It's that time of year again, as jazz journalists, DJs, critics, and bloggers are publishing their annual "Best Of" lists. And once again, for the tenth consecutive year, St. Louis Jazz Notes eschews the compilation of such a list, instead offering a meta-list with links to all of the other "Best Jazz of 2016" lists we can locate.
As in the past, the meta-list is alphabetized by writers' names. When a list was collaborative or presented as a staff-written project, the name of the publication or media outlet is used instead, with the writers' names noted if available. This post will be updated multiple times over the next several weeks as more lists become available. Here's what's out there so far:
* Karl Ackermann, AllAboutJazz.com - Best of 2016
* ACloserListen.com - ACL 2016: Top Ten Experimental; Top Ten Electronic; Top Ten Ambient; Top Ten Modern Composition
* AJazzNoise.com - The Best Jazz & Noise of 2016…?
* AllMusic.com - Best of 2016: Favorite Jazz Albums
* Mike Asimos, MichaelAsimos.com - Top 10 Jazz Albums of 2016
* Hrayr Attarian, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases Of 2016
* Peter Bacon, The Jazz Breakfast - 2016 Festive Fifty – 50-41; 40-31; 30-21; 20-11; 10-1
* Jakob Baekgaard, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases Of 2016
* C. Michael Bailey, AllAboutJazz.com - Notable and Nearly Missed 2016
* Chris Barton, Los Angeles Times - Best of 2016: Jeff Parker, Jack DeJohnette and Mary Halvorson continue pressing jazz forward
* Dan Bilawsky, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2016
* Francis Bradley, JazzRightNow.com - Best Records of 2016; Best Live Concerts of 2016
* Russell Brandom, TheVerge.com - This was a good year for weird jazz
* Albert Brooks, Nippertown! - Best of 2016: Top Jazz Albums
* Bill Brownlee, Plastic Sax - Plastic Sax's Favorite Albums of 2016; Favorite Performances of 2016; The Top Jazz-Related Stories and Trends of 2016
* Chris Burnett, BurnettMusic.com - Favorite Jazz Albums 2016
* Robert Bush, NBCSanDiego.com - Top 10 Jazz Albums of 2016; The Top 12 San Diego Jazz Concerts of the Year
* CapitalBop.com - Best D.C. jazz albums of 2016
* Brad Cohan, Observer.com - The 10 Best Experimental Albums of 2016
* Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2016
* ContemporaryJazzClub.com - The best Jazz Albums 2016
* Mark Corroto, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2016
* Nick Davies, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2016
* Clive Davis, CliveDavis.net - The best jazz albums of 2016
* Francis Davis, NPR - The 2016 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll; Why The 2016 Jazz Critics Poll Belongs To The Avant Gentry
* Anthony Dean-Harris, Nextbop.com - Favorite Jazz Albums of 2016
* Troy Dostert, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2016
* Exclaim.ca - Top 10 Improv & Avant-Garde Albums
* Preston Frazier, Something Else! - Best Jazz of 2016: Marquis Hill, Dave Stryker, Manu Katche + others
* The Free Jazz Collective - 2016 Free Jazz Blog Reviewers' Top 10s
* Phil Freeman, Stereogum - The 10 Best Jazz Albums Of 2016
* Edwin Garcia, The Jazz Loop - Best Albums of 2016
* Jon Garelick, Boston Globe - Top 10 jazz albums
* Ted Gioia, TedGioia.com - Best Albums of 2016
* Nenad Georgievski, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2016
* Glide - Top Ten Jazz Albums of 2016
* Ben Gray, Nextbop.com - Favorite Jazz Albums of 2016
* George Grella, The Big City - Best Jazz Releases of 2016
* David Hajdu, The Nation - The Ten Best Albums of 2016
* A. Noah Harrison, PopMatters - The Best Avant-Garde and Experimental Music of 2016
* Ron Hart, Observer.com - The 20 Best Jazz Albums of 2016; The 5 Best Jazz Reissues of 2016; The 5 Best Live Jazz Albums of 2016
* C. Andrew Hovan, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2016
* Tom Hull, TomHull.com - The Best Jazz Albums of 2016
* Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen - The best Canadian jazz albums of 2016
* J. Hunter, Nippertown - BEST OF 2016: J Hunter’s Top Jazz Albums (Part 1); Top Jazz Albums (Part Deux)
* Jazz Journalists Association - 2016 'Best of Jazz' Selected by JJA Members
* Jazzwise - Top 20 Jazz Albums of 2016
* Richard B. Kamins, Step Tempest - Best of 2016, Part One; Best of 2016 Continued; Best of 2016 Rolls On (3); Best of 2016 (4)
* Fred Kaplan, Slate/Stereophile - The Best Jazz Albums of 2016 plus the best historical releases.
