I have always found Slate to be an interesting read – and in particular their music coverage is very good. I had missed many of these and on a listen through the samples have ordered 3 already.
Dig in, fellow jazzheads!
Slate – 12 best Jazz albums of 2021
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Very tempted by Other Worlds and the Montreux years.
Thanks for posting – never heard of Slate.
I can only echo SteveT’s sentiments.
A very interesting, well-annotated little list.
I hadn’t heard of the Nina Simone Montreux collection. It sounds intriguing.
The Nina Simone is fab. There are others in the Montreux collection from Etta James, Marianne Faithfull and Muddy Waters. My only slight gripe is they are taken from different performances over the years, I prefer live albums to document a single performance.
I jumped in a bought the Nina Simone and Other Worlds cd’s. That Nina Simone is fabulous – I particularly wanted for the versions of Little Girl Blues and Stars which are both fantastic.
I discovered Thewickedsound.com website this week and will definitely be revisiting.
This is their top jazz albums of 2021
https://thewickedsound.com/the-best-jazz-albums-2021/
Number 31, Kansas Smittys, featured in my top 20. I’ve only heard a few of the others.
I’ve just bought the No.2 album in the Wicked Sound list, Malcolm Jiyane Tree-O’s “Umdali”
Haven’t played it yet!
Thanks for the heads up: definitely tempting items there.
Slate is very good by & large. I first became aware of it/them some years ago when Donald Fagen mentioned he’d done an interview for them.
I don’t read the site much, but their podcasts are great- specifically the Slate Culture Gabfest. Their finger is assuredly on the pulse & their endorsements are first class.
Some interesting listening in that Slate list. One or two that I already like and some to explore.
The Wickedsound list looks really interesting too. Some I already know but plenty of others to explore in there.
Cheers.
Jazz is booming!
This Slate list is America orientated and the Wickedsound one more global. Both are excellent. In the meantime, the Brits continue to produce superb music.
Has there ever been a better time to be a lover of Jazz? Even when Miles and Coltrane were at their most cutting edge, there wasn’t the breadth & depth of music as there is now.
And then there’s the top 464 jazz albums of the year….
https://hullworks.net/jazzpoll/21/totals-new.php
This is drawn from a poll of individual jazz critic’s favourite 2021 releases – I think the only UK writer involved is the esteemed Richard Williams.
Blimey!
That list should keep me busy till February at least!
If there had been a higher proportion of UK writers, I’m sure that the Emma-Jane Thackray album “Yellow” would’ve been somewhere in the Top 464 jazz albums of the year…