It also won him two posthumous Grammy awards. By the time the record was released, Brecker had passed away but this great jazz album stands as an enduring monument to his genius. Though he was terminally ill at the time, Brecker’s playing is wonderfully vibrant and brimming with a life-affirming vigor. Pilgrimage was Brecker’s final solo album, recorded during 2006 in the stellar company of Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, John Patitucci, and Jack DeJohnette. This Pennsylvanian tenor saxophonist rose to fame playing jazz-funk in the 70s with his elder sibling Randy in the Brecker Brothers but also carved out a career as a first call sideman for rock artists that ranged from John Lennon to Steely Dan. Key track: “Ashes Of Our Forever” 76: Michael Brecker: Pilgrimage (Heads Up) In the last decade, he has consistently pushed the jazz envelope with albums like the politically charged The Emancipation Procrastination, which fuses alt rock, African music, hip-hop and ambient flavors to arrive at a sound that defies pigeonholing and which Adjuah describes as “Stretch Music.” The inaugural release in his acclaimed Centennial Trilogy, the album offers an immersive listening experience that is a stunning showcase of the horn blower’s polyglot style where his mournful, elegant trumpet melodies are framed by a blend of filmic soundscapes and stuttering trap grooves. Though the history of jazz can be heard in his trumpet playing – from the brash ebullience of Louis Armstrong to the introspective melancholy of Miles Davis and the incandescent virtuosity of Dizzy Gillespie – this New Orleans musician has created a unique and unclassifiable musical hybrid. Key track: “How High The Moon” 77: Christian Scott a Tunde Adjuah: The Emancipation Procrastination (Ropeadope/Stretch Music) Such is Tatum’s genius that he transforms his source material into virtuosic mini concertos, packed with dizzying melodic cascades, inventive substitute chords, and piston-like left-hand accompaniments. It featured his first four studio sides – including wonderfully flamboyant renditions of “Tea For Two” and “Tiger Rag” – augmented by scintillating live recordings recorded at LA’s Shrine Auditorium from 1949. The 1968 compilation, Piano Starts Here, offers a rewarding snapshot of Tatum’s jaw-dropping technique and sparked a revival of interest in Tatum’s music twelve years after his death.
Key track: “Carlos” 78: Art Tatum: Piano Starts Here (Columbia)įrom Toledo, Ohio, the visually impaired Art Tatum set an impossibly high bar for jazz piano playing between 1933, when he made his first recordings, to his death in 1956. A scintillating contemporary take on big band, and one of the greatest jazz albums of all-time. The set’s highlights include the pent-up symphonic opener, “Carlos,” oscillating between tension and resolution, and “Out Of The City,” which exudes a metropolitan swing feel. The contrast between Scofield’s acerbic, gnarly guitar lines and the pointillistic detail of Mendoza’s orchestrations offers a juxtaposition of tones and textures that is thrillingly dramatic. Leading Holland’s redoubtable Metropole Orkest, in 2010 Mendoza invited US jazz-rock guitarist Scofield to guest on 54, which presented seven widescreen adaptations of tunes from Scofield’s back catalogue as well as two original numbers.
Six-time Grammy winning American arranger Vince Mendoza is renowned for his collaborations with pop and rock acts (Björk, Joni Mitchell) but he’s also worked his magic with jazz performers. Key track: “Bright Size Life” 79: Metropole Orkest feat. Over the course of Metheny’s career, he would go on to make far more ambitious albums but Bright Size Life stands out for its winning combination of youthful energy and masterly assuredness. What resulted was a thrilling showcase for Metheny’s clear-toned, flowing virtuoso style which was defined by elliptical melodic filigrees, liquid improv and flights of untrammeled lyricism. Metheny was just 21 and teaching at Boston’s Berklee School of Music when ECM producer Manfred Eicher, who had heard him play with vibraphonist Gary Burton’s group, recorded the young guitarist with fretless bass maven Jaco Pastorius and drummer Bob Moses.
Largely ignored and selling barely 1,000 copies on its release in January 1976, the Missouri guitar magus’ debut jazz album gradually grew in stature and went on to be regarded as a post-bop masterpiece. 80: Pat Metheny: Bright Side Life (ECM)
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