Thread by @natechinen

At the end of my book is an appendix: The 129 Essential Albums of the Twenty-First Century (So Far). I'll be running down the list in the coming months, beginning with Jim Black's AlasNoAxis (2000). #129EssentialAlbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Next up is 'Perceptual,' by Brian Blade Fellowship. A flat-out gorgeous album. Here I focus in on one indelible track. (Guess which one?) #129EssentialAlbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Kurt Elling's 'Live in Chicago' captures a moment when his ascendence felt a little less like a settled fact. But everything that makes him special is here, in some form or another. Killer vibe. #129EssentialAlbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Does anybody else remember the moment when they first heard the beat kick in on Nils Petter Molvær's 'Solid Ether'? I'm fond enough of that memory to have memorialized it here. #129EssentialAlbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Few jazz albums this century have been as thrillingly on point as Danilo Pérez's 'Motherland.' No wonder it figures prominently in my book, and on my list of #129EssentialAlbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

One year before Gary Giddins anointed the David S. Ware Quartet "the best small band in jazz today," this rough gem appeared on Columbia Records. I put it in #129EssentialAlbums for its glowing surety of purpose, and some A+ work by Matthew Shipp. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

The self-titled debut by the Chicago Underground Quartet, next up on my #129EssentialAlbums list, sounded persuasively like the future in 2001. And on some level it's a future that actually came to pass. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

'The Claudia Quintet,' by @claudiaquintet, sounded like nothing else at the time, and not many things since. It's on my #129EssentialAlbums list, obviously. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Cecil Taylor once told Marilyn Crispell she was going to spearhead a new kind of lyricism. “And I thought: ‘What a bunch of shit!’" she recalled. "‘How dare you say that!’ Because that wasn’t the predominant feature in my music at the time.” Then, this. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Before Kamasi Washington adopted The Next Step as a band name and rallying cry, Kurt Rosenwinkel used it as the title of an album in 2001. I think it's one of the most influential statements of that era. #129EssentialAlbums, for sure.
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At a time when he was knocking out one indomitable album after another, Matthew Shipp gave us 'New Orbit' — a lock on the #129EssentialAlbums list, and not just for the ferocious presence of Wadada Leo Smith. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

When Ben Allison brought kora master Mamadou Diabaté into his band, he was thinking about more than texture. 'Peace Pipe' signals an earnest attempt at real-time dialogue. (And seriously, check out this piano solo by Frank Kimbrough.) playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum… #129EssentialAlbums

At the turn of the century, Tim Berne led a couple of monster bands, Bloodcount and Big Satan. Then he pulled Craig Taborn into his orbit, and things got weird(er). Behold 'Science Friction,' one for the ages — and for my #129EssentialAlbums list, obvs. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

We all knew this one was coming. I couldn't rightly avoid it — not when it made such an impression, or pointed toward so many wild possibilities. So yes, the debut by the postmillennial Wayne Shorter Quartet is on #129EssentialAlbums. With killer footage! playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

"I don't want to be categorized as 'the Brazilian singer,'" said Luciana Souza in 2002. "I look, I sound, I am, I wouldn't want to escape that—Portuguese is a delicious language to sing in, but I didn't want to be just that." Thankfully she still did this. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Released the same year as Danilo's 'Motherland,' this breakthrough album by David Sánchez swaps pan-American utopianism for a darker, more grudging tone. Rarely has a bitter indictment of colonialist oppression grooved so hard. (Also, meet Miguel Zenón.) playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

The Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko was pushing 60 when he made 'Soul of Things,' whose cinematic qualities were built into the premise. He wanted "lyricism together with melancholy." His rhythm section, the Marcin Wasilewski Trio, conjured that perfectly. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

There was NO substitute for experiencing Cecil Taylor in real time. Which is why, for me, he was as much a figure of the 2000s as the 1960s. Also, this. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum… #129EssentialAlbums

Cassandra Wilson famously made 'Belly of the Sun' in an abandoned train station in Clarksdale. It's an album so handsome and luxurious, you might not even notice that it's teeming with ghosts. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum… #129EssentialAlbums

We've been talking lately about The Bad Plus in transition. Here's the depth charge that served for most as an introduction to the band — and opened a new lane for audacious maneuvers in the acoustic realm of piano-bass-drums. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum… #129EssentialAlbums

In retrospect, David Binney's 'South' feels both of and ahead of its time: a smart postbop outing with internal combustion of the sort that would later fuel bands like Chris Potter's Underground and the Donny McCaslin Quartet. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum… #129EssentialAlbums

Remember when Terence Blanchard seemed destined to make music for luxury ad campaigns? 'Bounce' changed the narrative — and set a brand new stage for Lionel Loueke, Aaron Parks, Brandon Coleman and...ah, yes! Robert Glasper. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum… #129EssentialAlbums

