The Mix

Listen along to this post with our Source Material: Janis Joplin, Pearl playlist.

In 1970, Janis Joplin was 27 going on 57. Catapulted to rock stardom just two years earlier, she was quickly buckling under intensely deleterious drug abuse. Moreover, her once-preternatural howl had devolved into a ragged, shredded cry: still expressive, mind you, but the damage was apparent. As detailed in Myra Friedman's 1973 biography Buried Alive, alcohol and drugs were Joplin's way of coping with the insecurity and anxiety lurking just beneath her got-it-covered swagger and persona as the groovy, party-hard Queen of Psychedelic Soul.

She was also at a crossroads artistically. Though Cheap Thrills (recorded with Big Brother & The Holding Co. in '68) was both a critical and commercial success, there were many in the rock scene who believed Joplin had yet to release a studio album that captured her fiery genius as a live performer. I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, her first record post-Big Brother, exemplified this. The performances are rather stiff, the horn-based arrangements decadent and unnatural-feeling. Part of the issue was Joplin herself -- or, more to the point, the inconsistent and erratic behavior that inevitably accompanies substance abuse.

But equally problematic was the fact that she was, as an artist, an extreme proposition in the late '60s. The Texas-born powerhouse was a radically new mutation in rock 'n' roll's evolution: a woman with the banshee wail of Tina Turner specializing in heavy-ass groove music soaked in post-garage feedback and distortion. When you really think about it, Joplin was (along with Jim Morrison) the prototype for the blues-soaked, hard-rock screaming frontmen of the '70s: Robert Plant, Paul Rodgers, Bon Scott, Rusty Day, etc. She just arrived a couple years too soon. As a result, Columbia Records, and in particular label boss Clive Davis, had trouble capitalizing on her singular talent.

Despite this mountain of obstacles, Joplin entered the studio one last time in the fall of '70 (a month before her death on October 4) and recorded what would be her finest album, the posthumously released Pearl. Influenced by the back-to-roots movement The Band and The Rolling Stones helped spark a couple years prior, the singer assembled The Full Tilt Boogie Band in an attempt to reconnect with her love of earthy rock, soul, blues and even country. No psychedelic excesses, no overbearing brass charts, just her and a fantastic rock band that could swing electric ("Move Over") just as adroitly as they could strum acoustic (the timeless rendition of Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee").

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Listen along with our New Girls (and Boys) from Ipanema playlist.

Those warm, sandy vocals. The quiet breeze of an acoustic guitar. The swaying syncopated rhythms. And, of course, the pitter-patter of sleek, lounge-ready electro-beats. It's the sound of contemporary bossa nova and samba -- at least the strain that such game-changers as Bebel Gilberto, Celso Fonseca and Seu Jorge helped shape in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Inspired by the often politically charged, gracefully crafted work of pioneers like Antonio Carlos Jobim, Astrud Gilberto and Caetano Veloso, these hip young things super-charged samba and bossa, injecting it with a caipirinha-cool chicness for a new generation. Luxuriate in the lush sounds of their ingenuity and artistry with our deep dive into neo-bossa and samba, including cuts from the brand new albums by CeU and Marisa Monte.

Listen along to this post with our Source Material: Miles Davis, Bitches Brew playlist.

Some 40 years after its release, Miles Davis' Bitches Brew still seethes with revolutionary energy, at once sinister and stony. A groundbreaking intellectual exercise to divorce the trumpeter from his '60s work, this opus, released in 1970, ironically became his most popular recording to date. As Davis plugged in and careened headlong into his most controversial period, he allowed funk and psychedelic rock records to influence his writing, challenged the standards of instrumentation (two bass players? electric piano? distorted guitar?), and defined the sonic textures of the next decade's fusion movement.

Historians have pinned some of Davis' newfound interest in the rock charts to then-girlfriend and soon-to-be second wife Betty Mabry (later Betty Davis). In addition to having a career as a soul singer herself, she had also been a teen model who dated Hendrix and Sly Stone.

Whatever his motivation, much of the magic in Bitches Brew comes from Davis' bold vision and the fluid interchange of its personnel. He included several rising talents in the session, including bass clarinetist Bennie Maupin (later a member of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters), keyboardist Joe Zawinul (who later founded Weather Report with longtime Davis collaborator Wayne Shorter) and electric bassist Harvey Brooks. The recording also features the debut of then 19-year-old drummer Lenny White. Over just three days in August 1969, Davis and his band tracked six tunes that would forever change jazz. Here's where the music came from.

