I am an obsessive list maker when it comes to my musical and film tastes, so I thought I would use this page to post some of my lists of favorites. Still to come: Best Noir Films, and Favorite Jazz Albums of all time.
First up. I am a fan of what is called free jazz or improvised music. This is essentially the most far-out or avant-garde form of jazz. Here is my ranked list of Top 20 free jazz albums of 2022. All of these albums are available to listen to on Bandcamp. Check them out and let me know what you think! My list of all-time favorite free jazz albums is still to come.
1-Pat Thomas & XT with Will Holder-“Akisakila” / Attitudes of Preparation (Mountains, Oceans, Trees)
2-Satoko Fujii-Hyaku, One Hundred Dreams
3-Water Damage-Repeater
4-MoE y Escalantes-Saint Vitus Dance
5-GAF & The Love Supreme Arkestra-Garden Island
6-Oxbow & Peter Brotzmann-An Eternal Reminder Of Not Today
7-Plastic Dogs-Ivert
8-Sergio Armaroli, Veli Kujala, Harri Sjöström, Giancarlo Schiaffini-Windows and Mirrors
9-Izumi Kimura, Artur Majewski, Barry Guy & Ramon Lopez-Kind Of Light
10-Ballister-Chrysopoeia
11-John Escreet-Seismic Shift
12-Nina de Heney & Lina Järnegard-Solo Piece For Peace, Please
13-gabby fluke-mogul & Joanna Mattrey-Oracle
14-John Dikeman, Péter Ajtai & Nicolas Field-The Throes
15-Brandon Lopez-Santeria
16-Lisa Ullen, Elsa Bergman & Anna Lund-Space
17-Pedro Alves Sousa, Rodrigo Pinheiro & Gabriel Ferrandini-Cloud At Rest
18-Francois Carrier, Alexander von Schlippenbach, John Edwards & Michel Lambert-Unwalled
19-Old Believers (self-titled)
20-Aurelijus Užameckis-Signals
21-There Be Monsters-Rubikon
22-JakTar (self-titled)
23-IKZ-I Saw The Cryptic Problem Of My Generation Destroyed
24-Mark Molnar-Saturn’s Son
25-Gonçalo Almeida-Improvisations On Amplified & Prepared Double Bass
In second place on my list is the most recent album of one of my favorite pianists, Satoko Fujii, who I had the pleasure of meeting. It is especially important as it marks her 100th studio album.
Here is my ranked list of Top 20 free jazz albums of 2021. All of these albums are available to listen to on Bandcamp. Check them out and let me know what you think!
1-Anthony Braxton: 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017
2-Pat Thomas & The Locals: Play the Music of Anthony Braxton
3-fluke-mogul / Liberatore / Mattrey / Mendoza: Death In the Gilded Age
4-Edwards / Lisle / Serries / Webster: Peck and Fleet
5-Almeida / Gibson / Melo Alves / Trilla / Vicente: Dog Star
6-Brice / Golding / Kaiser / Moore / Prévost: The Secret Handshake with Danger, vol. one
7-Maneri / Kalmanovitch / Jacobson / Osgood: Variations on No Particular Theme, Pt. 1
8-Rosaly / Warelis / Lumley / Dikeman: Sunday at De Ruimte
9-Abrahams / Thomas / Thomas: Words Fail
10-Fail Better!: The Fall
11-Carneiro / Zingaro: Elogio das Sombras
12-Camila Nebbia: Corre el río de la memoria sobre la tierra que arrastra trazos, …
13-Garcia / Pitsiokos: Uanmortaim
14-Adoct: Ouvre-Glace
15-Satoko Fujii: Moon On The Lake
16-Martínez / Fernández / Guy: Bosque de niebla
17-Combat Astronomy: Shamanic Insurgency
18-Castrillón / Castrillón / Muruaga: Ärnär
19-Jazz from the Underground Nightclubs of Aotearoa
20-Parkins / Rasmussen / Sawyer: The Glass Triangle
Here is my ranked list of the best punk albums:
1-Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols
2-Ramonesmania
3-The Clash-London Calling
4-Elvis Costello-Armed Forces
5-Public Image Ltd-Second Edition
6-Nirvana-Nevermind
7-Dead Kennedys-Plastic Surgery Disasters
8-The Buzzcocks-Singles Going Steady
9-The Stooges-Raw Power
10-Hole-Live Through This
11-The Cramps-Bad Music For Bad People
12-Husker Du-Candy Apple Grey
13-X-Under The Big Black Sun
14-Dinosaur Jr.-You’re Living All Over Me
15-Minutemen-Double Nickels On The Dime
16-Misfits-Walk Among Us
17-Black Flag-Damaged
18-Bad Brains
19-Gang Of Four-Entertainment!
20-Descendents-Everything Sucks
21-Minor Threat-Complete Discography
22-Fugazi-Repeater
Here is my ranked list of the greatest Western Films of all time.
