My favorite albums of 2017

its on youtube as Bob Rutman, but recording name is Robert Rutman or one album as spacebow

I think hes been doing it for 30-40 years, its definitely avante garde or droney, its not a folky addition for him

 

I just watch that video and mother one. Great stuff.

 

Jazz

I'm in the harder genres now. With my first pass at jazz, I was able to knock it down to 35. I've gotten it down to 15 and don't really want to eliminate any more. As it is, I've eliminated some great albums.

1. Yacine Boularès/Vincent Segal/Nasheet Waits - Abu Sadiya
2. Yazz Ahmed - La Saboteuse
3. Idris Rahman/Leon Brichard/Emre Ramazanoglu/Yahael Camara-Onono - ILL CONSIDERED
4. jaimie branch - Fly or Die
5. Anouar Brahem - Blue Maqams
6. Tomas Fujiwara - Triple Double
7. Colin Stetson - All This I Do For Glory
8. The Comet Is Coming - Death To The Planet
9. Craig Taborn - Daylight Ghosts
10. Gyan Riley/Julian Lage - Midsummer Moons
11. Tim Berne's Snakeoil - Incidentals
12. Binker and Moses - Journey To The Mountain Of Forever
13. Collocutor - The Search
14. BANANA - LIVE
15. Gary Peacock Trio - Tangents

Honorable Mentions, some of these are here only because they were purchased late in the year and I really haven't listened enough.

Aalberg/Kullhammar/Zetterberg/Santos - Basement Sessions Vol.4 (The Bali Tapes)
Benny Greb - Grebfruit 2
Björn Meyer - Provenance
Elliott Sharp (with Mary Halvorson and Marc Ribot) - Err Guitar
GLiTS - Getting Lost in Tiny Spaces
Harris Eisenstadt - Recent Developments
Idris Rahman/Leon Brichard/Tom Skinner - WILDFLOWER
Krokofant - Krokofant III
Led Bib - Umbrella Weather
Louis Sclavis/Dominique Pifarély/Vincent Courtois, - Asian Fields Variations
Mary Halvorson - Paimon: John Zorn's The Book of Angels Volume 32
Nicole Mitchell - Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds
Paolo Fresu/Uri Caine - Two Minuettos (Live in Milano)
Raoul Bjorkenheim / eCsTaSy - Doors of Perception
Roscoe Mitchell - Bells For The South Side
The Heliocentrics - A World Of Masks
Tyshawn Sorey - Verisimilitude

​

 

Yacine Boularès/Vincent Segal/Nasheet Waits - Abu Sadiya

Yacine Boularès – Soprano Saxophone, Bass Clarinet
Vincent Segal – Cello, Percussion
Nasheet Waits – Drums

This was my most played release from 2017, partly because I bought it in January but also because it's great. The music has a North African sound to my ears and at times Segal does a drone with bowed cello which I love. Boularès and Segal are new to me and I enjoy their playing a lot.

I can't describe the music any better than Yacine Boularès does

The whole album is up on YouTube
Dar Shems (The House of The Sun)

 

Yazz Ahmed - La Saboteuse

Yazz Ahmed – Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Shabaka Hutchings – Bass Clarinet
Dave Manington – Bass Guitar
Martin France – Drums
Naadia Sheriff – Electric Piano [Fender Rhodes/Wurlitzer]
Samuel Hällkvist – Guitar
Corrina Silvester – Percussion
Noel Langley – Trumpet [additional]
Lewis Wright – Vibraphone
Fartun Tahir – Voice [Spoken Word]

This one was talked up a lot on the Jazz and Conversation thread. Another album with some Arabic influences although not as much as the previous album. Yazz Ahmed is Bahraini/British. Her music is more British than Bahraini. She's part of the exlosion of jazz coming out of the UK. Five of my top 15 are from Britain, along with three of the honorable mentions.

