THE BEST JAZZ OF THE 1990s, Part Two

WELCOME TO NINETIES WEEK
(Part two of five)

‘Rewrite history while it’s still fresh.’ – JG Ballard

It’s too easy to fetishize the distant past. We mostly highlight overlooked jazz from the 60s, 70s, and 80s here at D:O, but that’s hardly all the story there is to tell. The music continues to be incredibly vital — varied, adventurous, refined, and risky.

Over the past month, we polled music critics, musicians, and jazz bloggers for their favorite records from the 1990s. We got a terrific response, one that does justice to the remarkably diverse output of the decade. See the post below for the first day’s lists. Each day this week, we’ll continue to share a number of these lists. Today we’re highlighting tracks from Sonny Sharrock’s Ask the Ages.

These entries aren’t the last word on the decade. We’d love to read your lists and thoughts in the comments. So start combing your collection, put down your thoughts, and don’t be shy!

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STEVE SMITH
Night After Night

The ’90s were a great time for jazz. In making my selections, I limited myself strictly to one disc per leader, and primarily to records by artists whose music would have the biggest impact and the farthest-reaching influence during the decade. In some cases, I selected discs that were simply top-of-form expressions by consistently important creators (Tommy Flanagan and Charles Gayle, for instance). And a few, like Michael Blake’s Kingdom of Champa, Frisque Concordance’s Soundings and Charlie Haden’s Dream Keeper, are simply all-time personal favorites. Strictly alphabetical order; no way are you going to get me to arrange them otherwise!

1 Tim Berne, Unwound (Screwgun, 1996)
2 Michael Blake, Kingdom of Champa (Intuition, 1997)
3 Anthony Braxton, Willisau (Quartet) 1991 (hatArt, 1992)
4 John Butcher, 13 Friendly Numbers (Acta, 1992)
5 Dave Douglas, Charms of the Night Sky (Winter & Winter, 1998)
6 Ellery Eskelin with Andrea Parkins and Jim Black, Kulak, 29 & 30 (hatOLOGY, 1998)
7 Tommy Flanagan, Sunset and the Mockingbird: The Birthday Concert (Blue Note, 1998)
8 Bill Frisell, Have a Little Faith (Nonesuch, 1993)
9 Frisque Concordance, Spellings (Random Acoustics, 1993)
10 Charles Gayle, Touchin’ on Trane (FMP, 1993)
11 Charlie Haden, Dream Keeper (Blue Note, 1991)
12 Gerry Hemingway Quintet, Perfect World (Random Acoustics, 1996)
13 Brad Mehldau, Songs: The Art of the Trio, Vol. 3 (Warner, 1998)
14 Lawrence “Butch” Morris, Testament: A Conduction Collection (New World, 1995)
15 Paul Motian, Joe Lovano and Bill Frisell, At the Village Vanguard (JMT, 1995)
16 Bobby Previte, Empty Suits (Gramavision, 1990)
17 Sonny Sharrock, Ask the Ages (Axiom, 1991)
18 Henry Threadgill, Too Much Sugar for a Dime (Axiom, 1993)
19 David S. Ware, Godspelized (DIW, 1998)
20 John Zorn’s Masada, Vav (DIW, 1995)

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PETER BRESLIN
Stochasticactus

I decided to concentrate pretty much exclusively on the continued development of so-called avant garde or free jazz during a period when the “neo-mainstream” movement wanted to pretend it had been a “radical” 60s and 70s aberration. So here’s my list:

1 Ornette Coleman:
Naked Lunch (Soundtrack) (Milan, 1991)
Tone Dialing (Verve/Harmolodic, 1995)
Sound Museum: Hidden Man (Verve/Harmolodic, 1996)
Sound Museum Three Women (Verve/Harmolodic, 1996)

2 Cecil Taylor:
with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Thelonious Sphere Monk (DIW, 1991)
Celebrated Blazons (FMP, 1993)
Double Holy House (FMP, 1993)
Always a Pleasure (FMP, 1996)
with Dewey Redman and Elvin Jones, Momentum Space (Verve, 1999)
Almeda/The Light of Corona (FMP, rec. 1996, rel. 2005/03)

