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If there is any way to imagine a positive outcome to David Bowie's death in January, we can take comfort in the fresh light he shined on jazz music in 2016.
From David Sanborn's sweet sax solo on "Young Americans" to AACM trumpet great Lester Bowie's appearance on nearly half of Black Tie, White Noise to renowned avant-garde drummer Joey Baron's role on Outside, the dearly departed Thin White Duke always had a keen ear for musicianship in this community for the majority of his career.
But the kick in the pants he gave jazz with * by employing the lineup of New York City sax master Donny McCaslin's group and ECM guitarist Ben Monder was an inspiration for the genre in a similar sense of transcendence to its conscious recoupling with hip-hop the year before through To Pimp A Butterfly.
Who knows whether Bowie would have continued to work with McCaslin and his band--the core of which is rounded out by drummer Mark Guiliana, bassist Tim Lefebvre and keyboardist Jason Lindner--had he not died of liver cancer two days after the album came out (on his 69th birthday, no less). But while The Magic Shop--the downtown NYC studio where * was recorded--closed its doors shortly after Bowie's death, the magic of what the Starman and his charges conspired inside those walls can be heard across the entire scope of our list of the best jazz albums of the year, be it intentional or otherwise.
20) Logan Richardson, Shift (Blue Note)
Pat Metheny has only appeared on two Blue Note albums over the course of his career: Once in 1994 on a stunning duet album with fellow guitarist John Scofield (I Can See Your House From Here), and again in 1999 when he was one of the guests on Cassandra Wilson's homage to Miles Davis, Traveling Miles.
That is, however, until this past winter when the guitar legend was placed in a starring role in the label debut of saxophonist Logan Richardson, performing alongside an A-list squad rounded out by the magnificent Harish Raghavan on bass, Jason Moran on piano and his drummer Nasheet Waits. For many fans of modern jazz, this lineup is something of a dream band and they do...
