It's that time of year again, as jazz journalists, DJs, critics, podcasters, and bloggers are publishing their annual Best Of" lists. And once again, for the 13th consecutive year, St. Louis Jazz Notes eschews the compilation of such a list, instead offering readers a meta-list with links to all of the other Best Jazz of 2019" lists that can be located online.
As usual, 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:
Finally, if you'd like to re-visit StLJN's past best of" list round-ups, here are the meta-lists for 2007 (parts 1 and 2), 2008 (parts 1 and 2), , 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.
As usual, 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:
- A Closer Listen- ACL 2019 ~ Top Ten Rock, Post-Rock, Folk & Jazz
- Karl Ackermann, AllAboutJazz.com- Top Albums 2019
- Album of the Year- The Best Jazz Albums of 2019; The Best Jazz Albums of 2019 by User Score
- AllMusic.com- 2019 Year in Review: Favorite Jazz Albums
- ArtsFuse.org (Michael Ullman, Steve Feeney, Steve Provizer & Steve Elman)- Best Jazz Recordings (and Live Concerts), 2019
- C. Michael Bailey, AllAboutJazz.com- Best Releases of 2019
- Chris Barton, Los Angeles Times- Best jazz albums of 2019: A year rife with invention and resistance
- Bill Brownlee, Plastic Sax- Plastic Sax’s Favorite Albums and Performances of 2019
- Christopher Burnett, Jazz Artistry Now- Best of Jazz 2019
- Christian Carey, Sequenza21.com- Best Recordings of 2019
- Paul Cash, HiFiTrends.com- Best Jazz Albums 2019: 25 Glorious Albums You Need To Hear!
- James Catchpole, TokyoJazzSite.com- 2019 Top Album Picks
- Henry Cherry, RiotMaterial.com- The Overlooked Ten From 2019’s Jazz Bin; The ’10s: Best Jazz Releases Of The Decade
- Mike Cornette, All Night Jazz (WUSF)- Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 2019
- Mark Corroto, AllAboutJazz.com- Best Releases of 2019
- Anthony Dean-Harris, Nextbop.com- Favorite Jazz Albums of 2019; Favorite Jazz Albums of the Decade
- John Doran, The Quietus- Albums Of The Year 2019 (In Association With Norman Records)
- Troy Dostert, AllAboutJazz.com- Best Releases of 2019
- DownBeat- 2019: The Year’s Top-Rated Albums; 2019: Branford Marsalis, Miles Davis, Linda May Han Oh & Other Top Stories of the Year
- Exclaim!- 10 Best Experimental Music Figures of 2019
- Arian Bagheri Pour Fallah, AllAboutJazz.com- Best Releases Of 2019
- Dave Foxall, AJazzNoise.com- The Best Jazz & Noise of 2019…?
- The Free Jazz Collective- Free Jazz Blog's 2019 Top 10s
- Phil Freeman, Stereogum- The 10 Best Jazz Albums Of 2019
- Jon Garelick, Boston Globe- Top 10 jazz albums of 2019
- John Gilbreath, KEXP- 2019 Top Ten List Spotlight
- Ted Gioia, TedGioia.com- The 100 Best Recordings of 2019
- GlideMagazine.com- The Glide Jazz 20- Our Top 20 Jazz Releases For 2019
- James Hale, SoundStageExperience.com- Best of the Decade in Jazz
- HeraldPublicist.com- The 10 Best Jazz Albums Of 2019
- Tom Hull, TomHull.com- The Best Jazz Albums of 2019
- Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen- 2019 Jazz List Bliss; A long list of 2019's best Canadian jazz albums, plus even more honourable mentions
- J Hunter, Nippertown- Best of 2019: The Jazz2K Awards and “The Rest of The Best!”; Top 10 Jazz2K Discs
- Jazz Desk- Best Jazz Albums 2019
- Jazz Journalists Association- 2019 Best of Jazz Lists
- Jazz Times- The Year in Review: Top 50 Albums of 2019; The Decade in Review: Best Jazz Albums of the 2010s
- JazzFM.91- Year in review: 10 of the best jazz albums of 2019
- JazzHot.net- Jazz Records Hot Five
- JAZZIZ- Critics’ Picks Playlist: The Best Songs of 2019
- Jazzweek- Year End Jazz Chart: 2019
- Fred Kaplan, Slate- The Best Jazz of 2019
