You really shouldn’t take this too seriously but we can’t resist that year-end ranking thing. Also, it might just be a reasonably useful list of releases to look for in case you don’t have some. Below is a roughly ordered list of the best music that has crossed our speakers in 2006. Of course we didn’t hear everything and may have missed a lot. Like I said, don’t take it too seriously.
Cline, Nels – New Monastery – A View Into the Music of Andrew Hill
Peeping Tom – Peeping Tom
Zorn / Douglas / Patton /Laswell /Burger /Perowsky – The Stone: Issue One
Actis Band – Allende Ita 2006
Big Satan (Tim Berne, Marc Ducret, Tom Rainey) – Live Incognito
Braxton, Anthony – 4 Compositions (Ulrichsberg) 2005 Phonomanie VIII
Bridge 61 – Journal
Ellman, Liberty – Ophiuchus Butterfly
French TV – This Is What We Do
Frequency – Frequency
Friedlander, Erik – Prowl
Gjerstad, Frode – The Other Side
Horvitz, Wayne / Gravitas Quartet – Way Out East
Israelite, Koby – Orobas: Book of Angels, Volume 4
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey – Tomorrow We’ll Know Today (Live 2006)
Jordan, Kidd / Hamid Drake / William Parker – Palm of Soul
Medeski, Scofield, Martin and Wood – Out Louder
Melford, Myra / Be Bread – The Image of Your Body
Perelman, Ivo – Introspection
Raison d’Etre – Metamorphyses
Roach, Steve – Storm Surge – Live at Nearfest
Sex Mob – Sexotica
Stevens, Sufjan – The Avalanche
Art Ensemble of Chicago, The – Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City
Bernstein, Steven – MTO Volume 1
Boxhead Ensemble – Nocturnes
Burt, George / Raymond Macdonald Sextet – Boohoo Fever
CCM4 – Construction, Destruction, Recreation
Coleman, Ornette – Sound Grammar
Cracow Klezmer Band, The – Balan: Book of Angels, Volume 5
Diatribes – Interconnexions
Feldman, Mark – What Exit
Golia, Vinny – Sfumato
Holland, Dave / Quintet – Critical Mass
I-Z – Em
Lake, Oliver – Live
Martin, Billy – Starlings
Melvins – A Senile Animal
Molvaer, Nils Petter An American Compilation
Newsom, Joanna Ys
NIMBY – Songs for Adults
O’Leary, Mark / Steve Swallow / Pierre Favre – Awakening
Parker, William – Long Hidden: The Olmec Series
Rempis Percussion Quartet – Rip Tear Crunch
Rich, Robert – Electric Ladder
Roach, Steve – Immersion: One
Roach, Steve / Loren Nerell – Terraform
Seetyca – Silence
Smith, Chas – Descent
Stevens, Sufjan – Songs for Christmas
Svensson Trio, Esbj̦rn РTuesday Wonderland
Tool – 10,000 Days
Triggering Myth, A – The Remedy of Abstraction
Univers Zero – Live
Volcano the Bear – Classic Erasmus Fusion
Waits, Tom – Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards (Brawlers, disc 1)
Wintsch / Weber / Wolfarth – WWW
Yoshihide, Otomo / Bill Laswell / Tatsuya Yoshida – Episome
Zaar – Zaar
Zorn, John – Astronome
Zorn, John (Patton / Dunn / Baron) – Moonchild (Songs Without Words)
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