The shadows would have been getting long in Carmel, California, as the evening approached and the mid-September air finally began to cool. * Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Project, Lines of ColorД®rroll Garner's Classic Gets an Overdue Reissue Henry Threadgill's Zooid, In For A Penny, In For A Pound * Noah Preminger, Pivot: Live at the 55 BarДЄntonio Sanchez & Migration, Meridian Suite Jean-Michel Pilc, What is this Thing Called? John Fedchock New York Big Band, Like It isД¬harlie Haden & Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Tokyo AdagioДЄyn Inserto & Colours Jazz Orchestra, Home Away from Home Joshua Breakstone, 2nd Avenue: Return of the Cello-Quartet Tim BerneвЂ™s Snakeoil, YouвЂ™ve Been Watching Me What one thing can you call a gathering as diverse and all-embracing as this: generations, styles, size, aesthetics, dynamics, instrumentation, technique, vision? As wide-ranging as it is, the list seems to me to be unified by an unwavering faithfulness to the most enduring principles of art - invention, virtuosity and beauty. The French pianist Jean-Michel Pilc cleverly titled his solo release early this year What Is This Thing Called?В Who knows all the facets of the joke he was making by dropping вЂњ LoveвЂќ from the title of Cole PorterвЂ™s evergreen standard? But now IвЂ™m thinking, joke or no, Pilc was also asking a question thatвЂ™s been niggling in my subconscious as IвЂ™ve again and again thought about this year in jazz and looked over the list of fifty recordings below. Matt WilsonвЂ™s Big Happy Family, Beginning of a Memory Greg Ward & 10 Tongues, Touch My Beloved's Thought * Henry Threadgill Ensemble Double Up - Old Locks and Irregular Verbs * Wadada Leo Smith - America's National Parks

* Noah Preminger, Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground * Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke * Fred Hersch, Sunday Night at the Vanguard * Michael Formanek & Ensemble Kolossus, The Distance Jonathan Finlayson & Sicilian Defense, Moving Still Happy New Year, indeed.ДЇorty recordings from 2016 that Fritz particularly liked (special favorites are starred):Дarcy James Argue's Secret Society, Real EnemiesД¬ookers, Call of the Wild and Peaceful Heart Search and enjoy.ДЄnd weвЂ™ll do this all again in 2017. You can find it almost anywhere, and not just because of the streaming services. Because it seemed this year jazz showed up in all sorts of unexpected places in the broader cultureвЂ“ on David BowieвЂ™s last recording, which features the saxophonist Donny McCaslin and the pianist Jason Lindner in La La Land, which has so many people swooning (although not necessarily for the jazz piano that runs through the movie). YouвЂ™ll find some for yourself on this list.

They brought to my listening this year artвЂ™s special thrill of surprise in new and unexpected beauty. They all appear on our list for the first time. So, too, Carla Bley, Kenny Barron, Fred Hersch, Mary Halvorson.Д«ut youвЂ™ll also find below an exhaltation of the less familiar. All three regularly appear on our Best of Year lists, and they deserve it. Here you can find my tribute to Wadada, whom I chose as Artist of the Year for his ceaseless and ever-youthful innovations. Starred on the list below are works by Jack DeJohnette, whoвЂ™s 74, Henry Threadgill (72), and Wadada Leo Smith (75). Jazz stays youthful by encouraging openness, invention, and new fields of vision. You probably have your own favorite story about an artist who resolutely declined to go gently. Chagall toiling on his commissioned tapestry on his last day alive, aged 97. Sophocles finishing Oedipus at Colonus at age 90. Maybe itвЂ™s my age, or just being an easy mark for sentimental tales, but IвЂ™ve long been drawn to late-in-life artistic accomplishment, particularly when marked by rebirth or new vision.

Cosmic brush with every stroke iyer