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Listen along to this post with our Witch Hunt: A Wayne Shorter Artist Spotlight playlist.

A crash course in composer and saxophonist Wayne Shorter should start with his tune "Witch Hunt." The tightly structured weave of tenor sax and trumpet swings along with a carefree gait until, out of nowhere, there's a ricochet of drums and the melody suddenly sweeps upward into a tortured scream. This is Wayne Shorter at his best: complex, shrewd and surprising.

Born in 1933, Shorter began his career as a sideman to legendary leaders in the bop movement, including Art Blakey and Horace Silver. And even though the young tenor player struggled to emerge from the shadow of former practice buddy John Coltrane, eventually his gifts as a composer led to sessions as a bandleader. By the mid-'60s, he was stunningly prolific, turning out a clutch of records that explored the fringes of post-bop, both as an increasingly confident bandleader and a member of Miles Davis' legendary second quintet.

Although the records of this period are his most celebrated, they only represent half the story. He then took up soprano sax, founded visionary fusion group Weather Report, and was a frequent collaborator with pop singers and songwriters. Shorter's greatest legacy lies in his compositions, but his longevity as a performer and visionary spans four decades. Here's an introduction to his best work.

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Listen along to this post with our New Vocal Standards playlist.

In the great tradition of begging, borrowing and stealing from across popular genres, the young class of modern jazz singers has expanded the canon of standards to include classic rock, indie songwriters and new originals. This playlist offers tunes from the hands of Joni Mitchell, Simply Red, Elliott Smith and The Beatles by a fresh group of jazz singers that includes Esperanza Spalding, Madeleine Peyroux and Gretchen Parlato. It might be Kurt Elling's adventurous, inventive, slightly off-kilter take on the Joe Jackson classic "Steppin' Out" that's most emblematic: by breaking all the rules, Elling reintroduces us to an old favorite.

There's a mysterious melancholy that shrouds Paul Motian's atmospheric sessions with guitarist Bill Frisell and vocalist Petra Haden (daughter of Charlie). Complemented by Haden's plaintive delivery, the 80-year-old drummer's delicate brushwork is in top form on this set of standards and near-standards ("Lover Man," "I've Got a Crush on You") and even makes a chestnut like "Tennessee Waltz" sing with remarkable poignancy. The Windmills of Your Mind is a dimly lit and richly emotional record. [Nate Cavalieri] Hear It Now!

Get the full experience by tuning in to my Friday Mixtape: Young Jazz Piano Trios playlist now.

This playlist may compile compositions from the sophisticated edge of pop culture -- Radiohead, Nick Drake, Elliott Smith -- but the performances are by some of the most exciting young jazz piano trios. Jazz musicians have a long and celebrated tradition of stealing tunes from the pop charts, but pianists like Brad Mehldau, Taylor Eigsti and Robert Glasper mine the territory of indie and avant-garde rock for surprising selections that have the potential to capture audiences outside the genre's borders. They are joined by a handful of visionary young European trios, led by the likes of Esbjörn Svensson and Colin Vallon, who offer their own visionary retooling of the piano trio format. This Friday Mixtape brings some of our favorite young artists together for a set of stylish, urbane classics.

Haden and Jones recorded their first duo in 1995, the sublime, deeply personal Steal Away, a collection of hymns, spirituals and folk tunes. The same concept and elegantly understated playing is behind this, their immaculate follow-up, recorded just before Jones' death in 2010. Though Jones was 91, his treatment of these simple songs is loving, powerful and lyrical. On Sunday standards like "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" and "Down By the Riverside," there is not only a deeply spiritual connection between the players, but also between two deeply spiritual men and their maker. [Nate Cavalieri] Hear It Now!

Listen along to this post with our Jazz Roundup: January 2012 playlist.

The first jazz releases of 2012 have kicked the year off in remarkable fashion. Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt offers a dusky collection of ballads and blues. There's more trumpet with a Wynton Marsalis compilation that focuses on his life as a composer, along with Jimmy Owens' clear-eyed look at the works of Thelonious Monk. The set continues with some disarming efforts by an international trio of rock-, fusion- and avant-oriented pianists: U.K. crossover sensation Neil Cowley, Italian experimentalist Stefano Battaglia and Spanish newcomer Juan Galiardo. Last but certainly not least is the long-awaited follow-up to Hank Jones and Charlie Haden's 1995 record Steal Away. The new Come Sunday is a set of ethereal, elegant, deeply spiritual duets.