3 Anthony Braxton:
Willisau (Quartet) 1991 (hatART, 1992)
Victoriaville (Quartet) 1992 (Victo, 1993)
Wesleyan (12 Altosolos) 1992 (hatART, 1993)
Braxton/Parker/Rutherford, Trio (London) 1993 (Leo, 1993)
Knitting Factory (Piano/Quartet) 1994, Vols. 1 and 2 (Leo, 1994)
Bergman/Brotzmann/Braxton, Eight by Three (Mixtery, 1997)
Four Compositions (Washington, D.C.) 1998 (Braxton House, 1999)

4 Art Ensemble of Chicago:
Coming Home Jamaica (Dreyfus, 1998)

Miscellany:
5 James Blood Ulmer, Music Speaks Louder Than Words (DIW, 1996)
6 Sonny Sharrock, Ask the Ages (Axiom, 1991)
7 David Murray, Sunrise, Sunset (Red Baron, 1990)
8 Douglas Ewart and Inventions Clarinet Choir, Angles of Entrance (Aarawak, 1990/1998)

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HANK SHTEAMER
Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches

I know this is somewhat scant, and I can think of a few more I could throw on for throwin’ on’s sake, but I don’t want to include filler. I feel good about all these.

1 Sonny Sharrock, Ask the Ages (Axiom, 1991)
2 Whit Dickey Trio, Transonic (Aum Fidelity, 1998)
3 Bill Dixon, Vade Mecum (Soul Note, 1996)
4 Anthony Braxton, Willisau (Quartet) 1991 (hatART, 1992)
5 Andrew Cyrille, Mark Dresser, Marty Ehrlich, C/D/E (Jazz Magnet, 2000)

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CHRIS MONSEN
Perfect Sounds / more on the selections

1 Charles Gayle, Touchin’ on Trane (FMP, 1993)
2 Sonny Sharrock, Ask the Ages (Axiom, 1991)
3 William Parker, The Peach Orchard (Aum Fidelity, 1998)
4 James Carter, Conversin’ with the Elders (Atlantic, 1996)
5 David S. Ware, Flight of I (Columbia/DIW, 1994)
6 Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, The Fire This Time (In & Out, 1992)
7 David Murray, Shakill’s Warrior (Columbia, 1992)
8 Ken Vandermark, Barrage Double Trio: Utility Hitter (Quinnah, 1996)
9 Pharoah Sanders, Welcome to Love (Timeless, 1991)
10 David Murray, Special Quartet (Columbia, 1992)

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NATE DORWARD
ndorward.com

I’m not a believer in lists or top-tens–what’s so magical about the number 10? So I’ve provided two different lists below, each of which I’m equally happy with. I have excluded all free improvisation as being at the outer limits of what I’d call “jazz”, though in the 2nd list Barry Guy’s London Jazz Composers Orchestra makes it because of the “Jazz” in its name (even if that’s only one strand in its aesthetic).

