The following selection is our definitive “Best Jazz Albums of 2024” list. The selection is divided into albums featuring solos, duets, trios, quartets, quintets, and larger ensembles, with three selections per category, for a total of 18 albums. We also have one category for “Artist of the Year”, and one for “Archive of the Year”, thereby adding two albums to the final selection, for a grand total of 20 albums that sum up how great 2024 was for jazz.

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Foreword

The first months of a new year bring the same feeling of exhaustion in the face of a task that must be endlessly restarted, which seems, towards the end of winter, exhausting, draining, and interminable: selecting, listening, and listing music albums to compare and judge them. It doesn’t make sense.

And then, as the weeks go by, new exceptional albums emerge and revive within us the indescribable experience that only music can create: a more or less balanced mix of all emotions and sensations, a unique blend of vibrations that exists outside of us, but which, strangely, can also resonate within us.

When music touches us, it is as if the notes enter into complete harmony with our brain, our heart, or our belly–ideally all three at once–to possess us entirely. Or rather, to make us one with the music and all the other people who are also touched by this music, incredibly, as if by enchantment: the experience is shared and needs nothing more than a glance to understand that the pleasure is just as intense in that other touched person, like a simplification of human connection.

So, as the year progresses, comes this strange need to list and promote again, as if to shout one’s love from the rooftops. As if to say that something, right here, just a few clicks away from us, or a few steps, is available and that it is magnificent, and that it will dazzle us, move us, amaze us, or bring us countless other feelings.

And it must be shouted, for it is strangely easier to do nothing than to make the effort to listen to new music. Discovering new music requires attention, time, and openness for something that may end up being nothing, like a gamble, whose reward is often uncertain, complex, and sometimes hidden. So yes, it must be shouted, published, and shared, because it is important to motivate.

One can easily live without what one does not know. And obviously, we can live an entire life without ever having listened to A Love Supreme. But all those who have listened to it and adored it should tell you that thanks to it, life is more beautiful, or more complete, simply because this music exists, because the experience of exceptional music contributes to making life exceptional.

There it is. The ambition of this list, beyond promoting exceptional artists, is to share with you what I sincerely hope will contribute to making your life something more beautiful, more grand, more complete, thanks to the unique experience that listening to these exceptional pieces of music offers.

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Best Jazz Albums 2024

I – Solo Albums

With To Be Other-Wise, Sylvie Courvoisier creates a deeply intimate yet expansive world that provokes and enchants in equal measure. Rooted in her masterful piano work, the album beautifully blends contemporary classical, avant-garde jazz, and raw emotion. Each piece shifts between moments of delicate beauty and stark intensity, with every note and phrase seeming carefully played to evoke the entirety of everything.

Indeed, this profound, intimate release is the perfect choice to open our year-end selection.

Sylvie Courvoisier: piano

Released October 18, 2024

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You’re Never Really Alone is of an ethereal tranquility. For each note—used so sparingly—Jonah Parzen-Johnson finds a texture that envelops, absorbs, and enchants. The music is beautiful, direct, accessible, with a minimalism that never becomes too little, and a sound perfectly balanced, both sharp and deep at once.

Jonah Parzen-Johnson: baritone saxophone, flute

Released March 8, 2024

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The music is cold, even brutal, but it is also whole and sincere, deeply. Beyond the mouth sounds—which are actually pulled off—and preparations on the instrument, what makes this solo stand out is certainly the way Ada Rave plays with sounds as much as with silences. The way she uses quietness and pauses so beautifully, with confidence and determination–or avoids them completely at times–adds even more strength and volume to everything she has to share with us.

Ada Rave: tenor saxophone (+ preparations), soprano, sopranino

Released June 7, 2024

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II – Duet Albums

This extraordinary duet marks Wadada Leo Smith and Amina Claudine Myers’s first recorded collaboration and involvement since their early years as key members of the iconic Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).

Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths, and Gardens, is breathtakingly beautiful. It is just plain delicacy, yet heavily and meaningfully charged, in a way that only master musicians can unfold.

Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet; Amina Claudine Myers: piano / Hammond B3

Released May 10, 2024

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This music envelops the listener, creating an experience that is both organic and profoundly immersive. There is that isolated voice, wrapped in something mysterious, omnipresent, more than often even pressing, and always indescribable. And the voice makes itself heard, participating, as in a beautiful duet, playing along, even though stressed, rather than staying quiet.

Read the full review: Wrecks

David Maranha: electric organ; Rodrigo Amado: saxophone

Released October 25, 2024

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“These two improvising pianists have wordless ways of communicating and intuitive ways of finding consensus, whether they are dealing with very basic things or huge amounts of detail. They work on their combined music like two sculptors chiselling on the same sculpture. Sometimes everything is quite clear, sometimes it is impossible to distinguish who is in the foreground and who is in the background, who is playing on the left and who is on the right.”
–ACT

Michael Wollny: piano; Joachim Kühn: piano

Released January 26, 2024

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III – Trio Albums

Compassion is the second release by the Vijay Iyer Trio after Uneasy (ECM, April 2021). Moving from dedicating an album to expressing worry or discomfort about a particular situation, the trio now transitions—logically—to showing concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.

The music is as powerful and vivid as a splendid sunrise, filling your life with light, and reminding you that the world is, despite everything, a magnificent promise just waiting to come true.

Read our review Vijay Iyer Trio – Compassion

Vijay Iyer: piano; Linda May Han Oh: double bass; Tyshawn Sorey: drums

Released February 2, 2024

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The album invites us to fully immerse ourselves in the moment, with attention that’s complete yet never stressed. This is where the music’s true magic lies: it captivates, yet never overwhelms. It draws us in with its calmness, proving that a tranquil soundscape doesn’t limit the richness of the playing.

Discover our full review: The Susceptible Now

Tyshawn Sorey: drums, arrangements; Aaron Diehl: piano; Harish Raghavan: double bass

Released October 11, 2024

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Darius Jones’s Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) explores Black mental health and trauma. Featuring Jones on alto sax, with Gerald Cleaver and Chris Lightcap on drums and bass, the album reflects themes of healing, freedom, and personal growth. The expression is as unique as it is powerful, making it a perfect addition to his Man’ish Boy series, while also standing so very strong on its own.

Darius Jones: alto saxophone; Gerald Cleaver: drums; Chris Lightcap: bass

Released October 4, 2024

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IV – Quartet Albums

After their Nights on Saturn (communication), part of our Best Jazz 2021, [Ahmed]’s Giant Beauty captures their five-night residency at Fylkingen during a 2022 festival in Stockholm, Sweden. Each night–each CD–unveils a new tune, deconstructed and reimagined, reflecting a journey through a unique musical landscape. With a perfect mix of free jazz and experimentation, it’s a profound and magnificent exploration of the music of composer, bassist, and oud player Ahmed Abdul-Malik (1927-1993).

Pat Thomas: piano; Seymour Wright: alto saxophone; Joel Grip: double bass; Antonin Gerbal: drums

Released April 8, 2024

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“Knowledge of music making, of music theory, of how to use the instrument, is not all there is to music. There is also intuition, from pure experience of this world. The music of knowing thyself is perhaps the grand music for which we have no words, in front of which we are floored.“
–Blue Note on The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow

Backed by an all-star lineup including pianist/composer Jason Moran, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Brian Blade, Charles Lloyd weaves fluid magic through impressionism, post-bop glory, and inventive and soulful performances; discreetly perfect.

Charles Lloyd: tenor saxophone, flute; Brian Blade: drums; Larry Grenadier: bass; Jason Moran: piano

Released March 15, 2024

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ØKSE’s self-titled album ØKSE blends avant-garde jazz with hip-hop. Featuring the talents of Savannah Harris (drums), Mette Rasmussen (saxophone), Petter Eldh (bass), and Val Jeanty (turntables), the album integrates live instrumentation and rap vocals perfectly. While this fusion has been explored before, ØKSE manages to find a mesmerizing balance, pushing it to the hardcore side of both genres, resulting in this outstanding outcome.

