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22 pieces of 2022 – part I

As we do every December, we're collecting the music that has energized us over the past year. This time, we're going to split it into two parts of 11 pieces that we lived and traveled with throughout the year. Old and new, ever so exciting photos and memories of the happenings of the past twelve months.

Early 2022 was still under the influence of the pandemic and we had all kind of turned inward.

We begin our first eleven selections from our winter sessions with the super band The Bad Plus who presented their new project and format at the winter New York Jazz Fest.
We continue with a play of from Gianni Iorio and Pasquale Stefano's magical album called Mediterranean Tales.

Then we move to live performances by clarinetist Angel Bat Dawid, where the listener can see the old maxim that jazz is the new punk still holds true for free souls. And what one of the most emotive of instruments, the clarinet, is capable of, we will leave to each of us to decide for ourselves.

And then, imperceptibly, our clarinet playlist was arranged, which includes such surprises as the Bulgarian virtuoso with a world name Ivo Papazov - Ibriyama.

The end of winter passed under the music of Gabor Szabo. The incredible blending together of styles and themes; of ideas and of instruments (such as borrowing chords for sitar from the music of Ravi Shankar). The courage to experiment. As Szabo himself says: "Changing musical orientations is a sign of maturity. I often ask myself: am I a jazz musician? It seems to me that I have every right, but I prefer to call myself a contemporary artist."

Meanwhile, one of the serious contemporary musicians, Mark Guiliana, has released a new album. In addition to being an outstanding drummer and mentor, Guiliana is one of the outstanding innovators playing the music of the new age. These explorations lead him into his latest album, recorded almost chamber-like during the pandemic. All eight tracks, as the pieces on the album are called, are kind of phases or states that the listener goes through.
And then spring exploded into color and emotion. Nature's awakening was knocking at one door and anxiety at the other. In that brief moment, Nana Mouskouri's music complimented the awakened nature and the harvest of freshly picked citrus.
Spring continued to delight us with a new album by our beloved Bugge Wesseltoft. A musician of whose music they say, "Bugge Wesseltoft’s music has a way of making listeners better".
And as if to add to its power, spring has brought us a new project from the boys of Shake Stew with the band's signature thick and deep parts, a combination and interplay between percussion and brass section.

The exotic sound continues with music from the project of Berlin-based Turkish electronic artist Gözen Atila, who is behind the artistic alias Anadol.
We close the first eleven with a timeless piece by the great Nigerian musician Orlando Julius, who left us this year. A name that will forever go down in history for his passion for music, curiosity for improvisation and his contribution to the popularization of Afro beat in the past decades.

Music of 2022 - part I

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