A quick pre-amble: jazz is so diverse that it’s near-impossible to compare and rank the "best" albums of the year (Editor's note: which is why Nextbop refers to these lists as our "favorites" as opposed to "the best", because words are important). How does one rank Julian Lage, Darcy James Argue, Takuya Kuroda, and Brad Mehldau against each other? The answer of course is that … [Read more...]
Anthony Dean-Harris’ Favorite Jazz Albums of 2016
I had love and specific passion this year. I felt more detached, as many of my dispatches have noted over the last year but particularly in this week of assessment. I felt a listlessness about even completing this list, yet the need to communicate was still there. The need for completeness (in a task that can never be completed) still gnaws at me. I still had to express my … [Read more...]
Nextbop’s Favorite Jazz Albums of 2016
There's no universal theme or overall consensus in jazz this year. No overblown hype machine, no clamoring for a seemingly agreed upon savior, no important trendsetting bucking of past conventions to take on new ones. Artists made art this year, as they do every year, and in the realm of jazz, they made art together. Collaborators collaborated, improvisors improvised. We, … [Read more...]
Ben Wendel – ‘What We Bring’
If there's something to Ben Wendel's signature sound on the tenor saxophone, it has to be one of a circuitous nature. His style of play always seems to loop back in on itself. There's an extra bit of energy in his runs that never seems to worry about taking a few more steps on the scenic route to get to where his ideas ultimately need to go. He'll make loops to move a mere full … [Read more...]