Matt Mitchell: "A Pouting Grimace" (Pi)
The New Jazz, with its tricky arrangements and its "you can't really dance or even tap your toe to it" rhythms can be a chore if the players aren't also masters who feel and express soulfulness at every turn. Matt Mitchell is that kind of player. Here, his organic compositions _ for a band that incorporates diverse percussion and unusual woodwinds as well as more standard jazz instruments, but also for synthesizers _ are captivating and the improvising feels perfectly meshed with the writing.
Rez Abbasi: "Unfiltered Universe" (Whirlwind)
There was great jazz this year drawing on musical cultures beyond the United States, as there always is. "Unfiltered Universe" seamlessly blends Carnatic music from India with jazz _ and having Vijay Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa and Dan Weiss in the band is huge. This is the third in a series of recordings, and listening to it is like getting toward the top of a mountain and feeling the treelike give away to a flood of light _ it is brilliant and exhilarating.
Miles Okazaki: "Trickster" (Pi)
Okazaki has been long associated with the great composer (and mentor) Steve Coleman, who is also on this list, but it's time to think of the guitarist as a master too. "Trickster" brings to mind some of Coleman's work, but it is also a brilliant individual statement that utilizes a unique band in fresh ways.
Linda May Han Oh: "Walk Against Wind" (Biofilia)
Bassist May Han Oh is a young superstar _ she is playing with Pat Metheny and Dave Douglas, yet the best music she's making is her own. The quintet assembled for her fourth date is similarly young and thrilling, with Ben Wendel on saxophone, Matthew Stevens (recently with another astonishing bassist, Esperanza Spalding), Justin Brown on drums and Fabian Almazan on piano. The composing featured here is mature and wide-ranging, and it leaves gaping spaces that make the music airy but wise.
Steve Coleman's Natal Eclipse: "Morphogenesis" (Pi)
Coleman is making some of the best music of his striking career lately, and this recital is fascinating: based on the motions of boxing yet recorded without a drummer. Despite this absence, the music grooves, swings, pulses and jumps at every turn. Coleman's collaborators remain impressive: Jonathon Finlayson on trumpet, Matt Mitchell on piano, Jen Shyu on vocals and many more.
Vijay Iyer: "Far From Over" (ECM)
This is a record that we were waiting for from a musician who has done so much in the last 20 years. Finally, Iyer has recorded with horns, building a jazz sextet that occasionally reminds you of the Jazz Messengers but much more often follows in the footsteps of Herbie Hancock's too-little-lauded Mwandishi group. The result is funky, subtle, gorgeous, blues-drenched, electric, pastel, everything.
Craig Taborn: "Daylight Ghosts" (ECM)
Craig Taborn seems to be everyone's favorite collaborator these days. His duets with pianist Kris Davis are free wonders, and his collaboration with Miles Okazaki is telepathic. His own music has been wonderful before, but "Daylight Ghosts" is the most mature of his own recordings.
Kate Gentile: "Mannequins" (Skirl)
The surprise of 2017 is this debut recording from drummer Kate Gentile. Gentile has been in New York for a while, and she seems to have a particularly fertile musical relationship with pianist Matt Mitchell (including playing on his 2017 masterpiece). But her own composing and band leading makes her debut shine.
Ryan Keberle and Catharsis: "Find the Common, Shine a Light" (Greenleaf)
Keberle is another trombonist/composer whose music is among the most accessible and warmhearted of the year. Catharsis started as a chord-less quartet (two brass plus rhythm), but then added the sinuous and limber voice of Chilean guitarist Camila Meza, turning it into a quintet capable of reimagining standards or playing tricky modern jazz or delving into music from South America. "Find the Common" is a protest album that does all this and more.
Nate Smith: "Kinfolk, Postcards from Everywhere" (Ropeadope)
Smith has played the drums with Betty Carter, Dave Holland, Regina Carter, Chris Potter and many more. Kinfolk is a "jazz" record, however, that probably wouldn't have been possible until recently _ a collection that has plenty of authentic, harmonically complex improvising but also uses soul grooves and vocals to forge a connection back to pop music.
