Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Rounding up the "Best Jazz of 2008" lists

It's once again that time of year when jazz journalists, DJs, critics and bloggers publish their annual "Best Of" lists, and once again, St. Louis Jazz Notes is going all meta on the whole list-making concept by offering a list with links to all of the "Best Jazz of 2008" lists we can locate. It's a bigger group this year, and so to make the list o' lists a little easier to access, it's roughly alphabetized by media and/or the writer's name.

First off, though, I do want to call special attention to some local lists, specifically the Top 10 of 2008 lists from KDHX's Josh Weinstein, host of "All Soul, No Borders" and Al Becker, host of "Voices In The Dark" and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch/STLtoday's list of Best Jazz CDs of 2008, by Calvin Wilson.

The rest of our list of "Best Jazz of 2008" lists so far:

* Scott Albin (Jazz.com) Selects the Best Jazz CDs and Tracks of 2008
* AllAboutJazz.com's forum participants pick their 2008 favorites
* AllMusic.com's Favorite New Jazz Albums of 2008 and Favorite Jazz Reissues of 2008
* Amazon.com's Best Jazz and Improv of 2008
* BBC 3's "Jazz on 3" Best of 2008
* Chicago Tribune Best Jazz of 2008, by Howard Reich
* City Sound Inertia's Top 20 Jazz Discoveries of 2008 (mostly older releases)
* Detroit Free Press Best Jazz Albums of 2008, by Mark Stryker
* A European Perspective on the Best Jazz CDs of 2008, from Paris-based Thierry Quénum (Jazz.com)
* James Hale (Jazz Chronicles) - Best Jazz of 2008, parts one, two and three
* Tom Hull (Village Voice)- Best Jazz of 2008
* Peter Hum (Ottawa Citizen) Thriving On A Riff blog - Best Jazz of 2008
* London (UK) Independent Best Jazz Albums of 2008, by Phil Johnson
* Jazz.com's 50 Best Jazz CDs of 2008
* Jazz and Blues Music Reviews' Tim Niland lists his 2008 favorites in two parts
* Jazzzology's Top 10 Jazz Albums of 2008
* The "Just Jazz" Best Jazz CDs of 2008, by Bob Bernotas of WNTI, Hackettown, NJ
* Fred Kaplan (Slate.com and Stereophile) - Best Jazz of 2008
* John Kelman (AllAboutJazz.com) - Best Jazz of 2008
* Latin Jazz Corner's Best of 2008
* Will Layman (WNYC) - Best Jazz of 2008
* Callum Mackenzie (The Jazz Monster) - 2008 year-end wrap-up, parts one, two and three
* Howard Mandel (Jazz Beyond Jazz) - Best Jazz of 2008
* Ralph Miriello (Jazz.com) Looks at Some Jazz Highlights of 2008
* NPR's Best Jazz CDs of 2008, by Gary Walker of Boston's WGBO
* David Orthmann (All About Jazz.com) - Top Jazz of 2008
* Bob Parlocha (Syndicated radio DJ) - Best Jazz CDs of 2008
* PopMatters Best Jazz of 2008
* Mark Saleski (Jazz.com) Picks the Best Jazz of 2008
* San Francisco Chronicle/SF Gate's Best Jazz of 2008, by David Rubien and Jesse Hamlin
* Schenectady (NY) Daily Gazette - Best Jazz Events of 2008
* Seattle Times Best Jazz and World Music of 2008, by Andrew Gilbert
* Smooth Vibes Best Smooth Jazz CDs of 2008
* John Stevenson (eJazz News) - Top 20 jazz recordings for 2008
* Take Five's Top 5 Jazz CDs Of 2008, by Lars Gotrich and Patrick Jarenwattananon
* Washington City Paper Top Ten Best Jazz of 2008, by Michael J. West
* Bob Weinberg (BW Jazz and Blues) Best Jazz and Blues Spins of 2008

If you've found any other 2008 year-end jazz lists that aren't mentioned here, please use the comments (or send me an email) to share the information, and I'll update this post and/or do a follow-up, as needed. Also, please feel free to use the comments to share and discuss thoughts about your own favorite jazz releases, shows and moments of 2008.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not all jazz, but all instrumental list... it's mostly jazz...

http://jazzsick.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/favorite-instrumental-albums-of-2008/

~Dan

Anonymous said...

Not all jazz, but all instrumental list... it's mostly jazz...

http://jazzsick.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/favorite-instrumental-albums-of-2008/

~Dan