Tim Mah's Top Jazz Picks of 2016

Calgary's Tim Mah is a good friend, a huge supporter of the local scene here in Calgary and has excellent taste when it comes to food, wine, coffee, fashion and, of course, Jazz music. Tim was nice enough to contribute today's guest blog post, his choices for the best Jazz albums of 2016.

"Tim Mah's Top 2016 Jazz Albums" by Tim Mah

In December, many “Best of the Year” album lists are published and the Grammy Awards nominations are announced.  I like reading these lists, as they serve as a filter for the thousands of albums that are released each year. I often discover albums that I have not had the opportunity to hear.

Below is a list of 20 Jazz albums for 2016 that were among my favourite Jazz albums of the year, in no particular order:

1. Branford Marsalis Quartet with special guest Kurt Elling “Upward Spiral”

2.  Gregory Porter “Take Me to the Alley”

3. Murray Allen & Carrington Power Trio "Perfection" 

4.  Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane, and Matthew Garrison "In Movement"

5. Jeremy Pelt "#Jiveculture"

6.  Ben Wendel "What We Bring"

7.  The Pedrito Martinez Group "Habana Dreams"

8.  Tord Gustavsen, Simin Tander, and Jarle Vespestad "What Was Said"

9.  Takuya Kuroda "Zigzagger"

10.  Francisco Mela "Fe"

11.  Logan Richardson "Shift"

12.  Theo Croker "Escape Velocity"

13.  Alfredo Rodriguez "Tocororo"

14.  Camila Meza "Traces"

15.  Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society "Real Enemies"

16. Seamus Blake "Superconductor"

17. Champian Fulton "After Dark"

18. Esperanza Spalding "Emily's D+Evolution"

19. Jane Monheit "The Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald"

20. Kris Davis “Duopoly”

https://vimeo.com/krisdavismusic/kris-davis-duopoly



"Honourable Mentions…"


Jerome Jennings “The Beast”  

Melissa Aldana “Back Home”

Brandi Disterheft “Blue Canvas”

Ingrid & Christine Jensen “Infinitude”

Al Muirhead “Oop!”

Bria Skonberg “Bria"

Marquis Hill “The Way We Play”

Dominic Faranacci “Short Stories”

Warren Wolf “Convergence”

Quinsin Nachoff “Flux"

Rudy Royston Trio “Rise of Orion”

Donny McCaslin “Beyond Now”

Robert Glasper Experiment “ArtScience”

Laurence Hobgood “Honor Thy Fathers”

Avishai Cohen “Into the Silence”

Terrace Martin “Velvet Portraits”

Ibrahim Maalouf “Khaltoum”

Metalwood “Twenty”

Snarky Puppy “Culcha Vulcha"

Norah Jones “Day Breaks"