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, saxophonist Art Pepper, pianist Oscar Peterson, drummer Dom Um Romão, and all-around performer Sammy Davis, Jr. Haynes almost lived to see it; he died last year at 99. The others died years ago. But if you've never listened to Haynes' Out Of The Afternoon, or Ammons' Boss Tenor, or Pepper's Meets The Rhythm Section, it's never too late to catch up.
As usual, we lost a number of notable performers. The dead included pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn, vibraphonist Roy Ayers, vocalist Andy Bey, tuba player Joe Daley, critic Francis Davis, drummer Jack DeJohnette, percussionist Aïyb Dieng, bassist Ray Drummond, drummer Al Foster, pianist Hal Galper, saxophonist Bunky Green, bassist Anthony Jackson, drummer Sven-Åke Johansson, vocalist Sheila Jordan, trumpeter Chuck Mangione, pianist Jim McNeely, trumpeter Sei Miguel, drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo, bassist Don Moore, pianist and bandleader Eddie Palmieri, multi-instrumentalist and composer Hermeto Pascoal, composer Lalo Schifrin, and kora player Foday Musa Suso, among many others.
But what kind of condition was the music in? Was it moving forward, moving backward, or standing still? Did any astonishing new talents emerge and reshape jazz in their own image? I wouldn't call 2025 a paradigm-shifting year the way 2015 was — that was the year we all discovered Kamasi Washington, after all — but there was plenty of great music made.
If anyone could be considered the defining artist of 2025, my vote would go to vibraphonist Patricia Brennan. She released one album of her own, Of The Near And Far, and was a key element on six others: Mary Halvorson's About Ghosts, Tomas Fujiwara's Dream Up, Adam O'Farrill's For These Streets, Dave Douglas's Alloy, Dan Weiss' Unclassified Affections, and Arturo O'Farrill's Mundoagua (Celebrating Carla Bley). There are a bunch of interesting vibe and mallet-instrument players around lately, including Joel Ross, Sasha Berliner, and Chien Chien Lu, as well as veterans like Stefon Harris and Warren Wolf. But Brennan, through her use of pedals and effects and her adventurous approach to composition, is taking the instrument into the future in ways nobody else is. Every time I see her name in an album's credits, I get excited, and you should too.
This may be pure vibecasting, but I feel like after the great surge of 2015-2017, jazz has maintained a small but steady cultural presence. Washington, Shabaka Hutchings, and a bunch of other performers brought people from hip-hop, R&B, and alt/indie rock into the clubs, and a decent number of them have stuck around, figuring out that this music has real pleasures to offer. It's not homework; it's music, and it can be enjoyed (or not) like any other music. I remain grateful to everyone who reads this column month after month, and welcome anyone showing up for the first time.
Anyway, let's get to it. I didn't cheat at all when assembling the list below — every album on it was reviewed in this column during the course of the year. It doesn't really tell a single overarching story; these are just 10 really, really good records, some of which display major compositional and arranging chops (Ahmed, Halvorson, Washington), some of which are a platform for brilliant playing (Shaw, Glover), some of which extend a tradition while others push the music in new directions. But every one of them brought me great pleasure as a listener this year, and it all fills me with anticipation for what 2026 will bring.
Trumpeter/composer Yazz Ahmed's music filters her Bahraini heritage through modern (as in, engaged with 21st century music) jazz, and her fourth album is her deepest and most immersive yet. It's designed to counter narratives about Arabic culture (and Arabic women in particular) and how Arabic music is used in Western entertainment, which is often stereotypical and insulting. The album, partly inspired by a 90-minute suite she composed, Alhaan Al Siduri (named for a character from the Epic of Gilgamesh), features more than a dozen musicians — and vocalists, for the first time in her catalog — blending traditional Arabic instrumentation, melodies, and rhythms with synthesizers, modern production techniques, and musical structures that draw from jazz, electronic music, and even hip-hop. The opening track, "She Stands On The Shore," features vocals by legendary Egyptian/Belgian singer Natacha Atlas. It's a beautiful, dreamlike album that will sweep you away if you let it.
Saxophonist Jaleel Shaw came out of Berklee in the early 2000s, one of a group of young players intent on pushing acoustic jazz forward. His debut album, Perspective, turned 20 this year; it featured Robert Glasper on piano, Lage Lund on guitar, Vicente Archer on bass, and Johnathan Blake on drums, with tenor saxophonist Mark Turner guesting on two tracks. Shaw has remained active as a sideman since, but only made two more albums as a leader, both on his own Changu label. Painter Of The Invisible is his first release under his own name since 2013, and it's great to have him back. Lawrence Fields is on piano, Ben Street on bass, and Joe Dyson on drums, Lage Lund returns on guitar for two tracks, and Sasha Berliner is on vibes on two others. This is high-level acoustic post-bop, with smart but emotionally potent tunes performed with extraordinary skill.
The ensemble on Dream Up might have been put together by drummer Tomas Fujiwara, but it's Patricia Brennan's album. The vibraphonist is the clear lead instrument on most tracks by what Fujiwara calls his Percussion Quartet, which also features Kaoru Watanabe on various Japanese drums (and flute) and Tim Keiper on percussion instruments from around the world. The pieces are built around rolling, interlocking patterns that shift as soon as you've gotten comfortable, but she floats, serene and melodic, in the middle of it all. At times, the music has illusory qualities; something Keiper plays on the opening title track sounds like an upright bass, but it's not. Another piece, "Komorebi," is so atmospheric it feels like walking out into a winter storm, but Brennan is there to guide you back. Other tracks, like "Ritual Pace," have gamelan-like qualities, and "Recollection Of A Dance" is built atop a martial rhythm.