Bandcamp: La Saboteuse, by Yazz Ahmed

 

Idris Rahman/Leon Brichard/Emre Ramazanoglu/Yahael Camara-Onono - ILL CONSIDERED

Idris Rahman - Saxophone
Leon Brichard - Bass
Yahael Camara-Onono - Percussions
Emre Ramazanoglu - Drums

Another British band . Shortly after I bought this, I loved it so much I bought every release from this year that Idris Rahman was co-leader on, Ill Considered Live and Wildflower. If you believe their blurb on Bandcamp, they recorded this in a couple of hours, with no planning and no talking between takes. This is really a great album. I discovered it in November and have played it a lot since.

Bandcamp: ILL CONSIDERED, by Idris Rahman, Leon Brichard, Emre Ramazanoglu, Yahael Camara-Onono

 

jaimie branch - Fly or Die

jaimie branch - trumpet
Tomeka Reid - cello
Jason Ajemian - bass
Chad Taylor - drums.

Cameos by:
Matt Schneider – guitar
Ben Lamar Gay – cornet
Josh Berman – cornet

This is Branch's debut as a leader and it's a great album. It mixes free jazz with electronics and, occasionally, drones. One of the great artists living in Brooklyn and putting out great music, by way of Chicago in her case. I love the cover art too. It's what first attracted me to the album on Bandcamp. This is on the International Anthem label which put out some stellar albums this year. Two of my list of Avant Garde albums are also on this label.

My only complaint about this album is that it's too short.

Bandcamp: Fly or Die, by jaimie branch

 

Anouar Brahem - Blue Maqams

Anouar Brahem: oud
Dave Holland: double bass
Jack DeJohnette: drums, percussion
Django Bates: piano

A great line up. This is another album with a Arabic sound. I tend to like jazz that mixes other things in and I live Arabic music so it's perfect in jazz for me. This is a mellower album than almost everything else on the list which is typical for ECM albums IMO. I know some people don't like it when someone says ECM has a house sound, but I think they do. Sure there are exceptions but those exceptions prove the rule to me. This along with the rest of the ECM catalog is now available on all of the steaming sites.

 

Tomas Fujiwara - Triple Double

Tomas Fujiwara – drums
Gerald Cleaver - drums
Mary Halvorson – guitar
Brandon Seabrook - guitar
Taylor Ho Bynum – cornet
Ralph Alessi - trumpet

Another group out of Brooklyn. This is a double trio of drums, guitar and trumpet, an interesting combination. I'll pretty much by anything with Fujiwara, Halvorson or Ho Bynum so this was a no brainer. Mayr Halvorson in particular, she's my favorite active guitarist. The rest of the band are no slouches either. The only one I'm not familiar with is Brandon Seabrook. This is a bit out there so might not be to everyone's taste.

Bandcamp: Triple Double, by Tomas Fujiwara

 

Colin Stetson - All This I Do For Glory

Stetson is the king of the drone. When you listen to this, keep in mind this is one person playing a sax, no other instruments, no effects and no loops. He uses circular breathing to keep the music constantly playing. He has a contact mike on his throat to pick up vocalizations and contact mikes on the saxes for the percussive sounds the keys make. Truly remarkable music. This is another artist that is an auto buy for me

Bandcamp: All This I Do For Glory, by Colin Stetson

 

The Comet Is Coming - Death To The Planet

King Shabaka: tenor sax
Betamax Killer: drums
Danalogue The Conqueror: keys

More great music out of London. This time lead by Shabaka Hutchings, who by 2016's standards, had an unproductive 2017. Like 2016 though, everything he's on that I know of is great. Unfortunately another short album too. It's only an EP.

