It's that time of year again, as jazz journalists, DJs, critics, and bloggers are publishing their annual “Best Of" lists. And once again, for the eighth consecutive year, St. Louis Jazz Notes eschews the compilation of such a list, instead offering a meta-list with links to all of the other “Best Jazz of 2014" lists we can locate.
As in the past, the meta-list is alphabetized by writers' names. When a list was collaborative or presented as a staff-written project, the name of the publication or media outlet is used instead, with the writers' names noted if available. This post will be updated multiple times over the next several weeks as more lists become available. Here's what's out there so far:
As in the past, the meta-list is alphabetized by writers' names. When a list was collaborative or presented as a staff-written project, the name of the publication or media outlet is used instead, with the writers' names noted if available. This post will be updated multiple times over the next several weeks as more lists become available. Here's what's out there so far:
- 100 Greatest Jazz Albums - The Top 20 best jazz albums of the past year
- A Closer Listen - Top Ten Modern Composition;
- S. Victor Aaron, Something Else - Best of 2014 - Modern + Mainstream Jazz; Avant-Garde + Experimental Jazz;; Fusion Jazz
- David R. Adler, The Village Voice - Top 10 Jazz Albums of 2014
- Album of The Year - Best Jazz Fusion Albums of 2014; Users' Highest Rated Jazz Fusion Albums of 2014
- AllMusic.com - Best of 2014: Favorite Jazz Albums
- Larry Appelbaum, Let's Cool One/Jazz Times - 2014 Favorites
- Avant Music News - Best of 2014
- Peter Bacon, The Jazz Breakfast - Festive 50
- Jakob Baekgaard, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2014
- C. Michael Bailey, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Recordings of 2014
- Phil Barnes, AllAboutJazz.com - Favourite Albums of 2014
- Chris Barton, Los Angeles Times - Best jazz albums of 2014
- Adam Baruch, Polish Jazz - Top Ten 2014
- Dan Bilawsky, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2014
- Larry Blumenfeld, Blu Notes/Wall Street Journal - Best Jazz Of 2014
- Cisco Bradley, Jazz Right Now - Best Albums of 2014
- Richard Brody, The New Yorker - The Best Jazz Reissues of 2014
- Bill Brownlee, Plastic Sax - Top Albums of 2014; Top Performances of 2014; The Top Jazz-Related Stories and Trends of 2014
- Chris Burnett, Musings In Cb - My Favorite Recordings Released in 2014
- Robert Bush, KNSD - Sweet 16: Top SD Jazz Concerts of 2014
- CapitalBop (Luke Stewart & Giovanni Russonello) - Top 5 Albums of 2014
- Capital Public Radio (Sacramento, CA) - Top Five Jazz Albums of 2014
- Chicago Reader - Our favorite music of 2014
- Nate Chinen, New York Times - Top Albums of 2014, With Beyoncé, Fred Hersch Trio and More
- Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2014
- Curt Davenport, Curt's Jazz Cafe - Best Jazz Albums of 2014
- Clive Davis, Sunday Times - Top ten jazz albums for 2014 (via jazzfm.com)
- Anthony Dean-Harris, Nextbop - Favorite Jazz Releases of 2014
- Nick DeRiso, Something Else - Best of 2014 (Blues, R&B + Jazz)
- Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Music Review - Records of the Year, 2014
- Pamela Espelund, Bebopified - Our two cents in the 2014 Twin Cities Music Critics Tally, with reasons why
- The Free Jazz Collective - Albums of the Year - 2014
- Phil Freeman, Burning Ambulance - Best Jazz of 2014
- Jon Garelick, Boston Globe - 2014 best jazz album picks
- Ted Gioia, The Daily Beast - The Best Albums of 2014
- Kurt Gottschalk, AllAboutJazz.com - Top 12 for 2014
