Let’s count down to 2016 by counting down your favorite new jazz releases of 2015! Join us from 9 PM until midnight, starting on December 28th, to review the year’s top new releases as voted by YOU. Check out the list below! The countdown will wind down just as the ball drops on December 31st, so you can ring in the new year knowing who de-throned last year’s #1, Pete Smyser.
There were plenty of albums that hit a particularly high note with Jazz Music Director Maureen Malloy - many of them were from regional artists. Orrin Evans, Terrell Stafford, Michelle Lordi and Joey DeFrancesco all had stand-out releases that spent time on WRTI's Jazz Hot 11. This music made waves on an international level, so of course the hometown crowd would support their heroes.
WRTi's Top 100 Jazz Songs of 2016:
1. “Stay With Me” - Joanna Pascale - Wildflower
2. “Chant” - Louis Hayes & The Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band - Live at Cory Weeds' Cellar Jazz Club
3. “Blue Hawk” - Tim Warfield - Spherical
4. “Stop Start” - Terell Stafford - Brotherlee Love
5. “Capuchin Swing” - Heads of State - Search for Peace
6. “Black Nile” - Essiet Okon Essiet - Shona
7. “How Deep Is the Ocean” - Michael Valeanu - Hard to Cook
8. “The Triumphant Journey” - Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra - Cuba: The Conversation Continues
9. “Slippery” - Donald Vega - With Respect to Monty
10. “Spot It You Got It” - Orrin Evans - The Evolution of Oneself
11. “Tears” - The Hot Club of Philadelphia - Gypsy Routes
12. “I Hear a Rhapsody” - Don Aliquo & The Beegie Adair Trio - Too Marvelous for Words
13. “On Green Dolphin Street” - Michael O'Neill & Kenny Washington - New Beginnings
14. “Epiphany” - Justin Kauflin - Dedication
15. “Theme for Jobim” - Vincent Herring - Night and Day
16. “Afro Blue” - Harold Mabern - Afro Blue
17. “It Be Feeling Like the Blues” - Eyal Vilner - Almost Sunrise
18. “Bright Boy Blues” - Ghost Train Orchestra - Hot Town
19. “In the Spirit of Baden” - Anat Cohen - Luminosa
20. “Everything in It's Right Place / Maiden Voyage” - Robert Jospe - Robert Jospe Express
21. “Children of the Light” - Perez Patitucci Blade - Children of the Light
22. “Western Sunrise” - Doug Carn - My
23. “Joy Spring (Live)” - Arturo Sandoval - Arturo Sandoval Live at Yoshi's
24. “Without You No Me” - Temple University Jazz Band - Dear Dizzy
25. “Flip & Dip” - Jeff 'Tain' Watts - Blue, Vol. 1
26. “A Hefti Dose of Basie (To the Memory of Neal Hefti)” - Patrick Williams - Home Suite Home
27. “Sinal Verde” - Minas - Symphony in Bossa
28. “Time Waits” - Kevin Hays - New Day
29.”Big Dipper” - Ben Bailey & the Nashville Big Band - A Bird in the Hand
30. “Black Velvet” - The Jazz Professors - En Plein Air: The Jazz Professors Play Monet
31. “Marzique Dancing - Irvin Mayfield & The New Orleans Jazz Playhouse Revue - Live at the New Orleans Jazz Playhouse (Music from the Coffee Table Book)
32. “Sunday Morning” - Jessi Teich - Twisted Soul
33. “Naima's Love Song” - George Cables - In Good Company
34. “Fine and Mellow” - Jose James - Yesterday I Had the Blues: The Music of Billie Holiday
35. “Walnut Creek” - Quincy Davis - Songs in the Key of Q
36. “Nature Boy” - Kevin Eubanks & Stanley Jordan - Duets
37. “Riot (Live)” - Mack Avenue SuperBand - Live from the Detroit Jazz Festival - 2014
38. “My Kind of Blues” - Lee Smith - My Kind of Blues
39. “Upstairs by a Chinese Lamp” - Esperanza Spalding, Wayne Shorter & Billy Childs - Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro
40. “The More I See You” - Jeff Hamilton Trio - Great American Songs Throughout The Years
41. “I'll Be Seeing You” - Duchess - Duchess
042. “Cuz U No” - Joey DeFrancesco - Trip Mode
43. “Father's Song” - Art Hirahara - Libations & Meditations
44. “Hangover” - John Scofield - Past Present
45. “Serenata” - Kenny Burrell - The Road to Love
