the best albums of 2015

Every year, Jazzwise asks it’s critics to vote for their favourite albums of the year. These are the ten albums that got the most votes in 2015, including extracts from the original reviews

Kamasi Washington The Epic Brainfeeder BFCD050 Kamasi Washington (ts), Thundercat, Miles Mosley (b), Ronald Bruner Jr, Tony Austin, (d) Patrice Quinn (v), Ryan Porter (tb), Brandon Coleman and Cameron Graves (p, kys) plus strings. Rec. date not stated The title is not to be taken lightly. With scale being such a defining feature of this music it is worth noting that there are 172 minutes to contend with, and it is to Washington’s credit that the output is justified, first and foremost because the artistic ambition matches the sweeping production. Moving from hard swing to funk to some of the digital age sensibilities scoped out by Thundercat, this is an album of progressive present day thinking that willfully acknowledges its debt to the past,as befits the ongoing relationship between the two. Kevin Le Gendre

Maria Schneider Orchestra The Thompson Fields Artist Share 0137 Maria Schneider (cond, comp, arr), Tony Kadleck, Greg Gisbert, Augie Haas, Mike Rodriguez (t, flhn), Keith O’Quinn, Ryan Keberle, Marshall Gilkes, George Flynn (tb), Steve Wilson (as, ss, cl, fl, alt fl), Dave Petro (as, ss, cl, fl, alto fl, bass fl, piccolo); Rich Perry (ts), Donny McCaslin (ts, cl, fl), Scott Robinson (bar s, b cl, alto cl, cl), Frank Kimbrough (p), Gary Versace (acc), Lage Lund (g), Jay Anderson (b), Clarence Penn (d) and Rogerio Boccato (perc). Rec. date not stated Schneider, who delights in breaking open the rigid structure of cyclical forms in jazz with writing that explores theme, variation, development and recapitulation is also a master of shifting tonal densities – one glance at the doubles the reed section have to contend with means some of the tone colours she dreams up are breathtaking. Stuart Nicholson

Loose Tubes Arriving Lost Marble LM008 Eddie Parker (f, kys), Dai Pritchard (cl), Steve Buckley, Iain Ballamy, Mark Lockheart, Julian Nicholas, Ken Stubbs, Julian Arguelles (s), Lance Kelly, Chris Batchelor, Ted Emmett, John Eacott, Paul Edmonds, Noel Langley (t), John Harborne, Steve Day, Paul Taylor, Richard Pywell (tb), Ashley Slater (b tb, tb, MC), Richard Henry (b tb), Dave Powell (tba), Django Bates (kys, Eb horn), John Parricelli (g), Steve Watts (b), Martin France (d), Thebi Lipere, and Louis Petersen Matjeka (perc). Rec. 13, 14, 15 September 1990 and May 2014 The third instalment in the ‘live’ trilogy of recordings from Loose Tubes’ farewell residency at Ronnie Scott’s in 1990. Arriving comes with a few unexpected bonus tracks: compositions commissioned by BBC Radio 3 from the already legendary Ronnie’s 30th anniversary comeback residency last year by the resurrected group. Selwyn Harris

Charles Lloyd Wild Man Dance Blue Note Charles Lloyd (ts), Gerald Clayton (p), Joe Sanders (b), Gerald Cleaver (d) with guests Sokratis Sinopoulos (lyra) and Miklós Lukács (cimbalom). Rec. 2013 This is a truly memorable album; perhaps the finest of Lloyd’s career and destined to become a classic. This remarkable sixpiece suite was commissioned by the Jazztopad Festival in Wrocław, Poland and was recorded at the piece’s premiere. It marks a memorable return to the Blue Note label for whom Lloyd last recorded in 1985. The addition of Sinopoulos and Lukács subtly alter the sonic ambience of the saxophone quartet, their presence adding mystery and gravitas, while Cleaver emerges as a superb colourist as well as timekeeper, perfectly framing Lloyd’s lyrical flights. Stuart Nicholson

Rudresh Mahanthappa Bird Calls ACT 9581-2 Rudresh Mahanthappa (as), Adam O’Farrill (t), Matt Mitchell (p), François Moutin (b) and Rudy Royston (d). 4-5 August 2014 Each piece represents an examination of Charlie Parker’s legacy in the here and now in a “detailed and holistic way”. Mahanthappa’s unselfconscious drawing on musical tradition of the Carnatic music of South India during his improvisations – an ornament here, a melismatic bend there – adds a degree of colour and the unexpected. This blend of the local and the global (yes, Parker’s music went global in the 1940s thanks to the gramophone record) is what makes this take of Parker wholly original and absorbing. Stuart Nicholson

32 The best music of 2015