1. Charlie Haden & Hank Jones
Come Sunday
Haden and Jones recorded their first duet album in 1995: the sublime, deeply personal Steal Away, a collection of hymns, spirituals and folk tunes. The same concept and elegantly understated playing is behind this, their immaculate follow-up, recorded just before Jones' death in 2010. Though Jones was 91, his treatment of these simple songs is loving, powerful and lyrical. On Sunday standards like "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" and "Down by the Riverside," there is a deeply spiritual connection not only between the players, but also between two deeply spiritual men and their maker. [Nate Cavalieri]

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We've spent the last month or so entirely transfixed with determining our favorite music of 2011, but it's time now to look forward, not backward. Below, the Rhapsody brain trust lays out the albums we're most looking forward to hearing in the first half of 2012, from Madonna to Rick Ross, M.I.A. to Van Halen, Sleigh Bells to Tim McGraw, Juanes to Esperanza Spalding. To get you going, here's a quick Most Anticipated Albums of 2012 playlist to recount what we've heard so far. Dig in.

POP
Madonna, M.D.N.A. (Live Nation/Interscope), spring
A new Madonna album is like Christmas. You know it's coming, you more or less know what to expect, and you know the celebration will probably result in more than a few drunken fights/dance-offs. But it's still pretty much up-all-night, visions-of-half-naked-dancers-dancing in your head exciting, no matter how old you get. Reported collaborations include M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj. Apparently we've been extra-good this year! [Rachel Devitt]

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Welcome to the inaugural edition of our Jazz Critics' Poll, in which we survey 120+ national critics on their favorite albums of the year, a tradition we're taking on from the Village Voice. Herein we've got a comprehensive look at the victors (from 60 overall picks to the voters' favorites in the Best Reissue, Best Latin, Best Vocal and Best Debut categories), along with in-depth essays and personal Top 10s from poll gurus Francis Davis and Tom Hull. Finally, we take a look back at the jazz luminaries we lost in the last 12 months. And while you peruse, please listen to this year's big winner, Sonny Rollins' Road Shows, Vol. 2, because it is awesome. Enjoy.

	The Victors: Poll guru Francis Davis counts down the big winners and his personal favorites			The Results: The Top 60, plus picks for reissues, Latin and vocal jazz, and debut albums
	The Thrill of Discovery: Another critic's biggest finds, from Abdullah Ibrahim to Colin Stetson			RIP 2011: Jazz notables we lost in the past year

Welcome to Rhapsody's first-annual Jazz Critics' Poll, wherein 100+ national writers voted on their favorite albums of the year in a tradition we're taking on from the Village Voice. Full results are here, explained via essays from poll gurus Francis Davis and Tom Hull. In addition, we'd like to pay tribute to the artists we lost this past year.

Alan Adams, Eugenio "Totico" Arango, Milton Babbitt, Butch Ballard, Billy Bang, Ross Barbour, Bill Bardin, John Barry, Gordon Beck, Gil Bernal, Paul Blair, Bess Bonnier, Bob Brookmeyer, Odell Brown, Ray Bryant, François Cahen, Jean-Charles Capon, Jeanne Carroll, Clarence Clemons, Carlton "King" Coleman, Graham Collier, Reggie Curry, Beryl Davis, Vinnie Dean, Eric Delaney, Daniela D'Ercole, Clem DeRosa, Frank Driggs, Cornell Dupree, Honeyboy Edwards, Charles Fambrough, Don Ferrara, Bob Flanigan, Frank Foster, Russ Garcia, Donald Gardner, Michael Garrick, Tom Garvin, Lacy Gibson, John Glasel, Charles Graham, Lil Greenwood, Freddie Gruber, Barry Lee Hall, Jr., Lenny Hambro, Mary Cleere Haran, Art Hillery, André Hodeir, Morty Jacobs, Bert Jansch, Big Jack Johnson, Eddie Kirkland, Norikatsu Koreyasu, Myrna Lake, Fran Landesman, Wolfgang Lauth, Barbara Lea, Christine Legrand, Jerry Leiber, Jack Lemaire, Tony Levin, Jack Lewis, Gene McDaniels, Ralph MacDonald, Dave McMurdo, Eddie Marshall, Hugh Martin, Curtis Mitchell, Horst Mohlbradt, Joe Mogotsi, Eddie Mordue, Joe Morello, Ernest Mothle, Paul Motian, Ted Nash (Sr.), Zim Ngqawana, Piet Noordijk, Walter Norris, Nancy Overton, Papa Bue (Arne Jensen), Mel Parker, Pinetop Perkins, Boris Petrovic, Lucy Ann Polk, Andrzej Przybielski, Johnny Raducanu, Hans Reichel, Ron Reynolds, Bruce Ricker, Michael Ridley, Sam Rivers, Edmundo Ros, Alan Rubin, Pete Rugolo, Brian Rust, Tony Schilder, Hawe Schneider, Gil Scott-Heron, Marvin Sease, Dave Shapiro, George Shearing, Allen Smith, Betty Smith, Willie (Big Eyes) Smith, Phoebe Snow, Melvin Sparks, Benny Spellman, Alex Stirnweiss, Hubert Sumlin, Monty Sunshine, Howard Tate, Dr. Billy Taylor, Dan Terry, Jack Towers, Jack Tracy, Bill Triglia, Orrin Tucker, Al Vega, Margaret Whiting, Joe Lee Wilson, Jens Winther, Randy Wood, Snooky Young.

