For me, 2024 has been an interesting and diverse year of jazz. I've been bombarded with a great amount of material from far-flung parts of the world, including an enormous amount of Scandinavian sourced material. as well as Latin American material. Major label output has for me, by and large been rather dull, with only a couple of exceptions. That's why this list is full of, possible unknowns prior to 2024, and why I find the whole question of 'What is jazz?' so facinating.

5. Ezra Collective: Dance like no one's watching.

They've clearly been very creative, which in part, I suppose, why this is a double album. It's packed with tunes of various tempo's and draws on lots of contemporary themes and issues. The sleeve notes amplify the sense of direction. You can approach the album from all sorts of different ways, possibly start by listening, but, horror upon horror, I found myself dancing along to it.. It does say on the inner sleeve "Written for the dancefloor" which seems to sum it up. Joyous and uninhibited with a strong nod to its Anglo Carribbean roots.

4. Etienne Charles: Creole Orchestra.

The funding for this was American, but the album is another reworking of an American genre given a subtle Caribbean twinge. Tunes range from the almost traditional, Monty Alexander to Jimmy Forrest, but supplemented by some self compositions from Etienne Charles. It all comes together beautifully driven along by what really is a big band. Some outstanding vocals from Rene Marie. Best summed up by the sleevenotes from the producer/arranger when he writes "Wow. A big band record, A dream come true". It's really good!

3.Resolution 88: Vortex.

What I think jazz funk in the 21st century ought to sound like. They're British and I was lucky enough to get an advance copy.. Basically a quartet, but augmented by a woodwind player and a vocalist. They make great use of a polyphonic synthesiser but adhere to the original funky basis of home grown funk. All the compositions are by Tom O'Grady the keyboard player, one is an instrumental and one a vocal track. I'm hoping that there will be a follow up, but this is worth getting into if you haven't heard it.

2.Charlie Pyne Quartet: Nature is a Mother.

Charlie is the bass player in this excellent set with Katie Patterson on drums, Luke Pinkstone on Tenor Sax and Liam Dunachie of keybords. The songs are all Charlie's and it's a set of reflections on humanity, the Universe and constraints on working life. It's beautifully recorded, the song writing is strong and it's a really excellent example of where (British) jazz can go. Probably the most played album on the show so far this year, but see also my footnote below.

You'll notice that this is mainly a cut and paste job, but even after all the listening I love it. I'm hoping we might be able to fix up a date for the band in 2025.

1. Muriel Grossman: Devotion.

The first ever release on Jack White's new label this a double album set and it gives the band space to stretch out over 7 tracks. She's a sax player, but the trio of guitar, bass and Hammon organ are no mere by standers. In some ways it's redolent of some of the extended seventies jams that bands used to indulge in, but this is much more nuanced and controlled. Sometimes difficult to programme - especially as the longest track is 22 minutes long, but it's been worthwhile to play at least four of them during the year. If you haven't heard it, choose a track, sit down, listen (preferably on a big system or good earphones) and find out, if you can, why it's my number one for 2024.

Two final bits of information.

Most played track of the year:

'No confusion' by Ezra Collective from the album 'Where I'm meant to be'. It has a long way to go to catch up with the two front runners, respectively 'Idle Moments' by Grant Green and in front 'Abusey Junction' by Kokoroko.

Label of the year:

Ubuntu Music: They have released the most eclectic mix of material and most of it doesn't fall into easy categories; this suits the ethos of the edge of Jazz really well!

Worthy mention for Mack Avenue Records.

Top Ten albums 2024.

Ten to Six: 

10: Zara McFarlane: Sweet Whispers.

It's a brave performer who takes on the Sarah Vaughan Songbook.It's even braver when you add a non Sarah Vaughan track - in this case Marvin Gaye's 'Inner City Blues' and it's a seamless fit. The album shows off McFarlane's voice to its true extent, but she's never overwhelmed by a quartet of empathetic players, with added inputs on selected tracks from Giacomo Smith on reeds, a stell pan player and a cellist on two tracks. It's such a refreshing change to have vocals mixed well forward on such an uncluttered sounding album.

9: Nigel Price & Aban Claret: Entente Cordiale.

In terms of album production Nigel Price has certainly been prolific over the last few years. Mainly it's been organ and sax led ensembles, but this features two 'lead' guiar players, both at the top of thier game set in a quartet format. The programming is eclectic, from Horace Silver to Bill Evans and Ira Gershwin to Woody Shaw. The playing throughout is ..er..joyous, and it sounds as though the group had a great time recording it . Highly recommended.

