A Year in Albums: 10 from 18
By: Jake Zaslav
Tags: Improvisation, Jazz, Music, Music Review, Year In Review

For the last two years I have been listening to a new album of jazz or improvised music every day. At the end of each year, I post the entire list. However, 365 albums are a lot to sort through. To make it easier, I’ve created a list of ten of my favorite albums that I listened to in 2018 along with some personal notes to accompany each one. You can also listen to a spotify playlist with a song from each of the albums.

Fly or Die

Jaimie Branch (January 21)

Fly or Die is an incredibly visual album. It crafts a highly detailed portrait of the subway that runs under Branch’s home in Brooklyn. The interwoven motifs from the ensemble, the various creaks and static, and the dancing trumpet lines wonderfully depict the daily hustle beneath the city. Like a train, this album has incredible energy at its center, pushing the music forward.

Ahwar

Nadah El Shazly (January 29)

“Ahwar” is the Arabic word for “marsh,” which I think is a great way to describe this album. It is slow, thick, and constantly makes you feel as if you are sinking. At the same time, El Shazly’s music surrounds you with an incredible beauty and diversity of sound.

Irreversible Entanglements

Irreversible Entanglements (January 31)

Irreversible Entanglements’ self-titled album is difficult to listen to in the best way possible. The band creates an abrasive and chaotic soundscape that both feeds off of and empowers the poet’s words. Moore Mother’s time-traversing lyrics, use of repetition, and manipulation of tonality bite at the listeners. Irreversible Entanglements is an incredible work of political protest because it so effectively ties musical pain to that of oppressed people in America.

Amore Per Tutti

Tredici Bacci (June 12)

Tredici Bacci is a modern 14-piece chamber-rock orchestra that transports you to the world of 1960s and 70s Italian cinema. Composer Simon Hanes creates a sonic environment so exhilarating, goofy, and beautiful that it completely envelopes you.

Your Queen is a Reptile

Sons of Kemet (August 11)

There is an incredible group of young musicians coming out of London right now. Sons of Kemet’s Your Queen is a Reptile, with its combination of jazz, hip-hop, west African drumming, diasporic influences, and killer rapping packaged together with political consciousness and London pride, perfectly encapsulates this British sound.

Trail of Tears

Jacques Coursil (August 19)

I love Jacques Coursil. He has such incredible control of the trumpet and is able to produce sounds on the horn that I can’t even fathom. However, what I love most about Trail of Tears is that it demonstrates how beautiful and melodic free improv can be.

Hannibal in Antibes

Hannibal Marvin Peterson (September 5)

I’m not going to lie the recording quality of Hannibal in Antibes is pretty poor even for a live album from the 70s. But I still listen to it time and time again because it’s such a great lesson on how hard free-jazz can groove.

When Harry Met Sally…

Harry Connick, Jr (September 24)

Maybe it’s because I love the movie. Maybe it’s because the arrangements are great. Maybe it’s because sometimes I find it nice to hear a big band led by a great singer play a few standards. Regardless, this album has a special place in my heart.

Origami Harvest

Ambrose Akinmusire (November 16)

There’s a reason Origami Harvest has consistently been at the top of many “best albums of 2018” lists. Each track is its own magnum opus: complex, dense, and foreign, while still intimate and alluring. Akinmusire brought together jazz, contemporary classical, electronic, and hip-hop musicians to create a work that deserves all of the immense praise it has received.

Reed Streams

Terry Riley (November 19)

I first listened to Reed Streams while taking a walk from my house in Somerville to Davis Square on a grey Fall day. On my way, I became wonderfully lost in Riley’s endlessly repeating and slowly shifting phrases. Through this technique, Riley creates an album that is less about specific moments and more about an entire experience.