Philly.com Names Origami Harvest the Top Jazz Album of 2018

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Philly.com critics named Origami Harvest as their Number 1 Jazz Album of the Year:

The year’s most startling album comes from trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, who has finally managed to fully realize his audacious ideas. Origami Harvest combines Akinmusire’s daring group with a string quartet and underground rapper Kool A.D., fusing multiple genres into a stunning whole that’s not quite described by any of them. The trumpeter shares his genre-obliterating approach with drummer/composer Tyshawn Sorey, whose sprawling three-CD Pillars is an absorbing exercise in monumental minimalism. On Starebaby, drummer Dan Weiss stirs together modern jazz and extreme metal into a nerve-rattling stew of darkness and tension, and guitarist Mary Halvorson released a set of oblique-angled, mysterious songs.

Following is their Best-of-Year List:

  1. Ambrose Akinmusire Origami Harvest (Blue Note)

  2. Henry Threadgill 14 or 15 Kestra: Agg Dirt … And More Dirt (Pi)

  3. Bill Frisell Music IS (OKeh)

  4. Dan Weiss Starebaby (Pi)

  5. Tyshawn Sorey Pillars (Firehouse 12)

  6. Walter Smith III Twio (Whirlwind)

  7. Mary Halvorson Code Girl (Firehouse 12)

  8. The Bad Plus Never Stop II (Legbreaker)

  9. Dave Holland, Evan Parker, Craig Taborn, and Ches Smith Uncharted Territories(Dare2)

  10. Matthew Shipp Zer0 (ESP)

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