We can already tell that the end-of-year selection for 2025 is going to be a tough call, especially in the duet category. During the first three months of the year—January, February, and March—an overwhelming number of outstanding duo albums have been released. This is great news for us–jazz enthusiasts–but it also means we will face a real challenge when the time comes to decide which ones stand out the most (though isn’t that always the case?).

This year’s opening quarter has set a high bar. In this post, we will explore the albums that have already captured our attention and perhaps set the tone for the rest of the year. So, here it is, our selection of jazz for January, February, & March 2025.

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January, February, & March 2025 Selection

The following selection is listed chronologically by release date:

Yikes Too is a major moment—not just because it’s the latest Tim Berne release, but because it marks the long-overdue debut of his new trio with Tom Rainey and Gregg Belisle-Chi. This double album, split between a studio session at Firehouse 12 and a raging live set from Seattle, delivers everything you would hope for from a Berne-led project: intricate compositions, fearless improvisation, and that unmistakable sense of urgency. This is Berne at 70—restless, inventive, and as essential as ever.

Tim Berne: alto saxophone; Tom Rainey: drums; Gregg Belisle-Chi: guitar
Released January 17, 2025

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Satoko Fujii is releasing two albums so far this year: Dream a Dream, the first studio album with her Tokyo Trio, out March 28 via Libra Records; and the extraordinary Altitude 1100 Meters, marking another first, as Fujii had never before written music for string ensembles.

It was written in 2023, in the Japanese highlands, at the end of the summer, and even if the five parts of the suite are named for different times of day, “the music isn’t meant to be a musical picture of the mountain landscape […] it’s about how the air made me feel at those times” underlines Satoko Fujii.

The inspiration behind this album is already unique—capturing the texture of the air, how it felt to breathe it, and how it changed depending on the time of day. But you truly need to listen to this music to appreciate how beautifully Fujii structured and composed it. The strings take center stage, conveying tension, lightness, and textured inhalations in a distinctly contemporary style. Rhythms are introduced only when necessary, and Fujii is playing her piano sparingly, as if it was the biggest oxygen consumer, monopolizing the air once in motion, leaving a stillness in its wake and a sense of quiet extenuation at the very end.

Satoko Fujii: piano; Yuriko Mukoujima, Ayako Kato: violin; Atsuko Hatano: viola, electronics; Hiroshi Yoshino: bass; Akira Horikoshi: drums
Released January 24, 2025

Discover next Satoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura – Aloft

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If you also found Origami Harvest exceptional, you will be delighted with this new album, as Ambrose Akinmusire returns to a similar place where jazz, hip-hop, and classical merge to bring depth and resonance, weight and beauty.

“This album is about the fears and struggles I personally face, as well as those many Black men endure: colorism, erasure, and the question of who gets to speak for my community, and why. There’s also the constant negotiation of what happens when I don’t conform to certain expectations or when I choose to reject those imposed on me. These are the complexities I navigate daily. When I made this album, I was thinking about others who face these same struggles. I’m always considering who I represent—on all levels, in all the roles I play within my various communities. It’s about understanding the weight of those roles and the responsibility that comes with them. Some of these ideas didn’t require direct conversation. The experience is so universally understood that words become unnecessary.”
–Ambrose Akinmusire

Ambrose Akinmusire: trumpet; Kokayi: vocals; Sam Harris: piano; Chiquitamagic: synths; Dustin Brown: drums | Mivos Quartet Olivia De Prato, Maya Bennardo: violin; Victor Lowrie Tafoya: viola; Nathan Watts: cello
Released January 31, 2025

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Same, if WEBO moved you last year, you’ll love this new release featuring William Parker, William Hooker, and Isaiah Collier.

The title, The Ancients, marks an intriguing shift in perspective. With a lineup blending historical and new key figures, the music embodies the spirit of spiritual jazz and energy music, the intense free jazz, deeply tied to black cultural expression and freedom. Yet, the name suggests something more: a transition from being the “new thing” to carrying forward a powerful, living tradition.

Isaiah Collier: tenor saxophone, Aztec death whistle, siren, little instruments; William Hooker: drums, vocals; William Parker: bass, hojǒk, singing
Released January 31, 2025

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Brandon Lopez, a mainstay of 577 Records and the NYC improvisation scene, is known for pulling sound from the ether and reshaping it with intensity and intuition. DoYeon Kim, making her label debut, shreds, bends, and deconstructs the gayageum in ways few have imagined. Their interplay is explosive yet deeply attuned, pushing the limits of dialogue, texture, and expression. At times meditative, at others pure chaos, with intricate sounds perfectly intertwined, Syzygy, Vol. 1 is deeply satisfying.

Brandon Lopez: bass; DoYeon Kim: gayageum
Released January 31, 2025

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It’s different—very different. But it’s also playful, intriguing, and beautifully done. Gravity by Joona Toivanen Trio is an album that surprises at every turn, balancing exploration with elegance. Above all, it’s a record that demands to be discovered without delay.