Jane Ira Bloom has created music for NASA and incorporated verse by Emily Dickinson. 'Chasing Paint' is among her finest hours because she engages Jackson Pollock's art beyond the canvas, as a kinetic prompt. Also, whoa, Fred Hersch! playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum… #129EssentialAlbums

The Standards Trio—Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette—took a decidedly nonstandard turn in the early 2000s, and this double album was one thrilling result. Spontaneous formal coherence, in the guise of spontaneous combustion. #129essentialalbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

When he recorded 'Live at the Village Vanguard' in 2002, Fred Hersch was known as a songbook guru. This album, introducing an A+ trio with Drew Gress on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums, realigned his rep without leaving lyricism behind. #129essentialalbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Were you fortunate enough to see the turn-of-the-century Dave Holland Quintet? Few bands struck a better balance of combustion and counterpoint, virtuosity and groove. 'Extended Play' has all the proof you need. #129essentialalbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Ahmad Jamal may be the quintessential midcentury-modern jazz piano hero, but he kept on cruising well past Y2K. 'In Search of Momentum,' with James Cammack and Idris Muhammad, is a late-period stunner. (Hardly the only one.) #129essentialalbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Geri Allen could do almost anything as a pianist — just one of many reasons her death last year was so devastating. On 'The Life of a Song' she marshals a blue-chip trio with Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, who back her at every turn. #129essentialalbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

"For me, the way 'avant-garde' people play and the way straight-ahead people play aren’t really two different things," Don Byron said in 2004. 'Ivey-Divey' is a Lester Young nod with Jason Moran and Jack DeJohnette, who prove the point. #129essentialalbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Frank Kimbrough was a noted pianist but still an under-recognized bandleader and composer when he made 'Lullabluebye,' featuring Ben Allison on bass and Matt Wilson on drums. A pivotal statement that still has a few secrets to give. #129essentialalbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Tony Malaby's 'Adobe' features a tenor saxophone trio with bassist Drew Gress and the master drummer Paul Motian. In 2004, it was a breakthrough, connecting Malaby's established avant-garde instincts with an unabashed taste for beauty. #129EssentialAlbums
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Years before joking about the apocalypse became a daily ablution on Twitter, Medeski Martin & Wood made 'End of the World Party (Just in Case)' — a survival kit of deep groove, with Marc Ribot in the mix and a Dust Brother at the dials. #129EssentialAlbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

What is the one Brad Mehldau album, post-2000, that you'd select for #129EssentialAlbums? My pick: 'Anything Goes,' a luxurious, late-stage dispatch from his first great trio, with Larry Grenadier on bass and Jorge Rossy on drums. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Mulgrew Miller was a hugely important pianistic influence on Robert Glasper, whose buddies Derrick Hodge and Karriem Riggins appear on 'Live at Yoshi's, Vol. 1.' But that's far from the only reason this clears the bar for #129EssentialAlbums. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

As an Azerbaijani pianist, Amina Figarova learned jazz from a cultural remove. Then she happened to be in NYC on Sept. 11, 2001, and experienced the disorienting communion of mass trauma—a feeling she'd incorporate on 'September Suite.' #129EssentialAlbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Guillermo Klein has exerted a slippery yet profound influence on his generation of composer-improvisers, without making much of a fuss. 'Una Nave' is a defining early statement, featuring brilliant players from his native Buenos Aires. #129EssentialAlbums
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Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano — just one of the most magically intuitive groups of our time, full stop. 'I Have the Room Above Her' is a document from their peak, full of deep melody, unexpected moves and an underlying yearning. #129EssentialAlbums
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The Pat Metheny Group was a renegade vessel for years before it found broad acclaim. 'The Way Up' feels like the culmination of all its efforts — and a landmark achievement for Metheny, who has only kept on evolving and exploring since. #129EssentialAlbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Happy 88th birthday to the incomparable @SonnyRollins! One of the recordings I'm revisiting today is his entry in #129EssentialAlbums: 'Without a Song,' from a resolute and life-affirming concert in Boston, just four days after 9/11. playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Violinist Jenny Scheinman was hardly fresh off the boxcar when she released '12 Songs,' in 2005. But this beautiful album, made with choice collaborators like Bill Frisell, brought her artistry into clear focus. It's the latest entry in #129EssentialAlbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

Trumpeter-composer Cuong Vu helped define the reverberant sound-world of my early experience in New York, so maybe I'm biased. But I think his album 'It's Mostly Residual' — another MVP Sideman turn by Bill Frisell — is simply stunning. #129EssentialAlbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…

How do you select one emblematic album by Miguel Zenón? An impossible task, but I went with 'Jíbaro' — because it still sounds so fresh, and it kickstarted a new mode of musical inquiry into Puerto Rican culture (which, yes, rolls on). #129EssentialAlbums playingchangesbook.com/essentialalbum…