My favorite jazz tracks of 2011: Spotify playlist
More recent jazz links:
JazzTimes.com: The Top 50 Jazz Releases of 2011
TimeOut New York: The 25 essential New York City jazz icons
From The New Yorker’s archives (David Remnick: 2008): 100 Essential Jazz Albums
My favorite music of the first half of 2011:
Drowning in new music, there’s much from the first half of the year I’ve still to absorb, but the following are nine albums (no specific order), I particularly have enjoyed:
Diana Jones: “High Atmosphere”
The Antlers: “Burst Apart”
My Morning Jacket: “Circuital”
PJ Harvey: “Let England Shake”
The Rural Alberta Advantage: “Departing”
Nicolas Jaar: “Space is Only Noise”
One Hundred Dollars: “Songs of Man”
Woods: “Sun and Shade”
James Blake: “James Blake”
More “Best of 2011 so far”:
Stereogum: Top 20 Albums of 2011 So Far
SPIN: The 25 Best Albums of 2011 So Far
Toronto Star: The Best Albums of 2011
Drowned in Sound: 11 Favorite Albums of the First Half of 2011
Quietus: 40 Albums of the Year So Far
Bleep: Best of 2011 So Far
Image by Kevin Dooley under Creative Commons license (CC BY 2.0).
The 2011 Edgar Award Winners for mysteries.