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John Kelman's Best Live Shows of 2014

By John Kelman
December 20, 2014
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Less travel in 2014, due to an unexpected health problem, meant fewer shows than seen in the past half dozen years, but there was still plenty from which to choose for this 2014 list of some of the best live music heard from Montreal to Tallinn, San Francisco to Stavanger and, of course, at home in Ottawa, Canada—where, in addition to another outstanding year for the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, some off-season programming also brought some outstanding music from the harshest cold of the winter to the latter part of a particularly beautiful fall. In chronological sequence, here are 20 of the 60 live shows experienced this year that stood out above the rest, though there truly wasn't a weak performance amongst them:

1. February 15, 2014: John Abercrombie Quartet
TD Ottawa Jazz Festival Winter Festival, Ottawa, Canada

2. April 19, 2013: Noor Eesti Jazz
Jazzkaar 2014, Tallinn, Estonia

3. April 22, 2014: Marius Neset Quartet
Jazzkaar 2014, Tallinn, Estonia

4. April 24, 2014: Phronesis
Jazzahead! 2014, Bremen, Germany

5. April 25, 2014: Christine Jensen Orchestra
Jazzahead! 2014, Bremen, Germany

6. May 7, 2014: Ron Carter Golden Striker Trio
Mai Jazz 2014, Stavanger, Norway

7. May 8, 2014: In the Country /w Frode Grytten
Mai Jazz 2014, Stavanger, Norway

8. May 9, 2014: Pixel
Mai Jazz 2014, Stavanger, Norway

9. May 10, 2014: Mario Piacentini Sextet /w Gianluigi Trovesi
Mai Jazz 2014, Stavanger, Norway

10. May 10, 2014: Arild Andersen Trio
Mai Jazz 2014, Stavanger, Norway

11. June 23, 2014: Bill Frisell: Guitar in the Space Age!l
TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ottawa, Canada

12. June 24, 2014: Julian Lage & Nels Cline
TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ottawa, Canada

13. June 25, 2014: Anat Fort
TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ottawa, Canada

14. June 26, 2014: Norma Winstone
TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ottawa, Canada

15. June 27, 2014: Partisans
TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ottawa, Canada

16. June 30, 2014: Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet
Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, Montreal, Canada

17. June 30, 2014: Tord Gustavsen Quartet
Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, Montreal, Canada

18. July 3, 2014: Tigran: Shadow Theatre
Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, Montreal, Canada

19. October 3-4, 2014: King Crimson
The Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA

20. November 12, 2014: Pat Metheny Unity Group
Centrepointe Theatre, Ottawa, Canada

Photo Credit: John Kelman

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