Steve Wallace

Over here, one of the commenters asked whether I had a vote in determining the Top 10 Canadian Albums of the Decade. I did, but elected not to use it. I’ve been listening to less jazz for the last — well, the last six or seven years, come to think of it. So I’m not sure I’m a great judge. And it seems to me, at decade’s end, that little of what I did hear sounded like it was meant for the ages. I’m tremendously fond of a lot of active Canadian jazz musicians — Richard Underhill, Christine Jensen, Robert Occhipinti, David Braid, Laila Biali, Brad Turner, Phil Dwyer, Molly Johnson, Jordan O’Connor, and I could go on and on — but nothing I heard seems to me to be as monumental in its field as, say, Arcade Fire’s Funeral was in (what I very loosely pigeonhole as) pop music.