Jeff Dayton-Johnson's Best Releases of 2013

Every year the list gets longer and more heterogeneous. There are blockbusters and obscure little gems, loud jazz and quiet jazz, hip hop and kora music, some of it downright unclassifiable. Which is fine. "Junku," a 1984 track anthologized on Herbie Hancock's spectacular box set below, is in fact both hip hop and kora music! In an interview with the New York Times earlier this year, Hancock said, "The thing that keeps jazz alive, even if it's under the radar, is that it is so free and so open to not only lend its influence to other genres, but to borrow and be influenced by other genres. That's the way it breathes." And when Hancock was accorded presidential honors a few weeks later, rapper Snoop Dogg (heard on the Robert Glasper record listed below) told those assembled, "Herbie, we love you. Thank you for creating hip-hop."

These are the records I kept listening to all year (in alphabetical order). I don't pretend that they're the best of the year. Indeed, I'm still discovering great records from 2012, 2011, and so on, and I'm sure that there will be more great 2013 releases I haven't heard yet. (In fact, there are a few late-2012 discs on this list—see if you can spot them.) When you're listening for the kind of cross-pollination Hancock is referring to, you have to consider lots of records at once. Listen to them in combinations of three or four, and you'll be as sanguine as I am about the vibrancy of the scene—or scenes.

Berserk! Berserk! (RareNoise)	Blu York (Nature Sounds)	The Caravan The Caravan (Self Produced)
Terri Lyne Carrington Money Jungle (Concord Jazz)	Chance the Rapper Acid Rap (Self Produced)	The Claudia Quintet September (Cuneiform)
Manu Codjia, Géraldine Laurent & Christophe Marguet Looking for Parker (Bee Jazz)	Criolo e Emicida Ao Vivo (Universal Brasil)	Miles Davis Live in Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series, vol. 2 (Sony)
Doctor Magnum Live at Red Square (Self Produced)	Satoko Fujii Gen Himmel (Libra)	Robert Glasper Black Radio 2 (Blue Note)
Herbie Hancock The Complete Columbia Album Collection 1972- 1988 (Sony)	Ka The Night's Gambit (Iron Works)	Chris Kelsey The Electric Miles Project (Self Produced)
Bassekou Kouyate Jama Ko (Out/Here)	Hélène Labarrière Désordre (Innacor)	Magic Malik Tranz Denied (Bee Jazz)
Ondatrópica Ondatrópica Soundway	Orchestre National de Jazz Piazzola! (Jazz Village)	Run the Jewels Run the Jewels (Fools Gold)
Sao Paulo Underground Beija Flors Velho e Sujo (Cuneiform)	Wayne Shorter Without A Net (Blue Note)	Ballaké Sissoko At Peace (Six Degrees)
Sly & the Family Stone Higher! (Epic/Legacy)	Jonathan Suazo Extracts of a Desire (Self Produced)	Craig Taborn Chants (ECM)
Various Artists Rough Guide to African Disco (Rough Guide)	Various Artists Salsa de la Bahía (Patois)	Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Jazz Latin (Patois)
Kanye West Yeezus (Def Jam)	Steven Wilson The Raven That Refused To Sing (Kscope)	Mike Wofford It's Personal (Self Produced)

Comments