Discover the Best of Jazz selection for 1998 with our ten best jazz albums released that year. Once again, the albums are listed in no particular order: all are amazing in their own ways. At the end of the article, you will also find a playlist with a track to represent each of those ten albums, plus ten extra, for more than two hours of breath-taking music.

The 10 Best Jazz Albums of 1998

“Rhumbata” on Like Minds won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo in 1999, but this album is full of amazing solos, by amazing musicians.

Gary Burton: vibraphone; Chick Corea: piano; Pat Metheny: guitar; Roy Haynes: drums; Dave Holland: double bass
Released 1998
Contemporary Jazz

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“It is a stunning work, really, that showcases Shipp at the height of his compositional and improvisational powers, and points the way to the flowering of his vast talent as an arranger as well.”
— Thom Jurek, All Music

Matthew Shipp: piano; Roy Campbell: trumpet, pocket trumpet; Daniel Carter: alto sax, tenor sax, flute, trumpet; William Parker: bass
Released 1998
Space-Age Jazz

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“Led by John Lurie’s sardonic alto and soprano saxophone playing, the band embraces West African music, expositions from New Orleans, and interludes of wicked gamelan. Simultaneously sarcastic and spiritual, this is an unorthodox album that those who aren’t jazz fans should be able to enjoy.”
— Mitch Myers

John Lurie: alto saxophone, tenor saxophone; Erik Sanko: bass; Jane Scarpantoni: cello; Calvin Weston: drums; Ben Perowsky: percussion; Evan Lurie: piano, organ; David Tronzo: slide guitar; Michael Blake: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet; Steven Bernstein: trumpet.
Released March 15, 1998

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Permutation is Amon Tobin’s third album, released in 1998 on Ninja Tune. On it, Amon Tobin creates a jazz mood with each track, which is crafted with turntables, music samples, and jungle rhythms.

Amon Tobin: Written-By, Producer
Released June 1, 1998
Leftfield, Drum n Bass, Future Jazz

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This album is a tribute to Cuban master Arsenio Rodriguez, and it does so beautifully. The sound is perfect, the rhythms captivating: Marc and his Prosthetic Cubans are just astonishing.

Marc Ribot: guitar, trumpet, vocals; Brad Jones: bass; EJ Rodriguez: percussion, vocals; Robert J. Rodriguez: claves, drums, percussion, vocals (all but (6)); John Medeski: organ, Mellotron (2,4,5,8); Anthony Coleman: organ (3,6); Madeline Hunt-Ehrlich, Mattan Ingram, Miles Ingram: vocals (4); Gregory Ribot: baritone saxophone (10).
Released June 16, 1998
Afro-Cuban Jazz

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This album, released by Herbie Hancock in February 1999, won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance. Most of the compositions are by George and Ira Gershwin to whom the album pays homage, with the notable exception of the second movement of the concerto in G, composed by Maurice Ravel.

“On this record, we worked very hard to personalize the Gershwin material while staying true to the spirit of jazz. Anyone can play the straight Gershwin tunes. Our intentions were to reach inside to the core of each piece in search of the composer’s original impulses, and to take those elements and recompose and reconstruct them in our own way.”
— Herbie Hancock

Gershwin’s World is one of the 10 best Herbie Hancock albums.

Herbie Hancock: arranger, organ, piano; [see entire list]
Released October 20, 1998
Genre: Post-Bop, Contemporary Jazz

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Certainly a preservationist, definitely a provocateur, but mostly a divine trumpeter. Nicholas Payton is the savior of archaic pop.

Nicholas Payton: trumpet; Reuben Rogers: bass; Adonis Rose: drums; Anthony Wonsey: piano; Tim Warfield: tenor saxophone.
Released June 9, 1998
Jazz

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Certainly, the most delicate and beautiful album of this selection.

“There is no glib fusion of traditions on Thimar but rather a coming together of three very distinctive musicians who sacrifice none of their individuality in the search for common ground. Arab classical music and jazz are the reference points here, but Anouar Brahem, John Surman, and Dave Holland meet as improvisers not limited by genre definition.”
— ECM

Anouar Brahem: oud; John Surman: soprano saxophone, bass clarinet; Dave Holland: double-bass
Released May 18, 1998
Contemporary Jazz

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Best Jazz 1998 – Albums List

• Akosh S. Unit – Imafa (Barclay)
• The Seatbelts – Cowboy Bebop (Victor)
• Burton, Corea, Metheny, Haynes, Holland – Like Minds (Concord Records)
• Matthew Shipp Horn Quartet – Strata (hatOLOGY)
• The Lounge Lizards – Queen Of All Ears (Strange & Beautiful Music)
• Amon Tobin – Permutation (Ninja Tune)
• Marc Ribot Y Los Cubanos Postizos – Marc Ribot Y Los Cubanos Postizos (The Prosthetic Cubans) (Atlantic)
• Herbie Hancock – Gershwin’s World (Verve Records)
• Nicholas Payton – Payton’s Place (Verve Records)
• Anouar Brahem, John Surman, Dave Holland – Thimar (ECM Records)

The 1990s

Discover all the other 1990s jazz selections: 1990 – 1991 – 1992 – 1993 – 1994 – 1995 – 1996 – 1997 – 1999

Playlist “Best Jazz 1998”

Here is a link to the Spotify Playlist Best Jazz 1998, with a track for each album listed above. Plus, a bonus ten tracks from ten other amazing 1998 jazz albums, including John Scofield with “A Go Go”, Bill Frisell, Joshua Redman, Per ‘Texas’ Johansson, and more.

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