Here’s the final installment of the year-end countdown of my favorite albums from 2015. Read about numbers 40 through 31, 30 through 21, and 20 through 11.
Josh Berman Trio, A Dance and a Hop (Delmark) Cornetist Josh Berman seems to have found himself leading this deft, agile trio with bassist Jason Roebke and drummer Frank Rosaly. The group’s music balances an investment in sound for its own sake against conversational phrasing and limber, precise rhythms. And though the elegant gestures Berman makes in the midst of his improvisations can be dramatically bent and contorted, the trio operates as a single, nimble intuitive organism.
Jack DeJohnette, Made in Chicago (ECM) Recorded live in 2013 on the opening night of the Chicago Jazz Festival (on whose programming committee I serve), Made in Chicago is a testament to the sense of community that characterizes Chicago jazz—particularly the group of players who formed the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians 50 years ago. Drummer Jack DeJohnette, a Chicago native, was once a member of the AACM, and his ties to its members remain deep—he enlisted some of its greatest figures for this dream band, namely pianist Muhal Richard Abrams and reedists Henry Threadgill and Roscoe Mitchell. (None of them has lived in town for decades, but the bassist in the group, Larry Gray, is still here.)
