Destination: 2007

Here’s our second annual look back at the most popular tracks Dest:OUT hosted over the past year. We thought it would be interesting to review what readers opted to download most often from this site, a sort of democratic, listener-generated top ten. You listeners clearly have exceedingly fine taste – these ten tracks form a fascinating and vital cross section of of the genre. They’re yet another reminder of the depth and variety of great jazz to be found during the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.

To arrive at these results, we checked the server’s stats then devised a complicated algorithm that takes into account the amount of time each track was available, the digits of Beaver Harris’s birth date, and what we had for dinner last night (Peking Duck, if you must know). In this way the list below surveys the full spread of tunes offered, resulting in our “Top 10 Greatest and Most-Downloaded Destination:OUT Hits of 2007 as Devised by Complicated Algorithm”!

Here’s an opportunity to hear some tracks you may have missed or previously overlooked. And be sure to note the complete 40-minute solo piano mixtape by Vijay Iyer is available once again. None of this will be up for very long, so grab them now. Enjoy!

So here we go:

ONE:
Masabumi Kikuchi / Auroral Flare
Evokes the sensual arrangements of Gil Evans but sheathed in a shimmering plastic komono.

TWO:
The Revolutionary Ensemble / New York
Their incendiary music remains undimmed by time, but itâ??s sadly fallen into obscurity.

THREE:
Sun Ra / Dance of the Cosmo Aliens
Minimalist breakbeat techno meets monster dub groove? Afro-glitch trance exotica?

FOUR:
Solo piano mixtape compiled by Vijay Iyer / Autoscopy
How can one piano piece contain the universe?

FIVE:
Max Roach & Archie Shepp / Ujaama
A mash-up of hardbop, modal, swing, and free jazz modes â?? a modernist monsta.

SIX:
Ornette Coleman / Broken Shadows
His music had a howling, epic quality.

SEVEN:
Music Revelation Ensemble / Baby Talk
“I didnâ??t hear no motherfuckers playing shit like we were playing.“

EIGHT:
Kaoru Abe / Jazz Bed Duo 2
Lovely, broken-bottle blues-drenched lyricism and pure enamel-scraping transcendental shrieks.

NINE:
Horace Tapscott / The Dark Tree, Part Two
Emotional drama, sensitive musical interplay, and sophisticated compositions.

TEN:
George Adams and Don Pullen / The Necessary Blues
Amiri Baraka and Stanley Crouch agree.

A few notes:
–“Auroral Flare” in the top spot is something of a surprise to us. We didn’t think Kikuchi has such a following. Maybe it’s the rarity that attracted folks? Or maybe the simple fact that everybody loves the good Japanese free fusion? Another possible clue: the logs from the month show a lot of myspace activity, including much action from both myspace/hillaryclinton and myspace/nicoleritchie. No joke. Some kind of crazy internet accident?
–Interestingly, many of these tracks are fairly lengthy. When we first started this site, we tried to keep our selections on the concise side. We still do, except when the best tracks from a given album are worthy enough for the increased bandwidth.

And here’s one rescued from the discard pile, something that didn’t see so much action (maybe it got buried in our 1990s poll?) but that we feel deserves a second shot. Please revisit:

OVERLOOKED GEM:
Henry Threadgill / Try Some Ammonia
“It is rooted in tradition, but I am not doing traditional jazz.“

Have a happy oh! oh! eight!