Music Year 2024

Of course, it's too early for a year-end list. But as the proto-fascist organization of my youth insisted, one should always be prepared. For records in hand, * identifies an advance copy, ** something borrowed or streamed. Some albums released in previous years are included here, noted by a "-NN" (e.g., -23 for 2023) -- these are mostly imports or self-releases, often hard to figure out official dates, but they were either December 2020 releases or unknown (to me, at least) before the current year.

I keep adding to the 2023 until the end of calendar 2024, especially where the record was known to exist in 2023 and I'm just getting around to it.

New Records

Records in hand, but which haven't yet been graded (sorted by artist, or release date if future). Those marked ** are downloads in hand.

• Coco Chatru Quartet: Future (Trygger Music) [03-28]
• Marta Sanchez Trio: Perpetual Void (Intakt) [04-19]
• Chuck Owen & Resurgence: Magic Light (Origin) [04-26]
• Idit Shner & Mhondoro: Ngatibatanei [Let Us Unite!] (OA2) [04-26]
• Geoff Stradling & the StradBand: Nimble Digits (Origin) [04-26]
• Jordan Vanhemert: Deep in the Soil (Origin) [04-26]
• Shawn Maxwell: J Town Suite (Cora Street) [05-01]
• Radam Schwartz: Saxophone Quartet Music (Arabesque) [05-01]
• Roxana Amed: Becoming Human (Sony Music Latin) [05-02]
• Jazz at the Ballroom: Flying High: Big Band Canaries Who Soared (Jazz at the Ballroom) [05-03]
• Mike Monford: The Cloth I'm Cut From (self-released) [05-04]
• Nicola Caminiti: Vivid Tales of a Blurry Self-Portrait (self-released) [05-10]
• Yelena Eckemoff: Romance of the Moon (L&H Production) [05-10]
• Mute: After You've Gone (Endectomorph Music) * [05-13]
• Ethel & Layale Chaker: Vigil (In a Circle) [05-17]
• Layale Chaker & Sarafand: Radio Afloat (In a Circle) [05-17]
• Modney: Ascending Primes (Pyroclastic) [05-18]
• Galactic Tide Featuring Andy Timmons: The Haas Company Vol. 1 (Psychiatric) [06-01]
• The Bruce Lofgren Group: Earthly and Cosmic Tales (Night Bird) [06-01]
• John Escreet: The Epicenter of Your Dreams (Blue Room Music) [06-07]
• Devouring the Guilt: Not to Want to Say (Kettle Hole) [06-08]
• Phillip Golub: Abiding Memory (Endectomorph Music) [06-21]

Also Noted:

Records in hand, graded B+ or below, in alphabetical order within grade slots:

Limited sampling: Records I played parts of, but not enough to grade: -- means no interest, - not bad but not a prospect, + some chance, ++ likely prospect.

Reissues/Compilations/Vault Music:

In previous years I tried to separate reissues from compilations, including newly released vault items in the latter. This made sense when I was reviewing a lot of Recycled Goods material, but led to other problems with year-end lists, so anything containing any previously released material is collected here, and anything that is wholly previously unreleased is treated as new, above.

Pending

Records in hand, sorted by artist, or release date if future. Those marked ** are downloads in hand.

• Sun Ra: At the Showcase: Live in Chicago 1976-1977 (Jazz Detective, 2CD) [04-20]
• Art Tatum: Jewels in the Treasure Box: The 1953 Chicago Blue Note Jazz Club Recordings (Resonance, 3CD) [04-20]
• Mal Waldron/Steve Lacy: The Mighty Warriors (1995, Elemental Music, 2CD): [04-20]
• Yusef Lateef: Atlantis Lullaby: The Concert From Avignon (1972, Elemental Music, 2CD) [04-26]

Also Noted: