Free Jazz Blog’s 2023 Top 10 Lists

Posted on December 25, 2023

Excerpted from https://www.freejazzblog.org/2023/12/free-jazz-blogs-2023-top-10-lists.html

So, here we are, standing on the precipice of a new year looking back at the current one — who would have thought that would see the future catching up with the present so fast, especially with AI that can take artfully crafted prompts like “Santa delivering records for Christmas, excitement, painting style” and create stunning visualizations like the one above, in addition to generating an endless supply of confusing student essays. Fortunately, we haven’t outsourced all our creativity to the machines yet. For example, the past year was a banner one for experimental and improvised music. Here is some anecdotal evidence: over the past 12 months, the Free Jazz Blog received at least two thousand requests for reviews and welcomed over 1.71 million visitors — a testament to both the spirit and creativity of musicians around the world and a nod to the tireless effort that the collective’s volunteer writers put into keeping the website humming.

Now, without further ado, we present the top 10 albums of the year from the Free Jazz Collective:

The Free Jazz Collective’s Top 10 of 2023 (A – Z):
  • Akira Sakata & Entasis – Live in Europe 2022 (Trost)
  • Anna Webber – Shimmer Wince (Intakt)
  • Fire Orchestra – Echoes (Rune Grammofon)
  • Irreversible Entanglements – Protect your Light (Impulse)
  • King Übü Örchestrü – Roi (FMR, 2023)
  • Lina Allemano – Canons (Lumo Records, 2023)
  • Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden (Constellation, 2023)
  • Matthew Shipp – The Intrinsic Nature of Shipp (Mahakala, 2023)
  • Mendoza Hoff Revels – Echolocation (AUM Fidelity)
  • Rodrigo Amado The Bridge – Beyond the Margins (Trost, 2023)

From each list, the most listed recordings were culled to produce the above list of top 10 recordings of the year. Our rules are simply, anything that appears on a list must have been reviewed on the site (or by the reviewer personally, somewhere). You can search for any of the recordings listed to read a review of the recording. As you check out the lists the collective will be busy voting on the top album from the list below to come up with our top album of the year, which we will present on January 1st.

And please, share your thoughts on 2023’s rich offerings in the comments!
 
 
…
 
Paul Acquaro
Akiri Sakata Entasis’s set at Jazzwerstatt Peitz this fall acutally brought me to tears. The intensity that the quartet reached as Sakata summoned the demons with his furious spoken/shouted vocals was simply face melting. A friend in the audience said to me after, “I know a bit of Japanese, he was reciting his grocery list.” Ok whatever, I’ll have what he’s cooking.
  • Akiri Sakata Entasis – Live in Europe 2022 (Trost, 2023)
  • Angelika Niescier / Tomeka Reid / Savannah Harris – Beyond Dragons (Intakt, 2023)
  • Bushman’s Revenge – All the Better For Seeing You (Is It Jazz?, 2023)
  • Daunik Lazro, Benjamin Duboc, Mathieu Bec – Standards Combustion (Dark Tree, 2023)
  • Lina Allemano – Canons (Lumo Records, 2023)
  • Marcelo dos Reis – Flora (JACC, 2023) – write
  • Mendoza Hoff Revels – Echolocation (AUM Fidelity)
  • Rodrigo Amado The Bridge – Beyond the Margins (Trost, 2023)
  • Silke Eberhard & Céline Voccia – Wild Knots (Relative Pitch)
  • The Selva – Camarão-Girafa (Clean Feed, 2023)
 
Historic/Archival/Reissued Recordings:
  • Various Artists – Jazz in der DDR (Jazzwerstatt, 2023)
  • Sam Rivers Archive Series (NoBusiness, 2023)
  • Brötzmann / Van Hove / Bennink & Albert Mangelsdorff – Outspan No.1 / 2 (CienFuegos, 2023)
  • Matthew Shipp – Circular Temple (ESP, 2023)