Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... After much consternation, I’ve managed to pare down a long list of fine jazz-improv recordings from 2025 to a top 10. So, apologies to Marshall Allen, The ...

It’s been a good year for jazz, diverse in every way—styles, influences, tastes, and demographics too. I didn’t aim the list to turn out this way, but four of the albums’ leaders are women, and five ...

Following up on 2024's outstanding Breaking Stretch (Pyroclastic), vibraphonist Brennan shows no signs of slowing down on Of the Near and Far, an enigmatic and gripping release which highlights ...

Assessing the best jazz albums of any current year could be a tricky affair. The tricky part lies in the term current, as during any given year there is a slew of reissued jazz albums that can ...

Rising young talents and revered veterans helped take jazz to a multitude of exciting new destinations in 2025. But the most notable debut album of the year, the aptly titled “New Dawn,” came from a ...

A year is an arbitrary time. The list is chronological by how they came to me. The albums that still stand out are Bone Bells (Pyroclastic Records) by Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson and the ...

The most compelling releases of the year reimagined hip-hop tracks, deep-rooted collaborations and longstanding inspirations. By Hank Shteamer In a year that saw the deaths of two leading drummers, ...

So... what kind of a year was 2025 for jazz? Well, it marked the centennial of saxophonist Gene Ammons, drummer Roy Haynes, critic Nat Hentoff, pianist Jutta Hipp ...