Top 50 CDs of 2005
January/February 2006
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall
Blue Note Records
What we said: It's not quite the Lost Ark of the Covenant, but for some time researchers had been aware of the possibility of a long-lost recording featuring Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. In 1996 I found an advertisement in the New York Amsterdam News...
January/February 2006
Town Hall, New York City, June 22, 1945
Uptown
What we said: In a bit of hype worthy of Symphony Sid Torin, the New York Times lauded this long-lost recording as "the Rosetta Stone of bebop." It's not. It is a helluva find, though. Joining Diz and Bird are Max Roach on drums, Al Haig on piano and Curley...
January/February 2006
One Down, One Up: Live at the Half Note
Impulse!
What we said: Try to imagine an over-the-air commercial radio station broadcasting a Cecil Taylor concert. You can't? Neither can I. But that sort of thing used to happen. Here's proof: two sets by John Coltrane's classic quartet at New York's Half Note...
January/February 2006
Without a Song (The 9/11 Concert)
Milestone
What we said: Sonny Rollins had been home in his Manhattan apartment, six blocks north of the World Trade Center, when the attacks occurred on 9/11. From the street, he watched the second tower go down. The National Guard evacuated him from his apartment...
January/February 2006
Beyond the Sound Barrier
Verve
What we said: Beyond the Sound Barrier picks up where its predecessor left off: It's another compilation of concert recordings from the band's extensive travels. But where the epochal Footprints--Live! raided the classic Shorter catalog for material, this...
January/February 2006
Flow
Blue Note Records
What we said: Two years ago, Terence Blanchard documented his jump from Sony Classical to Blue Note with an album titled Bounce. This year's sequel is just as aptly and succinctly named: Flow not only flows but also shows what's possible when a band has...
January/February 2006
Reimagining
Savoy
What we said: Vijay Iyer is an academic, but he is entirely self-taught as a pianist and possesses the infinite free choices of the autodidact. His music contains his South Asian heritage and also a vast array of interests and influences, including diverse...
January/February 2006
I Have the Room Above Her
ECM Records
What we said: It's been 20 years since drummer Paul Motian, guitarist Bill Frisell and saxophonist Joe Lovano recorded It Should've Happened a Long Time Ago, the ECM album that kicked off their trio collaboration. In the interim, the ensemble has worked...
January/February 2006
The Ground
ECM Records
What we said: On the surface, pianist Tord Gustavsen's music might fit your average description of the Nordic sound--all dreamy fjords, windswept snowdrifts and winters that last for years. But if you listen close to the Tord Gustavsen Trio's gorgeous album...
January/February 2006
Day Is Done
Nonesuch Records
What we said: Brad Mehldau's first trio recording for Nonesuch is also his first without Jorge Rossy at the drums. Jeff Ballard, Rossy's replacement, is far from a stranger to Mehldau and bassist Larry Grenadier, and it isn't surprising that a drummer this...
