2002 Records of the Year Roundup
As always, winnowing down the year's candidates is a
process full of frustration -- and also little epiphanies of rediscovery. That dynamic
tension makes the experience an exciting one.
2002 onhifi.com Jazz Recordings of the Year: ECM's :rarum Series Volumes I-VIII
I wrote extensively about the :rarum series in the
mid-December gift-giving guide, so just go there for the details. I'll just hit the high
points here. ECM's idea was to ask 30 of its artists (or artists who have previously been
on ECM) to program retrospectives of their recordings for the label. Some developed into
"greatest hits" compilations while others became showcases for works the artists
had particular affinities for (whether or not the public and critics agreed).
The first eight releases in the series feature Keith
Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Bill Frisell, The Art Ensemble of
Chicago, Terje Rypdal, and Bobo Stenson (Jarrett's and Garbarek's are two-disc sets) and
offer a wealth of delights, both sonic and musical.
Lately it has become fashionable to damn ECM with faint
praise -- people speak dismissively of its "chamber jazz" style and Northern
European emotional chilliness -- but that merely underlines how cyclical popular musical
taste is. When ECM burst on the jazz scene back in the '70s, it was almost universally
hailed because it bucked the prevailing jazz trends of anarchic free-jazz noodling
at one extreme and mindless funk-jazz at the other.
If it developed an identifiable house sound over the years,
ECM also proved to be a supportive home to a host of iconoclastic artists who have
produced rich and profound bodies of work as a result -- most of whom never could have
flourished anywhere else. The first eight :rarum compilations represent only a
handful of those successes, but what a great handful!
Thank you for over 30 years of great music, ECM -- and
thanks for these eight releases.
2002 onhifi.com Classical Recording of the Year: Osvaldo Golijov: Yiddishbbuk
Golijov, a 42-year-old Argentinian who studied composition
in Jerusalem, Philadelphia, and Tanglewood, possesses an excitingly accomplished,
completely novel musical voice. He's been winning awards and commissions from all over the
world for the better part of the last decade. Yiddishbbuk, which collected four of
his pieces written for the musicians of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, was an impressive
major-label debut -- a powerful collection of works that showed Golijov's staggering range
and mastery.
It's great stuff, full of passion and life, and Yiddishbbuk
sounds fantastic too. Recorded at New York's American Academy of Arts & Letters, the
disc has air and space and an altogether lovely acoustic. Sound too good to be true? Maybe
it is -- given the current classical music climate, I suspect the disc will never see a
second pressing, so you should buy it before it disappears.
Golijov is the real deal and we'll all be hearing a lot
from him in years to come. Why wait? Yiddishbbuk is one of 2002's best recordings
and it's guaranteed to age well -- true talent always does.
2002 onhifi.com Rock Recording of the Year: Dave Alvin and the Guilty Men: Out in California
Of all the benign natural highs I know, nothing beats going
out and hearing some really good rock'n'roll. It lifts the spirits, makes you feel alive,
and generates a lot more energy than dancing to it consumes (take that, Isaac
Newton). The show documented on Out in California is absolutely one of the best
ever captured on tape.
The Guilty Men are a tightly rocking band and Alvin's deep,
gruff voice is an immensely expressive instrument, one perfectly suited for the muscular
brand of roots-fueled classic rock the band pumps out so precisely.
And the sound is phenomenally good, unlike the average live
recording of amplified music -- it's tight, full bodied, and three-dimensional. It sounds
better than most studio albums, when you come right down to it.
A great band, great songs, and great sound. What's not
to like?
It's destined to be one of the best from the naughty
aughties -- buy it before you have to pay collector prices.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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