1. VIJAY IYER TRIO Historicity (ACT) Those who admire a lot of jazz want historical synthesis like a child of divorced parents wants a family reunion. Why cant there be a new jazz trio that does it all one thats flexible, intuitive and strategic, not lugubrious, arid or jammy-boring, and a repository of postwar piano-trio lessons, from Ahmad Jamal to free jazz and beyond? And why cant it go hard into repertory, covering M.I.A., Leonard Bernstein, Julius Hemphill, Stevie Wonder and Andrew Hill? Well, there is, and it can, and it did.
2. BILL CALLAHAN Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle (Drag City) On a good day Bill Callahan can send a lot of lyricists to the showers, and this was a good day. Past his old bile now, hes moved into tough love and pared-down insight over a beautiful, stubborn kind of post-folk, sweetened with strings.
3. MARCUS STRICKLAND TRIO Idiosyncrasies (Strick Muzik) A bright and sturdy saxophone-trio record tenor, bass and drums by a young musician whos absorbed his Joe Henderson and Branford Marsalis yet never sounds overstudied.
2. BILL CALLAHAN Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle (Drag City) On a good day Bill Callahan can send a lot of lyricists to the showers, and this was a good day. Past his old bile now, hes moved into tough love and pared-down insight over a beautiful, stubborn kind of post-folk, sweetened with strings.
3. MARCUS STRICKLAND TRIO Idiosyncrasies (Strick Muzik) A bright and sturdy saxophone-trio record tenor, bass and drums by a young musician whos absorbed his Joe Henderson and Branford Marsalis yet never sounds overstudied.
