WNUR’s annual phoneathon fundraiser starts this Thursday. As part of ramping up the hype for this, the jazz shows are featuring the top ten albums from our 2007 DJ poll. For my show, I had the privilege of featuring Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake’s excellent “From the River to the Ocean”, which was aggregately declared the #10 album. (It was #6 on my ballot, but my ranking was very haphazard, especially after about the top 15.) My #1 was unhaphazard enough that I’ll share that it was the Indigo Trio’s “Live in Montreal” from Dave Douglas’ Greenleaf label. I saw them celebrate that album release at the Velvet Lounge during the summer, and the show blew my mind!

Tune in next week for my themed phoneathon special “A Morning in Tunisia.”

Artist: “Track” – Album (Label)

His Name Is Alive: “Juba Lee Brown” – Sweet Earth Flower (High Two)
Kahil El’Zabar’s The Ritual: “The Inner Search” – Sacred Love (Sound Aspects)
Air: “R.B.” – Air Mail (Black Saint)
Unbroken: “Transmission” – Unbroken (Tick Tock)
Pharoah Sanders: “Thembi” – Thembi (Impulse)
Alice Coltrane: “Blue Nile” – Ptah the El Daoud (Impulse)
Free Fall: “Half Past Soon (for Bill Evans)” – Furnace (Wobbly Rail)
Eight Bold Souls: “Glass Breakers” – Sideshow (Arabesque)
Sean Bergin/Ernst Reijseger: “Mixing It” – Mistakes (DATA)
Sean Bergin/Ernst Reijseger: “Yakal N’komo” – Mistakes (DATA)
Fred Anderson/Hamid Drake: “Planet E” – From the River to the Ocean (Thrill Jockey)
Fred Anderson/Hamid Drake: “For Brother Thompson” – From the River to the Ocean (Thrill Jockey)
Fred Anderson/Hamid Drake: “From the River to the Ocean” – From the River to the Ocean (Thrill Jockey)
Fred Anderson/Hamid Drake: “Sakti/Shiva” – From the River to the Ocean (Thrill Jockey)
Ken Vandermark/Pandelis Karyorgis: “JCT (for Sal Mosca)” – Foreground Music (Okkadisk)
Mario Pavone: “Not Five Kimono” – Boom (Playscape)