Welcome to Rhapsody's first annual Jazz Critics' Poll, wherein 120+ national writers voted on their favorite albums of the year in a tradition we're taking on from the Village Voice. Your host is author/critic Francis Davis, with an in-depth look at the 2011 results. Enjoy.

While reading, be sure to check out our 2011 Jazz Poll: The Victors playlist.

"And so, the Jazz Event of 2010 begat the Best Jazz Album of 2011...."
In my liner notes to Sonny Rollins' Road Shows, Vol. 2 -- Album of the Year in my sixth annual Jazz Critics Poll (and the first conducted for Rhapsody) -- I suggested a better title might be The 80th Birthday Concert Plus, because along with an opening and a brief closing number from Japan the following month, the album draws heavily from the tenor saxophonist's instantly legendary September 2010 show at New York's Beacon Theater. So, it turns out you didn't have to be there, after all -- though, as someone who was, let me tell you that no recording can capture the jolt of anticipation that shot through the packed house when unannounced special guest Ornette Coleman tottered in from the wings to join Sonny, Roy Haynes and Christian McBride 10 minutes into an already electrifying "Sonnymoon for Two."

Exchanging nods of astonishment with the New York cognoscenti (including numerous devotees of free improvisation whose ears usually go numb at the mere suggestion of a recognizable melody or blues riff) as I exited the Beacon that night, the thought occurred to me that if Rollins were to approve a commercial release, there might be no need for a poll. I could simply introduce a resolution naming it Album of the Year by unanimous consent. Going into this year's poll, the only question seemed to be Road Shows, Vol. 2's margin of victory.

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Welcome to Rhapsody's first-annual Jazz Critics' Poll, wherein 122 national writers voted on their favorite albums of the year in a tradition we're taking on from the Village Voice. Below are the full results and methodology; poll guru Francis Davis' full introductory explanation is here, joined by a complementary essay from fellow critic Tom Hull and a list of jazz notables who passed in 2011. Enjoy.

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Welcome to Rhapsody's first-annual Jazz Critics' Poll, wherein 100+ national writers voted on their favorite albums of the year in a tradition we're taking on from the Village Voice. In addition to the full results and an explanatory essay by guru Francis Davis, here's a complementary list from critic and poll cohort Tom Hull. Enjoy.

While reading, be sure to check out my Favorite Jazz Albums of 2011 playlist.

In 2011, the economy limped along while those who could tried to keep going about their business, and that included almost everyone involved with jazz. The same labels and pretty much the same musicians released roughly the same number of records this year as last. Jazz continues to build a surfeit of talent for its tiny sliver of the market. Those of us who get to listen to a lot of it--I sorted through my usual 600 records this year--are fortunate, and those who don't bother are missing a lot.

For example, consider my own picks in Rhapsody's 2011 Jazz Poll, just 10 out of 54 new A-list albums I found so far this year:

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It's the most wonderful time of the year: list season! Music obsessives of all stripes spend December painstakingly compiling their favorite albums and singles of the past 12 (or so) months, and we here at Rhapsody are no different. So please enjoy this absurdly huge Best of 2011 blowout. We've got staff-compiled lists of our 50 favorite albums and singles (in which everyone from James Blake to Nicki Minaj vies to fight off Adele), individual genre lists for everything from hip-hop to metal to Christian to Latin, and playlists galore. It was a fascinating, bizarre, wildly divergent year. We've made our best attempt to summarize it below.

