Episode 259: Expert’s Choice of Best Jazz Albums of 2023 Part 2

One skill we develop as put together radio shows, podcasts, or ‘mix-tapes’ is an almost ‘artful’ way of allowing the energy to build. I think that, just like a great jazz solo, this episode seems to have a nice ‘arc’. It starts fairly low key and builds up in speed and intensity….ending with a sort of sweet sadness.

Ten albums that have been on the ‘best of 2023″ lists of a number of reviewers. I play a tracks from the following albums (here stated in random order):

Fred Hersch & Esperenza Spalding: Alive at the Village Vanguard

Kris Davis and Diatom Ribbons: Live At the Village Vanguard

Jason Moran: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield

Johnathan Blake: Passage

Aaron Diehl and the Knights: Zodiac Suite (by Mary Lou Williams)

Allison Miller: Zodiac Suite

Noah Haidu: Standards

Laila Biali: Your Requests

Go Go Penguin: Everything is Going to Be Ok

This is the second of what will turn out to be eight episodes of selected records of last year that at least one critic chose.