Best of Jazz

As the summer went by, the June 2026 new jazz selection has to become the new jazz selection for June, July, and August 2026. And although I am sorry for the delay, it somehow helped me make a heartfelt selection for two main reasons I would like to share.

First, for the first time in years, I have spent more time listening to my record collection than forthcoming releases. I listened to some albums I was wondering whether to discard — as it helps me keep a tight collection — but mostly to all my favorites, from 1959 to 2025. It made my summer such a wonderful, laid-back moment, filled with music I love. So I must admit that, while I know I am running this blog primarily to help discover the next albums that will be part of my/your best-ever list, the rush of trying to achieve it makes me miss a key goal: enjoying the ones I already have. I will definitely reclaim this goal, as it helps keep the outcome alive (listening to outstanding music we want to return to) and sets the bar.

Secondly, I had a lot more time to spend with these summer releases, and could easily notice the ones I was going back to naturally or not. By ‘naturally’, I mean the ones that I would instinctively select again, by pure hedonism, and by ‘ not ‘, I mean the ones that I was deciding to listen to again to make sure I was not missing something, or give it a fair number of spins before making a decision: the following list only features the natural ones.

So, after quite a long introduction just to say ‘sorry’, here is our jazz summer 2026 selection!

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June, July, and August 2026 – New Jazz Releases Selection

• Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (Exit) Knarr – Fly (Sauajazz)
• Lakecia Benjamin – We Dream (Artwork)
• SML – Spontaneous Music Live (International Anthem)
• Nduduzo Makhathini – The Myth We Choose (Blue Note)
• David Maranha, Rodrigo Amado – Desolation Row (Comets Coming)
• Mats Gustafsson, Kimmo Pohjonen – Two Balls Are Enough (Trost)
• Henry Threadgill, Vijay Iyer, Dafnis Prieto – Fifteen (Nonesuch)
• Angles 4 – Angles 4 (Relative Pitch Records)
• Punkt.Vrt.Plastik – Kompress (Intakt)
• Sullivan Fortner – Leave That In There (Artwork)

The albums are ordered by release dates.

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Typically, this one album got extra attention during the summer break, emerging as one that truly stood out, with a proper identity of its own, fully anchored in the forefront of today’s jazz, yet somehow feeling like something that was missing from the world. There is such personality in its unique combination of powerful, free-jazz execution, its sounds, and those all-and-none-at-once interactions that it feels almost impossible not to fall for it. There is chaos here, certainly, but even at its most explosive, the combination of masterful collective freedom, raw energy, and an almost instinctive sense of direction makes Fly feel immediately accessible and alive.

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: double bass; Amalie Dahl: alto, baritone saxophone; Karl Hjalmar Nyberg: tenor saxophone, electronics; Marta Warelis: piano; Jonathan F. Horne: guitar; Olaf Olsen: drums
Released June 5, 2026

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After Pursuance and Phoenix, perhaps We Dream is the logical next step: searching, surviving, and now imagining what could come next. And Lakecia Benjamin certainly doesn’t intend to dream alone.

The impressive cast could almost distract from what makes the album work. Terence Blanchard, Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, Chris Potter, Hiromi, Bilal, Kassa Overall, Tarriona “Tank” Ball, and others become different voices within Benjamin’s larger idea, through Jazz, R&B, hip-hop, spoken word, groove, and improvisation without much concern for where one is supposed to end and another begin. And perhaps that’s the most convincing thing about We Dream: if we are to dream of something better, we might as well dream big and together.

Lakecia Benjamin: alto saxophone, vocals; Elias Bailey: bass, tuba; Oscar Perez: piano, electric piano; Miki Hayama: synthesizer, organ; Jonathan Barber: drums; Jerome Jennings: drums; Richie Goods: bass; Jahmal Nichols: bass; Chris Rob: piano, organ, synthesizer; Nêgah Santos: percussion; Terence Blanchard: trumpet; Sean Jones: trumpet, flugelhorn; Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah: trumpet; Lessie Vonner: trumpet; Chris Potter: tenor saxophone; Hiromi: piano; Tarriona “Tank” Ball: vocals; Bilal: vocals; Kassa Overall: rap
Released June 21, 2026

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What exactly is spontaneous here? The playing, certainly—but perhaps also our way of hearing it. SML seems to ignore the distinction between improvisation and construction until it hardly seems relevant anymore. Grooves appear as if they had been carefully designed, sounds collide as if by accident, and repetition becomes a way of moving forward. Spontaneous Music Live feels like music discovering, through these artists and in real time, what it wants to become.

Anna Butterss: electric bass; Jeremiah Chiu: synthesizers, live-sampling, percussion; Josh Johnson: saxophone, electronics; Booker Stardrum: drums, percussion; Gregory Uhlmann: guitar, effects
Released June 26, 2026

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The Myth We Choose is simply a thing of beauty. There is such warmth, positivity, and generosity flowing through this music that listening to it feels almost naturally restorative. It seems to rebalance energy, gently putting things back where they belong and making the world feel a little more harmonious simply by being played. Beautiful.

