Top 5 music listens of 2003

And while I'm on the subject of lists...

The Pho email list had a discussion at the end of the year of everyone's top 5 music choices of the year - here were mine, in no significant order:

• Rodney Crowell, Fate's Right Hand (Introspective country songwriting at its best).
• Al Green, I Can't Stop (He gets back together with Willie Mitchell and the rest of the old Memphis gang and gives the gospel a break for a secular outing - just as soulful as ever).
• Dave Douglas, Freak In (a nice updating of the electric Miles Davis sound by a young lion).
• Keith Jarrett Trio, Up For It (Live in Juan-les Pins) (the art of the jazz piano trio at its current apex - three masters engaged in unbelievable telpathic communication.)
• Joan Osborne, How Sweet It Is (released in 2002, but I didn't get to it till this year. A genuine homage to 60s-70s soul by one who can pull it off with respect and panache).

Now that I look at it, a pretty retro sort of list, but it's been that kind of
year, at least for me.