The Free Jazz Collective’s Top 101 Recordings Of The 2010s ~ The Free Jazz Collective

Sunday, December 29, 2019

The Free Jazz Collective’s Top 101 Recordings Of The 2010s

Sunday, December 29, 2019 feature 17 comments

We asked the Free Jazz Collective to submit up to 100 of their favorite recordings originally released between 2010 and 2019, so long as the recordings fit the spirit of the blog. Contributors were encouraged to weight the recordings by ranking them, to result in a more impactful, ranked list. We compiled their individual lists to only include recordings submitted by more than one contributor, in the spirit of collective consensus, resulting in 101 entries. For technical reasons, please click the button to read to the article.

*Photo by Florencia Viadana on Unsplash

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17 comments:

Stef said...: Thanks Keith! An impressive work of collecting preferences and calculating the results.; December 29, 2019 at 9:33 AM
Anonymous said...: Ten that I can remember with pleasure:

1. bb&c ‎– The Veil
2. Bird Show Band ‎– Bird Show Band
3. Medeski Martin & Wood + Nels Cline ‎– Woodstock Sessions Vol.2
4. Jeremiah Cymerman ‎– Fire Sign
5. Nate Wooley ‎– Seven Storey Mountain III And IV
6. Fire! With Jim O' Rourke ‎– Unreleased?
7. Hieroglyphic Being & J.I.T.U. Ahn-Sahm-Buhl ‎– We Are Not The First
8. Modern Feelings ‎– Modern Feelings
9. Kayo Dot ‎– Coyote
10.Moor Mother ‎– Fetish Bones

Best regard from Don Nadie and enjoy a new year full of wonderful music.; December 29, 2019 at 11:32 AM
Stephane said...: I don't know if I should cry or laugh...
10 years, 54 recordings/releases. Not one on the list.
I'll go the laughing path.
Mouahahah!; December 29, 2019 at 12:28 PM
jorge mussuto said...: This is a splendid post about jazz music; December 29, 2019 at 12:30 PM
Martin Schray said...: What a tremendous piece of work, Keith. An excellent effort.; December 29, 2019 at 2:08 PM
Dan said...: Certainly some strange things happen when you try to compile a ranked list of this size. A lot of unexpected inclusions and positions! The effort is definitely appreciated, Keith.

I did not contribute to the rankings, but to Stephane, may it be a small consolation that three Ayler releases definitely would have appeared on my list (though maybe not in the final tally): Duboc's Primare Cantus, Quatuor Machaut, and Lazro's Some Other Zongs.; December 30, 2019 at 3:32 AM
Claudio Vedovati said...: Wow!; December 30, 2019 at 10:15 AM
Gennaro said...: ... following Stephane's note, I would like to add this recording by Ayler Records:
Giovanni Di Domenico & Alexandra Grimal " CHERGUI " (Ayler, 2014)

Ciao!
Gennaro; December 30, 2019 at 10:19 AM
Stef said...: Cher Stéphane and other commentators. We have received around 9,400 albums between 2015-2019. Assume with a very conservative estimate that we have received only half of this in the five years before, that results in roughly 15,000 avant-garde jazz albums between 2000-2019. That means a chance of 1/150 to be on the top-100 list, or one album on the list per 150 albums released. Obviously this is pure statistics, but it shows what the chances are. This also means that even if you have high quality albums, that all reviewers on our blog should have listened to those albums, and that they appreciated the quality of the music. It is obvious that we cannot listen to all those albums, and that as a consequence, the selection by the reviewers of what to review is already somewhat biased. We try our utmost to broaden choices and we try to give everyone the same fair chance. We have given fair attention to all Ayler albums in the past years, with even a special article about Ayler this year. And on a personal note, I love many of the Ayler albums, as you know, from the old Ayler and from the new Ayler. Happy new year!; December 30, 2019 at 2:18 PM
Colin Green said...: Stef puts it well. To provide additional context, 15 people participated with individual lists varying in number from 10 to 100 but most well below 100. Some lists were ranked, others not, though this isn’t apparent from the link to the spreadsheet. Nicholas’ list of 25 had Benjamin Duboc - Primare Cantus (Ayler, 2011) but since it appeared in only one list is was discounted for the final “ranking”.

I’m of the view that outside the top ten or so relatively few inferences can reliably be drawn, about Ayler Records or anything else for that matter.; December 30, 2019 at 4:26 PM
Lee said...: Amazing work by Keith compiling all of this and getting the final write-ups from us for the top 10. I am still surprised by what made the list, what didn't, and what might have if we had another 3 months to continue listening and ranking.

Echoing Stef and Colin's comments (particularly "relatively few inferences can reliably be drawn") the available choices felt nearly endless, and yet there were so many more I wished to have considered. I probably bought 10–20 albums I'd been circling for years just to make sure I didn't miss them when it came time to finalize my list. One of them, Rob Mazurek's Skull Sessions did not make the 101, though I ended up putting it at #3 on my own personal list. Similarly, blog favorite Lina Allemano did not make the 101 list at all. A bias against the trumpet, perhaps?

One thing I enjoy about list-making with this group is I'm always inspired to go out and purchase more music. And for me, that's the best we can hope for when we do make these list, to inspiring continued conversation, purchasing, and listening.; December 30, 2019 at 7:28 PM
royboy said...: Like all tbe mentioned musicians, thanks for giving completely to the music!!!; December 31, 2019 at 3:13 AM
Taylor McDowell said...: Thank you Keith for compiling this and to those that participated. I'm really enjoying going through this list and revisiting some personal favorites, as well as finding albums new to me (several of which that make me wonder - did I live under a rock for part of the last decade...?) Happy New Year to all.

Taylor; December 31, 2019 at 4:28 PM
Anonymous said...: I do not understand this list, I explain myself: why having to do a 101 records list of the decade with many different records when you have done each and every year a 10 records best? Could you not just put the 10 lists to do so? I noticed: only 30 of these 101 records are from the period 2010-2014 (5 years), all the others are from the other five years (2015-2019) and many of them (although I did not count them) seem to be from the last 2/3 years.....I follow the blog since before 2010, and I must say it's getting a little bit confusing, I read a lot of the reviews and own a lot of the records mentioned as I own a lot of records not mentioned in this list but that had great reviews nevertheless, so I really do not understand this!; January 3, 2020 at 6:40 PM
Anonymous said...: This is a really excellent list. It is more than a ranking: it is a knowledge base that I have already returned to any times. One question - Did the blog ever do one for the 00s? If so, I haven’t been able to identity it.; June 11, 2020 at 10:46 AM
Paul said...: This was the first time that it was done. This is the first time that the blog had been in existence for a full decade (in 09/10 it was still just a few years old). Also, in response to the previous comment, read this as a retrospective from the time it was compiled. As a collective, we have different contributors, perspectives change, and recordings age differently. I am sure writers who had contributed lists earlier consulted them to refresh their memories, but did not feel that theses lists were definitive.; June 11, 2020 at 10:57 AM
Anonymous said...: Thank you.; June 14, 2020 at 1:23 PM