Nduduzo Makhathini: piano, keyboards, synthesizer, vocals, vocoder, programming, handclaps; Dalisu Ndlazi: double bass, handclaps; Lukmil Pérez: drums, handclaps; Ayanda Sikade: drums; Robin Fassie-Kock: trumpet; Shabaka Hutchings: flute; Keenan Ahrends: guitar; Black Coffee: drum programming; Omagugu: vocals; Thando Zide: vocals; Muneyi: vocals
Released June 26, 2026

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This release made me think of Fernando Pessoa, reflecting on a quote by his heteronym Alberto Caeiro:

Because I am the size of what I see
And not the size of my own stature

These fellow Portuguese, David Maranha and Rodrigo Amado, make me feel much the same about what I hear. Thank you!

David Maranha: electric organ; Rodrigo Amado: tenor saxophone
Released August 7, 2026

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Raw energy, extraordinary presence, and an almost reckless openness to experimentation: Two Balls Are Enough feels like the inevitable meeting of two musicians for whom an instrument is never limited to what it is supposed to do. Gustafsson we know well, but Finnish accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen may be the revelation: an extraordinary performer who has spent decades pushing the accordion through electronics, effects, voice, improvisation, and sheer physicality into completely unexpected territories. Together, they test how far sound can be pushed. The result is wild, sometimes wonderfully excessive, and bursting with life.

Mats Gustafsson: slide, tenor, baritone, bass sax, Ab clarinet, flute, slide flute, live electronics, harmonica, organ; Kimmo Pohjonen: electro-acoustic accordion, voice
Released August 7, 2026

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Fifteen years. That is how long Henry Threadgill, Vijay Iyer and Dafnis Prieto played together before making their first recording as a trio. There is something beautiful and poetic about that, especially if, following Kundera, slowness can be tied to the act of remembering, and speed to the act of forgetting.

All three musicians are composers, all three bring very different musical languages, yet none seems required to surrender his own for the trio to make sense. Quite the opposite: as the compositions move from one mind to another, the identity of the music keeps shifting while the identity of the trio somehow grows stronger.

Henry Threadgill: saxophone, flute; Vijay Iyer: piano; Dafnis Prieto: drums
Released August 21, 2026

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From Angles 3 to Angles 4, having Mattias Ståhl as the +1 is such a treat–“European Boogie” on Injuries (Angles 9, 2014) has such an exceptionally groovy vibraphone introduction. And here, Ståhl also brings similarly inspired moments, as the quartet revisits material previously played by Angles in configurations of three, six, or nine musicians.

“Against the Permanent Revolution” was first heard on Beyond Us (Angles 9, Clean Feed, 2019); “Every Woman Is a Tree” and “The Indispensable Warlords” on Every Woman Is a Tree (Angles, Clean Feed, 2008); and “Satan in Plain Clothes” on Parede (Angles 3, Clean Feed, 2018). Hearing these compositions again, reshaped by this amazing quartet, reminds us how much life and potential there is in Küchen’s compositions as the scale, the players, and the space around them change.

And, almost inadvertently, this little journey through Angles’ past also reminds us how much Clean Feed contributed to the music we love and how deeply we will miss them (even if they have now released a posthumous album).

Martin Küchen: saxophones; Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: double bass; Mattias Ståhl: vibraphone; Kjell Nordeson: drums
Released August 21, 2026

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A clear favorite of the summer. Their first two releases were impressive. Their 2022 live album was outstanding. And this new studio album might be even better, as it carries the same intensive, avant-gardiste, one-of-a-kind sound, while their sound mutates through the 11 tracks to something that strongly enriches the whole experience, all the way down to the “Mera Punkt”, which is definitely less than more, just to rebound bebop and half-close with “VRT”, in such a hard cut. We are now missing the “Plastik” to finish the band name; maybe their next release?

Kaja Draksler: piano; Petter Eldh: bass; Christian Lillinger: drums
Released August 28, 2026

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There is a lot to coexist here: piano trio, Hammond B3, synthesizers, marimba and Bàtá drums, with references stretching from Thelonious Monk to George Duke. But perhaps that is what makes this one such a personal record: Fortner is showing us that moving forward doesn’t necessarily require leaving anything behind.

Sullivan Fortner: piano; Tyrone Allen II: bass; Kayvon Gordon: drums
Released August 28, 2026

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Playlist

Listen to these tracks on our Spotify playlist.

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New Jazz Releases June, July, and August 2026

And that is it for this June, July, and August jazz selection.

There will always be more new music than any of us can properly hear, let alone absorb, and perhaps the records that matter most are not necessarily the ones we immediately decide are important, innovative, or worthy of a list. They may simply be the ones we find ourselves wanting to hear again.

That was ultimately the filter behind this selection: the desire to return. And spending part of the summer with old favorites was a useful reminder of what these new releases are really competing with: not the other records released this month, but all the music we already love enough to keep playing years, or even decades, later.

Which of these summer 2026 albums will still belong there? I obviously don’t know yet. But these are the ones that, for now, keep asking me to come back. What about you?