Mette Rasmussen: saxophone; Val Jeanty: sound designer, turntables; Petter Eldh: bass, sampler, synths; Setter Harris: drums | Featuring ELUCID, Billy Woods, Maassai, Cavalier

Released August 9, 2024

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V – Quintet Albums

Small Medium Large draws influences from a wide range of genres, including experimental jazz, electronic, krautrock, post-dub, post-punk, psychedelic, and trance. The result is a sound that feels both unheard and surprisingly comfortable, yet strangely familiar. With Anna Butterss and Josh Johnson, members of Jeff Parker’s ETA IVtet (featured on this year’s fantastic The Way Out of Easy and 2022‘s brilliant Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy), it gives you a hint of the unique and abstract direction this quintet is heading toward.

Anna Butterss: electric bass; Jeremiah Chiu: synthesizers, live-sampling, aux percussion; Josh Johnson: saxophone, electronics; Booker Stardrum: drums, percussion; Gregory Uhlmann: guitar, effects

Released June 28, 2024

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With musicians such as Matt Mitchell and Tyshawn Sorey grounding the band with Kim Cass (the 13 tracks are mostly played as a quintet, only 3 as a trio) Levs is for sure an exploration of complexity and innovation, where every note feels at the same time super specific and completely alive. It goes fast, in all direction, prodigiously, and we love it!

Kim Cass: bass, sampling; Matt Mitchell: piano and prophet-6; Tyshawn Sorey: drums; Laura Cocks: flutes; Adam Dotson: euphonium

Released June 28, 2024

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Reverence is the perfect live session we all seek at least once a year—immersed in the comfort of our favorite jazz club (that night, it was at Smoke Jazz Club, New York City), enjoying the music we love. It feels timeless, far from modern trends, and that moment–as much as Reverence–is very much connected to the pleasure of witnessing extraordinary musicians doing what they do best: jazz.

“The title of REVERENCE may be intended to reflect the way that McPherson feels towards his late bandmates; it also vividly captures the deep respect felt towards the master saxophonist by his current bandmates – not to mention generations of jazz fans. More than six decades into a remarkable career, few command and deserve our reverence quite like Charles McPherson.”
–On Reverence Bandcamp Page

Charles McPherson: alto saxophone; Terell Stafford: trumpet; Jeb Patton: piano; David Wong: bass; Billy Drummond: drums

Released April 26, 2024

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VI – Larger Ensembles Albums

Ches Smith’s Laugh Ash clearly rebels against expectations (is this really an album led by a drummer?). It continuously surprises, yet grounds us with its coherence. The album is a mix of stark chamber melodies with pulsating synthetic rhythms, explosive improvisations, and unpredictable song structures, pulling us into an experience that is as thrilling as it is disorienting. With vocalist Shara Lunon and a lineup of virtuosos (such as Anna Webber or James Brandon Lewis), Smith’s compositions are rich, minimal, and extreme all at once, and always pushing his own distinct creativity.

Ches Smith: electronics, programming, vibes, drums, tubular bells, glockenspiel, timpani, tam tam, metal percussion; Shara Lunon: voice and vocal processing; Anna Webber: flute; Oscar Noriega: clarinets; James Brandon Lewis: tenor saxophone; Nate Wooley: trumpet; Jennifer Choi: violin; Kyle Armbrust: viola; Michael Nicolas: cello; Shahzad Ismaily: bass, keyboards

Released February 2, 2024

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For Colouring Hockets, John Hollenbeck collaborated with the esteemed NDR Bigband—one of the most respected big bands in Europe. Alongside the ensemble’s brass and woodwinds, he integrated additional percussion from Patricia Brennan and Matt Moran. This approach results in a dynamic, immersive blend of complex rhythms so profoundly satisfying.

John Hollenbeck: drums, timpani; Patricia Brennan: vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel, crotales, timpani; Matt Moran: vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel, tapan; JC Sanford: Conductor

NDR Bigband—Thorsten Benkenstein, Ingolf Burkhardt, Christian Höhn, Percy Pursglove: trumpet; Fiete Felsch: Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Clarinet, Flute, Alto Flute; Peter Bolte: Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute; Julius Gawlik: Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet; Frank Delle: Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet; Luigi Grasso: Baritone Saxophone, Bass Clarinet; Dan Gottshall, Klaus Heidenreich, Stefan Lottermann: trombone; Ingo Lahme: bass trombone; Sandra Hempel: guitar; Ingmar Heller: bass; Florian Weber: piano, Rhodes; Marcio Doctor: percussion

Released November 15, 2024

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This is intense music, coldly logical yet deeply emotional, always tense, and, rooted in rhythm, grooving like hell. It moves seamlessly between the smooth and the extreme, the delicate and the complex, creating something that is both dramatic and mesmerizing. Patricia Brennan explained, “I wanted to push the music and the musicians almost to the breaking point,” and it pays off. The tension is nearly tangible, stretching to the breaking point, always one note away from release, making Breaking Stretch utterly unpausable.