	Top 50 Albums: Adele takes the throne			Top 50 Songs: "Super Bass" vs. "Rolling in the Deep"
	Top 25 Pop: Gaga's insanity typifies a wild year			Top 25 Hip-Hop: Shabazz Palaces and other arty triumphs
	Top 25 Indie: No limit to our James Blake love			Top 25 Country: Eric, Alison and other heavyweights
	Top 25 Rock: The crown resides in North Mississippi			Top 30 Electronic: SBTRKT presides over a huge crossover year
	Top 25 Metal: Cauldron and other founts of pure heaviness			Top 25 Latin: Gerardo Ortiz caps a tumultuous year in style
	Top 25 Jazz: Going way out with Colin Vallon			Top 25 World Music: Aurelio Martinez leads an international buffet
	Top 10 R&B: Surrender to Beyoncé			Top 25 Christian/Gospel: In praise of Switchfoot, for starters
	Top 15 Classical: Young guns and old favorites			Top 25 Rock Reissues: The Beach Boys, Floyd and more

Maybe 2011 was the year of the vibraphone. Or the year of the piano trio. Or the year of Brad Mehldau or Paul Motian. Or another year of Miles. The best jazz records of 2011 are a varied bunch, but there are certain strains that float through the year's favorite recordings. The sheer diversity and strength of the offerings prove that the genre continues to expand boundaries with creativity, vision and bold sonic experiments.

The most exciting trend might be the sudden maturation of a cadre of young vibraphone players -- Warren Wolf, Stefon Harris, Jason Adasiewicz -- who all led or had a hand in fantastic records. Elder jazz vibist Gary Burton's new group also put forth one of the year's best albums, and helped make the vibraphone one of the hippest sounds in contemporary jazz. It was an excellent year for the genre's fringes and fusions, with the saxophones of Steve Coleman and Colin Stetson and Iraqi composer Amir ElSaffar. Then there's pianist Brad Mehldau. Of his three records in 2011, two on the list demonstrate why he's among the most distinct players around: an elegant, unrehearsed live session at Birdland with Charlie Haden, Lee Konitz and Paul Motian, and an electrifying solo session that bristles with his head-spinning technique.

Strains of Mehldau are also heard in the crowning offering from Swiss pianist Colin Vallon, whose trio turned out the top record of the year, Rruga. The record's title is Albanian for "path," and it, like many other favorites of the year, is a wildly gratifying journey.

In addition to the albums below, be sure to check out my Best in Jazz: 2011 playlist.


25. Neil Cowley Trio
Radio Silence
Although the Neil Cowley Trio may not have wide name recognition, they're the musical engine behind pop super-sensation Adele. A self-assured effort based around chunky melodic riffs and hard grooves, Radio Silence has more in common with the rock-oriented grooves of The Bad Plus than the piano-trio brilliance of Brad Mehldau. "Monoface" opens the album with an explosive bang, and its heavy backbeat and hook motif extend throughout. [Nate Cavalieri]

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Although we love last century's Christmas classics, sometimes the unrelenting spins of Nat King Cole's "Christmas Song" are enough to drive a person batty. This playlist rummages around in Santa's sack for the lesser-known gems by your favorite classic crooners, and finds Bing, Dino, Rosemary Clooney and the like singing would-be holiday standards about snowmen, donkeys and snowy white magic. Have fun.

Listen now: Crooners' Christmas Rarities

With breezy, swinging panache, Vince Guaraldi pulled off something nearly impossible with his 1965 score to A Charlie Brown Christmas: he issued a record that instantly expanded the overstuffed Christmas canon. The formula was unusual, to say the least. The pianist's lightly swinging trio brought a fresh, sophisticated air to dreary holiday standards like "O Tannenbaum," captured several cute (if somewhat tuneless) kids' sing-alongs, and turned out a few nimble originals--"Skating," "Christmas Time Is Here," "Linus & Lucy"--that became standards in their own right.

Getting under the surface of A Charlie Brown Christmas requires a musical trip back to the genre-bending, transformational West Coast jazz scene of the 1950s. Guaraldi grew up in San Francisco and found himself returning to the city after serving in the Korean War. In college, he was fascinated by boogie-woogie piano players like Meade "Lux" Lewis, Albert Ammons and Jimmy Yancey, and eventually took an interest in straight-ahead jazz. He sat in at San Francisco clubs like the Blackhawk, and eventually landed a gig adding to the shimmering, Latin-influenced grooves of Cal Tjader.