46. “All Through the Night” - Scott Hamilton & Jeff Hamilton Trio - Live in Bern
47. “Nov” - Jacky Terrasson - Take This
48. “Tina's Glass Nickel” - Randy Brecker & The DePaul University Jazz Ensemble - Dearborn Station
49. “Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood” - Jamie Cullum - Interlude
50. “Old City” - Luis Perdomo - Twenty-Two
51. “Street Vibe” - Ingrid Jensen & Jason Miles - Kind of New
52. “To Love Somebody” - Lizz Wright - Freedom & Surrender
53. “One Note Samba” - Mike Barone Big Band - La Fiesta
54. “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” - Bill Warfield and the Hell's Kitchen Funk Orchestra - Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
55. “Buffalo: City of No Illusions” - Pete Malinverni - Emerging Markets
56. “Flores” - Dafnis Prieto Sextet - Triangles and Circles
57. “I'm So New Orleans” - Kermit Ruffins & The Barbecue Swingers - #imsoneworleans
58. “Morning” - Eddie Henderson - Collective Portrait
59. “You Make Me Feel so Young” - Allan Harris - Black Bar Jukebox
60. “Seventh Candle” - Jimmy Greene - Beautiful Life
61. “Down by the Riverside (Live)” - Christian McBride Trio - Live at the Village Vanguard
62. “The Partys Over” - Scott Hamilton - Scott Hamilton Plays Jule Styne
63. “Clowns Will Be Arriving” - Ted Kooshian - Clowns Will Be Arriving
64. “Both Sides Now” - Christian Howes - American Spirit
65. “Symphony in Riffs” - Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis - Live in Cuba
66. “Bermuda Triangle” - Rodrigo Bonelli - Septet Works
67. “El Vino” - The Michael Waldrop Big Band - Time Within Itself
68. “Plant Bassed” - Marshall Gilkes & The WDR Big Band - Koln
69. “Distant Hallow” - Brian Lynch & Emmet Cohen - Questioned Answer
70. “It Might As Well Be Spring” - Joey Alexander - My Favorite Things (Deluxe Edition)
71. “Dr Do Right” - Kenny Barron & Dave Holland - The Art of Conversation
72. “Uranus - Aaron Diehl - Space, Time, Continuum
73. “Growlin' Dan - Cecile McLorin Salvant - For One to Love
74. “Not a Sonata in Eb” - Sam Most - New Jazz Standards
75. “This Thing” - Bob McChesney - Chez Sez
76. “I Can't Give You Anything But Love/That's All” - Ann Hampton Callaway - From Sassy To Divine: The Sarah Vaughan Project
77. “If I Only Had a Heart” - Michelle Lordi - Drive
78. “121st Street” - Manuel Valera & Groove Square - Urban Landscape
79. “Willow Weep For Me” - Lara Downes - A Billie Holiday Songbook
80. “Jailbreak” - Larry Coryell - Heavy Feel
81. “Imagine” - Bill O'Connell - Imagine
82. “Before the Rain Comes” - Emma Larsson - Sing to the Sky
83. “Spot It You Got It” - Steve Wilson & Wilsonian's Grain - Live in New York: The Vanguard Sessions
84. “Havana” - John Fedchock New York Big Band - Like It Is
85. “Confident Selflessness” - Terence Blanchard - Breathless
86. “Strength and Beauty” - Ben Williams - Coming of Age
87. “Sweet Summer Love” - Eugenie Jones - Come Out Swingin'
88. “Walk On the Wild Side” - Chris Washburne & The Syotos Band - Low Ridin'
89. “Pretty Liddle Waltz” - Kenny Wheeler Quintet - Songs For Quintet
90. “Bye, Bye Blackbird” - Bob Lark and His Alumni Big Band - Sweet Return
91. “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'” - Karrin Allyson - Many a New Day: Karrin Allyson Sings Rodgers & Hammerstein (Deluxe)
92. “Dragonfly” - David Benoit - 2 In Love
93. “What a Wonderful World” - Dee Dee Bridgewater, Irvin Mayfield & The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra - Dee Dee's Feathers
94. “Mindset” - Behn Gillece - Mindset
95 “Try a Little Tenderness” - Houston Person - The Melody Lingers On
96. “Change Partners” - Marcus Parsley - Sunday Strollin'
97. “Good Bait - Expansions: The Dave Liebman Group” - The Puzzle
98. “The Theme” - Joe Alterman - Georgia Sunset
99. “When I Found You” - Terri Lyne Carrington - The Mosaic Project: Love and Soul
100. “Cuchifrito” - Carlos Henriquez - The Bronx Pyramid