Patricia Brennan: vibraphone with electronics, marimba; Jon Irabagon: alto and sopranino saxophones; Mark Shim: tenor saxophone; Adam O’Farrill: trumpet; Kim Cass: bass; Marcus Gilmore: drums; Mauricio Herrera: percussion

Released September 6, 2024

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Artist of the Year

Matthew Shipp could have been part of every single categories of our selection: he had a stelar solo release on Rogueart (The Data), a breathtaking duet with Ivo Perelman (Magical Incantation), a mind-blowing trio release (see hereunder), and played in many other constellations.

So yes, Matthew Sheep is our artist of the year, and to showcase his year, we selected this extraordinary release:

New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz ignores expectations, surpassing even their acclaimed World Construct. Shipp sees it as a culmination of their evolution, praising drummer Newman Taylor Baker and bassist Michael Bisio’s synergy. He hints it might be their ultimate achievement, “because it really cannot get better than this.”

And yes, this album is mind-blowing! The improvisations are off-the-charts brilliant, and the interplay between the three artists is just magical.

Matthew Shipp: piano; Michael Bisio: bass; Newman Taylor Baker: drums

Released April 5, 2024

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Archive of the Year

This album is breathtaking. The two hours of exhilarating music in this concert represent a historic moment created by free jazz legends Charles Gayle, Milford Graves, and William Parker, capturing the unfiltered energy of a transformative experience.

Their performances at the Webo venue were pivotal in the 1990s free jazz revival, yet no recordings were released until now. This beautiful release includes liner notes by Parker, insights from Alan Licht, a replica concert flyer, and photos from the 2021 Webo reunion (see the Bandcamp page).

Charles Gayle: tenor saxophone; Milford Graves: drums, vocals; William Parker: bass

Released June 21, 2024

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Best Jazz 2024

• Solo
  • Sylvie Courvoisier – To Be Other​-​Wise (Intakt Records)
  • Jonah Parzen-Johnson – You’re Never Really Alone (We Jazz Records)
  • Ada Rave – In search of a real world (Relative Pitch Records)
• Duet
  • Wadada Leo Smith, Amina Claudine Myers – Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens (Red Hook Records)
  • David Maranha, Rodrigo Amado – Wrecks (Nariz Entupido)
  • Michael Wollny, Joachim Kühn – Duo (ACT)
• Trio
  • Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, Tyshawn Sorey – Compassion (ECM)
  • Tyshawn Sorey Trio – The Susceptible Now (Pi Recordings)
  • Darius Jones – Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) (AUM Fidelity)
• Quartet
  • أحمد [Ahmed] – Giant Beauty (fönstret)
  • Charles Lloyd – The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow (Blue Note)
  • ØKSE – ØKSE (BackwoodzStudioz)
• Quintet
  • SML – Small Medium Large (International Anthem)
  • Kim Cass – Levs (Pi Recordings)
  • Charles McPherson – Reverence (Smoke Sessions Records)
• Larger Ensemble
  • Ches Smith – Laugh Ash (Pyroclastic Records)
  • John Hollenbeck & NDR Bigband – Colouring Hockets (Flexatonic Records)
  • Patricia Brennan – Breaking Stretch (Pyroclastic Records)
• Artist of the Year
  • Matthew Shipp
• Archive Of The Year
  • Charles Gayle, Milford Graves, William Parker – WEBO (Black Editions Archive)

…and the Playlist:
Listen to our “Best Jazz 2024” playlist (link to Spotify) with all the monthly new-release selections and excerpts of the above albums (when available) for a total of (soon) 120 breathtaking tracks.

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Thank you

Thank you everyone for reading this article!

Thank you to all musicians—whether listed here or not—for creating music!