1-The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
2-McCabe And Mrs Miller
3-The Wild Bunch
4-A Fistful Of Dollars
5-Django Unchained
6-The Outlaw Josey Wales
7-Once Upon A Time In The West
8-The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
9-The Great Silence
10-My Darling Clementine
11-Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid
12-Dead Man
13-The Tall T
14-Django
15-Rio Bravo
16-The Ox-Bow Incident
17-True Grit (1969)
18-Tombstone
19-Winchester ‘73
20-The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
21-Ride in the Whirlwind
22-The Shooting
23-Death Rides A Horse
24-No Country For Old Men
25-The Big Gundown
26-Ride Lonesome
27-Day Of The Outlaw
28-The Far Country
29-Blazing Saddles
Here is my ranked list of the greatest Horror Films of all time. I cheated and counted Alien and Aliens as one film. I decided that the David Lynch films, Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead and Inland Empire, even though I love them, are not horror movies.
1-Alien/Aliens
2-Psycho (1960)
3-The Thing (1982)
4-The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
5-The Exorcist
6-The Shining (1980)
7-Hereditary
8-Jaws
9-The Ring (2002)
10-Halloween (1978)
11-The Cabin In The Woods
12-Silence Of The Lambs
13-Dracula (1931)
14-Frankenstein (1931)
15-Get Out
16-Bone Tomahawk
17-Suspiria (1977)
18-Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
19-Audition
20-Color Out Of Space
21-The Others
22-Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)
23-Near Dark
24-Deep Red
25-Re-Animator
26-Pulse (2001)
27-Sinister
28-The Conjuring
29-The Fly (1986)
30-Dawn Of The Dead (2004)
31-Cure (1997, Kiyoshi Kuosawa)
32-Skinamarink
33-Kill, Baby Kill
34-Gerald’s Game
35-The Loved Ones
36-The Evil Dead (1987)
37-Dario Argento’s Inferno
38-Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
39-Tenebre
40-Carrie (1976)
41-Kwaidan
42-28 Days Later
43-Misery
44-Prince Of Darkness
45-Wicker Man (1973)
46-Train To Busan
47-The Mist
48-Poltergeist (1981)
49-Evil Dead (2013)
50-Hellraiser
51-Us
52-Session 9
53-Under The Skin
54-The Blair Witch Project
55-You’re Next
56-Midsommar
57-Blood And Black Lace
58-The Mummy (1932)
59-Cronos
60- Bram Stoker’s Dracula
61- The Others
62-The Wolf Man (1941)
63-The Strangers
64-Let Me In
65-Ugetsu
66-[rec]
67-Don’t Breathe
68-A Quiet Place
69-The Descent
70-Repulsion
71-American Werewolf In London
72-Nightmare On Elm Street
73-The Omen (1976)
74-Vampyr
75-Bird Box
76-The Night House
77-Black Sunday (1960)
78-Nosferatu, The Vampyre (1979)
79-It Follows
80-Night Of The Demon
81-Mandy
82-In The Mouth Of Madness
83-The Host
84-Masque Of The Red Death
85-The Birds
Honorable Mention: The TV series Twin Peaks: The Return, Hannibal and the miniseries Haunting Of Hill House were all amazing, and if they were movies would have been high on this list.
Special Honorable Mention: Sharknado, because Sharknado.
Here is my ranked list of the greatest noir films of all time. The trickiest thing about this list was deciding what is and is not a noir. I also have some more films to watch before I’m completely happy with this list.
1-Double Indemnity
2-Out Of The Past
3-The Big Sleep
4-Laura
5-The Third Man
6-Touch Of Evil
7-High And Low
8-Chinatown
9-The Maltese Falcon (1941)
10-L.A. Confidential
11-Le Samourai
12-Blood Simple
13-Point Blank
14-Le Deuxième Souffle
15-Night of The Hunter
16-The Killers
17-The Lady From Shanghai
18-Brighton Rock
19-The Hit
20-The Big Heat
21-In A Lonely Place
22-Pale Flower
23-Taxi Driver
24-Breathless (1960)
25-Pulp Fiction
26-Sunset Boulevard
27-Key Largo
28-Fargo
29-Blue Velvet
30-The Last Seduction
31-The Long Goodbye
32-You Only Live Once
33-The Killing
34-Pépé le Moko
35-Act Of Violence
36-Side Street
37-A Colt Is My Passport
38-The Reckless Moment
39-Panique
40-Mildred Pierce
41-Underworld U.S.A.
42-Narrow Margin
43-The Blue Dahlia
44-Night And The City
45-Elevator To The Gallows
46-Rififi
47-Cutter’s Way
48-Call Northside 777
49-Gun Crazy
50-Detour
51-Sweet Smell Of Success
52-The Asphalt Jungle
53-Odd Man Out
54-Where The Sidewalk Ends
55-Brute Force
56-The Friends of Eddie Coyle
57-Nightmare Alley (1947)
58-Pickup On South Street
59-Cruel Gun Story
60-On Dangerous Ground
61-Shoot The Piano Player
62-The Suspect (1944)
63-Rusty Knife
64-Woman In The Window
65-Ace In The Hole
66-The Bad Sleep Well
67-Kiss Me, Deadly
68-Panic In The Streets
69-Gilda
70-This Gun For Hire
71-Raw Deal
72-The Set-Up
73-Classe Tous Risques
74-Crossfire
75-I Wake Up Screaming
76-Odds Against Tomorrow
77-House of Bamboo
78-Criss Cross
79-Kansas City Confidential
80-Glass Key
81-The Naked Kiss
82-Black Angel
83-Crime Wave (1954)
84-They Live By Night
85-Force Of Evil
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