Favorite music of 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the music industry in 2020. With live performances cancelled and music venues forced to shut down, vast numbers of performers were thrown out of work. The livelihoods of musicians and technical support crews, most of whom work far outside the spotlight of music stardom, were devastated.
Adding to the horror, many veteran performers died, among them jazz musicians Lee Konitz, Ellis Marsalis, Bucky Pizzarelli, Mike Longo and Wallace Roney, and country singers John Prine and Charley Pride. These were needless deaths caused by policies aimed at guaranteeing the continued enrichment of the wealthiest layers of society, whatever the consequences for workers, and artists.
Waxahatchee –
‘Saint Cloud’. Katie Crutchfield just gets better and better, changing themes, transforming, shining brighter, becoming brilliant. While far from country, it is an album in the grip of the genre, produced with warmth, texture and subtlety.
‘Lilacs’ uses a guitar sound reminiscent of Reggie Young on
‘Suspicious Minds’. ‘Can’t Do Much’, possibly the standout track, sounds like The Cranberries one moment and gentle Creedence in presence the next. Great voice, great tunes and the record
Waxahatchee will always have to try to beat.
S.G. Goodman – ‘Old Time Feeling’. The warmest reverb guitar opens
‘Space in Time’ before Goodman’s bold voice bursts out introducing this debut album. Three songs in and we’ve heard doo wop, rock n roll and country. It’s alt country at its core, but explores so much more. Learning to sing in church, she turned to Jim James to produce and proclaims – from a left wing, gay perspective – the social i
Top 10 jazz albums of 2020
By Jon Garelick Globe Staff,Updated December 24, 2020, 10:00 a.m.
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âUNANIMOUS SOURCESâ Jeff Albert
The random shuffle of livestreaming WWOZ from New Orleans revealed this gem from veteran trombonist Jeff Albert: fast-walking-bass swing topped with free-bop horn solos; gritty funk grooves (with the essential baritone sax of Dan Oestreicher); and assenting horn choruses and themes of anthemic uplift.
âLIFE GOES ONâ Carla Bley/Andy Sheppard/Steve Swallow
The great composer Carla Bley, now 84, delivered this third disc with trio-mates Sheppard (saxophones) and Swallow (bass) and herself on piano. The three suites of tunes are unhurried, lyrical, bluesy, informed by Bleyâs sly sense of humor, elegiac and airborne.
20 from 2020 – the New Music that Helped jazzpolice.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jazzpolice.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The 10 best jazz albums of 2020 John Fordham
Pat Metheny – From This Place
Being both a bestselling jazz-fusion superstar and an experimental collaborator with John Zorn and Ornette Coleman takes rare agility, but guitarist Pat Metheny has managed both. Metheny’s 2020 album, performed by his current live band (UK pianist Gwilym Simcock, bassist Linda May Han Oh, and drummer Antonio Sánchez) with guest appearances from vocalist Meshell Ndegeocello and harmonica virtuoso Gregoire Maret, showcases his famously cinematic compositional muse, shrewdly balanced with the group’s off-the-leash inventiveness, and for the most part subtly applied synthesised orchestral effects. Read the full review.