2009 in review

2009 has been my least-blogged year. Certainly not for lack of events, although the death of my computer at the beginning of December didn't help matters either. I don't feel qualified this year to do a Top Whatever of the Year post because there were so many big releases I haven't yet heard. Nate Chinen's roundtable at The Gig and Patrick J's link dumps at A Blog Supreme should more than pick up my slack.

The progress (or lack thereof) of the decade is interesting to reflect upon. At its opening, artists like Dave Douglas and Kurt Rosenwinkel were on major labels. By its close, both of them had taken the distribution of their music into their own hands. The majority of Warner Bros. jazz arm moved to Nonesuch, and Maria Schneider's releases on ArtistShare announced a paradigm shift for much of the creative music industry. Who knows what the next decade will hold in terms of distribution and dissemination of music. Vinyl sales are up and have been since 2007, and small record stores seem to be thriving (at least in Montreal) while the big chain stores have either folded or increased drastically in their suckitude.

So farewell to 2009, and may the onset of 2010 be filled with health, happiness and creativity.