Guaraldi's first major recordings were with Tjader's outfit in 1951, and he'd keep that association going throughout his career, eventually playing on about a dozen of the bandleader's records. Guaraldi cut his first solo sessions in 1955, and eventually shaped a career that ranged far beyond his dalliances with Charlie Brown and Snoopy. His melodic, grounded playing simultaneously imbibed Dave Brubeck's trained compositional sensibility and swinging elements of piano greats like Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum. More than anything, he had a fierce ear for melody as both a composer and an improviser.

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To get your head around trumpeter, virtuoso and jazz godhead Wynton Marsalis, you have to understand his oversized musical personalities. He's both the aggressive improvisational badass who spurred the Young Lions movement and the cocksure young interpreter of baroque trumpet concertos. He's at once the curmudgeonly jazz educator, the neotraditional cultural gatekeeper and the most celebrated black composer in contemporary American music. He's jazz's greatest ambassador and its narrow-minded mouthpiece. But above all, he's an unquestionably brilliant overachiever and an omnivorous musical searcher. Marsalis turned 50 this year, giving us a chance to revisit his highlights and listen from every angle.

Listen along with my accompanying playlist: Celebrating Wynton Marsalis' Jazz

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There are all sorts of milestones in this month's Jazz Roundup. The biggest deal comes from Wynton Marsalis, whose 50th birthday was celebrated with a pair of records that show the trumpeter's paramount cultural clout. How many other musicians' labels issue a birthday retrospective? How many people get to jam with Clapton to celebrate half a century? There's also the final take from iconic vocalist Etta James and the realization of Christian McBride's long dream to lead a big band. Those three are joined by James Carter's organ trio and some torch-y vocals from L.A. pretty boy Michael Feinstein.

For highlights, check out my Jazz Roundup: November 2011 playlist.


1. James Carter Organ Trio
At the Crossroads
Although label troubles hindered James Carter's rise through the late '90s, the Detroit saxophonist has slowly put things back together. His second record of 2011, this gritty homage to the then-and-now of jazz in the Motor City, opens with a blistering take on "Oh Gee" and explores blues roots in a funky, gutsy, post-bop landscape. Although there are notable guest appearances -- including that of guitarist Bruce Edwards -- the standout track is from the hand of drummer Leonard King, Jr., who complements Carter's shrieking, virtuosic choruses on "Lettuce Toss Yo' Salad." [Nate Cavalieri]

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When you listen to jazz sessions from 1967, the genre's wild transformation is immediately evident. Jazz heads at the time had their work cut out for them trying to keep up: Coltrane, whose death from liver cancer shocked audiences in the summer of that year, had pushed things into an apocalyptic, free jazz frenzy, while other icons of the past decade were splintering into a modern, far-out free-for-all that wove together ideas begged, borrowed and stolen from bop, atonal modernism, and rhythmic and sonic elements from Latin America, Asia and Africa.

This powerful, fragmented, exploratory energy is all over the recently issued recordings of Miles Davis' gigs in Europe with the so-called "second great quartet," which included Herbie Hancock,Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams. They're all young, headstrong and virtuosic -- putting their performance to tape must've been like trying to bottle a hurricane.

The other recordings of that period -- from Coltrane's last recorded live session and Expression to the inspired Strayhorn/Ellington collaborations of the Far East Suite and Wayne Shorter's aptly named Schizophrenia -- are not for the faint of heart. But this challenging music offers big rewards, and helped make 1967 a year of particularly amazing sounds.

Click here to listen to the playlist: Senior Year, 1967: Jazz From the Far-Out Edge of the World

If players on the progressive edge of contemporary jazz often push boundaries and end up pushing away all but the smallest, most esoteric audiences, there's a lesson to be learned from avant-garde veteran Steve Coleman. Late in his career on the edge, Coleman is delivering his most beguiling and listenable records, deeply rooted in cyclical patterns and inspired by West African spiritual traditions. "Tea for Two" it is not, but Coleman's challenging Mancy of Sound has been in constant rotation for me, and every listen seems to uncover another layer.

When it's time to dial into something a bit more soothing, there's a lot to choose from lately: the surefooted, straightforward, self-titled debut from vibraphonist Warren Wolf, a fantastic solo set from the late pianist Sir Roland Hanna, and saxophonist Phil Woods in a session with his longtime pianist. The month's notable releases are rounded out by Chicago's Deep Blue Organ trio doing a set of Stevie Wonder, and guitarist John Basile, er, playing with himself. When your ears are ready for a challenge again, cue up the eccentric release from Brazilian guitarist Lucas Santtana.

