Derek Taylor's Best of 2006

Another year gone and an especially bountiful one for excellent jazz and improvised music. Paring down to a modest number was particularly difficult to accomplish, but here are several handfuls of my favorite releases from 2006.

Thomas Chapin Trio Ride (Playscape)

Trio 3 Time of Being (Intakt)

Bill & Kenny Barron Quartet Live at Cobi's, Vol. 2 (Steeplechase)

Buck Hill Relax (Severn)

Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet Live in Lisbon (Clean Feed)

The Gauci Trio We're Coming Just One Time (Cadence Jazz)

Roscoe Mitchell Trio No Side Effects (RogueArt)

Ellery Eskelin Quiet Music (Prime Source)

Iskra 1903 Chapter Two: 1981-3 (Emanem)

Cooper-Moore/Assif Tsahar/Chad Taylor Digital Primitives (Hopscotch)

Loren Conners Night Through (Family Vineyard)

Brötzmann/Mangelsdorff/Sommer Pica Pica (Atavistic)

Evan Parker Topography of the Lungs (Psi)

Roswell Rudd Blown Bone (Emanem)

Rashaan Roland Kirk Brotherman in the Fatherland (Hyena)

Fred Anderson Timeless (Delmark)

Larry Kart Jazz In Search of Itself (Yale University Press)