Favorite jazz listening for 2019

Most of all, I discovered jazz guitarist Mary Halvorson this year.  Start with Code Girl or Meltframe, or of course YouTube.

This year I also enjoyed:

Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret, The Other Side of Air.

Makaya McCraven, Universal Beings.

Two out of three picks being women is unusual for jazz, but for the better.  I will note that I do not select on the basis of “quotas,” so what I list is truly what I am recommending.

I’ll also stick by my view that current times are the very best for jazz, ever, even though jazz is no longer culturally central and Miles Davis is dead.  Your ability to see an amazing jazz concert for less than $50 — often much less — and from top-quality seats has never been greater.  Jazz music represents an amazing arbitrage opportunity (unlike paying through the nose to see either Taylor Swift or Boomer classic rock groups), at least if you know what you are doing and you have access to the proper cities, most of all NYC but by no means only.

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