- John Kelman, AllAboutJazz.com- Best Releases of 2019
- Brian Kiwanuka, Nextbop.com- Favorite Jazz Albums of 2019
- KMHD (Isabel Zacharias, Matt Fleeger & Derek Smith)- Top 10 Jazz Albums Of 2019
- Friedrich Kunzmann, AllAboutJazz.com- Best Releases of 2019
- Cormac Larkin, Irish Times- Ireland’s jazz scene continued to grow in strength and diversity in 2019
- Ed Love, Destination Jazz (WDET)- Highly Recommended New CDs for 2019
- Rudy Lu, Nippertown.com- Best of 2019: Favorite Concerts
- Peter Margasek, The Quietus- Jazz In 2019! A Round Up
- Chris May, AllAboutJazz.com- Best Releases of 2019
- Dan McClenaghan, AllAboutJazz.com- Best Releases of 2019
- Bill Meyer, Magnet- Best Of 2019: Jazz/Improv
- Tseliso Monaheng, Pan-African-Music.com- The 10 best South African jazz albums of 2019
- Nextbop.com- Best Jazz Albums of 2019; Most-Read Blog Posts of 2019
- Tim Niland, Music and More- NPR / Francis Davis Jazz Poll Ballot
- NPR- 11 Jazz Songs That Spoke Truth To Power In 2019
- PopMatters.com (Will Layman & Todd B. Gruel)- The Best Jazz of 2019
- PopMatters.com (A Noah Harrison, Antonio Poscic & Spyros Stasis)- The 15 Best Avant-Garde and Experimental Albums of 2019
- Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune- Best jazz albums of 2019: Dee Alexander, Miguel Zenon and Anat Cohen Tentet had a very good year; From Ravi Coltrane to Freddy Cole, 2019′s best jazz performances in Chicago
- Giovanni Russonello, New York Times- Best Jazz of 2019; The Decade in Jazz: 10 Definitive Moments
- Bret Saunders, Denver Post- The top 10 jazz albums of 2019, plus December concerts across the Front Range
- Tom Schnabel, Rhythm Planet (KCRW)- Best of 2019
- Sebastian Scotney, TheArtsDesk.com- Albums of the Year 2019: Mark Turner Meets Gary Foster
- Chris Searle, The Morning Star- Best of 2019: Jazz
- Gene Seymour, GeneSeymour.com- Top 10 Jazz Discs for 2019
- John Sharpe, AllAboutJazz.com- Best Releases Of 2019
- Rob Shepherd, Nextbop.com- Favorite Jazz Albums of 2019; Favorite Jazz Albums of the Decade
- Hank Shteamer, Rolling Stone- The Many Sounds of Jazz in 2019: A Listener’s Guide; Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches- Best of 2019: Jazz; Best of the 2010s: Jazz
- Jeffrey Siegel, Straight No Chaser- A Few of My Favorite Things 2019
- Mal Stanley, Jazztrack (ABC Radio)- Highlights of 2019
- Gary Suarez, VinylMePlease.com- The Best Jazz Albums Of 2019
- Mark Sullivan, AllAboutJazz.com- Best Releases of 2019
- Dave Sumner, Bandcamp.com- The Best Jazz Albums of 2019
- Jeff Tench, TrebleZine.com- The 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2019
- Geno Thackara, AllAboutJazz.com- Best Releases of 2019
- Larry Reni Thomas, JazzCorner.com- Top Ten Jazz 2019
- George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune- Best jazz albums of 2019: Chick Corea, Mark Dresser Seven, Steph Richards, Branford Marsalis and more; Best San Diego jazz concerts of 2019: Anat, Cohen, Chick Corea, Diana Krall, Mark Dresser and more
- Fabricio Vieira, FreeFormFreeJazz.org- TOP 10: Destaques de 2019
- La-Faithia White, AllAboutJazz.com- Best Releases of 2019
- Phillip Williams, RedBull.com- 10 must-listen jazz albums from 2019
- Richard Williams, TheBlueMoment.com- 2019: The best bits
- Jerome Wilson, AllAboutJazz.com- Best Releases of 2019
- Ron Wynn, Nashville Scene- Year in Music 2019: The Year in Jazz, Blues, R&B and Soul
- Janne Yliruusi, Pienemmät Purot- Vuosi vuodelta: Parhaat levyt 2019
- Tony Zambito, JazzBuffalo.org- 10 Favorite Jazz Vocal Albums Of 2019
Finally, if you'd like to re-visit StLJN's past best of" list round-ups, here are the meta-lists for 2007 (parts 1 and 2), 2008 (parts 1 and 2), , 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.