2007, Year in Review

As the calendar quickly runs out of days, time again to look back over the year just passed. As for the sheer numbers, I caught nearly 400 films this year, listened to somewhere around 550 new CDs, saw around 200 shows. And now for the bests of the batch:

Top 10 Jazz CDs
My list for the Citypaper with small write-ups for each is here, but the quick list run-down is:
1. Maria Schneider Orchestra - Sky Blue (artistShare)
2. Chris Potter Underground - Follow the Red Line: Live at the Village Vanguard (Sunnyside)
3. Human Feel - Galore (Skirl)
4. Theo Bleckmann/Ben Monder - At Night (Songlines)
5. Nels Cline Singers - Draw Breath (CryptoGramphone)
6. David Torn - Prezens (ECM)
7. Amir ElSaffar - Two Rivers (Pi Recordings)
8. Exploding Star Orchestra - We’re All From Somewhere Else (Thrill Jockey)
9. Michael Brecker - Pilgrimage (Heads Up)
10. David Murray Black Saint Quartet - Sacred Ground (Justin Time)

Top 10 Non-Jazz CDs
This is my list for Citypaper's BOTY rock/pop list, and is pretty unsatisfactory, but it turns out I missed hearing quite a bit outside the jazz world this year. Anyway, here's the list, one of which I'll be writing a little blurb for in next week's CP Top 21 list:

1. Battles - Mirrored (Warp)
2. Tin Hat - The Sad Machinery of Spring (Hannibal)
3. EL-P - I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead (Def Jux)
4. Big Business - Here Come the Waterworks (Hydra Head)
5. Dirty Projectors - Rise Above (Dead Oceans)
6. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - In Glorious Times (The End)
7. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha (Fat Possum)
8. Dalek - Abandoned Language (Ipecac)
9. Pelican - City of Echoes (Hydra Head)
10. Illuminea - Out of Our Mouths (High Two)

Top 10 Films
This is exclusive to the blog, as is the following list of shows. For films, I'm sticking to things that opened in Philly in 2007 for qualifications; hence the Tsai Ming-Liang, which I didn't get to see until this year's Philly Film Fest. And I've seen There Will Be Blood, which would be on the list except it doesn't open here until January, so check back in a year:

1. I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-Liang)
2. The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
3. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes)
4. No Country For Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen)
5. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel)
6. Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)
7. Zodiac (David Fincher)
8. Paprika (Satoshi Kon)
9. The Host (Bong Joon-Ho)
10. Superbad (Greg Mottola)

Performances of the Year
Screw the 10s. These were all great. In chronological order:
2/9: Chris Potter Underground @ Chris' Jazz Cafe
2/10: Rova::Orkestrova @ Intl House
3/4: Borbetomagus @ Intl House
3/26: ICP Orchestra @ Houston Hall
4/1: PIMA Group: What a Quaint Scene We Were That Night @ CEC
4/24: Buffalo Collision @ Rose Recital Hall
5/5: Gene Coleman & Jack Wright @ The Rotunda
6/10: Big Four @ Rose Recital Hall
6/29: Fred Lonberg Holm's Valentine Trio/Louis Moholo & Marshall Allen @ Intl House
7/21: The Melvins (performing Lysol) @ Slim's, San Francisco
9/13: Ellery Eskelin/Vincent Courtois/Sylvie Courvoisier @ Rose Recital Hall
9/20: Joelle Leandre/Globe Unity Orchestra @ Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial Ctr
9/20: David Murray & Kidd Jordan's All-Stars @ Creole, NYC
10/11: Claudia Quintet @ Philadelphia Art Alliance
11/17: Tiger Okoshi @ Kimmel Center
12/17: Angelica Sanchez Quartet w/ Marc Ducret @ Intl House

With honorable and, yes, very nostalgic mention going to Van Halen, 10/3 at the Wachovia Center. Might as well jump.

Happy new year, I'll try and keep the rest of the month updated but if not, see you in '08.
Shaun