- Ben Gray, Nextbop.com - Favorite Jazz Releases of 2014
- George Grella, The Big City - Best Jazz Albums of 2014; The Brooklyn Rail - My Year In Music
- James Hale, Down Beat/Jazz Chronicles - Top CDs of 2014
- John Hendrix, Hubert on the Air (L1, The Netherlands) - Best of Jazz 2014
- Lyn Horton, The Paradigm for Beauty - Top Ten, 2014
- Tom Hull, Tom Hull on the Web - The Best Jazz Albums of 2014
- Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen - 2014 Jazz List Bliss
- J Hunter, Nippertown/WVCR - Best Jazz Albums, Part I; Part II
- Jazz Journalists Association - 2014 Best of Jazz lists
- Fred Kaplan, Slate/Stereophile - The Best Jazz Albums of 2014, Plus the best reissues
- John Kelman, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2014; Best Live Shows of 2014
- Charles L. Latimer, I Dig Jazz - Drum Roll Please, I Dig Jazz Top Ten Jazz Albums of 2014
- Bo Leibowitz, KCRW - Top Albums of 2014
- Bruce Lindsay, AllAboutJazz.com - Favorite Albums Of 2014
- London Jazz News - Jazz Musicians of 2014; Jazz Musicians of 2014 (Under 35); The Jazz Moments To Treasure Of 2014; Jazz Wishes for 2015
- Tomek Łuczak, Polish Jazz - Top Ten 2014
- Mateusz Magierowski, Polish Jazz - Top Ten 2014
- Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader - My favorite jazz albums of 2014
- Dan McClenaghan, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2014
- Jay Miller, Quincy (MA) Patriot Ledger - Jazz is alive and well, with hot new, and old, talent
- Chris Monsen, Perfect Sounds - 2014: favorites – getting there
- NewMusicBox - 2014 Staff Picks
- Jessica Nicholas, ABC Jazz - Best of 2014
- Nextbop/Art of Cool - Favorite Jazz Releases of 2014
- Tim Niland, Music and More - Francis Davis 8th Annual Jazz Critics Poll
- Rick Nowlin / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Best Jazz Concert: Spyro Gyra
- Maciej Nowotny, Polish Jazz - Top Ten 2014
- NPR Music - 2014 Jazz Critics Poll; An Upset Either Way, Steve Lehman and Wadada Leo Smith Triumph
- Pitchfork.com (Grayson Haver Currin & Mark Masters) - Experimental Artists of the Year 2014
- Denis Poole, Smooth Jazz Therapy - Top Twenty Of 2014
- PopMatters.com (Will Layman & John Garratt) - The Best Jazz of 2014
- Craig Premo, Improvised - The Top Jazz Releases of 2014
- Proper Music - Best Jazz of 2014
- Ben Ratliff, New York Times - Top 10 Albums and Songs of 2014
- Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune - Henry Butler, Regina Carter, Orbert Davis among the year's best in jazz; For Chicago jazz lovers, it was a very good year
- Revive Music - Top 15 Songs of 2014 Pt. I; Pt. II
- Richard Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News - Best of 2014: Our Top 10 jazz CDs
- John Sharpe, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2014
- Sean Smith, Tokyo Jazz Notes - Pick of 2014 - Albums of the Year
- Stewart Smith, Complete Communion (The Quietus) - Favoured Jazz Albums Of 2014
- Sorties Jazz Nights - 2014 TVJazz Best Of (International), 2014 TVJazz Best Of (Québec) & CDJazz Best Of
- Hank Shteamer, Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches - 2014 jazz top 10, plus
- Sputnik Music - Best Jazz Albums of 2014
- Dave Sumner, Bird is the Worm - Best of 2014; Albums 21-25;
- Derek Taylor, Dusted (in Exile) - Year End 2014
- The Telegraph (UK), Ivan Hewett and Martin Chilton - The 33 best jazz albums of 2014
- Larry Reni Thomas, WCOM-FM - Top Ten Jazz 2014
- WDCB - Faves: Top Five Jazz Discs in 2014
- WQXR - 10 Imagination-Grabbing, Trailblazing Artists of 2014
- Alex Woodward, Gambit - The lists: New Orleans music in 2014
- Wondering Sound - Best Jazz Albums of 2014
