Yes, I know it’s 2022, and this list is dedicated to the top spins of 2021. But it feels to me as if 2020 started on March 15 of that actual year (The Ides, you know) and has declared the turning of the last two annums invalid. Until I feel differently, I’m gonna keep believing it, though, like Joe Tex’s man in that Viet Nam foxhole, I believe we’re gonna make it.

If you follow this blog, you know the good records mount and mount until there seems to be no sane scaling of them. For your pleasure and convenience, I’ve topped them off to a mere 50 like I’m lookin’ for coal and to hell with the slag (the still-pleasurable slag). This time, my rubric is simple: How likely, really, am I to listen to these albums several times more while I continue trying, in my futile battle against the dustbin of time to save every flower, to keep up with the mounds of fresh sounds? You can always access the previous months’ lists for those a cast a cold eye upon, though December’s getting shafted in that regard. Also, I’ve voted in a couple of year-end polls and, as usual, I make no promises (to anyone who really cares) that these results will match up with those. One never drops the same needle on the same record twice.

The archival digs I’ve trimmed to 25. I know I had that massive, well-appointed, and long-overdue Marian Anderson box at #1 last month, and now it’s not on the list at all–I guess that was a) pretentious; b) the happy historian in me; and c) overambitious.

Goodbye, Greg Tate. Why’d you have to go? I hope there is enough of your uncollected passionate criticism to fill another bucket of buttermilk with (gad)flies. It’s hard to imagine not being able to keep reading your newest insights for the rest of my life. And one thing I really appreciate looking back on your work I’ve read (most of it) is how seldom you were an asshole…if ever. Your style seemed to exclude that as a choice.

Thanks to the kindness of Tom Hull, I was invited to vote in the Jazz Critics Poll. Should you be curious, here’s my ballot (scroll down to the O’s).

In a related development, I’m considering a move to Scandinavia….

Bolded titles are new to the list, and to be fair, most of the releases I dug in December are on the list.

1. Wild Up: Julius Eastman, Volume 1–Femenine 
2. Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: (Exit) Knarr 
3. James Brandon Lewis: Jesup Wagon  
4. East Axis: Cool With That  
5. Gift of Gab: Finding Inspiration Somehow
6. Ka: Martyr’s Reward
7. Little Simz: Sometimes I Might Be Introverted 
8. Miguel Zenon: Law Years—The Music of Ornette Coleman  
9. Gimenez Lopez: Reunion en la granja 
10. No-No Boy: 1975  
11. The Halluci Nation: One More Saturday Night 
12. Robert Finley: Sharecropper’s Son  
13. Mauricio Tagliari: Maô_Danças Típicas de Cidades Imaginárias 
14. Mickey Guyton: Remember Her Name 
15. Mdou Moctar: Afrique Victim  
16. King Britt & Tyshawn Sorey: Tyshawn and King  
17. For Those I Love: For Those I Love 
18. Mariá Grand: Reciprocity 
19. R. A. P. Ferreira: The Light Emitting Diamond Cutter Scriptures 
20. R.A.P. Ferreira: Bob’s Son   
21. Trondheim Jazz Orchestra & Ole Morten Vågan: Plastic Wave 
22. The Source: …But Swinging Doesn’t Bend Them Down 
23. Peter Stampfel and Jeffrey Lewis: Both Ways 
24. Various Artists: Sacred Soul of North Carolina 
25. Mexstep: Vivir 
26. The Ebony Hillbillies: Barefoot and Flying
27. William Parker: Mayan Space Station
28. Marta Gabriel: Metal Queen 
29. Snotty Nose Rez Kids: Life After 
30. Fire in Little Africa: Fire in Little Africa  
31. Tim Berne: Broken Shadows  
32. Dwayne Dopsie and The Zydeco Hellraisers: Set Me Free 
33. Monster Magnet: A Better Dystopia 
34. Dry Cleaning: New Long Leg  
35. Dawn Richard: Second Line  
36. Lukah: Why Look Up, God’s in the Mirror 
37. Marianne Faithfull (with Warren Ellis): She Walks in Beauty  
38. Low-Cut Connie: Tough Cookies  
39. Paris: Safe Space Invader  
40. girl in red: if I could make it go quiet   
41. Orquestra Brasileira: 80 Anos 
42. Bitchin’ Bajas: Switched-On Ra  
43. Body Metta: The Work is Slow  
44. Anthony Joseph: The Rich are Only Defeated When Running for Their Lives  
45. Ducks Ltd: Get Bleak 
46. Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few: Cosmic Transitions 
47. Backxwash: I Lie Here with My Rings and Dresses  
48. Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber: Angels Over Oakanda 
49. Neil Young: Barn 
50. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: Raise the Roof 
     
    Archaeological Digs 

1. Julius Hemphill: The Boyé Multinational Crusade for Harmony   
2. JuJu: Live at 131 Prince Street  
3. The Plastic People of the Universe: Egon Bondy’s Happy Hearts Club Banned 
4. Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber: 20th Anniversary Mixtapes / Groiddest Schizznits 
5. Bobo Jenkins: My All-New Life Story 
6. Khaira Arby: Khaira Arby in New York  
7. Various Artists: A Stranger I May Be—Savoy Gospel 1954-1966  
8. ICP Orchestra: Incipient ICP (1966-1971) 
9. Plastic People of The Universe: Apokalyptickej pták   
10. Roy Brooks: Understanding 
11. Bruce Springsteen and The E-Street Band: The Legendary No Nukes Concerts 
12. Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Down in the Rust Bucket  
13. Mujician: 10 10 10 
14. Various Artists: Journeys in Modern Jazz–Britain
15. Leo Nocentelli: Another Side 
16. Agustin Pereyra Lucena Quartet: La Rana 
17. John Coltrane: A Love Supreme—Live in Seattle 
18. Screamers: Demo Hollywood 1977 
19. Hamiet Blueitt: Bearer of the Holy Flame  
20. Byard Lancaster: My Pure Joy  
21. Various Artists: The Smithsonian Anthology of Rap and Hip Hop  
22. Charles Mingus: Mingus at Carnegie Hall # 
23. The J Ann C Trio: At Tan-Tar-A 
24. Mistreater: Hell’s Fire  
25. Pure Hell: Noise Addiction