My Top 10 for Jay Hoggard, jazz composer, educator and virtuoso on vibraphone and marimba

I’m fortunate to have known saxophonist Wayne Escoffery for more than half my life. His new album “The Only Son of One” is out and that provided reason enough to look back at some of my favorite moments in his recorded history at this early stage.

The legitimate approaches to solo jazz piano are as varied as jazz itself. As I gear up for the CD release concert for my first solo piano record, Turtle Steps here are some of my personal favorites.

Max Roach is one of the most “underrated” musicians in modern jazz history, an odd statement about someone widely recognized as THE dominant influence on his instrument. But I stand behind it – here we look at 10 of my favorite tracks recorded under Max’s name.

I don’t usually devote Top 10 lists to musicians of my own generation, but I had to make an exception in this case.

It would be tough to name anyone in jazz whose music strikes such a balance of being infectiously joyous yet without the slightest watering-down of technique, harmony and overall depth.The list could, of course, be longer, but these are 10 of my favorite C.T. moments, presented in chronological order.

I’m always hesitant to offer definitive “favorites” for most anything but Elvin is my favorite drummer, period. Enjoy this varied list . . .

Because I wasn’t sure whether to focus on the swinging end of soul jazz or the more backbeat-driven form, I decided (it’s my blog, after all) to do 10 of each, with brief commentary.

In honor of Ron’s birthday I wanted to come up with a Top 10 list, but narrowing down and leaving things out proved to be too hard. So I came up with 12 Top 10 lists, with an extra one to make a baker’s dozen and accommodate some of my favorite tracks that didn’t fit easily into these categories.