 

Craig Taborn - Daylight Ghosts

Craig Taborn - Piano, Electronics
Chris Lightcap - Double Bass, Bass Guitar
Dave King - Drums, Percussion [Electronic Percussion]
Chris Speed - Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet

This is one of the exceptions to the rule for ECM, although it's not that out there compared to other Taborn projects. Another great line up. I'm very happy the ECM catalog is available for streaming. I've been very hesitant to buy ECM albums because I don't really like the house sound that much. I bought more ECM albums last year, after they started streaming than in the last few years combined. The three in this list are all ones from artists I love so I probably would have bought them anyway, but it's nice to be able to hear them first.

 

Gyan Riley/Julian Lage - Midsummer Moons

Acoustic guitar duet playing John Zorn's music inspired by Shakespeare. If all you've heard of Zorn's music is the avant garde stuff, this will surprise you. A lot of his recent music will also surprise you too. He's been putting out some beautiful melodic music over the past 10 years, including this one. He still is putting out the extremely dissonant stuff as well.

 

Tim Berne's Snakeoil - Incidentals

Tim Berne - alto saxophone
Oscar Noriega - clarinet, bass clarinet
Ryan Ferreira - electric guitar
Matt Mitchell - piano, electronics
Ches Smith - drums, vibes, percussion, timpani
David Torn - guitar (tracks 1 & 5)

Another ECM album and another exception to the rule. Tim Berne is an artist who everything he touches is golden to my ears. This is free jazz so might not appeal to everyone.

 

Binker and Moses - Journey To The Mountain Of Forever

Binker Golding - Tenor Sax
Moses Boyd - Drums

Guest artists

Evan Parker - Saxophones
Tori Handsley - Harp
Yussef Dayes - Drums & percussion
Sarathy Korwar - Tabla
Byron Wallen - Trumpet​

More jazz from London. I first heard of Binker and Moses this year and bought both of their albums after streaming this one. They descibe themselves as semi free jazz but it's very groove oriented to me. Some great guest artists on this.

 

Collocutor - The Search

Tamar Osborn - baritone and soprano sax and alto flute
Simon Finch - trumpet and flugelhorn
Mike Lesirge - tenor and soprano sax
Suman Joshi - bass
Marco Piccioni - guitar
Magnus Mehta - percussion
Maurizio Ravalico - percussion

The last album on the list out of London. As for a lot of the music coming out of London that I like so much, this was a new discovery for me this year. This is their second album and I haven't gone back to listen to the first. There a lot of world music influences in this music. The write up on Bandcamp talks about the music growing out of the musical multi-culturism of London.

Bandcamp: The Search, by Collocutor

 

BANANA - LIVE

Stephen Black - Clarinet, Saxophone
Huw Evans - Guitar, Synthesizer
Josh Klinghoffer - Marimba, Synthesizer
Cate Le Bon - Piano, Vibraphone
Stella Mozgawa - Bass, Marimba, Percussion
Josiah Steinbrick - Vibraphone, Piano

This is heavy on the vibes which is why I like it. Mallet instruments are my favorite instruments to listen to. This band formed to be the opening act and backing band for a Kate Le Bon tour. It has members of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Warpaint and Cate Le Bon, not what you expect for a jazz group. It's very infectious music. This is another EP that I wish was a full album.

 

Gary Peacock Trio - Tangents

Gary Peacock - Double Bass
Joey Baron - Drums
Marc Copland - Piano

The last album of the jazz list and the final ECM album. This is a more typical ECM album than the Taborn or Berne albums and the only one on the list that is close to traditional jazz. Beautiful music. The photo on the cover is beautiful too. When I first saw it I assumed it was an Elliot Porter photo but it's Elliot Peacock. Because of the last name, and the fact that he's credited in discogs with the cover photos on three Gary Peacock albums, I assume he's Gary Peacock's son.

 

Classical

This doesn't include early music which was in an earlier list. For the most part, this is 21st century music with a few albums of older compositions thrown in. The only pre-20th century music, is the transcription of Bach for marimba.

