Rounding up the "Best Jazz of 2010" Lists

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
December 31, 2010
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As 2010 winds down, jazz journalists, DJs, critics and bloggers have been publishing their annual “Best Of" lists, and once again this year, St. Louis Jazz Notes is offering a meta-list with links to all of the “Best Jazz of 2010" lists we can locate.

As in years past, it's alphabetized by writers' names. In those cases when a list was collaborative or presented as a staff-written project, the name of the publication or media outlet is used instead. Here's what's been found so far:

A few additional notes: Once again this year, the NYT's Nate Chinen enlisted some fellow critics in an interesting year-end email dialog about developments and trends in jazz. This year's participants included Chinen, David Adler, Chris Barton, Shaun Brady and Jennifer Odell, and their musings about 2010 were published in 11 parts:

Part 1: Year-Ender: All of the Above

Part 2: Backlash to the Backlash

Part 3: Nonlinear Realities

Part 4: A Locavore Aesthetic

Part 5: Notes From the Woodshed

Part 6: Outside the Usual Places

Part 7: Seeds Being Planted

Part 8: Friending, Tending, Trending

Part 9: What the Hell is Going On with Europe

Part 10: Seriously, Unseriously

Part 11: Year-End: The Set Closer

Also, a tip of the StLJN cap goes to Patrick Jarenwattenon of NPR's A Blog Supreme, who in his post about year-end lists was kind enough to acknowledge and link to StLJN's past meta-listic efforts. His post also revealed some best-of lists I hadn't seen before, which have been incorporated into this compilation, and ABS' “The Year-End List Of Lists 2010," an idiosyncratic recap of jazz events of the last year, also is an enjoyable read.

Regarding StLJN's 2010 meta-list, any other lists that show up in the not-too-distant future will be added as they appear. If you've seen any other 2010 year-end jazz lists that aren't mentioned here, please use the comments (or send me an email) to share the information. And if you like, you also can use the comments to discuss your own favorite jazz releases, shows and moments of 2010.

Last but not least, if you'd like to re-visit StLJN's past “best of" list round-ups, here are the meta-lists for 2007 (parts 1 and 2), 2008 (parts 1 and 2), and 2009.