I have to admit, this was a hard list for me to put together. It seems to me that a lot of what has been coming out in jazz lately, just doesn’t grab me. Must be a sign of advancing age.
I’m in the world of college radio as a DJ and genre director at a station that has a ridiculous amount of jazz that doesn’t get played often enough (Carnegie Mellon University). I am honored to have my picks featured in this listing. Hope you dig on what you’ve heard and dig deeper what you haven’t.
Phil DiPietro here, jja member and writer for Allaboutjazz, submitting my top 10 for ‘04 with links to my articles/reviews. Indulge me in submitting a “top ten sideman appearances” category for 2004; an slight bit of recognition for some stellar, essential performances.
Here are the dozen CDs I listened to over and over this year.
Bill Milkowski, freelance music writer, contributor to Jazz Times and Jazziz, author of “JACO: The Extraordinary And Tragic Life Of Jaco Pastorius”
A baker’s dozen of new and reissued recordings in no particular order.
In no particular order, 10 recordings (+1) that I strongly recommend.
Ryan McDermott is a new member of the JJA. He’s an NYU graduate student and freelance jazz writer (first article: on the JJA Jazz Awards 2004, in what is sadly the last issue of Canada’s Planet Jazz). Living in New Jersey, Ryan adds that he’ll “write anything, really,” and that we should “send him work.”
James Hale is the managing editor of JazzHouse.org and a regular contributor to DownBeat, Coda, Words + Music and the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada.
Let’s call it 10 favorites (plus 5).
Here’s my list, including reissues.
Greetings from Holland. As you see, here’s my favorite 10. I did not include re-issues.
New jazz releases, boxed sets or reissues, and biggest surprises
Since moving to New York five years ago, my relationship to jazz has changed completely. Where recordings once were my primary medium for hearing the music, performance is how I mostly get my jollies now.
David Adler is editor of the JJA’s Jazz Notes journal, as well as a contributor to diverse magazines and The New Republic Online.
Here’s my best of 2004. Top 10 new releases, top 5 reissues and a notation at the end with a few runners-up. This is the format for Jazzviews.co.uk, to which I contribute along with being Contributing Editor at Allaboutjazz.
Here are my 10 picks for the annual Jazz Journalists Association listing.
Here’s my two-cents worth.
Journalist/Photographer C. Andrew Hovan is a regular contributor to All About Jazz, The Jazz Review, Down Beat, and The Cleveland Free Times. He also regularly pens liner note for Criss Cross Jazz.
I had problems coming up with ten that I felt really stood out from the pack. And since I deal most with reissues, that’s what these are.
With the caveat that I have fallen grievously behind on my listening, and thus have no doubt missed some sparkling and irreplaceable diamonds along the way, here are ten disks — listed in no particular order — that provided me with inordinate listening pleasure in 2004.