E-Mail This Article to a Friend Different strokes BY JON GARELICK

Here, in no particular order, are some my favorite things from among the people, CDs, and performances I wrote about this year.

1 Anthony Braxton | After a decade’s absence from Boston venues, one of jazz’s pathbreaking players and composers came to the ICA with his new sextet and set our ears abuzz with dense, playful music. If you don’t think Braxton has a sense of humor, then you’ve never seen him wheel his giant contrabass saxophone up to the mike to blow a furious few hundred notes.

2 ACOUSTIC GUITAR | The electric six-string has been the guitar of choice for decades, but Doug Wamble and Boston player Eric Hofbauer have championed a new approach to the acoustic — aggressive and thick-toned, and in this case both with politics in mind. On his second album for Rounder, Bluestate, Wamble hewed close to blues and gospel in his singing and playing. Hofbauer’s American Vanity (Creative Nation Music) was solo guitar all the way (a self-conscious comment on the guitarist’s own vanity) and a mix of free improvisations and provocative covers, from Dolphy and Mingus to A-Ha and Waylon Jennings’s theme for The Dukes of Hazzard.

3 Jim Hobbs | Guitarist Joe Morris has said of alto-saxophonist Hobbs, " He’s as good as anyone who’s ever played that instrument. " In case you need reminding, players of " that instrument " include Johnny Hodges, Charlie Parker, and Ornette Coleman. It’s not just his technique that inspires reverence from his peers but his compositional intuition that tends to take his solos to places other players can only imagine. His Fully Celebrated Orchestra with cornettist Taylor Ho Bynum, bassist Timo Shanko, and drummer Django Carranza released Lapis Exilis (Skycap) earlier this year.

4 Pat Metheny | The Way Up | Nonesuch | I’ve always favored the Ornette-and-bebop Metheny to the Pat Metheny Group, but the PMG’s The Way Up, which he wrote with his career-long PMG partner Lyle Mays, is an intricately wrought piece that sustains itself with barely a repeat over the course of its 68 minutes and 10 seconds. Its scope and variety continually freshen the ear. It’s not just great Metheny but a remarkable achievement in that bugaboo of jazz composers everywhere — extended form.

5 Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano | I HAVE THE ROOM ABOVE HER | ECM | Lovano and Frisell had their own excellent recordings as leaders this year, but this might be the most satisfying. The trio’s relationship goes back decades, and as abstract as these free-flowing tracks get, they never lose their boppish pulse. Credit that to Motian — his softest brush-on-cymbal stroke could move mountains.

6 Me’Shell NdegéOcello | The Spirit Music of Jamia: Dance of the Infidel | Shanachie | After years of flirting with pop stardom on Madonna’s Maverick label, bassist/vocalist NdegéOcello released this mostly instrumental CD, her first real jazz album. No, you won’t find walking bass with swinging ride cymbals, but there’s a loose-limbed jazzy approach to R&B, a trip-hoppy elegance in the electronic effects. At times the session has the feel of one of Miles Davis’s ambient early electric jams. But the album is too quirky to be a cop. NdegéOcello prefers arrangements — form — to mere jams. Here and in a crackling live show at the Paradise she and her band made contemporary jazz that deserves to be popular.

7 HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD | The great noir explorer Ran Blake accompanied some of his favorite movie scenes at the Regattabar (solo and with a small group) and released a duo recording with guitarist David " Knife " Fabris, Indian Winter (Soul Note) — 23 covers and originals, from Ornette’s " Sadness " and Weill’s " Speak Low " to Ray Charles’s " Hallelujah, I Love Her So. " The pianist/composer showed again why he’s one of Boston’s best natural resources. Dave Douglas brought his latest take on electro-jazz-funk into the realm of silent-film comedian Roscoe " Fatty " Arbuckle with Keystone (Greenleaf Music) and his own not-so-silent picture show at the R-Bar.

8 Danilo PérEz Trio | Live at the Jazz Showcase | ArtistShare | Panamanian-born pianist Pérez came to the fore as a masterful fusionist of Latin and jazz forms. Working with Wayne Shorter and in his superb trio with bassist Ben Street and drummer Adam Cruz, he’s achieved new freedom. This set shows the trio at the top of their game, cohesive and unpredictable.

9 Charles Lloyd | JUMPING THE CREEK | ECM | The now-67-year old saxophonist, flutist, and composer continued his late-career flowering with this quartet date featuring pianist Gerri Allen, bassist Robert Hurst, and drummer Eric Harland. Lloyd is imbued with Coltrane-like mysticism and ferocity and a bebopper’s sense of flow and form. When he’s not working up a Trane-ish fury, the phrases are tumbling out of his horn with rough-hewn spontaneity and perfection. He followed up with a powerful Saturday closing set at the JVC Newport Jazz Festival.

10 John Stein | INTERPLAY | Azica | Guitarist Stein took a break from his organ-funk projects for an album of standards (and one original) that shows why — for exceptional players — the fount of mainstream jazz is inexhaustible. Here it’s a true ensemble effort, emphasizing subtle ongoing three-way conversation among Stein and the popular Boston rhythm team of bassist John Lockwood and drummer Yoron Israel. Those standards — and jazz itself — never sounded more fresh.