After 10 years of writing for All About Jazz, I wanted a change. This time, I wanted my best of 2006 list available before the end of the calendar year. Thus, some recordings from the last quarter of 2005 may also be included in my Best Recordings Of 2006.

As always, a deluge of fine recordings has come my way this year, many more than I could possibly listen to, much less personally review. So I am going to continue the format I began last year, and include my colleagues' reviews of those recordings I thought worthy of recognition but did not write about myself (as my fellow writers' efforts required no addenda). The list is divided into new and reissued recordings. 2006 has been a very good year for both.

New Recordings...

Fumio Yasuda and Theo Bleckmann
Las Vegas Rhapsody - The Night They Invented Champagne
Winter & Winter
2006

This whimsical sound trip to the heyday of Las Vegas celebrates the city's one hundredth anniversary. German-born and New York-based singer Theo Bleckmann and Japanese pianist/arranger/composer Fumio Yasuda unite with the Kammerorchester Basel to transform carefully chosen selections from the classic American songbook into a soundtrack for celebrating the rich decadence and unbridled hedonism of the "new Gomorrah in all her splendor... Continue

Karrin Allyson
Footprints
Concord
2006

Jazz vocalist Karrin Allyson has one peer: Cassandra Wilson. Both women have impacted jazz vocals in the last decade, swerving the genre into interesting places. Allyson's most critically acclaimed release, Ballads (Concord, 2001), came after the release of six solid, if less received, releases for the label. This concept recording gave way to forays into sleek blues (In Blue, 2002) and pop jazz (Wild for You, 2004). Allyson returns to the vocalese concept of Ballads with Footprints...Continue

Eric Reed
Here
MAXJAZZ
2006

Pianist Eric Reed is one of the most articulate and intelligent ambassadors of jazz performing today. His 21st Century recordings Happiness, From My Heart, Mercy and Grace, E-Bop, and Merry Magic show Reed fully formed and creatively fluid. Add to these thoughts bassist Rodney Whitaker and drummer Willie Jones III, and the jazz listenership receives the grace of perfectly conceived and delivered jazz piano trio music...Continue

The Eddie Daniels Quartet
Mean What You Say
IPO Recordings
2006

The presence of Hank Jones permeates this recording so much that the Eddie Daniels Quartet may be better titled the Hank Jones-Eddie Daniels Quartet on Mean What You Say. In fact, the whole quartet, rounded out with bassist Richard Davis and drummer Kenny Washington, is top-drawer, which goes a long way in making Mean What You Say one of the finest mainstream jazz recordings of the year...Continue

The Mark Kleinhaut Trio
Holding The Center
Invisible Music Records
2006

Maine guitarist Mark Kleinhaut expands his impressive discography with Holding the Center, a progressive, contemporary outing. On his previous two recordings, A Balance of Light and Chasing Tales, Kleinhaut employed trumpeter Tiger Okoshi and alto saxophonist Bobby Watson, respectively. Here the guitarist displays his own considerable talent in the more intimate trio format...Continue

John Holloway, Jaap ter Linden, Lars Ulrik Mortensen
Veracini Sonatas
ECM
2006

Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768) was an Italian composer best known for his compositions for the violin. Veracini was a contemporary of Giuseppe Tartini, Johann David Heinichen, and the brilliant castrato Senesino, as well as Handel, Bach, Corelli, and Vivaldi. Not a household name. Indeed. But Veracini represents that class of composer that one turns two once fatigued with the more notable composers. Violinist John Holloway has already addressed Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704) and Johann Heinrich von Schmelzer (1623-1688), ground previously covered by Andrew Manze and Romanesca...Continue

Edward Simon
Unicity
Cam Jazz
2006

A native of Venezuela, pianist Edward Simon began his career playing Latin music before migrating to jazz while in Philadelphia, where he worked with local bassist Charles Fambrough. A member of both Bobby Watson's Horizon and Terence Blanchard's group, Simon was also a finalist in the 1994 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. Unicity, Simon's eighth recording as a leader, sports the rhythm section from Wayne Shorter's acoustic band, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade...Continue

Bonnie Bramlett
Roots, Blues, and Jazz
Zoho Music
2006

Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett were a key building block in popular music development in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between their 1969 debut album Home and D&B Together, made shortly before their divorce in 1972, the couple prepared the ground for acts like Steve Miller, Steve Winwood, Boz Scaggs, Hall & Oates and George Michael...Continue

Johnny Smith
San Francisco Bay Jazz
Johnny Smith
2006

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