Rehearsing The Blues

2011, Part 1: What I Listened To

You may have already read the "Top Ten" list I published a few weeks ago here on RTB. If you didn't, or if you want to read it again, don't bother looking - it's gone.

Thinking about my picks (which I was dissatisfied with even as I hit "publish"), I came to the conclusion that a Top Ten list is too narrow a field. A good jazz critic listens to all kinds of music over the course of a year, and every time he hits "play" on his iPod is just as important as every other time, whether it's a new release he's hearing for the first time or an old favorite from Miles, Coltrane or Monk.

So this is my "What I Listened To" list, comprising all the albums, new or old, jazz or not, that really stayed with me over the course of the year. One criterion was that it changed the course of my listening in a major way or was listened to more than other albums. This excludes most of the CDs I actually reviewed this year- so if you want to know what I think of all the 2011 CDs people are writing about on the jazz blogosphere around this time that aren't on this list, check out this, this, this, this, this, or this. Another Roundup (#7) is about to be published.

All finished? Okay.

Benny Carter, Additions To Further Definitions (1966)

Billie Holiday, All Or Nothing At All (1957)

Stan Getz, At The Shrine (1955)

Charles Mingus, At UCLA (1965)

Roundup #5 (Jazz/Hip-Hop)

^ Casey Veggies

James Carter, At The Crossroads (Decca/EmArcy)

There’s no doubt that At The Crossroads, the new James Carter organ trio album on Emarcy, is competent, interesting and well-recorded. I want to give it a good review, believe me. And far be it from me to tell anyone how to make their music. But the fact is that an album like At The Crossroads is a step backwards for organ trio music. 1958 was a great year, don’t get me wrong, but it’s 2011, and we’ve already had Larry Young show us what the potential of organ-based music can be. Before 1964, At The Crossroads was the epitome of funky, hard-driving hard-bop. But, as I said, it is definitely no longer before 1964.

Do you want an album that will take you back to the good old days? This is it. But if you want to hear what an organ trio can really do, buy Into Somethin’ or Unity by Larry Young.

The Song Book

Read this. Ethan Iverson has compiled a list of favorite jazz and classical books (excepting biographies) over at Do The Math. I've wanted to do some jazz book reviews here at RTB for a long time, and this is the perfect nudge. As way of an introduction, here's my own list of favorite jazz books (including biographies and repeats from Ethan, and in no particular order):

Visions Of Jazz, Gary Giddins. Giddins can be annoying, but more often he isn't, and I think this was his high water mark (the essay on Ella Fitzgerald is especially good). Much, much better than the recent Jazz.

Being Prez, Dave Gelly. Short, sweet, this is a balanced and insightful look at Lester Young, who is too often oversimplified.

The Jazz Ear, Coltrane: The Story Of A Sound, Ben Ratliff. Ratliff is one of the best critics around, and these are especially good. It's fun to watch Ornette Coleman dodge Ben's questions in The Jazz Ear (one of the best books of interviews after Notes And Tones), and while no book can really do Coltrane justice, The Story Of A Sound tracks the saxophonist's influence on a more general scale than, say, Ashley Kahn does.

Ten From '10 (My Best-Of)

Every critic does it. We all spend hours poring over the past twelve months in music, re-reading our reviews, recalling (or attempting to recall) first impressions, obsessions, the discs we put on the shelf and those we sent to our friends. No matter how many hours we spend, though, we always regret our choices once the ball drops and the new year has begun. So, in the end, the annual ritual of compiling a Top Ten or Top Twenty or Top Anything is pretty meaningless. But hey, it's lots of fun. Here's mine: