Jazz Workshop: 2007 In Review

It's New Year's Eve, my time and excuses have run out, and thus it's finally, finally time to bust out the year-end edition of Jazz Workshop for 2007.

This was a big year, folks, this 2007. Ornette Coleman won a Pulitzer Prize; the all-important Monterey Jazz Festival celebrated its 50th anniversary, and Sonny Rollins also celebrated the 50th anniversary of his first Carnegie Hall concert; Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton performed together for the first time; and Keith Jarrett, NOT for the first time, made an ass of himself onstage in Umbria.

It was the year I dedicated myself to jazz, the year I heard records by Freddie Keppard and Satoko Fujii and Bobby Few for the first time. It was the year when what seems to be the dominant trend of the decade, the first truly seamless integration of jazz and electronica, really reached its zenith. It was the year that belonged to big bands; funnily enough, it was also the year that belonged to the solo performer.

It's also the year in which Blogcritics allowed me to premiere this column - which means it's the first time the Jazz Workshop has done the "Best of" for the year. Thus, having done this for the first time ever, I discovered every caveat I've ever heard was true: as soon as you compile your list, you'll change your mind, or find something new under the couch that you hadn't listened to. So take this list with at least one grain of salt.

The Dirty Dozen:

1. Live at the Jazz Gallery, Jason Lindner Big Band (Anzic)-  I've already covered this album four freaking times, and have little to add to what I wrote for BC's Best of '07 feature. I'll say this: I picked it not for being groundbreaking, or for stretching my perception of jazz or music in general - I just picked it because it was so fucking good.

2. Live, Vol. 1, Robin Eubanks & EB3 (Kindred Rhythm)- Now this is the one that takes the cake for innovation. Eubanks, operating his trio under the guideline of "1+1+1=4 and more," figured out how to make sampling, looping, remixing, and electronic processing into resources as spontaneous as thematic improvisation. It comes with a DVD, which is the best possible help, since you won't believe it until you see it.

3. A Tale of God's Will (Requiem for Katrina), Terence Blanchard (Blue Note) - The New Orleans trumpeter revisits the tragedy of his hometown in a masterpiece not unlike one by Picasso - not because it's abstract, but because it examines every aspect of the fallout from Hurricane Katrina (anger, grief, sadness, despair, hope, frustration) at one time.

4. Sky Blue, Maria Schneider (ArtistShare) - The most praised disc of 2007 was evidence beyond the shadow of a doubt that Schneider is the single best arranger and large bandleader, and one of the two or three best composers, of our time. Indeed, her work in orchestrating classic sounds, new-fangled techniques and instruments, and even a little bit of smooth jazz and electronica may, as Francis Davis suggested, have cemented her place in the all-time jazz pantheon.

5. The Angola Project, Howard Wiley (self-released) - 2007 was also a year in which jazz engaged with various folk musics, but none more evocative than Wiley's re-envisioning of the <i>Angola Prison Spirituals</i> and <i>Work Songs</i> field recordings of the '50s and '60s. It was full of the fervor of gospel, blues, field hollers and work songs, and the overall misery of life in America's last plantation.
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Article Author: Michael J. West

Michael J. West is a writer, editor, and dilettante jazz critic in Washington, D.C. In addition to BlogCritics, he writes for JazzTimes, Washington City Paper, and AllAboutJazz.com. He occasionally writes at Pop Musicology, too. He's very cute. …

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