Laurence Donohue-Greene (Managing Editor, The New York City Jazz Record)

BEST OF 2019

MUSICIANS OF THE YEAR (2019)

1) Kris Davis

2) Jaimie Branch

3) Joe Lovano

4) Michael Leonhart

5) Evan Parker

RECORD LABELS OF THE YEAR (2019)

1) ECM

2) Sunnyside

3) Intakt

4) International Anthem

5) NoBusiness

BEST NEW RELEASES (2019)

1) Joe Lovano - Trio Tapestry (ECM)

2) Michael Leonhart Orchestra - Suite Extracts, Vol.1 (Sunnyside)

3) Jaimie Branch - Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise (International Anthem)

4) James Brandon Lewis - UnRuly Manifesto (Relative Pitch)

5) Alex Harding/Lucian Ban - Dark Blue (Sunnyside)

6) Per Texas Johansson - Stråk på himlen och stora hus (Moserobie)

7) Red Kite - Red Kite (RareNoise)

8) Steph Richards - Take The Neon Lights (Birdwatcher)

9) Gebhard Ullmann/Hans Ludemann/Oliver Portratz/Eric Schaefter - mikroPULS (Intuition)

10) Phil Slater - The Dark Pattern (Earshift Music)

BEST VOCAL RELEASES (2019)

1) Mary Stallings - Songs Were Made To Sing (Smoke Sessions)

2) Jazzmeia Horn - Love and Liberation (Concord)

3) Tomeka Reid/Kyoko Kitamura/Taylor Ho Bynum/Joe Morris - Geometry of Distance (Relative Pitch)

4) Veronica Swift - Confessions (Mack Avenue)

5) Dwight Trible - Mothership (Gearbox)

BEST REISSUES (2019)

1) Mal Waldron - Free at Last (ECM)

2) Erroll Garner - Campus Concert (Mack Avenue-Octave Music)

3) ICP Tentet - Tetterettet (ICP - Corbett vs. Dempsey)

4) Charles Tolliver All Stars - Right Now... and Then [Paper Man] (Strata-East)

5) Art Pepper - Promise Kept: The Complete Artists House Recordings (Artists House-Omnivore)

BEST BOXED SETS (2019)

1) Nat “King” Cole - Hitting’ The Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943) (Resonance)

2) John Coltrane - 1963: New Directions (Impulse!)

3) The Quintet [Paal Nilssen-Love, et al.] - Events 1998-1999 (Not Two)

4) Art Pepper - The Complete Artists House Recordings (Artists House-Omnivore)

5) DKV Trio & Joe McPhee - The Fire Each Time (Not Two)

BEST LATIN JAZZ (2019)

1) Preservation Hall Jazz Band - A Tuba to Cuba (Sub Pop)

2) Jiggs Whigham BuJazzO - Cuban Fire (Doublemoon)

3) Michele Rosewoman New Yor-Uba - Hallowed (Advance Dance Disques)

4) Poncho Sanchez - Trane’s Delight (Concord)

5) Michel Camilo - Essence (Resilience Music Alliance)

BEST LARGE ENSEMBLE RELEASES (2019)

1) Michael Leonhart Orchestra - Suite Extracts, Vol.1 (Sunnyside)

2) Wayne Horvitz European Orchestra - Live at the Bimhuis (NovarraJazz)

3) Ralph Peterson Gen-Next Big Band - Listen Up! (Onyx)

4) Jiggs Whigham BuJazzO - Cuban Fire (Doublemoon)

5) Tom Pierson Orchestra - Last Works (Auteur)

BEST DEBUT RELEASES (2019)

1) Larry Grenadier - The Gleaners (ECM)

2) Lisa Hoppe’s Third Reality - The Mighty Unlikely (Jazzhaus Musik)

3) Junius Paul - Ism (International Anthem)

4) Nick Dunston - Atlantic Extraction (Out Of Your Head)

