Adrianna TanStarting a #music thread to share the music I've loved this year. Whether or not it was actually released this year.
I'm making a conscious choice to move away from 'best of' anything lists, but towards 'stuff I love'. Here goes:
Kahlil El'Zabar, legendary Chicago jazz musician, had a great album called "A Time for Healing" that connects jazz with its African roots. The best way to describe it is 'healing'. This is clear on the track 'Urban Shaman'.
Its cover of 'Summertime' is also special.
I bought an album on Bandcamp: https://kahilelzabar-is.bandcamp.com/album/a-time-for-healing
A Time For Healing, by Kahil El'Zabar Quartet
9 track album
I don't usually listen to Americana or folk at all, but Allison Russell's music defies genres.
Her album "Outside Child" is transformational. Part memoir, part journey, this is the first album that I've heard that is almost entirely about SA. Yet it defies all expectations.
Watch her on Tiny Desk: https://www.npr.org/2022/09/14/1121277047/allison-russell-tiny-desk-concert
Ahmad Jamal's lost Paris recordings were recently issued by the French publisher: I bought a vinyl, it's so precious!
Stream it here also:
Live in Paris (1971), by Ahmad Jamal
3 track album
Here's a collaboration I never expected: Khruangbin made an album with Vieux Farka Touré.
Ali, by Vieux Farka Touré & Khruangbin
8 track album
If you've liked Mongolian music like The Hu, check out Mongolian metal.
MIIIST's album on Bandcamp is pay what you want. (Caution: loud and amazing)
Let it ever be remembered…, by MIIIST
4 track album
As a clarinet player myself, Anat Cohen has been such an inspiration. She's been called the greatest living clarinet jazz player, for good reason! I had an opportunity to see her live at SFJazz this year. Took my breath away.
This year, she released Quartetinho. Listen to it here:
Cuban big band Orquesta Akokán's 2021 album '16 Rayos' has been playing on repeat all of 2022 and will probably continue well through the next year.
Fearless and intimate are the best words for this album.
16 Rayos, by Orquesta Akokán
9 track album
The guitarist Jun Xiao is the first Chinese musician to have an album on Blue Note. There's a bit of emo, trip hop, rock... I love it.
There was a big band x Chinese folk x jazz scene in China in the 20s, you can still see snippets of it in Shanghai. But the contemporary stuff, I want to learn more about. Jun Xiao is a sterling place to start.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/atypical-airship/1644243906
South African jazz has such a storied history.
Nduduzo Makhathini's "In The Spirit of Ntu" explores indigeneity, ancestry, spirituality, with urgency and beauty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y62yYslF3n8&list=PLXeeNKNC4Ws9hL5n6GLm0yh1OuM6k2Es1
Nduduzo Makhathini - Unonkanyamba (Visualizer)
Queen G is a Kuwaiti hip hop star. Many people compare her to the other female rapper who is now an anti-vaxxer, but Queen G is better.
Sadly, there's only been a bunch of singles. Happily, it's magical. The video is cool too.
كوين جي - عبقر || QUEEN G - Genius
Tom Skinner's "Voices of Bishara" EP is a winner if you're a fan of his other work on Sons of Kemet. Also moving, a little dissonant, but always beautfiul
billy woods' Aethiopes: one of the best hiphop albums this year, for sure. Poetic, brave and meaningful, like great hiphop is.
Aethiopes, by billy woods
13 track album
Mr. Completely@skinnylatte if you haven't heard it, I think his newer one Maps with Kenny Segal is great too, especially the jazz-heavy tracks which have a splintered, surreal sound to them. And he's on Shabaka Hutchings' Kofi Flexx project, and apparently Shabaka will be on his next album under a pseudonym, that's a cool pairing (Shabaka is also on that Tom Skinner album you posted of course)
@mrcompletely Thank you! Will check it out