Season’s Greetings! As your dutiful host of Jazz à la Mode, I maintain a fairly breathless pace keeping up with the great music that continues to issue from the jazz world. Here are 45 albums (in alphabetical order) that stood out along the way in 2016. All were prominently featured on New England Public Radio.
Greg Abate & Phil Woods Kindred Spirits Whaling City
Melissa Aldana Back Home Word of Mouth Music
Eric Alexander Second Impression High Note
Harry Allen’s New York Saxophone Band The Candy Men Arbors
Ehud Asherie Shuffle Along Blue Heron
Kenny Barron Trio Book of Intuition Impulse
Bill Charlap Trio Notes From New York Impulse
Etienne Charles San Jose Suite Culture Shock
Evan Christopher Bayou Textures STR
Nels Cline Lovers Blue Note
George Coleman A Master Speaks Smoke Sessions
Stanley Cowell Reminiscent Steeplechase
Dena DeRose United High Note
Dominic Farinacci Short Stories Mack Avenue
Amina Figarova Blue Whisper In + Out
Scott Hamilton & the Jeff Hamilton Trio Live in Bern Capri
Norah Jones Day Breaks Blue Note
Steve Kuhn At This Time Sunnyside
Charles Lloyd & the Marvels I Long to See You Blue Note
Joe Lovano Classic! Live at Newport Blue Note
Brian Lynch Madera Latino Hollistic Music Works
Joe Magnarelli Three on Two Positone
Rene Marie Sound of Red Motema
Brad Mehldau Trio Blues and Ballads Nonesuch
Randy Napolean Soon Mack Avenue
One for All The Third Decade Smoke Sessions
Jason Palmer Beauty’n’Numbers Steeplechase
Ken Peplowski Enrapture Capri
Ralph Peterson & the Curtis Brothers Triangular III Onyx
Enrico Pieranunzi Live at the Village Vanguard CamJazz
Freddie Redd With Due Respect Steeplechase
Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau Nearness Nonesuch
Herlin Riley New Direction Mack Avenue
Renee Rosnes Written in the Rocks Smoke Sessions
Catherine Russell Harlem on My Mind Jazz Village
Edward Simon Trio Latin American Songbook Sunnyside
Bria Skonberg Bria Okeh
Slavic Soul Party Plays Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite Ropeadope
Bill Stewart Space Squid Pirouet
Gregory Tardy Chasing After the Wind Steeplechase
Allen Toussaint American Tunes Nonesuch
Spike Wilner Trio Koan Positone
Phil Woods Quintet Live at the Deer Head Inn Dear Head
Peter Zak Trio Standards Steeplechase
Denny Zeitlin Early Wayne Sunnyside
Local Heroes (2016 releases by New England-based artists)
Christopher Bakriges Clear & Present Critical Theory
Jay Hoggard Harlem Hieroglyphs JVHM
Andy Jaffe Nonet + 4 Arc Playscape
Orice Jenkins Soar Truth Revolution
Michael Musillami and Rich Syracuse Of the Night: Music of Wayne Shorter Playscape
Noah Preminger Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground
Tim Ray Trio Windows Whaling City
Historical Releases and Reissues
Count Basie The Savory Collection/Vol. 2: Jumpin’ at the Woodside iTunes
Paul Butterfield Blues Band Live at the Unicorn 1966 Real Gone Music
Bill Evans Trio Some Other Time Resonance
Erroll Garner Ready Take One Columbia
Coleman Hawkins and Friends The Savory Collection/Vol. 1: Body and Soul iTunes
Shirley Horn Live at the 4 Queens Resonance
Blue Mitchell & Sonny Red Baltmore 1966 Uptown
Various Artists The Complete Bee Hive Sessions Mosaic
Various Artists The Complete Dial Modern Jazz Sessions Mosaic
Lester Young Classic 1936-1947 Count Basie & Lester Young Studio Sessions Mosaic
Books
Beale Street Dynasty by Preston Lauterbach; Norton
Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero by Ed Ward; Chicago Review Press
Rebirth of the Cool: Discovering the Art of Robert James Campbell by Jessica Ferber; powerHouse Books
Conversations in Jazz: The Ralph J. Gleason Interviews; Yale University Press
Whisper Not: The Autobiography of Benny Golson; Temple University Press
Jazz Child: A Portrait of Sheila Jordan by Ellen Johnson; Rowman & Littlefield
Stan Levey: Jazz Heavyweight by Frank R. Hayde; Santa Monica Press
Stories of the Road: 55 Years in the Music Business by Bill Mays
Albert Murray Collected Essays & Memoirs; Library of America
Have Piano…Will Swing! by Hod O’Brien; HodStef Music
Sam Phillips by Peter Guralnick; Little-Brown
Blues All Day Long: The Jimmy Rogers Story by Wayne Goins; Univ of Illinois Press
Concert Highlights
Kenny Barron Trio at the Montreal Jazz Festival
Peter Bernstein and Canadian guitarist Mike Rud at the Montreal Jazz Festival
Noah Preminger Quartet with Dave Douglas at Bushnell Park, Hartford
Bill Charlap Trio at the Iron Horse, Northampton
Esperanza Spalding‘s Emily D+ Evolution, Calvin Theater, Northampton
Bennie Wallace Trio at Integrity in Music, Wethersfield, CT
Taj Mahal at the Springfield Jazz & Roots Festival
Christian Sands Quintet at the New Haven Jazz Festival
Jazzmeia Horn at West Hartford Town Hall
Scott Hamilton & Duke Robillard at Chan’s, Woonsocket, R.I.
Dirty Dozen Brass Band at Gateway City Arts, Holyoke
Tony Bennett‘s 90th Birthday Concert at the St. George Theater, Staten Island, NY
NEPR’s Second Annual Jazz Holiday Party
121 Club performances by the Jim Argiro Quintet; Nancy Janosen with Marion Groves; the Jeff Holmes Big Band with Dawning Holmes
Mai Cramer Memorial Blues Concert at the Regent Theater in Arlington with Joe Beard, Sugar Ray and the Bluetones, and Luther Johnson
Northampton Jazz Workshop’s weekly performances at the City Sports Grille with the Green Street Trio and guest artists Grant Stewart, Steve Davis, Ralph LaLama, Erena Terakubo, Gary Smulyan, Karrin Allyson, Felipe Salles, Jovan Alexandre, Warren Chiasson, Erik Lawrence, Greg Abate, and about 35 others.