Jazzwise Magazine Albums Of The Year 2007
Friday, November 30, 2007
Jazzwise, the UK’s biggest selling jazz magazine, is delighted to announce that Empirical by Empirical has been voted the Album of the Year for 2007 by Jazzwise writers. Who could have foretold that when Empirical bagged their first ever press as a freshly minted band in the Jazzwise Taking Off section exactly 12 months ago their eponymously-titled debut album, produced by Courtney Pine and released in July on the Destin-e label, would amass the most votes from Jazzwise writers barely a year later.
“Empirical could turn out to be one of the most important bands in UK jazz history,” wrote Tony Hall when he reviewed it in the July issue. “Their debut is outstanding… encompassing jazz’s past, present and future.” And clearly he wasn’t wrong. In what proved a compelling year for new music, Empirical beat Maria Schneider’s new work Sky Blue by a small margin followed by Esbjörn Svensson Trio’s in concert meisterwerk, Live In Hamburg in third place.
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2007
1 Empirical - Empirical (Destin-e Records)
2 Maria Schneider - Sky Blue (ArtistShare)
3 Esbjörn Svensson Trio - Live In Hamburg (ACT)
To find out who else made the Top 10 grab a copy of Jazzwise either by subscribing here or at your local WH Smith, HMV, Zavvi, Borders, Tesco and at all good news agents.
Meanwhile, it came as little surprise that the colossal Miles Davis box set, The Complete On The Corner Sessions, ran away with Reissue/Archive Album of the Year, followed by Andrew Hill’s magnificent Compulsion!!! and Bennie Maupin’s lost classic The Jewel In The Lotus.
The full Top 10 Albums of the Year charts, together with all the writers’ individual choices, are featured in the December/January issue of Jazzwise, out on Friday 30 November...to see the full list - and all the individual Top 10s from the jazz scene's movers and shakers - subscribe here and get a FREE CD!
Herbie Hancock - Takin' OffClick here to see footage of Empirical live at the Jazzwise 10th Birthday Festival - and read Tony Hall's review of the winning album here.