Steve Coleman
The Mancy of Sound
Saxophonist Steve Coleman has long pushed against traditional boundaries with musical experiments as listenable as they are ambitious. With the mesmerizing Mancy, the composer finds inspiration in both the cycles of nature and the spiritual traditions of West Africa's Yoruba people. Sound heady? Believe it. But as Coleman and his band dig into these cyclical, repetitious instrumental patterns (many complemented by Jen Shyu's vocalizations), the album's weaving lines are disarming, lyrical and wholly mesmerizing. It's among 2011's most ambitious releases, and most successful.

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So anyway: the extremely sore arm came first. Was initially scared it might be carpal tunnel. Googling suggested otherwise. Was relieved to learn that it being on my right side was good news. (Left can be a sign of heart failure!) Doctor prescribed exercises and ointments and ice packs. Very weird, since I don't play tennis, but so be it.

Then, just as that was starting to heal, my stomach started hurting. A lot. After a couple days — longer than heartburn's ever lasted before — it got unbearable, so I got concerned. CAT Scan said acute appendicitis (which, hey, beats kidney stones or an ulcer), so I went to the emergency room and they took it out and I slept at the hospital for a night. And the thing about your appendix is, once it's gone, it's gone — didn't need the thing in the first place! Tummy's fine now; arm's still sore, just not as much.

All of that happened in the past couple months, so naturally I constructed a playlist of music that helped me through. Most of the songs don't relate directly to said medical conditions, though at least two prominently feature pills (and one a hospital bed), and several concern trying to pay bills when there are more than enough of them to go around. But usually they're not too depressing about it. (Well, maybe once or twice.) There are two consecutive, highly boisterous songs about the economic difficulties of being an all-woman band on the road, which may well have nothing to do with the topic at hand, but you never know. There is also a song about assembly lines followed by a song about grocery lines followed by a song about unemployment lines — which happened entirely by accident, I swear! Genres include vocal jazz, country, arena prog, funk, New Wave, didgeridoo soul-rock, gospel, Italo disco, and plenty of hard rock and metal, not necessarily in that order. Hey, whatever works, right? Can't vouch for you, but these worked for me.

Click here to listen to the entire playlist: Songs to Recover from Acute Appendicitis and Tennis Elbow With

For a five-second snapshot of what this mix is all about, listen to the opening seconds of Richard "Groove" Holmes' "Hittin' the Jug" at L.A.'s Black Orchid club in October of '61. It's only two bars into the tune when some guy in the audience, caught up in the heady combination of Holmes' strutting intro and a generous highball or three, shouts, "All right!" There couldn't be a better way to kick off this cocktail hour set of organ driven soul jazz and mid-century Blue Note party jams - this is music that accompanies a heavy pour, and a perfect warm-up for a Friday night.

Joining top-flight bandleaders from the '50s and '60s -- Jimmy Smith, Grant Green and Wayne Shorter among them -- are hand-picked cuts from deeper corners of Rhapsody's endless soul jazz vault (dig the harp- and flute-led "Afro Harping" delivered by Dorothy Ashby) and a few vocal favorites from Nancy Wilson, Ray Charles and Tami Lynn. Salud!

Click here to listen to the entire playlist: In the Pocket, Half In the Bag - Mid Century Soul Jazz Cocktail Hour

We admit that the title of this Cheat Sheet we've compiled ("we" being Latin editor Rachel Devitt and Jazz editor Nate Cavalieri) is a bit unwieldy, a bit amorphous, a bit hard to pin down. But so is the movement we're talking about. And that's what it was: a movement. The Latin music scene that set New York (and, eventually, the world) on fire in the mid-20th century grew out of several styles: jazz, soul, and what would come to be known as salsa, of course — but also earlier Latin dance sounds like mambo, cha-cha-cha, and boogaloo. Leading the charge were musicians who immigrated to New York from Puerto Rico and Cuba, and began innovatively interweaving traditional Caribbean music with mainland pop, interlacing jazz improvisation and composition with Latin dance structures and infusing American soul with Afro-Latin rhythms.

Finally, it's also about the movement of bodies: this is music made for dancing! Here, we'll trace the rise of what's often called the New York sound, from its roots in 1950s jazz and mambo through its coalescing in N.Y.C. clubs and on the Fania label in the '60s, all the way to its culmination in the unstoppable wave of '70s salsa.

