So what was the best jazz album of the year?
T B H the only one I heard was this.
none have come out, friend
The Epic is the best as anyone who listens to a lot of jazz would know.
hello antonio
NPR critics poll top 3 was Bird Calls, Maria Schneider Orchestra and L'Ebin
Ever notice how the people who defend the epic or think it was good never post their top 5 or top 10 jazz albums of the year? I wonder why that could be.
>>61412087
here are the ones I enjoyed listening to
Laurent Coq & Walter Smith III - The Lafayette suite
Samuel Blaser - Spring rain
Sylvaine Hélary - Spring rolls / Printemps
Dieter Hilg - Mein Beethoven
Antoine Hervé - Complètement Stones
Arnault Cuisinier - Ainima
Alban Darche hyprcub - Crooked house
Rudresh Manhanthanppa - Bird calls
Erik Friedlander - Oscalypso
Emil Spanyi & Jean Bardy - Very blue
Nat Birchall - Invocations
>>61412260
The Epic was critically acclaimed - indeed it's difficult to find negative reviews of it.
As said it was also top 3 in NPRs jazz critics poll that consists of reputable jazz critics.
You don't have to like it but "only people who don't listen to any contemporary jazz liked The Epic" is a terrible /mu/ meme.
>>61412405
People are only dissing it because it's on Brainfeeder and therefore has wider crossover appeal. I wouldn't call it outstanding - it'll never be seen as a jazz classic and follows a pretty standard jazz fusion template - but it's a pretty competent jazz record and not the terrible piece of shit many /mu/tants are memeing.
Before The Epic barely anyone at all would mention contemporary jazz albums, always focusing on the rockist canon of avant-garde jazz
After The Epic everyone overnight became a contemporary jazz authority, despite such album being universally acclaimed in jazz magazines
I guess /mu/ will never be mature enough to discuss jazz
>>61412087
I would say it's Vijay Iyer's Break Stuff personally.
>>61412194
You're such a tryhard.
>>61412219
Interesting! I thought they would go for Iyer.
>>61412504
The Epic encouraged people to re-engage with Jazz but not in the way it intended. The album was so mediocre in most of the playing that it encouraged people to seek out modern albums that are far superior to it.
omer klein - fearless friday
>This sprawling 3-CD debut by a Los-Angeles-based tenor saxophonist who's recorded with Kendrick Lamar as well as Gerald Wilson is being talked about by its more fervent admirers as if it were jazz like we've never heard it before. It's not, though. Strings, voices, cosmic graphics, Washington's dashiki and all, it's merely jazz like we haven't heard it in a while — an intentional throwback to those "spiritual," early '70s Impulse, Black Jazz and Strata-East LPs whose greatest appeal might be to listeners too young to remember the dead end for jazz this sort of thing led to back then. Washington's obvious sincerity, while admirable, isn't enough to save The Epic for those like me, who do remember all too well. Then, I don't hear what others say they do in Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly or Broadway's Hamilton, either.
I fucking love NPR.
>>61412765
That's a pretty good assessment, I think. Personally I like labels like Strata-East and Nimbus West and that kind of stuff and I think Washington does that style very well.
He's definitely the kind of jazz that record collectors, crate diggers and rare groove hunters listen and love and jazz musicians don't.
I was very surprised to see how popular it got - to me it feels like an album for people who list Eddie Gale's Ghetto Music as one of their favorite Blue Note releases and people like that are in short supply.
>>61412087
I don't catch a lot of 2015 jazz releases as this year I spent a lot more time exploring jazz history.
I think Stretch Music was a really good album though. A lot more creative ideas than The Epic.
The Bad Plus Joshua Redman was also good, but I'm biased because I love everything Redman does.
>>61412087
>T B H
Stop
Bypassing
The
Filters
William Parker: For Those Who Are Still (AUM Fidelity)
Matana Roberts: Always (Relative Pitch)
Exploding Star Orchestra: Galactic Parables: Volume 1 (Cuneiform)
Common Objects: Whitewashed With Lines (Another Timbre)
Alexander Von Schlippenbach Trio: Features
Zooid: In For A Penny In For A Pound (PI)
Matana Roberts: River Run Thee (Constellation)
Joshua Abrams: Magnetoception (Eremite)
Chicago Reed Quartet: Western Automatic (Aerophonic)
Steve Swell: Kanreki (Not Two)
Partikel: String Theory
Kari Ikonen Trio: Beauteous Tales and Offbeat Stories
Maria Schneider Orchestra: The Thompson Fields
Kenny Wheeler: Songs For Quintet
Troyka: Ornithophobia
Dennis Rollins Velocity Trio: Symbiosis
Fred Hersch: Solo
Jack Dejohnette: Made In Chicago
Misha Mullov-Abbado: New Ansonia
Dave Douglas: Quintet Brazen Heat
Michael Wollny: Nachtfahrten
Vijay Iyer Trio: Break Stuff
John Scofield: Past Present
>>61413055
TBPJR was fantastic. I've only heard Joshua Redman on Walking Shadows though.
nope
>>61413190
I didn't know there was a new Exploding Star Orchestra album in 2015, excellent.