* Keyboard - 2016 Top 10 Music Lists
* Budd Kopman, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2016
* Will Layman, PopMatters.com - The Best Jazz of 2016
* LesInRocks.com - 10 albums de jazz à écouter avant 2017
* London Jazz News - Musician/Band of the Year; Live Memory of the Year; Recorded Memory of the Year; Jazz Wishes for 2017
* Kevin Lozano, Pitchfork - The 20 Best Experimental Albums of 2016
* Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader - The ten best jazz records of 2016
* Dan McClenaghan, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases Of 2016
* Ralph A. Minello, Notes on Jazz/Huffington Post - Best of Jazz 2016
* Nextbop.com - Favorite Jazz Albums of 2016; Favorite Non-Jazz Albums of 2016
* NewMusicBox - Mix: 2016 Staff Picks
* New York Times - After a Robust 2016, Jazz’s Center Is Up for Grabs
* James Nadal, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2016
* Tim Niland, Music and More - 11th Annual Francis Davis/4th Annual NPR Jazz Critics Poll Ballot
* NPR - The Best Music of 2016
* Tom Orange, WCSB - Noteworthy 2016 Releases in Jazz and Improvised Musics
* Terry Perkins, Alive - Best Of 2016: St. Louis-Area Blues, Jazz And Crossover Recordings
* Craig Premo, improvised - Best of 2016
* Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune - From Wynton Marsalis to Vijay Iyer, the best jazz albums of 2016; Best jazz performances of 2016
* C. Reider, Vuzh Music Blog - Notable Netlabel Releases of 2016 (Part One); Notable Netlabel Releases of 2016 (part two); Notable Netlabel Releases of 2016 (part three)
* Laurent Sapir, TSFJazz.com - Le meilleur du jazz en 2016
* Bret Saunders, Denver Post - Top 10 list of jazz music from 2016
* Schenectady Daily Gazette (Michael Hochanadel, David Singer) - Best of 2016: Jazz
* Elliott Sharp, Red Bull Music Academy - 5 Best Experimental Albums of 2016
* John Sharpe, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases Of 2016
* Hank Shteamer, Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches - Best of 2016
* Stewart Smith, The Quietus - Complete Communion: The Best Jazz Of 2016
* SputnikMusic.com - Best Jazz Albums of 2016
* Sterrenplaten, RadioScorpio.be - De 30 beste albums van 2016 volgens Sterrenplaten
* Mark Sullivan, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2016
* Dave Sumner, Bird Is The Worm - Recap: Best of 2016
* Derek Taylor, Dusted - 2016: Bottle Up & Go
* The Telegraph (Ivan Hewitt, Martin Chilton) - The best jazz albums of 2016
* Jeff Terich, TrebleZine.com - The 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2016
* Geno Thackara, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2016
* UKVibe.org - Best Jazz albums of 2016
* Michael Ullman, The Arts Fuse - Commentary: Best Jazz Recordings of 2016
* George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune - Jazz flexed its muscles anew in 2016 — plus year's best albums and concerts
* George M. Wallace, a fool in the forest - Listening Listfully 2016
* Seth Colter Walls, SethColterWalls.tumblr.com - Hey! Here’s a list of my 50 Favorite Albums from 2016
* Carol Banks Weber, AXS - Top 5 jazz albums of 2016 blaze their own trail
* Christopher R. Weingarten, Rolling Stone - 20 Best Avant Albums of 2016
* Michael J. West, Washington City Paper - The Year in Jazz
* Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch/STLtoday.com - 2016 shows prove St. Louis remains a jazz destination
* Jerome Wilson, AllAboutJazz.com - Best Releases of 2016
* WQXR - Top New-Music Moments of 2016
Active scouting for more lists will continue for at least a couple more weeks, but your input is welcome, too. If you've seen any other 2016 year-end jazz lists that aren't mentioned here, please use the comments (or send me an email) to share the information. And if you like, please feel free also to use the comments to discuss your own favorite jazz releases, shows and moments of 2016.
Finally, if you want to re-visit StLJN's past "best of" list round-ups, here are the meta-lists for 2007 (parts 1 and 2), 2008 (parts 1 and 2), 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015.