Dan Bilawsky's Best Releases Of 2015

By DAN BILAWSKY
December 10, 2015
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A theme for this year's list? How about "Jazz Unbound?" I initially planned on placing my picks into different categories, as I've often done in the past. But I thought better of it. The releases that caught my ear in 2015 cover the entire spectrum of possibility—winning straight-ahead outings, audacious affairs, dynamic debuts, intimate encounters, stellar suites, extravagant aural feasts, sublime solo statements, everything else in between—so why box them all up in separate places? I had the pleasure of covering more than one hundred and fifty albums for All About Jazz this year. These—in no rank, order, or category—are the two dozen that made a lasting impact:

Maria Schneider Orchestra The Thompson Fields (ArtistShare)	Chris McNulty Eternal (Palmetto Records)	Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Project Lines Of Color (ArtistShare)
Mike Holober Balancing Act (Palmetto Records)	Oded Lev-Ari Threading (Anzic Records)	David Berkman Old Friends And New Friends (Palmetto Records)
Fred Hersch Solo (Palmetto Records)	Joe Locke Love Is A Pendulum (Motéma Music)	Marshall Gilkes Köln (Alternate Side Records)
Brian Landrus Trio The Deep Below (BlueLand Records)	Duduka Da Fonseca Trio Jive Samba (Zoho Records)	Charles Lloyd Wild Man Dance (Blue Note Records)
Mary Halvorson Meltframe (Firehouse 12 Records)	Joyce Moreno/Kenny Werner Poesia (Pirouet Records)	Curtis Nowosad Dialectics (Cellar Live)
Katie Thiroux Introducing Katie Thiroux (Basskat Records)	Liberty Ellman Radiate (Pi Recordings)	Jeff Cosgrove / Frank Kimbrough / Martin Wind Conversations With Owls (Self Produced)
Henry Threadgill Zooid In For A Penny, In For A Pound (Pi Recordings)	Rudresh Mahanthappa Bird Calls (ACT Music)	Zhenya Strigalev Robin Goodie (Whirlwind Recordings Ltd.)
Kenny Werner The Melody (Pirouet Records)	Laurie Antonioli & Richie Beirach Varuna (Origin Records)	Sullivan Fortner Aria (Impulse Records)