Troy Collins' Best of 2007

Considering the sheer multitude of recordings released in a year's time, narrowing down what amounts to hundreds of recordings heard to a mere handful is never easy. The titles listed below define for me the most exceptional and rewarding albums heard in a year filled with great music.

New Releases

The Bad Plus Prog (Heads Up)

Michael Brecker Pilgrimage (Heads Up)

Nels Cline Singers Draw Breath (Cryptogramophone)

Peter Evans The Peter Evans Quartet (Firehouse 12)

Exploding Star Orchestra We Are All From Somewhere Else (Thrill Jockey)

Satoko Fujii Quartet Bacchus (Muzak)

Human Feel Galore (Skirl)

Mostly Other People Do The Killing Shamokin!!! (Hot Cup)

Michael Musillami Trio w/Mark Feldman The Treatment (Playscape)

Powerhouse Sound Oslo/Chicago: Breaks (Atavistic)

Charles Tolliver Big Band With Love (Blue Note)

Gebhard Ullmann New Basement Research (Soul Note)

New Discoveries

James Carney Green-Wood (Songlines)

Harris Eisenstadt The All Seeing Eye/Octets (Poobah)

Amir ElSaffar Two Rivers (Pi)

Ross Hammond Teakayo Mission (Prescott)

Kneebody Low Electrical Worker (Colortone Media)

Sacks/Opsvik/Maneri/Motian Two Miles a Day (Loyal/Yeah Yeah)

Robert Sabin Romero (Ranula)

Russ Spiegel Chimera (Steeplechase)

Wagner/Drake/Ozaki Trio (Valid)

Historical Reissues

Booker Ervin The Freedom Book (Prestige)

Joe Henderson Power To The People (Milestone)

Joseph Jarman As If It Were The Seasons (Delmark)

Fred Katz Folk Songs For Far Out Folk (Reboot)

Sun Ra The Night Of The Purple Moon (Atavistic)

George Russell Ezz-Thetics (Riverside)