8. Thokozile Collective: Thokozile Collective.

This floated in, in the middle of the year. I played a track and thought 'That's quite interesting', a sextet that seem to embrace the joy of playing together and introducing a definite township jazz feel to what they did. Over the next few weeks I played different tracks and realised just how satisfying this is. All I have to go on are the sleeve notes, which give individual details about each track, it's origins and the suggestions that they might have been playing together in some form, for a number of years. I wish I'd kept the accompanying press release!

7. Emmet Cohen: Vibe Provider.

He regularly crops up on social media sitting in with various jazz luminaries, and obviosly having a blast playing the piano with them. The styles are eclectic, but then so is this album. The trio are augmented on various tracks by sax, trumpet and trombone, but it's definitely Cohen's piano playing that is center stage. He turns 'Surrey with the fringe on top' into something that Rogers and Hammerstein might not recognise, but all the tracks are a imbued with his own trademark.

6. The Jazz Defenders: Memory in motion.

One of the best gigs I went to this year was the Jazz Defenders at our home base in The Phoenix in Exeter. The bands sound has benefitted from a change in personnel which had brought in Ian Mattews (sometime Kasabian drummer) and Jake McMurchie on Sax. Collectively they beefed up the sound of the band, with the album displaying an improved intensity on both the previous ones. A lot of the credit must go to keyboard player George Cooper - nominally frontman - whose writing has improved over the space of three albums, and has become better at banter between songs. A good record, and it'll be interesting to see what they record in 2025.

Next week: Five to one, the best label award and a couple that didn't make the list, but deserved to!

Oh dear!

2024 seems to have rushed past. Only a reminder that I was due to provide a Top 20 list of Jazz records for another publication reminded me of the neglect to this blog that I am responsible for. So with profuse apologies I'll add a few more discs that are under consideration for this years Top 10 on this blog.

Etienne Charles: Creole Orchestra.

Big band recordings are fairly rare at the moment - they're expensive to maintain and take on the road, and the larger the band the more complex the operation. This is a mixture of self composed and classsic tracks that absolutely hit home from the first listen. The arrangements, by Charles, are stunning and the tracks are interspersed with vocals, mainly from Rene Marie. My current favourite tracks are Monty Alexander's 'Thnk twice' and the Etienne Charles composition 'Douen'. Refreshingly the arrangements owe a lot to the caribbean heritage of Charles rather the often stifling efforts that are currently being offered by the major labels. Highly recommended.

Cali Mambo: Cali Mambo.

This was recommended to me by a friend who saw the band play live in Los Angeles. The leader Dred Scott seems to have been heavily influenced by George Shearing and the Latin jazz secene that existed in the late 1950's. Having worked as a band leader in Los Angeles he picked up on the repsonse that he was getting playing mambo, and together with his vibes player Tom Beckham started to include some old tunes, together with some self-written ones. This quartet album is the result of that demand. Although as a rhythm Mambo got overplayed and overworked this is a reminder that it can still delight in this new form.

Zara McFarlane: Sweet Whispers.

Sub titled as 'Celebrating Sarah Vaughan' this see McFarlane backed by a quintet that is extended on a couple of tracks to cover some of the better known tunes that Sarah Vaughan recorded - plus, and it's an interesting choice a cover of Marvin gaye's 'Inner City Blues'. What I particularly enjoy is that this is no copyist effort, but  a real attempt to get inside the songs and make them her own. The backing is empathetic and the voice is to the fore. An enjoyable outing that leads to the question 'Where next?'

Emmet Cohen: Vibe Provider.

Cohen has produced an album every bit as varied as the previous two. Starting with a basic trio, but adding saxophone, trumpet and trombone of various times he works his way through self composed material and a scattering of the unexpected. His outing on 'Surrey with the fringe on top' moves it far awayfrom Rogers and hammerstein as it's likely to ever be moved, which can also be said for 'If this isn't love'. Just to show his dexterity as a keyboard player check out 'Emmets Blues'. Vibe provider indeed!

Ezra Collective: Dance - no one's watching.

Joyous noise! Mine is a generous two album set that firmly places them in the top echelon of British jazz. This is a wondeful follow up to their  award winning prvous album. It is what it says in the title, a chance to dance. Some excellent sleeve notes explain the circumstances in which each track was created and who contributed, as well as something about their everyday ways of working. The sense of fun permeates the whole album along with their spirituality and a fusion of the sum of theri collective background. I've listened to it a lot - and even danced to it!

I'll try to add another few thoughts about albums I'm enjoying before putting together my list of favourite tracks of the year. It wont bear any relationship to the album titles I collated for that other magazine!

