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Article: Year in Review

Jack Bowers' Best Releases Of 2020

by Jack Bowers
December 21, 2020

Given the angst and turmoil of this most unusual year, I wasn't expecting much in terms of quantity or quality of jazz recordings. Surprise! As it turns out, 2020 was a banner year with a large number of superlative albums regularly arriving for review. A dozen of the best I've heard are named here, and the ...

Article: Year in Review

R.J. DeLuke's Best Releases of 2020

by R.J. DeLuke
December 20, 2020

Everyone knows how odd 2020 was. Nonetheless, artists around the globe put out some outstanding music as struggles to meet the new challenges continued. Creativity reigns supreme. There was a lot of music I didn't get to here, but here are some recordings that registered high marks. Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride ...

Article: Year in Review

John Chacona's Best Releases Of 2020

by John Chacona
December 17, 2020

It's tempting to say that this was the year the music died, and for clubs, concert and festival stages, that might generally be true. Yet, in this most confounding and contrary of years it's thoroughly fitting that as live music grew silent, recordings roared with eloquence, fury and, yes, beauty. Here are the releases that most ...

Article: Year in Review

C. Michael Bailey's Best Releases of 2020

by C. Michael Bailey
December 16, 2020

We are experiencing an existential fold in history, one where we do not even realize its gravity because it has been so cheapened by ourselves. The only thing that rises above all of this is art, and in particular, music. It is but grace that these artists provided us a gift we could never possibly warrant. ...

Article: Year in Review

Mike Jurkovic's Best Releases Of 2020

by Mike Jurkovic
December 14, 2020

Here we are on the heels of Annus Horriblis still clinging to traditions both minuscule and grand like year end best of lists. So in the spirit of the season and survival, here's a 2020 playlist. Listen to these in this order or random play and perhaps the year in retrospect won't appear so damn bad. ...

Article: Year in Review

Troy Dostert's Best Releases of 2020

by Troy Dostert
December 12, 2020

2020 will be remembered as a year of resilience. And surely a part of that story will be the fortitude displayed by musicians of all stripes, who have endeavored creatively to manage the challenges of a hollowed-out economy and a global pandemic with innovative business platforms and novel approaches to recording and content delivery. The jazz ...

Article: Year in Review

Mark Corroto's Best Releases Of 2020

by Mark Corroto
December 12, 2020

Goodbye to 2020 and for the most part good riddance. Unless of course, we are talking about great music. Hopefully, your self isolation bubble had good sounds. Keeping in mind the global pandemic will not end soon, here's a list of my top 18 releases for 2020. I hope they can ease the pain of social ...

Article: Year in Review

Friedrich Kunzmann's Best Releases Of 2020

by Friedrich Kunzmann
December 10, 2020

Coronavirus, lockdown, election recount, fake news, inspector Javert, Hans Gruber and Lord Voldemort. So, now that most of the uncomfortable topics are dealt with, let's get to the joyful part of 2020, namely the music. As is increasingly the case during the course of the 21st century, the year was filled to the brim with it. ...

Article: Year in Review

Karl Ackermann’s Best Releases of 2020

by Karl Ackermann
December 9, 2020

2020 abridged: A staggering loss of lives and livelihoods. We had worldwide social unrest, wildfires, locust swarms of Biblical proportions, killer hornets, killer drones, kids in cages; an impeachment, an election, an attempted insurrection. Oh, and Poland accidentally invaded the Czech Republic. It was not exactly the Gilded Age. Yet, amid doom-scrolling, the creative music community ...

Article: Year in Review

Dan McClenaghan's Best Releases Of 2020

by Dan McClenaghan
December 8, 2020

In a year that will be remembered for the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic, the music survived, thrived even, not on the bandstand playing for live audiences, but in the studio, socially distanced, in many cases collaborating from afar with swapped sound files. Musicians with time on their hands were especially inspired. These are the 2020 ...