and Christine Correa When Soft Rain Falls (Red Piano)
Ran Blake and Andrew Rathbun, Northern Noir
(SteepleChase)
Album, Small
Group:
Steve Swell Quintet Soul Travelers w/special guest
Leena Conquest, Astonishments (RogueArt)
GRID, Decomposing Force (NNA)
Album, Large Group:
William Hooker, Symphonie of Flowers (Org Music)
Reissue:
Miles Davis, The
Complete Birth of the Cool (Blue Note)
Unearthed Gem:
Oneness of Juju, African
Rhythms (Strut)
Gray, Shades of…Anthology
(Plush Safe)
Tribute Album:
Paolo Bacchetta, Yerkir, The Storytellers (Avand)
tribute to Paul Motian
Record Label:
ESP-Disk
577 Records
Radical Documents
Jazz Performance Video:
Liberation Music Orchestra, “Time/Life, We Shall
Overcome”
Jazz
Documentary:
Motian
in Motion (Aquapio
Films Ltd)
Brackish Brooklyn
Remote
Concert:
Gil Evans
Project, Sketches
of Spain, “Concierto de Aranjuez”, Jazz Standard at Home, Aug 6
Vijay Iyer Trio
with Wadada Leo Smith, Jazz Standard, February 1
Lenny White 70th
Birthday Celebration, Made in New York Jazz Café & Bar, January 4
“Jazz From Hell”:
Kilter, ir, Titan to Tachyons, NuBlu 151, March 10
Covid-era Live Concert:
Composers Concordance, “We, the Whole People”, Michiko
Studios, November 14
Covid-19
Harold Budd’s and Blue Gene Tyranny’s deaths
Keith Jarrett’s health
GRID
Sun Ra Arkestra
Liberation Music
Orchestra
Artemis
Up and Coming Musician:
Devin Brahja Waldman (alto saxophone)
Multi-Instrumentalist:
Daniel Carter, J.D. Parran
Trumpet: Wadada Leo
Smith, Nate Wooley
Trombone: Steve Swell
Flute: Nicole Mitchell,
Cheryl Pyle
Clarinet: Don Byron, Ben
Goldberg
Soprano Saxophone: Sam
Newsome
Alto Saxophone: Gary
Bartz, Rudresh Mahanthappa
Tenor Saxophone: James
Brandon Lewis, Ras Moshe Burnett, Ingrid Laubrock
Baritone Saxophone:
Claire Daly, Dave Sewelson
Violin: Sarah Bernstein, Gwen Laster
Viola: Melanie Dyer
Vibraphone: Joel Ross,
Bill Ware
Guitar: Bill Frisell, Mary
Halvorson, Eugene Chadbourne
Pedal Steel: Susan
Alcorn
Piano: Ran Blake, Vijay
Iyer, Kris Davis
Double Bass: Ken
Filiano, William Parker, Luke Stewart
Electric Bass:
Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Steve Swallow
Drumset: Hamid Drake, Tyshawn
Sorey, G. Calvin Weston
Percussion: Warren Smith
Vocals: Fay Victor
Spoken Word: Anne Waldman