You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Our Top 5 Jazz Albums of 2023

Episode Date: December 28, 2023

As we bid farewell to the final episode of the year, it's time to pay homage to the crème de la crème of jazz albums in 2023. Join the conversation in the comments section and share your thoughts on whether you resonate with our picks or believe there are other noteworthy albums that deserve recognition. Wishing you all a Happy New Year! 🎶🥂↓ Links from the pod ↓Peter's Top 10 Jazz AlbumsOur Spotify PlaylistGeneration SWalter Smith III - Return To CasualChristian McBride's New Jawn - PrimeMeshell Ndegeocello - The Omnichord Real BookSullivan Fortner - Solo GameHave a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open Studio🎹 Head over to our YouTube channel for a better look 👀.Follow us on Instagram

Hey, Peter, hey, a couple of things that I learned in 2023. You want to hear them? Yes. Don't believe the hype. I learned that in the 80s. And don't be fooled by the myth of control. Deep. Yeah.

I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. You're listening to the You'll Hear Podcast. Jazz Talk and today only. Jazz Awards. What now? Awards. Awards.

We're giving out awards for jazz. By saying that fun? Awards. It's a weird word when you break it down. Award. Yeah. Well, I mean, we're a big queathing. our approval on these five jazz albums.

I think it's a St. Louis City ordinance that you can't bequeath in public, Peter. I'm pretty sure. Well, this is private. Bequeathing out on the street. No, but I mean, we are kind of giving our stamp of approval to these five jazz albums, which is interesting because earlier this year,

I did a video called the 10 greatest jazz albums of all time. That's right. Hit video, by the way. Yeah, well, I got a lot of, yeah, I got hit a lot in the comments. So I want to be clear about this one. We're not saying these are the best these are five that we're highlighting that we enjoyed

and we think are the best actually no but this is very it's a subjective thing of course it is so don't flame us or or troll us or all these different things this is just our personal opinion now and this is not scientific we haven't listened to every jazz release of the year and some of these one in particular I'm thinking there's probably going to be some people that say that's jazz alternate or that's alternative jazz or that's smooth jazz or whatever

are they're going to say it like that but we have a big tent when we're talking about the different things. But again, this is just our subjective opinion. And we hope it's fun. We hope there's some maybe that you haven't heard. And please leave us in the comments on the YouTube what your favorites. Because we'd love to see five more,

10 more, whatever, many different other ones. Because I think, contrary to popular belief, another thing people say with the funny voice. There's no good jazz albums anymore. Nobody's making records. What do they say?

There's no good jazz albums. He's no good jazz albums. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's plenty of good ones. Yeah. And none of these, I think, are going to be a super-supproval. to our listeners, have you been into the show

all year? You probably heard us at least talk about most of these. Right, right, right. But there's some glaring omissions, I'm sure, so. Of course. Yeah, but let's start with... And these are in no particular order. I don't even know what order you're going to put them in. I mean, I did take about 20 minutes to make this order, but okay, yeah, no

particular order. According to Peter. No, no, is it five to one then? Is it time for my solo? I sure hope so. That made no sense. First up, I don't know if we have talked about this one, but this is Walter Smith, the third. Saxon is Walter Smith the third. Yes. Return to casual.

This is a very good modern listen. We got Taylor Ixty on the piano here. You got a whole playlist. You got a whole playlist. You can check out it in the show notes. Here's Walter Smith. Dang. Smells of modernity. Oh, someone's hungry.

How good is that? Come on. The text real changes. Sound. Blue notes. Shout out Blue No records. We're going to hear a lot from them. Yeah, this is a blue note recording. Do yourself a favor. Go check out Return to Casual. Walter Smith, the third great band.

Incredible recording. The thing I said at the beginning, you know, just sounds moderate. I love that. And some people would be like, oh, that's this, that's that. But, I mean, to me, that sounds fresh. It sounds my, you know what I mean? Yeah. It's jazz.

