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The Top 100 Jazz Countdown of 2015

Let’s count down to 2016 by counting down your favorite new jazz releases of 2015!  Join us from 9 PM until midnight, starting on December 28th, to review the year’s top new releases as voted by YOU. Check out the list below! The countdown will wind down just as the ball drops on December 31st, so you can ring in the new year knowing who de-throned last year’s #1, Pete Smyser.

There were plenty of albums that hit a particularly high note with Jazz Music Director Maureen Malloy - many of them were from regional artists. Orrin Evans, Terrell Stafford, Michelle Lordi and Joey DeFrancesco all had stand-out releases that spent time on WRTI's Jazz Hot 11.  This music made waves on an international level, so of course the hometown crowd would support their heroes.

WRTi's Top 100 Jazz Songs of 2016:

1. “Stay With Me” - Joanna Pascale - Wildflower

2. “Chant” - Louis Hayes & The Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band - Live at Cory Weeds' Cellar Jazz Club

3. “Blue Hawk” - Tim Warfield - Spherical

4. “Stop Start” - Terell Stafford - Brotherlee Love

5. “Capuchin Swing” - Heads of State - Search for Peace

6. “Black Nile” - Essiet Okon Essiet - Shona

7. “How Deep Is the Ocean” - Michael Valeanu - Hard to Cook

8. “The Triumphant Journey” - Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra - Cuba: The Conversation Continues

9. “Slippery” - Donald Vega - With Respect to Monty

10. “Spot It You Got It” - Orrin Evans - The Evolution of Oneself

11. “Tears” - The Hot Club of Philadelphia - Gypsy Routes

12. “I Hear a Rhapsody” - Don Aliquo & The Beegie Adair Trio - Too Marvelous for Words

13. “On Green Dolphin Street” - Michael O'Neill & Kenny Washington - New Beginnings

14. “Epiphany” - Justin Kauflin - Dedication

15. “Theme for Jobim” - Vincent Herring - Night and Day

16. “Afro Blue” - Harold Mabern - Afro Blue

17. “It Be Feeling Like the Blues” - Eyal Vilner - Almost Sunrise

18. “Bright Boy Blues” - Ghost Train Orchestra - Hot Town

19. “In the Spirit of Baden” - Anat Cohen - Luminosa

20. “Everything in It's Right Place / Maiden Voyage” - Robert Jospe - Robert Jospe Express

21. “Children of the Light” - Perez Patitucci Blade - Children of the Light

22. “Western Sunrise” - Doug Carn - My 

23. “Joy Spring (Live)” - Arturo Sandoval - Arturo Sandoval Live at Yoshi's

24. “Without You No Me” - Temple University Jazz Band - Dear Dizzy

25. “Flip & Dip” - Jeff 'Tain' Watts - Blue, Vol. 1

26. “A Hefti Dose of Basie (To the Memory of Neal Hefti)” - Patrick Williams - Home Suite Home

27. “Sinal Verde” - Minas - Symphony in Bossa

28. “Time Waits” - Kevin Hays - New Day

29.”Big Dipper” - Ben Bailey & the Nashville Big Band - A Bird in the Hand

30. “Black Velvet” - The Jazz Professors - En Plein Air: The Jazz Professors Play Monet

31. “Marzique Dancing - Irvin Mayfield & The New Orleans Jazz Playhouse Revue - Live at the New Orleans Jazz Playhouse (Music from the Coffee Table Book)

32. “Sunday Morning” - Jessi Teich - Twisted Soul

33. “Naima's Love Song” - George Cables - In Good Company

34. “Fine and Mellow” - Jose James - Yesterday I Had the Blues: The Music of Billie Holiday

35. “Walnut Creek” - Quincy Davis - Songs in the Key of Q

36. “Nature Boy” - Kevin Eubanks & Stanley Jordan - Duets

37. “Riot (Live)” - Mack Avenue SuperBand - Live from the Detroit Jazz Festival - 2014

38. “My Kind of Blues” - Lee Smith - My Kind of Blues

39. “Upstairs by a Chinese Lamp” - Esperanza Spalding, Wayne Shorter & Billy Childs - Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro

40. “The More I See You” - Jeff Hamilton Trio - Great American Songs Throughout The Years

41. “I'll Be Seeing You” - Duchess - Duchess

042. “Cuz U No” - Joey DeFrancesco - Trip Mode

43. “Father's Song” - Art Hirahara - Libations & Meditations

44. “Hangover” - John Scofield - Past Present

45. “Serenata” - Kenny Burrell - The Road to Love

46. “All Through the Night” - Scott Hamilton & Jeff Hamilton Trio - Live in Bern

47. “Nov” - Jacky Terrasson - Take This

48. “Tina's Glass Nickel” - Randy Brecker & The DePaul University Jazz Ensemble - Dearborn Station

