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.