It's, I mean, I've always been a big fan of Walter. You got a chance to play with him a couple times. But I'm not super familiar with his music other than to say that the quality quality level, the freshness, you know, and this whole album is a great one. And this is the opening track, but there's a lot of like, and it's has that sort of like modern New York edge to it, you know what I mean? But man, there's a lot of like very like subtle tracks on this album. There's a Kate Bush cover. There's a lot of interesting stuff happening. It's a great listen front to back. Yeah. Can't recommend it enough. Next, Peter on our

list, the second of our top five favorite jazz albums of 2023. This is something that we actually featured several weeks ago. This is Christian McBride's New John, and this is their album, Prime. This is an Ornett-Colman tune called The Good Life. And the sheet waits on drums. Josh Evans on trumpet, Marcus Strickland on tenor saxophone, and bass clarinet.

Again, another very modern-sounding album. The flavor of this one is new. Yes. Fresh. Yeah, and I think that this is such a great, I mean, wonderful individual performances, McBride, I think, did such a great job with this group, and I think this is their second album,

and I've heard them live some, like, of getting the right combination of players. And normally I would say when you omit the piano, that that is what we would call in the business like glaring omission. You don't like that. No. But in this case, I think he made such a great choice.

You know, putting a band together, making an album, the different things that kind of, it's such a like, you know, what the end result of this with these great performances, the improvisations, some wonderful solos on this. Great interactions. And the she and McBride, the way they play together so great. And it happens, the magic happens on the gig.

In the studio, we know this. But there is a magic that happens in the preparation. And not so much the preparation with this kind of an album with play these notes, because it's very open. This album is like one of McBride's most open albums. Conceptual. Right, conceptual. But like, so it becomes even more front-loaded and important the concept of the band,

the combination of the personalities, the instruments, the instruments, the instruments, the instrumentation and I think he really nailed it with New John. Yeah, McBride, he's got a future. Yeah, yeah. But think about how different that is than like his big band project or inside straight. Or like, yeah, and they're all great. Yeah, and it's easy for people to be like, oh, well, McBride, he's so good. Honestly.

And he's a chameleon. He could play in any situation. And that's true to a point, but not when you get to this higher quality level like this album where you want, it's not just about like, oh, let me listen to McBride with anyone. It's going to be killing. You know what we need. Mr. McBride, if you're listening.

I call Mr. McBride. You call him Christian or whatever you want. I'm gonna call him. I call him Mr. McBride, if you're listening. Well, he would laugh if I called him Mr. McBride. Mr. Manis. That is funny. What we want in 2024, though, Mr. McBride, he's a trio album with Gregory Hutchinson and Benny Green.

That trio from last year were they... Yeah, well, they were at the Vanguard two weeks ago. They were at the Vanguard. You could have taken your new private jet up there. We want... Oh, is it a biplane? It's a very... I would have to stop a couple times.

That's an inside joke. I'm looking at planes, folks. But, yeah, I want to... I want that Ray Brown tribute trio to record an album. Absolutely. That's a great trio. Next up, this is actually...

By the way, there's the way you're presenting this on screen, there's not a lot of drama as to what number three, four. That's okay. Next up is an album we talked about just a couple weeks ago, and this is... It just was released a couple weeks ago. It's solo game by the Incredible Sullivan Forger. And apologies, I was looking.

Maybe you know what label is this on. We were just talking about this. I think it's self-release, but I don't know. I don't think so. No, no, no. Anyway, well, artwork records. Shout out of artwork. But I know it's produced by Fred Hirsch,

and that is another feather in the cap for this one. This is invitation, the standard invitation. So good, you know it. We talked about it a couple weeks ago solo game. I mean, all of that playful inventiveness, it is, honestly, this album is addicting. I can't stop listening to it. Yeah, and it sounds like a Fred Hirsch produced record

in terms of the sound, which is such a wonderful thing, you know? It's that connection there. Yeah, that sounds amazing. Yeah, yeah. piano sounds amazing. And, yeah, Sullivan just plays his beep off, and it's a fun record. It's a beep.