1. Christoph Sietzen - Attraction
2. Various Artists - Rory Boyle: Music for Clarinet
3. Roderik Povel/Nathalie Forget/Studium Chorale - Niels Rønsholdt: Songs of Doubt
4. Various Artists - Flaminis aura - works by Tommie Haglund
5. Various Artitsts - Carter: Late Works
6. Various Artists - Aho: Saxophone Concerto and Quintet
7. Los Angeles Percussion Quartet - Beyond
8. Nicolas Horvath - Rääts: Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1
9. Jeremy Kerner/Isaura String Quartet - Daniel Corral: Refractions
10. Kuniko Kato - Bach: Solo works for marimba
11. Barbara Hannigan - Crazy Girl Crazy
12. Tetraktis Ensemble - Ionisation - Percussion Music by Varèse, Reich, Chavez, Chavez, Chavez, Cowell, Harrison, Cage
13. Third Coast Percussion - Philippe Manoury: The Book of Keyboards
14. Emil Jonason - Emil Jonason plays Lindberg and Golijov
15. Various Artists - Tüür: Peregrinus ecstaticus - Le poids des vies non vécues - Noesis
16. Due East/Third Coast Percussion - Jeff Herriott: The Stone Tapestry
17. Various Artists - Harrison: Violin Concerto, Grand Duo & Double Music
18. Daniel Bjarnason - Recurrence (ISO Project, Vol. 1)
19. Ensemble Aleph - Kagel: The 8 Pieces of the Wind Rose
20. Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble - Hushers

A single that is actually my favorite release. I just didn't want to put a single in the list

Roomful of Teeth - How A Rose​

I also didn't want to put these two EPs in the list, but they are excellent.

Tamsin Waley-Cohen - Waley-Cohen: Permutations & Unveil
Various Artists - Molly Joyce: Lean Back and Release​

Boxed set I didn't want to put in the list.

Jeroen Van Veen - Minimal Piano Collection: Volume XXI-XXVIII​

 

Christoph Sietzen - Attraction

Great solo percussion or solo percussion and prerecorded tape. Half way through the title track I knew this would be one of my favorite albums of the year.

Spotify: Attraction

 

Various Artists - Rory Boyle: Music for Clarinet

Next to mallet instruments, wind instruments are my favorites. Any time I see a percussion or wind album, I'm interested. Now days, I don't buy without sampling first unless they are very cheap.

This is great contemporary chamber music for clarinet. A number of the pieces were composed specifically for this album. This music really makes me want to move.

Spotify: Rory Boyle: Music for Clarinet



This video isn't the performance on the album, but it is the same piece played by Fraser Langton

 

I have to say, I hate the change to google image search. It used to be great for searching for alternate sizes and they dropped that feature.

 

Roderik Povel/Nathalie Forget/Studium Chorale - Niels Rønsholdt: Songs of Doubt

While I like choral music, I usually don't like songs. This is the second albums of songs by Rønsholdt that I love. This is really unlike most art song. For one thing, it's accompanied by ondes Martenot instead of piano. The vocal lines occasionally use very odd harmonies that make it sound like it's electronic music, but it is just straight singing. The ondes Martenot is the only electronics, and only instrument. This is really remarkable music.

Spotify: Niels Rønsholdt: Songs of Doubt

 

Various Artists - Flaminis aura - works by Tommie Haglund

Like a number of the albums on this list, the composer is new to me. This is very accessible 21st century music. It includes a concerto for cello, orchestra and tape, a string quartet, a string trio and a string orchestral piece. I bought this after just listening to samples the day it was released. Afterwards, I saw the rave review on Musicweb International

Spotify: Flaminis aura: Works by Tommie Haglund

 

Various Artists - Carter: Late Works

Elliot Carter is a composer I keep meaning to explore further. This album was a no brainer, especially since I only have one other version of one of the works on this album. My collection of Carter's music is a little over represented by the piano sonata, string quartets and Gra. Very good group of players on this. I especially like Epigrams, a piano trio played by Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Isabelle Faust and Jean-Guihen Queyras

Spotify: Carter: Late Works