Newcomer Gregory Porter has scooped the 2011 Jazzwise album of the year title with his debut album Water released on the Harlem-based Motéma label.

With standout tracks ‘1960 What?’, ‘Illusion’ and Black Nile’, Water narrowly pipped Oakland trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire’s Blue Note debut When The Heart Emerges Glistening by a thin margin. Porter, from California but based in New York, has also been a sensation live this year in London jazz clubs with a number of standout appearances, and with his fame spreading via TV and radio appearances the singer has already built up an ever growing following and even stole the show on the opening night of the Jazz Voice gala concert at the London Jazz Festival, with a specially arranged version for big band and strings of ‘1960 What?’

The top 20 list also includes the notable presence of the great Stan Tracey, with A Child’s Christmas in Wales, based on a well loved Dylan Thomas story. Courtney Pine also polled well for his sophisticated and adventurous album Europa.

Reissue of the year goes to runaway winner Tubby Hayes for Tubby’s New Groove, a hugely popular choice among Jazzwise writers. The great lost album was originally recorded for Tony Hall’s Tempo label in 1959, and destined for release but never issued by Blue Note. The lost tapes were only recently rediscovered – and have gone down a storm with everyone who’s heard them.

The Top 20 albums of the year are:

1 Gregory Porter Water Motéma

2 Ambrose Akinmusire When The Heart Emerges Glistening Blue Note

3= Marius Neset Golden Xplosion Edition

3= Kurt Elling The Gate Concord

5 Stan Tracey Quartet A Child’s Christmas In Wales Resteamed

6 Jeremy Pelt The Talented Mr. Pelt Highnote

7= The Impossible Gentlemen The Impossible Gentlemen Basho

7= Gretchen Parlato The Lost And Found Obliqsound

9 Keith Jarrett Rio ECM

10= Kit Downes Trio Quiet Tiger Basho

10=Wadada Leo Smith Heart’s Reflections Cuneiform

12= Brad Mehldau Live In Marciac Nonesuch

12= Liane Carroll Up And Down Quietmoney

14= Kairos 4tet Statement Of Intent Edition

14= Courtney Pine Europa Destin-e

14= Colin Towns/NDR Big Band John Lennon: In My Own Write Provocateur

17= Archie Shepp and Joachim Kühn Wo!man Archieball

17= Ian Shaw The Abbey Road Sessions Splashpoint

19 Gerald Wilson Orchestra Legacy Mack Avenue

20 Matana Roberts Coin Coin Chapter One: Les Gens de Couleur Libres Constellation

The Top Ten reissues are:

1 Tubby Hayes Tubby’s New Groove Candid

2 Phil Seamen Seamen’s Mission Proper Box

3 Joe Harriott The Joe Harriott Story Proper Box

4 Miles Davis Live In Europe 1967 The Bootleg Series Vol 1 Columbia Legacy

5=Weather Report Live in Berlin 1975 Art of Groove

5= Ornette Coleman Quartet The 1987 Hamburg Concert Domino

7 Miles Davis Tutu Deluxe Edition Warner Jazz

8 Miles Davis Quintet Live At Newport 1966 & 1967 Domino

9= John Surman Flashpoint: NDR Jazz Workshop Cuneiform

9= John Coltrane Original Album Series Giant Steps/Coltrane Jazz/My Favorite Things/Coltrane Plays The Blues/Coltrane’s Sound Warner Jazz

The full lists of all the must-read individual writers top 10s and gig of the year choices are published in the December/January double issue of Jazzwise just published. 

– Stephen Graham

Photo: Tim Dickeson