His beep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm beeping out myself. Fun record, but really fun to just listen to like all the way through. It's a long record. Is it a double album? I've only been listening to it's streaming.

I need to get the physical copy. I'm all about the physical copy. I would love to get an LP if anybody's listening. Again, if I'm making requests of these jazz crates. You know what? I went like a vinyl double apple. I saw Sullivan at the vanguard two nights ago. Yeah.

And I was telling him how much I enjoyed the record. And when he had heard, he sends his greetings, by the way. Oh, excellent. He had heard our episode about him. His mother, who I've known for many years, as I have Sullivan, actually hipped him to our episode, which was funny. Oh, that's cool. But I told someone, I was like, I love it.

I was like, is it on vinyl or is it coming? And he said, no, he's like, I'm trying to get the record company to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that would, absolutely. We would buy it at least one copy here for Open Studio. Yeah, yeah. links to all these albums to be able to purchase them will be below of course stream it by but you know it's fun to help that the top five get them physical that's right um next up now this is more of uh this is alt jazz peter

i want to get physical boy we got a little let me see your body move livy newton john olivian newton john yep um this is square in the bull's eye of that famous alt jazz genre the genre that everybody's talking about was all jazz created for this album. It might have been. The Grammys. Yeah. This is Michelle in Degliocello. Now, this is a musician that I've known about since I was a teenager. Yeah. And she lit it up when I was a teenager, man. Peace Beyond Passion. Dude. Was that what's called piece. Yeah. Such a great album. Unbelievable. And I mean, I was introduced to her. What was that song with, was it John Mellencamp? Oh, right. Of course. Yeah. That thing, that big bass line.

Unbelievable musician. And you hit me to this a couple weeks ago. This is the OmnicCore Real book this is clear water don't be fooled by the myth of control be at peace Jeff Parker with killing it killing and constant rebirth of the creative mind creation Jeff huh understanding I love what Jeff does comfort so good man yeah I mean just a mega talent Michelle's so great at like putting this stuff together like identifying she's worked with Jeff you know a bunch over the years Oliver Lake from St. Louis, great drummer, who actually I think is not on this track, but he's on the album.

Like, she's so good at pulling these different elements together. I don't know what you call it. Alternative jazz, jazz, just music. Just music. Yeah, I mean, and I don't use this lightly in saying, like, it's reminiscent of the way that Stevie Wonder, and I know people are like, oh, watch yourself, Stevie. Of course, Stevie Wonder is the OG, still is.

But I'm saying, like, her ability to be able to bring these different disparate elements together. under whatever umbrella. I love the title of the record is hilarious, too. Have they collaborated? I'm sure at some point. I don't know about on, I've never heard anything recorded.

But she's just such a smart, intelligent, and soulful musician. But the production wise and just the concept, the spoken word, the lyrics, is a fun record too. So that's the fourth of our five favorite jazz albums. Peter, we're going to go out on. This was not chosen by me.

This was not chosen by Peter. but it was chosen by me because it is Peter Martin and Generation S. Now, for those of you who have been living under a rock for the last six months, in September, Peter recorded an album live in one take in about an hour and 15 minutes. Here at Open Studio, streamed live all around the world, and we turned that into an album called Generation S and a band called Generation S. Produced by. I am the producer on the album, so I will present it here.

is my honor and pleasure to present Groove Echo Chamber from Peter Martin Generation. Peter, we had nothing but in a massive amount of amazing feedback about the album. Everybody loves that the tunes are incredible. The playing, of course, is amazing. You've got Sarah Hanahan on the alto saxophone, Ruben Rogers on the bass, and Gregory Hutchins on the drums, Kaelin band, Kailen tunes. We had a great, incredible recording experience here. Everything sounds amazing.

And this is, I think, a lot of people's favorite track. This is Groove Echo Chamber. But let's go out on this, eh? All right. Happy 2020. Yeah, happy New Year, everybody. Happy New Year. Original artwork by Kababi Bayak

across the street here from us. How good does that sound, man? Check it out. Until next time, everybody. You'll hear it.