peter hum

I knew I’d get in trouble with Peter Hum when I wrote, in passing, that I’m not listening to much jazz these days, “because studying classical music takes up so much of my spare time and because — might as well say it — so little contemporary jazz rewards serious attention.” Peter writes a very good, unflaggingly enthusiastic blog on contemporary jazz for the Ottawa Citizen, and sure enough, he’s come up with a bunch of recommendations for me. And by extension, for you. (I’m amused that one of the recommended CDs is by Jim Lewis, who used to give me trumpet lessons in Sarnia. I worked hard at moving the joints of my fingers the way Jim did, paid insufficient attention to the more important information he was trying to convey, and washed up in journalism.)

Yeah, there’s no way you’re going to get a list out of me. So here’s the list compiled by Ottawa Citizen reporter, and indefatigable jazz blogger, Peter Hum. None of these choices seem ridiculous to me, and I heartily endorse Peter’s first and fifth picks. Number four is certainly superior to most of Brad Mehldau’s output over the past decade (I’d have preferred his solo outing from Tokyo; I came to regard his first drummer as a pest and I’m still not sure his own trio is the best place to hear Mehldau) and I haven’t heard all of number 10, but I presume it’s at least comparable to Jarrett’s stunning recent performances from Tokyo and Carnegie.