Charty Chart Chat: All That Jazz Gives Us The Chart-Compilation Blues

The Charty Chart Chat staff (a.k.a. me) would like to give fans of jazz and jazz-related music some major props. With a relative stasis hanging over the top 50 and the other four specialty charts, let's have a look at the highly volatile and adventurous Jazz/Blues top 10.

While the other four specialty charts have the same #1s as last week, (Buck 65's Situation on Hip-Hop, Holy Fuck's LP on Electronic, Dillinger Escape Plan's Ire Works on Metal/Punk and Youssou N'Dour's Rokku Mi Rokka on World/Folk), not only is there a new #1 on the Jazz/Blues chart, Tony Wilson Sextet's Pearls Before Swine, but there are two entries and three re-entries among the top 10 ten. The turnover is quite amazing on this chart, as it's not unusual for a #1 album to fall out of the top 10 the next week. This happened to Ron Davis' Subarashii Live last week, Wilson/Lee/Bentley's Escondido Dreams two weeks ago, and McCoy Tyner Quartet's eponymous release three weeks ago. One of the three re-entering albums this week is a former chart-topper, Amir Elsaffar's Two Rivers, which debuted at #1 for the week ending Nov. 2, dropped off, and reappears four weeks later now at #4. Nothing's safe on the Jazz/Blues chart, unlike the other specialty charts, where the top four (World/Folk and Metal/Punk) or five (Hip-Hop) entries are the same as last week.

On the top 50 countdown, the battle continues between two specialty chart heavyweights. Buck 65's Situation rises to #1 and pushes Holy Fuck's LP back to #2. The Evaporators' Gassy Jack And Other Tales remains at #3. Out of left field comes the dark horse of the week, Corb Lund's Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!, which vaults 14 places to #4. The Sadies' New Seasons digs in at #5. Cuff The Duke's Sidelines Of The City rises a couple of places to #6, trading places with Stars' In Our Bedroom After The War, which falls two places to #8. Sandwiched in between those two releases at #7 is Ask Forgiveness EP, this week's Chart Sizzler winner from college radio veteran Will Oldham under his most recent pseudonym, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. Ask Forgiveness appeared on 12 individual campus radio charts, including #1 on CJSR (Alberta), #2 on CKXU (Lethbridge), #8 on CFUV (Victoria) and #10 on CFMU (McMaster). Sunset Rubdown's Random Spirit Lover and Barmitzvah Brothers' Let's Express Our Motives round out the top 10.You have to look way down to #36 to find the runner-up debut of the week: Why?'s The Hollows EP. Brimstone Howl's Guts Of Steel enters at #38, while the CBC Radio 3 Sessions Volume 3 compilation re-enters at #19.