Various Artists
Fania Records 1964-1980: The Original Latin Sound of New York
If a zeitgeist could be boiled down to one album, this is what it would sound like: boogaloo, jazz, mambo, salsa and soul, all of it laced through with the hip-twitching traditional rhythms of Cuba and Puerto Rico. This is the definitive introduction to the heady brew that intoxicated New York and the world in the mid-20th century, from the label that defined the movement, thanks to its glittering, star-studded roster: Willie Colón saunters on "The Hustler," Hector Lavoe crowns himself "El Cantante," the Fania All-Stars tear up the Cheetah, and Celia Cruz, the Queen of Salsa, is positively regal on "Quimbara." — Rachel Devitt

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This summer's new jazz releases seem to be on an equatorial vacation, with Cuban rhythms, breezy bossa nova and a sunny Malian compilation defining the season. The most thrilling trip comes from David Sanchez, Christian Scott and Stefon Harris, who went to Cuba to record their collaborative, sweltering 90 Miles project. A pair of releases from Eliane Elias and Carmen Cuesta rest in the shady shadow of Antonio Carlos Jobim, while vocalist Madeleine Peyroux offers dusky originals with her heaviest band to date. The set is rounded out by listenable, experimental releases from Pat Metheny (on acoustic baritone guitar) and the original lineup of The Flecktones, along with a pair of never-before-heard recordings of two bop favorites in peak form, Freddie Hubbard and Bill Evans.

For more, listen to my Jazz Roundup, July 2011 playlist.

1. David Sanchez
Ninety Miles
The trio of talented instrumentalists here — vibraphone player Stefon Harris, saxophonist David Sanchez and trumpeter Christian Scott — is certainly accomplished in their own right, but combined, they reveal an especially vibrant energy. Recorded in Havana, the album includes renowned Cuban pianists Rember Duharte and Harold López-Nussa alongside a battery of local percussionists. The fusion helps Ninety Miles emerge as the younger, modern, bright-eyed cousin to Buena Vista Social Club, a portrait that captures the potential of Cuba's falling borders.

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Ever since fusion devolved into flaccid pop-jazz in the 1980s, the genre has been treated with suspicion by more than a few jazz snobs. In fact, fusion didn't get a fair shake right out of the gate. When Miles Davis went electric and started performing before rock audiences, critics couldn't stop condemning the man. "SELLOUT!" they proclaimed ad nauseam, even though the music he made was wildly challenging and ambitious.

Between 1969 and 1976, fusion's first and second waves produced some of the most powerful and forward-looking music of the post-hippie rock landscape. This is the era I'll spotlight here. Now, it's important to point out that fusion took on many forms throughout the 1970s. In addition to rock, jazz mingled with funk, Latin music and even avant-garde classical. We'll touch on all these incarnations. That said, the decade also produced something called "jazz-rock," a phrase critics and fans often used when talking about Blood, Sweat & Tears; Chicago; The Electric Flag; and similar ilk. These artists don't figure here; however, definitely check out my Cheat Sheet on Classic East Coast Horn Rock, if you dig classic rock with brass and horns. And while I'm touching on related topics, do explore my Krautrock Cheat Sheet: much like progressive rock, the German movement had quite a lot in common stylistically with fusion.

Last, but certainly not least: don't forget to crank my Glory Days of Fusion playlist.

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A bunch of punk kids form their own adult-scaring, mainstream-baiting subculture with a unique style, slang and sound. Sound familiar? That's the recipe for basically every pop music style ever, but the particular concoction we're talking about here resulted in the Latin-laden R&B and swing genre known as pachuco boogie, which came to life in the '40s and '50s.

It started when disenfranchised Chicano youth in the Southwest and California created an alternative subculture that combined Mexican, Afro-Caribbean and African American elements. Known as pachucos and pachucas, these hipsters had their own dress code (zoot suits were preferred), their own slang (known as caló), and very defined musical tastes: big-band swing mixed with a blues-based style that blended jazz, boogie woogie, early R&B, rock 'n' roll and rumba rhythms. Their Spanish and caló lyrics addressed the scene, its penchant for dancing and partying, and the joint alienation from and appreciation for American (popular) culture these kids felt. And people absolutely loved it: Don Tosti's genre-defining (and -naming!) 1948 hit "Pachuco Boogie" was the first Latin song to sell a million copies! Take a listen to original hipsters like Tosti, Lalo Guerrero and more with our Senior Year 1950: Bailar with the Zoot-Suited "Hooligans" of Pachuco Boogie playlist.