While the most important album of the year was clearly Dangermouse’s Grey Album (a vinyl copy of which is available for sale at the best record shop in the world in Amsterdam), it didn’t make my top 20 for the year in the context of the jazz show I do.

Great record, nonetheless – and, like I say, hugely significant.

The official It’s A Jazz Thing Top 20 Albums of 2004 is based on records I’ve played on the show in 2004. No compilations. These are the CDs I’m recommending people buy if they like the kind of stuff I play.

The It’s A Jazz Thing

Official Top 20 albums of 2004

(Scroll down to download the programme

or click to reveal the list)

20. Charlie Hunter Trio – Friends Seen And Unseen (Ryko)

19. Tierney Sutton – Dancing In The Dark (Telarc)

18. Dimmer – You’ve Got To Hear The Music (FMR)

17. Kurt Elling – Man In The Air (Blue Note)

16. Da Lata – Serious (Palm Pictures)

15. Geri Allen – The Life of a Song (Telarc)

14. Kid Koala – Some Of My Best Friends Are DJs (Ninja Tune)

13. Rokia Traoré – Bowmboï (Indigo)

12. Trinity Roots – Home, Land and Sea (Trinity Roots)

11. The Nels Cline Singers – The Giant Pin (Cryptogramophone)

10. Fertile Ground – Black Is… (Counterpoint)

9. Tomasz Stanko Quartet – Suspended Night (ECM)

8. Medeski, Martin & Wood – End Of The World Party (Blue Note)

7. SJD – Southern Lights (Round Trip Mars)

6. Brecker, Lovano & Liebman – Gathering of Spirits (Telarc)

5. Pino di Modugno – Bedouin (Red)

4. The Bad Plus – Give (Sony)

3. Dirty Dozen Brass Band – Funeral For A Friend (Rope a Dope)

2. Colin Steele Quintet – Journey Home (Caber)

1. Soweto Kinch – Conversations With The Unseen (Dune)

Okay – now you’ve read the list, go download the shows (below) and you’ll hear why I chose the way that I did.

A couple of oddities:

1) The SJD record is MY top album of the year, but it’s not THE SHOW’S top album of the year. Don’t ask me how I figure this out. It doesn’t resemble your Earth logic.

2) There are two albums in the list that weren’t released in 2004. That’s just when I got hold of them. Again – don’t look for sense.

So here’s how this works: I do it over two weeks. The shows will broadcast on George FM on Sundays 2nd and 9th of Jan, 2005 – and will finish with my top album of the year in its entirety.

But you can hear them now. I’ll post the links to the (YouSendIt) files here, so you can download and listen on your iPod or similar. If you want to spoil the surprise of the countdown, or would rather just read than listen, then click on ‘Read the full post‘ and the list will magically appear.



DOWNLOAD THE SHOWS:

2 Jan 2005 – counting down from number 20 to number 6:

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4

Segment 5

9 Jan 2005 – the top 5:

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4

Segment 5

Remember – clicking on ‘Read the full post‘ link will spoil the surprise (such as it is)…