the albums of 2024
My first substack post since first installment of cataract surgery a week ago (on right eye)—with strict instructions of NO SCREEN TIME AT ALL for first week, then no more than 2–3 hours a day for the second week. I wrote the list before the op, and just added the Youtube links today. Forgive me the lack of commentary here, and reduced posting over the next couple months (left eye to be done end-January).
It has been a strange year, when, as I reached the ripe old age of 74, whatever illusions I still harbored about “western civilization” died on the killing fields of Gaza. Perhaps that is why I was more drawn to meditative solo piano or quiet jazz trios and quartets this year, with my song of the year being Caroline Shaw and So Percussion’s haunting deconstruction of Schubert’s beautiful An die Musik. Adam Sliwinski of So Percussion likens it in his sleevenotes to “the ghost of a structure, like a ruined building or an ancient underwater city.” Seems apt for the times.
That said, who can resist the joyfulness of Ezra Collective or the Sun Ra Arkestra—led by the irrepressible Marshall Allen, still going strong at 100? Or the sublime lyricism of Charles Lloyd, who is just hitting his prime at 86?
Do not go gentle into that good night.
PROBABLY NOT JAZZ TOP 10
Album of the year
Hurray for the Riff Raff The Past Is Still Alive
Finalists
Adrianne Lenker Bright Future
English Teacher This Could be Texas
Caroline Shaw & So Percussion Rectangles and Circumstances
King Hannah Big Swimmer
Mdou Moctar Funeral for Justice
Jason Isbell Live at the Ryman vol 2
T-Bone Burnett The Other Side
Kim Deal Nobody Loves You More
Waxahatchee Tiger’s Blood
MAYBE JAZZ TOP 10
Album of the year
Jeff Parker & the EVA IVtet The Way Out of Easy
Finalists
Wadada Leo Smith and Amina Claudine Myers Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens
Nala Sinephro Endlessness
Tyshawn Sorey Trio The Susceptible Now
Nubya Garcia Odyssey
Ezra Collective Dance, No One’s Watching
Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, Tyshawn Sorey Compassion
Walter Smith III Three of Us Are from Houston and Reuben Isn’t
Sun Ra Arkestra Lights on a Satellite
Charles Lloyd The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow
REISSUES/FIRST ISSUES OF OLDER RECORDINGS
Jimmie Dale and the Flatlanders All American Music
Miles Davis in France 1963 & 1964
Keith Jarrett, Paul Motian, Gary Peacock The Old Country
I ALSO LIKED
Philip Glass Solo (2024)
Jon Batiste Beethoven Blues
Ryuichi Sakamoto Opus
Ambrose Akenmusire Owl Song
Kamasi Washington Fearless Movement
SONG OF THE YEAR
Caroline Shaw/So Percussion To Music (An die Musik, Schubert)
Finalists
Kamasi Washington Prologue
Kim Deal Coast
Hurray for the Riff Raff Buffalo
Ezra Collective feat. Yazmin Lacey God Gave Me Feet for Dancing
English Teacher Albert Road