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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