Bassist Linda May Han Oh's powerful playing is immediately recognizable; she has a deep, woody tone and a highly physical approach (live, she often seems to be dancing with the instrument) that make her more of a driving force than a supporting player. Strange Heavens is arguably a return to her beginnings; her debut album, 2008's Entry, was also a trio date with Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet. Obed Calvaire was the drummer then; Tyshawn Sorey is present here. The compositions — 10 by Oh, plus versions of pianist Geri Allen's "Skin" and trombonist Melba Liston's "Just Waiting" — are loose and sketchy enough to give each member of the trio plenty of creative space. This is a collective work, but each person is as responsible as the other two for where the music might go, or choose not to go, at any moment. It's brilliantly human, interactive, immersive music.
Tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover's third album as a leader shares its title with legendary psychoanalyst Carl Jung's autobiography. There's also a track on the album called "No. 2," which is a Jungian term for "inner being," the introspective side of one's personality. Memories, Dreams, Reflections features Glover's working trio of bassist Tyrone Allen II and drummer Kayvon Gordon, plus guest cellist Lester St. Louis. It's a confident record made by a band that knows itself inside and out. These players are telling you exactly who they are, and in Glover's case, she's an old-school-ish saxophonist with a warm tone and a thoughtful way of phrasing melodies and solos that makes me think of Sonny Rollins or Joe Henderson. Her bandmates don't push her; instead, they create their own racket behind her, serving as complementary voices in what becomes a two-way, pushing-pulling conversation that's fascinating to eavesdrop on.
Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt has carved out an interesting lane for himself. On the one hand, he's a traditionalist, a player who operates in the lineage of skilled forebears like Freddie Hubbard or Terence Blanchard. But he's always been much more than that. He's made several albums that embraced electronics — one featuring a two-drummer band, one with a string quartet — and done other stuff besides. Woven features Jalen Baker on vibraphone, Misha Mendelenko on guitar, Leighton Harrell on bass, and Jared Spears on drums, plus one surprise element: Marie Ann Hedonia, an electronic musician from Baltimore who contributes modular synth atmospheres to four tracks, including "Rhapsody," which also features electronically treated vocals from Mar Vilaseca. Pelt's own playing, itself sometimes electronically warped, nestles amid the synths and hard-swinging acoustic backdrop, displaying the richness and melodic sense of disco-era Donald Byrd. This album puts the "modern" back in modern jazz.
The second duo album from pianist Vijay Iyer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith — who've been working together off and on since 2005 — is a darker, more ominous work than its predecessor, 2017's A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke. It's also more sonically varied than nine years ago, incorporating subtle electronics that occasionally mimic acoustic instruments but also add gentle rumbles, high-pitched sine waves and other hard-to-identify sounds, as well as piano and electric piano. Some pieces have the brooding quality of modern classical, while "Floating River Requiem (For Patrice Lumumba)" is a deep, bluesy rumble. "Sumud," a 12-minute soundscape, features gentle electronic melodies and shimmering keyboard accents, over which Smith embarks on a virtuosic solo journey, but there are also some electronic tones that create a feeling of suspended tension. Recorded in summer 2024, this is dark music well suited to dark times, though its insistent beauty offers, yes, defiance.
In 2022, guitarist Mary Halvorson released Amaryllis, in the process premiering a new group by the same name: trumpeter Adam O'Farrill, trombonist Jacob Garchik, vibraphonist Patricia Brennan, bassist Nick Dunston, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara. That group returned in 2024 on Cloudward, joined for one track by Laurie Anderson on violin, and they're back again on About Ghosts, augmented by alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins and tenor saxophonist Brian Settles. The eight tracks on About Ghosts are compositions. Not heads, not guided improvisations, though the members are given a lot of freedom to interpret the music. Halvorson nestles in the center, alongside Brennan's vibraphone and Dunston's bass, occasionally overdubbing a Pocket Piano synthesizer to keep listeners on their toes. The music has a romantic, dreamlike quality, but with a barbed edge — you're never sure if it's going to lurch sideways without warning. Amaryllis is one of the most intriguing and thrilling bands in jazz right now.
Kamasi Washington - Lazarus (Adult Swim Original Series Soundtrack) (Milan/Sony Music)
- [Spotify]
- [Apple Music]
- [Amazon]
Director Shinichirō Watanabe, the man behind legendary anime series Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, launched a new show, Lazarus, this year on Toonami and HBO Max, and hand-picked three artists he wanted to create music for it: electronic musician Bonobo, composer Floating Points, and saxophonist Kamasi Washington. Washington's soundtrack is the best by far, a 78-minute double LP performed with his usual crew of collaborators, though there are some new elements added to his immediately recognizable sound. There are the strings, choirs, soaring horn lines, swinging rock rhythms from the double drummers, and double and triple keyboards (piano, electric piano, and synth), plus screaming electric guitar, and some unexpected rhythmic swerves — "Cold Slaw" is set to a bouncing New Orleans beat. The album never feels like a cash-in; the heads are solid, everyone's playing at the peak of their powers, and there are some new and unexpected sonic touches.
Saxophonist Isaiah Collier made a lot of waves as the leader of his now-defunct group the Chosen Few. His music is socially engaged spiritual jazz, rooted in his hometown of Chicago, with elements of bebop, R&B, soul, gospel and free jazz, all combined to showcase the best aspects of each. His playing is emotional, but grounded, and structured in a way that allows you to follow his musical statements from beginning to end. And working with musicians decades his senior, as he does here, benefits him and us equally. Drummer William Hooker has been performing for almost 50 years, exploring free jazz, noise rock, and indescribable zones of pure sonic exploration. Bassist William Parker is a legend of avant-jazz who's played with everyone and led multiple projects, from trios to big bands. This double live set offers 90 minutes of glorious three-way interaction, two ascended masters supporting a new but very promising disciple.