“We really wanted to try out different things in the studio. It was a kind of sonic exploration: what kind of sounds could we create together as a trio? We wanted to go beyond the classic piano-bass-drums-idiom and see the possibilities we could do as three musicians playing whatever instruments and sounds we had at hand.”
–Joona Toivanen

Joona Toivanen: piano; Tapani Toivanen: bass; Olavi Louhivuori: drums
Released January 31, 2025

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Parallel Aesthetics is a perfect way to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Fundacja Słuchaj—a fearless and deeply artistic collaboration between two of the most singular voices in contemporary improvisation.

Perelman and Sorey create a dialogue where distinct languages merge into something entirely new. True to its title, the album presents two independent approaches that, when combined, form a third, unexpected aesthetic—a space where melody and rhythm continuously evolve, and where raw intensity and delicate lyricism exist in perfect balance.

Ivo Perelman: tenor sax; Tyshawn Sorey: drums, piano
Released February 4, 2025

Discover next The Susceptible Now by Tyshawn Sorey Trio

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Apple Cores finds the James Brandon Lewis Trio in full stride—rooted in tradition yet always pushing forward. There’s a clear reverence for Don Cherry, not through direct musical or instrumental references, but through a more diffuse, essential allusion. Yet, the energy is unmistakably Lewis’s own.

“The record itself is a nod to Amiri but mainly a nod to Don Cherry, using Amiri as a branch to really get the conversation going. It’s not a tribute in the sense that we’re playing Don Cherry compositions, but that the music is commenting on his musical curiosity. […] This album also picks up the conversation where my 2015 album Days of FreeMan left off. I covered a Don Cherry piece “Bamako Love” from his 1985 album Home Boy (Sister Out). That album exposed me to Don’s risk-taking with his attempts to rap.”
–James Brandon Lewis

James Brandon Lewis: saxophone; Chad Taylor: drums, mbira; Josh Werner: bass, guitar
Released February 7, 2025

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The Ruin is a beautiful electro-acoustic production, grounded on a piano-bass-drum trio, enhanced with the string quartet Ligeti, Shabaka Hutchings as a special guest, and haunted by old iPhone recordings of past piano improvisations. The album procures a mix of somehow aged sounds with so pleasantly modern ones, perfectly capturing Galvin’s vision—music “inspired by the feeling of living in England (‘a country that feels like a living ruin’), the bleak landscape of where I grew up (Medway towns), and a kind of self-portrait reflecting how we all live amongst the ruins of our past selves, both collectively and individually.”

The entire experience feels deeply nostalgic yet firmly rooted in modernity, making it all the more captivating.

“The whole album is structured cyclically so that it gradually builds up and crumbles away, starting and finishing with solo piano. To this end, the very beginning of the album starts with a reversed iPhone recording of me improvising a melody on this piano and ends with this same recording playing forwards.”
–Elliott Galvin

Elliot Galvin: piano, synthesizers, electronics; Ruth Goller: bass, voice; Sebastian Rochford: drums | Ligeti Quartet, Freya Goldmark, Patrick Dawkins: violin; Richard Jones: viola; Val Welbanks: cello | Guest, Shabaka Hutchings: bamboo flute, shakuhachi
Released February 7, 2025

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Steve Lehman – The Music of Anthony Braxton is more than just a tribute; it’s a bold, high-energy celebration of one of jazz’s most visionary composers. With his long-running trio—Matt Brewer (bass) and Damion Reid (drums)—joined by Mark Turner (tenor saxophone), Lehman reinterprets Braxton’s small-group compositions with sharp precision and raw expressiveness.

But this album isn’t just about revisiting the past—it’s about pushing forward. Lehman contributes two original compositions, “LA Genes” and “Unbroken & Unspoken,” which show how Braxton’s ideas continue to shape his own evolving voice. And with a closing take on Thelonious Monk’s “Trinkle, Tinkle,” he highlights the deep connection between radical jazz innovation across generations.

Lehman’s relationship with Braxton runs deep—he spent nearly a decade performing in the saxophonist’s ensembles, and here, he makes a compelling case for Braxton’s small-group music as an essential part of the jazz canon. Hard-swinging, fearless, and electrifying, this is a release you need to hear.

Steve Lehman: alto saxophone; Mark Turner: tenor saxophone; Matt Brewer: bass; Damion Reid: drums
Released February 28, 2025

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It’s unexpected. It’s classical, modern, electronic, jazz—but even if you’re prepared, this music will still surprise you.

This is an album you start without really knowing what to expect. The opening is intriguing but offers little insight into what lies ahead. You move forward step by step, slowly, delicately, always with a lingering sense of uncertainty about where it will lead. It feels as if many paths are merely brushed, touched with the fingertips—not enough to fully understand or define, but just enough to hook, captivate, and sustain your interest at every moment.

And then, before you know it, you’ve reached the end. Even now, as the entire piece seems evidently coherent and unified, the pleasure of discovering this music—unfolding so calmly, so secretly—will inevitably draw you back, because it remains, at its core, distinctly unexpected.

