I do this every December — take a shot at my Top 25 Jazz Albums of the year. My 2020 list is pretty interesting, I think — inside, outside, international... some Charles Tolliver, some Sun Ra, some less familiar things. Here we go...

#25.... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Black Art Jazz Collective: "Ascension" (High Note)

https://t.co/ZkwG0ErHUK
#24... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Chick Corea: "Plays" (Concord)

I'm tickled by Chick's Scarlatti...

https://t.co/3sdDoqEIkk
#23... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Irreversible Entanglements with Moor Mother: "Who Sent You?" (International Anthem)

https://t.co/uqnXj1BGCf
#22... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Micah Thomas: "Tide" (self-released)

https://t.co/32vVdvudr5
#21... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Catherine Sikora & Ethan Winogrand: "Things To Do In Paris" (Bandcamp)

https://t.co/lksCoI21y0
#20... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Champian Fulton: "Birdsong" (Champian Records)

https://t.co/4RJ9bIGulg
#19... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah: "Axiom" (Ropeadope)

https://t.co/Y1ohEeWF7u
#18... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Bill Frisell: "Valentine" (Blue Note)

https://t.co/zK09k2LKIG
#17... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Charles Tolliver: "Connect" (Gearbox)

https://t.co/SbpShuk9JZ
#16... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Sun Ra Arkestra: "Swirling" (Strut)

https://t.co/wYkYycNFDf
#15... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Nubya Garcia: "Source" (Concord)

https://t.co/qJPwb9gZLV
#14... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

JD Allen: "Toys/Die Dreaming" (Savant)

https://t.co/99CSw6wrul
#13... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Sisonke Xonti: "uGaba the Migration" (As-Shams/The Sun)

https://t.co/9NRN0BdcjS
#12... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Nels Cline Singers: "Share the Wealth" (Blue Note)

https://t.co/R7PFjf1cMw
#11... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Quin Kirchner: "The Shadows and The Light" (Astral Spirits)

https://t.co/qVnOyFzwVg
#10... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Anna Hogberg Attack: "Lena" (Omlott)

https://t.co/5bQjVOp1Qa
#9... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Wayne Escoffery: "The Humble Warrior" (Smoke Sessions)

https://t.co/aRz417Ie5W
#8... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Immanuel Wilkins: "Omega" (Blue Note)

https://t.co/sr1i3tMrAk
#7... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

George Burton: "Reciprocity"(self-released)

https://t.co/cmN0vKa760
#6... Top 25 Jazz Albums

Lafayette Gilchrist: "Now" (Lafayette Gilchrist Music)

https://t.co/WtKUGNtWXu
#5... Top 25 Jazz Albums

Sullivan Fortner and Kyle Athayde: "Tea for Two" (self-released)

https://t.co/gRiRUi1qYo
#4... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Dezron Douglas and Brandee Younger: "Force Majeure" (International Anthem)

https://t.co/HTbHRTwEkp
#3... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Charles Lloyd: "8: Kindred Spirits (Live from the Lobero)" (Blue Note)

https://t.co/9foKqAJIJ7
#2... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

James Brandon Lewis & Chad Taylor: "Live in Willisau" (Intakt)

https://t.co/uNLngkDE7P
#1... Top 25 Jazz Albums of 2020

Nduduzo Makhathini: "Mode of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds" (Blue Note)

https://t.co/f8BTwY5meO
There you go... I've also got five or six "historical" releases to recommend: Monk, Rollins, Sam Rivers, more.... will get to those later today or tomorrow. (Threads wear me out...) Happy listening...

More from Culture

I'm going to do two history threads on Ethiopia, one on its ancient history, one on its modern story (1800 to today). 🇪🇹

I'll begin with the ancient history ... and it goes way back. Because modern humans - and before that, the ancestors of humans - almost certainly originated in Ethiopia. 🇪🇹 (sub-thread):


The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC 🇪🇹


Ethiopians themselves believe that the Queen of Sheba, who visited Israel's King Solomon in the Bible (c 950 BC), came from Ethiopia (not Yemen, as others believe). Here she is meeting Solomon in a stain-glassed window in Addis Ababa's Holy Trinity Church. 🇪🇹


References to the Queen of Sheba are everywhere in Ethiopia. The national airline's frequent flier miles are even called "ShebaMiles". 🇪🇹
Great article from @AsheSchow. I lived thru the 'Satanic Panic' of the 1980's/early 1990's asking myself "Has eveyrbody lost their GODDAMN MINDS?!"


The 3 big things that made the 1980's/early 1990's surreal for me.

1) Satanic Panic - satanism in the day cares ahhhh!

2) "Repressed memory" syndrome

3) Facilitated Communication [FC]

All 3 led to massive abuse.

"Therapists" -and I use the term to describe these quacks loosely - would hypnotize people & convince they they were 'reliving' past memories of Mom & Dad killing babies in Satanic rituals in the basement while they were growing up.

Other 'therapists' would badger kids until they invented stories about watching alligators eat babies dropped into a lake from a hot air balloon. Kids would deny anything happened for hours until the therapist 'broke through' and 'found' the 'truth'.

FC was a movement that started with the claim severely handicapped individuals were able to 'type' legible sentences & communicate if a 'helper' guided their hands over a keyboard.

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I’m torn on how to approach the idea of luck. I’m the first to admit that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. To be born into a prosperous American family in 1960 with smart parents is to start life on third base. The odds against my very existence are astronomical.


I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.

In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.

So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.

Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.