2021 Albums of the Year

[Tin Bird]

Here we are yet again...is it me or do the years seem much quicker these days? Perhaps I am just getting old... :L)

My list then:
Hayden Thorpe - Moondust for My Diamond
Oingo Boingo - Good For Your Soul (CD Reissue)
James Blake - Friends That Break Your Heart
Jon Hopkins - Piano Versions EP
Penguin Cafe - Handfuls of Night
Heisei No Oto - Japanese Left-Field Pop From The Age 1989-1996
Bill Nelson - My Private Cosmos
Ken Elkinson - Music For Commuting Vols. 1-6

[Tin Bird]

My fave released this year is by far the Hayden Thorpe "Moondust for My Diamond" album. Interestingly, upon first listen to it, I thought I was disappointed...very stark and minimal...however, over time, it REALLY grew on me. It is pretty much played non-stop round here these days. A delightfully esoteric and strangely otherworldly and ethereal album. It exists completely removed from any other musical trends, artists, or genres. It just is...

[Quiet Visitor]

All right, here's mine, although I could conduct a different one next week

1. Corrado Rustici - Interfulgent
2. MEER - Playing House
3. Lyle Workman - Uncommon Measures
4. Pluto Jonze: Awe
5. Stefano Panunzi - Beyond The Illusion
6. Coevality - Multiple Personalities
7. Proportions - After All These Years
8. Andrew Wasylyk - Balgay Hill: Morning In Magnolia
9. Murcof - The Alias Sessions
10. Needlepoint - Walking Up That Valley

[baht habit]

Mathias Eick - When We Leave
Charles Lloyd & The Marvels - Tone Poem
Kenny Garrett - Sounds From The Ancestors
Vijay Iyer - Uneasy
John McLaughlin - Liberation Time
Rubalcaba, Carter & DeJohnette - Skyline
Cunliffe, Patitucci & Colaiuta - Trio
Andrew Cyrille Quartet - The News
Leon Bridges - Gold Diggers Sound
Sting - The Bridge
St Vincent - Daddy’s Home
Dave Holland - Another Land
Chick Corea Akoustic Band - Live
Aimee Mann - Queens Of The Summer Hotel
Esperanza Spalding - Songwrights Apothecary Lab
The Le Coq All Stars - Jazz All Stars Volume 1
Lyle Workman - Uncommon Measures
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raise The Roof
Cousteaux - Stray Gods
Silk Sonic - An Evening With Silk Sonic
David Crosby - For Free
Keith Slattery - Duality
Flock Of Dimes - Head Of Roses
Dan Siegel - Faraway Place
Pat Metheny - Side-Eye NYC
Steve Hunt - Connections

[Quiet Visitor]

That's a fine list! Great to see another Lyle Workman-fan.

And a new CD by Steve Hunt. I had missed that one. I love his work with the late Allan Holdsworth, so based on the tracks (with a AH-tribute) and the musicians playing on this album I ordered it from his Bandcamp-site). Thanks!

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raise The Roof I bought for my wife, so we had quite some pleasant breakfasts together listening to this second duet-album.

If I had concentrated on the more jazzrock/fusion-albums I bought last year the list would have included work from the likes of Andorra (from Denmark), Ghost Rhythms (from France), Peter Tiehuis and Matthijs Geerts (from The Netherlands), Beledo (from Uruguay), Burnt Belief (from the USA/Australia), Asaf Sirkis (I believe from Israel) and the late Steve Robinson (from South Africa). Too much good music, too little time

[baht habit]

That's a fine list! Great to see another Lyle Workman-fan.

My first exposure to Workman was the second Bourgeois Tagg album YoYo in the late 80s - I noticed that he had the lead songwriting credit on their modest hit, I Don't Mind At All, which I thought was the best thing they had created. Todd Rundgren produced the album and Workman went on to record and tour with Rundgren in the late 80s and early 90s. There was a video release of Rundgren's live performance during a tour of Japan.
Workman's name kept popping up on albums I purchased through the early to mid 90s - artists such as John Gorka, Patty Larkin, Kevin Gilbert and even legendary jazz drummer Tony Williams. And I always thought, oh that is the guy who wrote and played on that really good song I Don't Mind At All.
And when he replaced guitarist Shane Fontayne for Sting's set at Live 8 in 2005, I thought again, oh that is the guy...I like his playing.
But it wasn't until I heard Harmonic Crusader in 2009 that I became fully cognizant of what Workman was capable of creating. And Uncommon Measures is equally brilliant.

[Quiet Visitor]

Thanks for your words on Workman.
My connection is somewhat different and started more or less when I discovered his second solo-album Tabula Rasa, probably through CDBaby. When I tried to order his first solo-CD, Purple Passages, it turned out to be out of print. The nice thing from CDBaby was that you had often direct contact with the artists involved, so I emailed Lyle to ask if that album would get a re-print. In return he sent me a CDR-version of the album, including some picks and some nice words. Some times later the album was re-released.

The connection with the late great Kevin Gilbert was also a reason to keep an eye on him, while later on in his career he would be an important musician/producer for a singer from the town I live (Ilse DeLange). But her kind of music was a bit too much in the country-vein for me. I liked his work with Tom McRae better.

The fine thing about his new album is that he can combine his orchestral score-stuff with his guitar-based jazzrock/fusion.

[Tin Bird]

Bourgeois Tagg! Wow! That name is a blast from the past! I had totally forgotten about them and the song, "I Don't Mind At All" which I really liked. In fact, I think I still have the cassette packed away in my closet. I can't remember the rest of the album but I really liked that song.

[Quiet Visitor]

Steve Hunt - Connections

Thanks again for mentioning this one. I got the CD yesterday sent by Steve personally from the USA (through Bandcamp).
Great jazz-rock/fusion with music in the vein of Weather Report/Joe Zawinul/Scott Kinsey (Tribal Tech), the melodic side of Allan Holdsworth, Pat Metheny (especially the vocals) and many more.
There's a link b.t.w. with David Sylvian. While in the band with Holdsworth Hunt collaborated with bassist Skulí Sverrisson. The latter has also worked with Sylvian on several project and is also playing on one track from this album.