Tom Avgenicos: creative director, composer & producer | Delay 45: Tom Avgenicos: trumpet, electronics; Roshan Kumarage: piano, synths; Dave Quinn: bass, synths; Ashley Stoneham: drums, guitar | Ensemble Apex String Quartet: Ben Adler, Beatrice Colombis: violin; Phoebe Gilbert: viola; Noah Oshiro, (+Reena Oh): violoncello
Released February 28, 2025

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Thomas Naïm’s take on Hendrix isn’t about imitation. With deep respect for the source material, he strips the songs down to their essence. There is space, texture, and a quiet intensity in his playing as he explores tone and atmosphere, releasing a stripped-down yet deeply engaging album.

Thomas Naïm: guitar
Released March 7, 2025

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Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson – Bone Bells is a stunning dialogue between two of the most inventive voices in contemporary music. Their third duo album and second release on Pyroclastic Records, Bone Bells finds Courvoisier and Halvorson deepening their already telepathic connection, blending contemporary chamber music with avant-garde jazz.

Splitting the compositions evenly, the two create a constantly shifting soundscape—from the eerie melancholy of Halvorson’s title track to the explosive energy of Courvoisier’s “Esmeralda”. Prepared piano and looping guitar lines morph into intricate, elastic structures, while moments of delicate lyricism dissolve into dizzying improvisation. There’s an organic, instinctive quality to their interplay, as each piece is reshaped in real time, blurring the lines between composition and spontaneous creation.

Taking its title from Hernan Diaz’s novel Trust, Bone Bells evokes an enigmatic sonic world—where structure and abstraction, beauty and discord, all exist in perfect tension.

Sylvie Courvoisier: piano; Mary Halvorson: guitar
Released March 14, 2025

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Defiant Life, the second duo album from Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith on ECM, is an introspective meditation on human struggle and resilience. Smith’s expressive trumpet and Iyer’s textured piano and Fender Rhodes create–again–something truly unique that only these two extraordinary musicians can achieve.

Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet; Vijay Iyer: piano, Fender Rhodes, electronics
Released March 21, 2025

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Splash marks Myra Melford’s first release with this trio and her latest exploration of music as a multi-dimensional art form. Inspired by Cy Twombly’s expressive, gestural paintings, Melford channels that same sense of movement and energy into her compositions, creating a sound that is fluid and dynamic.

The result is outstanding: structure and abstraction, improvisation and composition blur into a constant state of transformation, where every moment feels both spontaneous and intentional—perhaps, much like a splash itself.

Myra Melford: piano; Michael Formanek: bass; Ches Smith: drums, vibraphone
Released March 28, 2025

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Eight years after Blue Maqams, Anouar Brahem returns with a poignant project, titled after a line of verse:

Where should the birds fly, after the last sky?

-Mahmoud Darwish

No revolution here, just beauty, presence, and delicate finesse.

Anouar Brahem: oud; Anja Lechner: cello; Django Bates: piano; Dave Holland: double bass
Released on March 28, 2025

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Jazz January, February, & March 2025 – New Releases Selection

• Tim Berne – Yikes Too (Out Of Your Head Records)
• Satoko Fujii GEN – Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra Records)
• Ambrose Akinmusire – Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch Records)
• Isaiah Collier, William Hooker, William Parker – The Ancients (Eremite Records)
• Brandon Lopez, DoYeon Kim – Syzygy, Vol. 1 (577 Records)
• Joona Toivanen Trio – Gravity (We Jazz Records)
• Ivo Perelman, Tyshawn Sorey – Parallell Aesthethics (Fundacja Słuchaj)
• James Brandon Lewis Trio – Apple Cores (Anti- Records)
• Elliot Galvin – The Ruin (Gearbox Records)
• Steve Lehman – The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi Recordings)
• Tom Avgenicos ft. Delay 45 & Ensemble Apex – Ghosts Between Streams (Earshift Music)
• Thomas Naïm – May This Be Love (Acoustic Guitar Takes on Jimi Hendrix) (Rootless Blues)
• Sylvie Courvoisier, Mary Halvorson – Bone Bells (Pyroclastic Records)
• Vijay Iyer, Wadada Leo Smith – Defiant Life (ECM)
• Myra Melford, Michael Formanek, Ches Smith – Splash (Intakt Records)
• Anouar Brahem – After the Last Sky (ECM)

Playlist

Listen to these tracks on our Spotify playlist.

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As we wrap up this first quarter of 2025, it’s clear that the jazz world is already brimming with creativity and inspiration. The sheer volume of exceptional duet–and trio actually–releases is a blessing and a challenge, setting the stage for what promises to be an unforgettable year in music.

But, of course, this is just the beginning. With so many months still ahead, who knows what new sounds, collaborations, and surprises await us? One thing is certain: if the rest of the year is anything like these first three months, our year-end selections will not be any easier than this selection for January, February, & March 2025.