For those who may have noticed, there have been no best of lists coming from yours truly since 2014; sadly, the chronic health problem that has reduced my previous writing pace to a crawl continues without much respite. My best of the year lists have always been predicated upon having reviewed the releases chosen, and with only 29 CD/Box set reviews to choose from this year (and with those choices, more than ever now, always representing music that moved me in a big way), there's simply no way to come up with the big lists I used to compile.

Still, as John Cleese once said in a Monty Python sketch: "Adopt, adapt and improve."

And so, after a three-year absence, I figured I'd throw in a top ten for jazz and top five for beyond (meaning: anything else), both including a mix of new releases and reissues/archival finds. But to let folks know that these two lists only scratch the surface of all the music I've been privileged to hear this year—and that, as ever, there are far more "best of" titles than even my previously large lists included—I'll also add, at the end (and for anyone interested), a list of releases would have been reviewed, had it been possible.

So, bearing that in mind, first up are just a few of the top recorded events in jazz and beyond for 2017 (as ever, in no particular order):

Jazz Recordings: New and Reissues/Archival Finds