49. “Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood” - Jamie Cullum - Interlude

50. “Old City” - Luis Perdomo - Twenty-Two

51. “Street Vibe” - Ingrid Jensen & Jason Miles - Kind of New

52. “To Love Somebody” - Lizz Wright - Freedom & Surrender

53. “One Note Samba” - Mike Barone Big Band - La Fiesta

54. “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” - Bill Warfield and the Hell's Kitchen Funk Orchestra - Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

55. “Buffalo: City of No Illusions” - Pete Malinverni - Emerging Markets

56. “Flores” - Dafnis Prieto Sextet - Triangles and Circles

57. “I'm So New Orleans” - Kermit Ruffins & The Barbecue Swingers - #imsoneworleans

58. “Morning”  - Eddie Henderson - Collective Portrait

59. “You Make Me Feel so Young” - Allan Harris - Black Bar Jukebox

60. “Seventh Candle”  - Jimmy Greene - Beautiful Life

61. “Down by the Riverside (Live)” - Christian McBride Trio - Live at the Village Vanguard

62. “The Partys Over” - Scott Hamilton - Scott Hamilton Plays Jule Styne

63. “Clowns Will Be Arriving” - Ted Kooshian - Clowns Will Be Arriving

64. “Both Sides Now” - Christian Howes - American Spirit

65. “Symphony in Riffs” - Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis - Live in Cuba

66. “Bermuda Triangle” - Rodrigo Bonelli - Septet Works

67. “El Vino” - The Michael Waldrop Big Band - Time Within Itself

68. “Plant Bassed” - Marshall Gilkes & The WDR Big Band - Koln

69. “Distant Hallow” - Brian Lynch & Emmet Cohen - Questioned Answer

70. “It Might As Well Be Spring” - Joey Alexander - My Favorite Things (Deluxe Edition)

71. “Dr Do Right” - Kenny Barron & Dave Holland - The Art of Conversation

72. “Uranus - Aaron Diehl - Space, Time, Continuum

73. “Growlin' Dan - Cecile McLorin Salvant - For One to Love

74. “Not a Sonata in Eb” - Sam Most - New Jazz Standards

75. “This Thing” - Bob McChesney - Chez Sez

76. “I Can't Give You Anything But Love/That's All” - Ann Hampton Callaway - From Sassy To Divine: The Sarah Vaughan Project

77. “If I Only Had a Heart” - Michelle Lordi - Drive

78. “121st Street” - Manuel Valera & Groove Square - Urban Landscape

79. “Willow Weep For Me” - Lara Downes - A Billie Holiday Songbook

80. “Jailbreak” - Larry Coryell - Heavy Feel

81. “Imagine” - Bill O'Connell - Imagine

82. “Before the Rain Comes” - Emma Larsson - Sing to the Sky

83. “Spot It You Got It” -  Steve Wilson & Wilsonian's Grain - Live in New York: The Vanguard Sessions

84. “Havana” - John Fedchock New York Big Band - Like It Is

85. “Confident Selflessness” - Terence Blanchard - Breathless

86. “Strength and Beauty” - Ben Williams - Coming of Age

87. “Sweet Summer Love” - Eugenie Jones - Come Out Swingin'

88. “Walk On the Wild Side” - Chris Washburne & The Syotos Band - Low Ridin'

89. “Pretty Liddle Waltz” - Kenny Wheeler Quintet - Songs For Quintet

90. “Bye, Bye Blackbird” - Bob Lark and His Alumni Big Band - Sweet Return

91. “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'” - Karrin Allyson - Many a New Day: Karrin Allyson Sings Rodgers & Hammerstein (Deluxe)

92. “Dragonfly” - David Benoit - 2 In Love

93. “What a Wonderful World” - Dee Dee Bridgewater, Irvin Mayfield & The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra - Dee Dee's Feathers

94. “Mindset” - Behn Gillece - Mindset

95 “Try a Little Tenderness” - Houston Person - The Melody Lingers On

96. “Change Partners” - Marcus Parsley - Sunday Strollin'

97. “Good Bait - Expansions: The Dave Liebman Group” - The Puzzle

98. “The Theme” - Joe Alterman - Georgia Sunset

99.  “When I Found You” - Terri Lyne Carrington - The Mosaic Project: Love and Soul

100. “Cuchifrito” - Carlos Henriquez - The Bronx Pyramid