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Nenad Georgievski's Best Releases of 2016

By Nenad Georgievski
December 23, 2016
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There is a poem by a Russian poet Velimir Khlebnikov titled "When Horses Die" that I came across to by accident. It goes like "When horses die they breathe when grasses die, they wither, when suns die they go out, and when people die they sing songs." For many musicians, the year 2016 was final and their swan songs reflected their thoughts and emotions about the inevitable final curtain-call. The best records of the year 2016 reflected that issue on mortality or tragedy starting from singers David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen to Nick Cave to name but a few. A plethora of writers, directors and actors have left us this year reminding how fleeting life actually is. To me it was Bowie's Blackstar was the record that marked the year 2016. It was a hard year on every front and it yielded excellent new recordings, reissues, books, and videos. It also marked the dominance of vinyl record over digital releases. The Top 10 of everything is always a process of sifting through an avalanche of records and panning for gold. It was the best of times and it was the worst of times. Here is hoping that 2017 will be better.

Best Releases

David Bowie Blackstar (Sony Music)	Leonard Cohen You Want it Darker (Columbia Records)	Keith Jarrett A Multitude of Angels (ECM Records)
Vasil Hadzimanov Alive (Moonjune Records)	Teresa Salgueiro O Horizonte (Lemon)	Ben Monder Amorphae (ECM Records)
Mariza Mundo (Nonesuch)	Tigran Hamasyan Atmospheres (ECM)	The Rolling Stones Blue and Lonesome (Polydor Records)
Sting 57th and 9th (A&M Records)

Top 10 Reissues

Buena Vista Social Club Buena Vista Social Club (World Circuit)	Steve Reich The ECM Recordings (ECM)	Miles Davis Miles Smiles (Music on Vinyl)
Ali Farka Toure with Ry Cooder Talking Timbuktu (World Circuit)	Holger Czukay Movies (Groenland Record)	Ibrahim Ferrer Buena Vista Social Club presents Ibrahim Ferrer (World Circuit)
Spiro Repeater (Real World Records)	King Crimson On (and Off) the Road (Panegyric Recordings)	Kerouac and Allen Jazz for the Beat Generation (Rhino)
Jaco Pastorious Jaco Pastorius ( Epic/Legacy)

Books

Jim Marshall Jazz Festivall (Reel Art Press)	Daniel Krämer Bob Dylan: A Year and a Day (Taschen)	Steve Schapiro Bowie: Photographs by Steve Schapiro (Powerhouse Books)
Alan Light What Happened Miss Simone (Atria)	Peter Hook Substance: Inside New Order (Reel Art Press)

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