5) Jamile - If You Could See Me Now (s/r)

BEST TRIBUTES (2019)

1) Joe Fiedler - Open Sesame (Clean Feed) *Sesame Street tribute

2) Iro Haarla/Ulf Krokfors/Barry Altschul - Around Again (The Music of Carla Bley) (TUM)

3) Ralph Peterson’s Messenger Legacy - Legacy Alive, Vol.6 at The Side Door (Onyx)

4) Paul Dunmall Sun Ship Quartet - John Coltrane 50th Memorial Concert at Café Oto (Confront)

5) Dick Hyman/Ken Peplowski - Counterpoint: Lerner & Loewe (Arbors)

BEST UNEARTHED GEMS/PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED ARCHIVAL RECORDINGS (2019)

1) Bill Dixon/Cecil Taylor - Duets 1992 (Triple Point)

2) Sam Rivers Quintet - Archive Project, Vol.2: Zenith (NoBusiness)

3) Francois Tusques - Alors Nosferatu Combina Un Plan Ingénieux (Finders Keepers)

4) Ella Fitzgerald - Ella at The Shrine (Verve)

5) Charles Lloyd Quartet - Montreux Festival 1967 (Swiss Radio Days Jazz Series 46) (TCB)

BEST JAZZ PUBLICATIONS (2019)

1) Sweet Thunder: Duke Ellington’s Music in Nine Themes by Jack Chambers (Milestones Music & Art)

2) Rabbit’s Blues: The Life and Music of Johnny Hodges by Con Chapman (Oxford University Press)

3) Jason Moran (Walker Arts Center)

4) Cloud Arrangers by Ziga Kortnik (Pega Society)

5) Jazz From Detroit by Mark Stryker (University of Michigan Press)

BEST SOLO ALBUMS (2019)

1) Brian Charette - Beyond Borderline (SteepleChase)

2) Peter Brötzmann - Solo: I Surrender Dear (Trost)

3) Ed Neumeister - One and Only (Meisteromusic)

4) Ahmad Jamal - Ballades (Jazzbook/Jazz Village)

5) Fred Frith - Woodwork (Klang Galerie)

BEST LIVE ALBUMS (2019)

1) Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Paul Lytton - Concert in Vilnius (NoBusiness)

2) Torbjörn Zetterberg & The Great Question - Live (Corbett vs. Dempsey)

3) Ed Neumeister - One and Only (Meisteromusic)

4) Eve Risser - Après un Rêve (Clean Feed)

5) Mars Williams - An Ayler Xmas, Vol.3: Live in Krakow (Not Two)

BEST LIVE CONCERTS (NYC) (2019)

*Ghost Train Orchestra "Plays Moondog” @Winter Jazzfest, Le Poisson Rouge (1/5/19)

*Gary Bartz "Another Earth 50th Anniversary” w/Pharoah Sanders, Charles Tolliver, James King, Bruce Edwards, Nasheet Waits, Eric Berryman @Winter Jazzfest, Le Poisson Rouge (1/10/19)

*Arooj Aftab w/Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily @Joe's Pub (4/28/19)

*Barre Phillips solo @Zürcher Gallery (5/20/19) 

*Andrew Cyrille w/Tomeka Reid, Beatrice Capote @Vision Festival, Roulette (6/11/19)

*Kris Davis Trio w/William Parker, Jeff "Tain” Watts @Vision Festival, Roulette (6/14/19) 

*Michael Leonhart Orchestra @Jazz Standard (7/16/19) 

*David Tronzo solo and w/Stomu Takeishi, Ned Rothenberg @Ibeam Brooklyn (8/10/19) 

*Ravi Coltrane Quartet w/David Virelles, Dezron Douglas, Johnathan Blake @Summerstage Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, Marcus Garvey Park (8/24/19)

*Pat Metheny Side-Eye Trio w/James Francies, Marcus Gilmore @Sony Hall (9/11/19)