1 Ruby Braff/Roger Kellaway, Inside & Out (Concord, 1996)
The true successor to “Weatherbird.”
2 Marilyn Crispell, Santuerio (Leo, 1993)
This is where I first heard Mark Feldman, & it’s still one of his shining moments, as well as one of Crispell’s most magical & poetic albums.
3 Sheila Jordan, Lost and Found (Muse, 1990)
Recorded late 1989, released 1990, so it only makes it into this list by a whisker, but fortunately so! She often prefers the stripped-down voice+bass format, but this quartet album seems to me her richest work.
4 Hank Jones, Upon Reflection (Verve/Gitanes, 1994)
Tribute to the late Thad Jones with a chance to hear Elvin on brushes all the way. (The exception: a great mallets solo on the ballad “A Child Is Born”!)
5 Rodney Kendrick, Dance World Dance (Verve/Gitanes, 1993)
Kendrick (one of the few pianists who took Randy Weston as a model) seems to have nearly vanished from sight after his superb 1990s run of albums: one of the saddest losses to the music. As spirit-lifting an album as the title would suggest.
6 Sal Mosca, Recital in Valhalla (Zinnia, 1991)
Perhaps the best solo piano album of a period that was rich in them (thanks to the Maybeck Recital Hall series).
7 Paul Motian, Bill Evans (JMT, 1990)
I’m sure that the Broadway series or the trio albums will be more popular than this one among list-makers, but this is the one that has given me the most pleasure over the years.
8 Sonny Sharrock, Ask the Ages (Axiom, 1991)
A peak in a blighted, curtailed career that ought to have been far better documented. “Many Mansions” is one of the classic guitar performances of any genre.
9 Henry Threadgill, Carry the Day (Columbia, 1994)
A lot of HT’s albums of this period just too darn long–wonderfully but exhaustingly weird. This one is the densest (in terms of the extraordinary range of musicians and instruments brought into play) yet the music seems utterly natural and uncluttered; & the LP-length playing-time helps snap everything into focus.
10 Yosuke Yamashita, Canvas in Quiet (Verve, 1997)
I can never figure out why Yamashita isn’t better-known outside of Japan. This album has a companion (Canvas in Vigor, with a so-so Ravi Coltrane) but it’s the lightning-strike speed & pinpoint delicacy of this solo disc that gets to me.

And the list, alternate take:

1 Muhal Richard Abrams, Blu Blu Blu (Black Saint, 1997)
A bit overpacked (see comments above on Threadgill) but the tribute to Muddy Waters alone makes this a winner.
2 Anthony Braxton, Quartet (Santa Cruz) 1993 (hatART, 1997)
The quartet’s final statement, a little stronger I feel than the sprawling Willisau set. After this comes the Ghost Trance stuff, which still makes me scratch my head….
3 Alan Broadbent, Personal Standards (Concord, 1996)
Like the Hank Jones album above, a flawless example of the jazz piano trio.
4 Simon Fell, Composition No. 30/Compilation III (Bruce’s Fingers, 1998)
One of the few jazz (?) albums to make brilliant & original use of studio overdubbing and editing.
5 Charles Gayle, Touchin’ on Trane (FMP, 1993)
I love Gayle working with Ali–a cockeyed swing feel, rather than totally freeform.
6 Barry Guy/LJCO, Portrait (Intakt, 1994)
Harmos is 1989, otherwise I’d have picked that. A bit uneven–the jazz bits are sometimes flatfooted (the Gil Evans tribute in the 2nd section seems to me a misfire)–but the highpoints are many, especially the features for Evan Parker and Radu Malfatti. One of the key bands of the 1990s.
7 Joe Henderson, So Near, So Far (Verve, 1993)
A haunting elegy for Miles Davis, with Al Foster in particular just outstanding.
8 Joe Lovano, From the Soul (Blue Note, 1992)
Petrucciani’s most outward-bound playing (on the opening track he sounds like he’s been listening to Paul Bley); a fond farewell to Ed Blackwell; & an announcement of Lovano’s coming into his prime. Things gradually went downhill after this CD into a mire of tribute albums….so it stands as something of a one-off.
9 Tomasz Stanko, Leosia (ECM, 1997)
A lot mellower than the free-jazz-oriented Bosonossa and Other Ballads (GOWI), even though it shares several tunes with that album, but it’s nonetheless the finest statement by Stanko’s quartet of the period.
10 Mark Turner, Mark Turner (Warner, 1998)
I haven’t heard Yam Yam (Criss Cross), which I’m told is in some ways better, but this one’s certainly a terrific statement of intent by a musician who probably was harmed rather than helped by the major-label signing. A guesting Joshua Redman is in surprisingly palatable form on several tracks, including a stunning “317 E 32nd”.

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NINETIES PICK HIT

MANY MANSIONS
AS WE USED TO SING
Sonny Sharrock
Ask the Ages
Axiom : 1991

SS, electric guitar; Pharoah Sanders, tenor and soprano saxes; Elvin Jones, drums; Charnett Moffett, drums.

“I consider myself a jazz saxophonist with a very fucked-up horn.” –Sonny Sharrock