After scrolling through my iTunes, I’ve made this list of the discs that have most impressed me, a bit more than six months into 2014. The order is alphabetical:
Ambrose Akinmusire, The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier To Paint (Blue Note)
Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, Landmarks (Blue Note)
Seamus Blake/Chris Cheek, Reeds Ramble (Criss Cross)
Dave Douglas/Chet Doxas/Steve Swallow/Jim Doxas, Riverside (Greenleaf)
Billy Hart Quartet, One Is The Other (ECM)
Keith Jarrett / Charlie Haden, Last Dance (ECM)
Kate McGarry and Keith Ganz, Genevieve & Ferdinand(Sunnyside)
Brad Mehldau & Mark Guiliana, Mehliana: Taming The Dragon (Nonesuch)
Edward Simon & Ensemble Venezuela, Venezuelan Suite (Sunnyside)
Neil Swainson and Don Thompson, Tranquility(Cornerstone)
Dan Weiss, Fourteen (Pi Recordings)
Norma Winstone / Glauco Venier / Klaus Gesing, Dance Without Answer (ECM)
Dhafer Youssef, Birds Requiem (OKeh)
For comparison’s sake:
James Hale’s list at Jazz Chronicles
Nextbop’s favourites of the year so far
NPR Music’s 25 Favourite Albums of 2014 (So Far)
S. Victor Aaron of Something Else! Reviews submits his list
