Top 10 listings

This the season for the outpouring of Top 10 lists, and their many variations, for jazz, world events, etc. The jazz lists always have a lot of variation depending on the individual reviewer's personal tastes, as well as what he or she had a chance to hear during the year.* Bottom line, all of these are very subjective.

The choices below (aside from top 10 new songs of the year) were submitted to the Jazz Times and NPR Music 2013 compilations. (The latter is a Francis Davis-produced poll that previously was published by The Village Voice and Rhapsody.com).

As I begin preparing my review of significant events and trends in jazz in 2013 for posting on allaboutjazz.com, I thought I'd share my "best of 2013" lists. *Always keep in mind the above caveats.

The 10 best new jazz releases of 2013

1. Wayne Shorter Quartet, Without a Net (Blue Note)
2. Paolo Fresu Devil Quartet, Desertico (Tŭk / Bonsaï / Otá)
3. Patricia Barber, Smash (Concord Jazz)
4. Pascal Le Boeuf, Pascal’s Triangle (Nineteen-Eight)
5. Gregory Porter, Liquid Spirit (Blue Note)
6. Marc Cary, For the Love of Abbey (Motéma)
7. Giacomo Gates, Miles Tones (Savant)
8. Tierney Sutton, After Blue (BFM)
9. Scott Hamilton, Remembering Billie (Blue Duchess)
10. Cécile McLorin Salvant, WomanChild, (Mack Avenue)
 

The best historical/reissues of 2013 (includes any recordings made over 10 years ago, whether newly released or merely reissued):

1. Miles Davis Quintet, Live in Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 (Columbia/Legacy)
2. Tommy Flanagan, Jaki Byard, The Magic of 2 (Resonance)
3. George Shearing and Don Thompson, George Shearing At Home (Jazzknight)
4. Bennett / Brubeck, The White House Sessions, Live 1962 (Columbia/RPM/Legacy)
5. Miles Davis, The Original Mono Recordings (Columbia/Legacy)

The 10 best new songs from CDs released in 2013, listed alphabetically:

-   Patricia Barber, “Missing” from Smash (Concord Jazz)
-   Ian Carey, “The Thread” from Roads & Codes (Kabocha)
-   Bebo Ferra, “Poetto’s Sky” from Paolo Fresu Devil Quartet’s Desertico (Tŭk / Bonsaï / Otá)
-   Kenny Garrett, “Brother Brown” from Pushing The World Away (Mack Avenue)
-   Lisa Hilton, “Stepping into Paradise” from Getaway, (Ruby Slippers)
-   Pascal Le Boeuf, “Song for Ben Van Gelder” from Pascal’s Triangle (Nineteen-Eight)
-   Wlodek Pawlik, “Follow the Stars” from Randy Brecker Plays Wlodek Pawlik’s Night in Calisia (Summit)
-   Gregory Porter, “Liquid Spirit” from Liquid Spirit (Blue Note)
-   Hristo Vitchev, “Willing to Live” from Familiar Fields (First Orbit Sounds)
-   Wayne Shorter, Danilo Perez, John Patitucci and Brian Blade, “Zero Gravity to the 10^th Power” from Wayne Shorter Quartet, Without a Net (Blue Note)

2013’s best vocal recording:
-   Patricia Barber, Smash (Concord Jazz)                                         

2013’s best Latin/Brazilian jazz recordings, listed alphabetically:

-   Gabriel Alegría’s Afro-Peruvian Sextet, City of Kings (Saponegro)

-   Charles Flores, Impressions of Graffiti (Dafnison Music)

-   Paulo Morello-Tizian Jost-Erivelton Silva, Afternoon in Rio (In + Out)

-   Michele Rosewoman, Michele Rosewoman’s New Yor-Uba: A Musical Celebration of Cuba in America (Advance Dance)

-   Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet, Latin Jazz-Jazz Latin (Patois)

2013's best jazz-related DVD

-   Miles Davis, Miles Davis with Quincy Jones and the Gil Evans Orchestra Live at Montreaux 1991 (Eagle Rock)

2013’s best books about jazz:

1. Paul de Barros, “Shall We Play That One Together? – The Life and Art of Jazz Piano Legend Marian McPartland” (St. Martin’s Press)

2. Terry Teachout, “Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington” (Gotham).

3. Marc Myers, “Why Jazz Happened” (University of California Press)

4. Paul Combs, “Dameronia: The Life and Music of Tadd Dameron” (University of Michigan Press)