Just in time for your shopping lists, and just before you might, I hope, have some time off and can spend some of your evenings these dark days listening to fine music, here are my choices for the best jazz albums of 2022. I make this list because I think lists are useful, and year-end ones help focus the mind both because December 31 is a convenient cutoff date (though this list is being written a month prior) and, again, because there’s the possi-bilities of those elusive windows of free time.
These choices are personal, of course, and I know from talking with other critics and also the representatives for some artists and labels that some of my choices are idiosyn-cratic. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but keep that in mind if you’re trying to gauge my taste against what yours might be. I can be harsh or kind in unexpected ways, but that’s not because I have any preconceived idea of how an album, or jazz in general, should be. I take things on their own terms, and that means an album where the musicians, for example, just want to play the shit out of standards, and do so, is to me a great album, while another that is organized around a high concept, something political or thematic, say, and that sounds great and has great playing but doesn’t convey the concept, is a failure. One of those exam-ples meets the goals it set out, the other doesn’t, and that’s the main thing, issues of style and personal pleasure are secondary.
That explains my first choice, and to my ears it is the clear best jazz album of 2022, and that’s because the musicians meet their goals at a high level: Home from Song Yo Jeon and Vincius Gomes. The playing on it is exceptional, full of imagination, style, and vitality, and considering that the only two instruments are voice and acoustic guitar, the variety of mu-sical structures and ideas is remarkable. It’s also—and this is extremely important—a great album. That is, is is put together as a complete unit meant to be listened through from beginning to end, the sequencing is excellent and an important part of why it works so well. Of the 10 tracks, there is only one with lyrics, and that is placed in the sequence in such a way that the beauty and emotional impact are profound, really hitting in the gut and filling you with poignant sensations. It’s a tour de force.
And so, here are my top 10 new jazz releases of 2022:
- Song Yo Jeon/Vincius Gomes, Home (Greenleaf)
- Fred Moten/Brandon López/Gerald Cleaver, Eponymous (Reading Group)
- Moor Mother, Jazz Codes (Anti- Records)
- Gordon Grdina/Mark Helias/Matthew Shipp, Pathways (Attaboygirl Records)
- Miguel Zénon, Música de las Américas (Miel Music)
- Louis Moutin/Jowee Omicil/François Moutin, M.O.M (Larborie Jazz)
- Matt Ulery, Become Giant (Wool Gathering Records)
- Timuçin Şahin’s Flow State, Funk Poems for ‘Bird’ (New Focus Recordings)
- Carlo Mombelli, Lullaby for Planet Earth (Clap Your Hands)
- Bennie Maupin & Adam Rudolph, Symphonic Tone Poem for Brother Yusef (Strut)
This list, and the albums not on it, hint at something that might be on the verge of becoming a trend, which is the revival of jazz and poetry. The second and third albums are based around the poetry of Fred Moten and Moor Mother, respectively (and another 2022 album from Heroes Are Gang Leaders, LeAutoRoiBiography on 577 Records, is based around the work of Amiri Baraka, née LeRoi Jones, and features the poetry of Thomas Sayers Ellis and Bonita Lee Penn). These come after the great 2021 release, Fugitive Equationfrom poet Na-thaniel Mackey and The Creaking Breeze Ensemble. Considering the quality and power of all these albums, this is a welcome sign.
Along with new albums, there was a near-glut of reissues and archival recordings, all of them notable and a few of them important in the sense of filling in a previously incom-plete picture or revealing something that had previously been obscured or, seemingly, lost to time. The banner example is Revelations: The Complete ORTF 1970 Foundation Maeght Re-cordings (Elemental Music) because it fills in the still incomplete picture of Ayler. The sax-ophonist early and mysterious death came at a point when his music was still in transition from its own roots to something that we will never know, but the feeling from this live set is that he was at the cusp of a marvelous, uplifting brightness.
That being said, after listening to it extensively and writing about it, it’s not my person-al favorite reissue of the year—although it is excellent and important and should be in your library, you free jazz fan you.
Mixing together a balance of pleasure and enlightenment, here are my own favorite reissues or archival recordings of 2022.
- William Parker, Universal Tonality (AUM Fidelity)
- The Pyramids, AOMAWA: The 1970s Recordings
- Classic Black & White Jazz Sessions (Mosaic)
Most of these albums should be easy to find, and many of them are available at Bandcamp, even as just digital downloads if you are like me and have limited space and need to be very careful about adding more objects. Some, not all, are on LP, so check your local record ship. Some of the imports may take a little more tracking down, like M.O.M. or Lullaby for Planet Earth, and the first place I always check is importcds.com, which I recommend for its good prices, just as long as you don’t mind some slower shipping. Note that Mosaic is mail-order only, mosaicrecords.com.
Most of these albums, except for the Mosaic set, are also available on streaming ser-vices, if you use those. Perhaps you’d like to audition them before buying, and that’s cool, I do the same. I find a good rule of thumb is that if I like an album enough to stream it twice, it’s time to buy if I want to hear it at least once more. That’s a great way to keep artists in grocery money.
And remember, live jazz is back in New York City, and if you want to spend your free time in the presence of some fabulous musicians, there’s a Countdown 2023 John Coltrane Festival running at Smoke, starting December 20 and hitting various dates into January, and featuring musicians like George Coleman, Melissa Aldana, Steve Turre, and Jeremy Pelt. And set your holiday money aside for the Winter Jazz Festival, which looks to be coming back in a big way, live, in January. Just wear a mask when you go out, the musicians will appreciate that.
Best for holidays, see you in the new year.