A rather late start to this year's blogging, for which apologies. It's been a busy and productive year on many fronts and as I start this we're in the process of looking for aerial sites for a potential expansion of our DAB+ service into East Devon. The polygon advertised is quite beyond our scope to even try and fill it all, particularly as using existing aerial sites is quite beyond our budget! Stockland Hill would be ideal, but we can't affored to use an external provider, so are having to look for potential aerial sites across the area we intend to cover. At the moment it looks as though our application will be using three sites. The bids to run the service have to be submitted by mid July and I'm currently rather busy rushing around by by lanes of what is, in some areas a very sparsely populated patch. More details as it progresses (or otherwise as the case may be!)

So to the jazz. It's obvious that 'jazz' is now covering a huge range of other musical areas with some recent forays into jazz-funk, rap jazz and European free jazz. Below are the six albums that I've enjoyed most during the first four months of the year. They appear in no particular order!

John Surman: Words unspoken.

As with most of the ECM material that I get this is an album that is splendidly recorded with Surman playing a range of sax sizes as well as bass clarinet. It's a break out from the normal quartet line up with Rob Luft on guitar (he's been on about three other albums this year already), Rob Waring on Vibraphone and Thomas Stronen on drums.All the compositions are by Surman and my starting point is 'Onich celidah'  and the title track. As ever, it's not a 'one play and you're hooked' album, but rewards repeated listens.

The Jazz Defenders: Memory in Motion.

Two changes in the lin up from the last outing, and a much tighter sound. Live, the new drummer ,Ian Matthews (sometime of kasabian) and Jake McMurchie on sax have tightened up the sound considerably, and this transmits itself throughout the album. Much of the maerial is written by George Cooper, (the keyboard player, and earlier from this City!). There are acouple of vocal outings . Current favourites are 'Rolling on a high' and 'Fuffle kershuffle'. Try to see them live, they were excellent at thier Exeter gig. A leap forward in quality and strength of material. See also my final comment, below.

Julian Lage: Speak to me.

The previous album seeemedlike outtakes from another session, but guitarist Lage has spread his range and material and has produced this throroughly enjoyable album. It's less sparse than some of his previous work, with some tracks filled out to a sextet. There are also a variety of tempos with less emphasis on his solos and more emphasis on ensemble playing.Introductory tracks ought to be 'Northern Shuffle'  and '76'. A welcome return to form.

Sarah L. King: Fire Horse.

Pleased to say this was a listener recommendation! It's a good one as well.. I know practically nothing about her, except she's British and sings in a very British style of jazz. The album was produced by Claire Martin, and the band led by Jim Watson on piano and keyboards are very empathetic. The strengths are her writing (and its style) and her choice of 'other' material. Self written songs to start with  are 'Born Yesterday' and 'Black Dog', whilst her version of 'Show you the way to go' turns the Gamble & Huff into an entirely different thing. Highly recommended.

Muriel Grossman: Devotion.

I was vaguely aware of some of Grossman's previous stuff, notably her John Coltrane trubute 'Golden Rule' but that was little preparation for this double album set of extended tracks which gave space not only to her tenor playing, but also allowed the rest of the band to solo extensivey. Of particular note is the guitar work of Radomir Milojkovic, but the band themselves extend the themes into an extended series of workouts with different tempos and different influnces, much of it based around themes of Buddhist contemplation. All of which makes it sound dull, and it isn't becasue it's a joyous amalgam of a host of other influences as well. A strong contender for my 2024 Top Ten.

Charlie Pyne Quartet: Nature is a Mother.

Charlie is the bass player in this excellent set with Katie Patterson on drums, Luke Pinkstone on Tenor Sax and Liam Dunachie of keybords. The songs are all Charlie's and it's a set of reflections on humanity, the Universe and constraints on working life. It's beautifully recorded, the song writing is strong and it's a really excellent example of where (British) jazz can go. Probably the most played album on the show so far this year, but see also my footnote below.

The year of releases is now, in mid May, really getting under way, so there'll probably be another page in a month or so. In the meantime I'll end with a footnote!

Footnote: 

What really made my pleasure in listening to two of the albums above was that I got to speak to the writers about the albums, their struggles, hopes and humanity. So thanks to Goerge Cooper from Jazz Defenders for telling me his stories about growing up in Exeter and how one of the songs on the album was about his (mis)spent? youth. Thanks to Charlie Pyne for sharing the thoughts about motherhood, playing jazz, childcare and keeping bands together whilst life flowed on. Jazz is really about all those things, and more.