Any year with the release of new music by John Coltrane and
the classic quartet is a good year for Jazz. If that wasn’t enough the Masked
Wife and I were blessed with seeing Cecile McLorin Salvant twice this year at
both Cal State Northridge (which for the second year has an excellent schedule
of Jazz concerts) and Catalina Bar and Grill. The Jazz Bakery finally has a
permanent home at the Moss Theater in Santa Monica which means far more top
shelf Jazz in LA. We just saw Charles Lloyd and Gerald Clayton at the Moss and
Kurt Elling will be there on Friday. There were also two welcome additions to
the LA Jazz scene with Sam First down near LAX and The Write-Off Room on
Ventura Blvd. Finally, we had a chance
to see the great Mary Stallings at Vitellos. Haven’t seen her in over ten
years.
It's still not New York City but Jazz is happening in LA and
go out and support it.
Here are ten Jazz albums that came out this year (or first
came to my attention) that I would recommend as a good representation of what
2018 had to offer:
Renee Rosnes “Beloved the Sky”
JD Allen “Love Stone”
Emmet Cohen “Masters Legacy Series Volume 2: Ron Carter”
John Coltrane “Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album”
Kenny Barron Quintet “Concentric Circles”
Myra Medford’s Snowy Egret “The Other Side of Air”
Cecile McLorin Salvant “The Window”
Azar Lawrence “Elementals”
Keith Jarrett-Gary Peacock-Jack DeJohnette “After The Fall”
Black Art Jazz Collective “Armor of Pride”
There was also lots of fine Reggae Music in 2018. May I
recommend these five:
Beres Hammond “Never Ending”
King Tubby Presents Dennis Brown “Tracks of Life”
Bitty McLean “Love Restart”
Kabaka Pyramid “Kontraband”
Alborosie “Unbreakable: Alborosie Meets the Wailers”
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