Where should you start your next jazz discovery? February delivers a strong set of releases, and these are the ones that stood out. Here is our New Jazz Releases selection for February 2026, featuring memorable albums that should be genuinely worth your listening time.

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Best Jazz February 2026

This is exceptional music. Through its impeccable compositions and layered orchestration, it provokes complete submission, and even the subtle movements happening in the background will mesmerise you. Beauty lies in every detail, and in the way each element connects so naturally, majestically enhancing the whole. Amazing, gorgeous two tracks!

Maria Schneider: composer, conductor; Steve Wilson: alto, soprano, alto flute, flute; Dave Pietro: alto clarinet, piccolo; Rich Perry, John Ellis: tenor; Scott Robinson: baritone, bass & contrabass clarinets; Mike Rodriguez, Tony Kadleck, Greg Gisbert, Nadje Noordhuis: trumpet; Keith O’Quinn, Ryan Keberle, Marshall Gilkes: trombone; George Flynn: bass & contrabass trombones; Julien Labro: accordion; Jeff Miles: guitar; Gary Versace: piano; Jay Anderson: bass; Johnathan Blake: drums
Released February 3, 2026

Founded in 2003, ArtistShare is a music crowdfunding platform and independent label. It allows musicians to finance recordings through fan support. Supporters often gain access to the creative process, including behind-the-scenes updates, exclusive content, and special editions.

In practical terms, buying music on ArtistShare means creating a free account, choosing a project, and selecting a support level (from a simple digital download to deluxe physical packages or limited collector editions). Once purchased, the music and any exclusive content are accessible through your account.

It functions as a label, but with a different philosophy: artists typically retain ownership of their work, and the relationship with listeners is direct, transparent, and collaborative rather than industry-driven.

Visit their website at https://www.artistshare.com/

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The Call is the second album by the Montréal-based jazz quartet Bellbird. And as the (white) bellbird is believed to be the world’s loudest bird, with calls of up to 125 dB, one could expect some extreme sounds here. Yet, nothing that dramatic in that release. So maybe the characteristic adopted by the band is about its vocalizations, described as either “two sharp blows on a cracked bell, varying the call with a swing“, or the “more musical, droning, almost hypnotic” call. That must be it, as The Call seems to be a constant pull between hypnotic beauty and abrasion, making it very surprising to step into. The apparent serenity is continually challenged, as the band may suddenly lean into chaos or a complete restructuring, creating shifts (with a swing) that reshape the tracks into surprising free-folk-(trash)-jazz.

Allison Burik: alto saxophone, bass clarinet; Claire Devlin: tenor saxophone; Eli Davidovici: bass; Mili Hong: drums
Released February 6, 2026

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The full experience of Deep In The Earth High In The Sky goes far beyond the excerpts available on Bandcamp. Across its 60 minutes, the trio explores a remarkably broad spectrum of jazz while remaining coherent and grounded. It is an earthy*, elemental study in trio interplay, where gravity (bass), breath (trumpet), and pulse (drums) speak as equals.

*Earthy, here, tries to fit the band’s own description:

“The trumpet’ lines, with their brass arcs and multichromatic angles, explore with quantum consciousness. The bass, low, light, and supple, does not support; it structures the air. A drum like a moving cartographer that invents moments. It resembles a living, complex but deliciously isotropic organism.”

Anyway, if you were into IN 2 by Roscoe Mitchell and Michele Rabbia, this trio should also be for you.

Aymeric Avice: trumpet, flugelhorn; Luke Stewart: double bass, mbira; Chad Taylor: drums, mbira
Released February 9, 2026

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Fabulous album. As the title suggests, it’s danceable, it moves, and it swings, but in completely unexpected ways. The groove is there, the swing is there, yet something feels subtly displaced. It seems they are producing square shapes, expressing round effects, or an abruptly angular approach that, in their hands, becomes smooth and round, or groove and swing. Anyway, these new shapes, comfortably unsettling or perhaps unsettlingly pleasant, make the music exceptionally addictive.

“[2026] the Year of Tomeka Reid.”
–Nate Chinen

Tomeka Reid is an American cellist, composer, and improviser known for expanding the role of the cello in contemporary jazz and creative music. Blending chamber precision with free improvisation, her work moves fluidly between composition and spontaneous interplay. As a bandleader and collaborator, she has become a key voice in Chicago’s experimental jazz scene, combining structural clarity with exploratory energy.

Tomeka Reid: cello; Jason Roebke: bass, cassette; Mary Halvorson: guitar; Tomas Fujiwara: drums
Released February 13, 2026

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Biotic feels grounded yet exploratory, like music that keeps one foot on the earth while the other tests the air. Its construction suggests thoughtful architecture, but what reaches us is unmistakably physical, as you can almost sense the grain of the sound and the pressure behind each note. And what appears measured at first carries an urgency that gives the music its forward pulse, very satisfying.

“With this music, I wanted a harsh, geometric edge to be on the forefront, but at the same time I wanted it to sound organic and alive.”
–Shawn Lovato

Shawn Lovato: bass; Ingrid Laubrock: tenor saxophone; Henry Mermer: drums
Released February 13, 2026

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Nethering is like a closed, dark, atmospheric system. Colin Stetson’s circular breathing establishes a continuous airflow that becomes a climate. Greg Fox agitates it, generating rhythmic turbulence, pressure fronts, sudden thermal shifts. Trevor Dunn thickens the lower register until the air itself seems to gain mass. You can almost hear the room filling and compressing, yet no real release points, but circular tension leveling into plateaus. Excellent!

Colin Stetson: saxophones; Greg Fox: drums; Trevor Dunn: bass
Released February 13, 2026

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Ragini Trio navigates between Indian classical traditions (especially ragas and Carnatic rhythmic concepts) and Western improvisational practice.

The band, featuring saxophone, drums/percussion, and double bass, draws on long-form raga logic and jazz spontaneity to create music that is neither “Indian raga” nor straight-ahead jazz. This is a very well-executed fusion album, with an open-minded, wholehearted approach and a refreshing sense of freedom, preserving a playful spirit throughout the record. A highly enjoyable album, and one you will gladly return to.

Discover the Best Indo Jazz Albums

Nathan Daems: tenor saxophone, effects; Lander Gyselinck: drums; Marco Bardoscia: double bass, bass guitar
Released February 20, 2026

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Allow yourself some time with Close-Up On The Outside. Its measured pace and attention to texture allow the music to expand gradually, calmly, yet beautifully.

Read our full review here.

Booker Stardrum: drums, percussion, synthesizer, electronics | Guests: Anna Butterss: bass; Jeremiah Chiu: synthesizer; Lester St. Louis: cello; Michael Coleman: piano; Logan Hone: flute; Chris Williams: trumpet
Released February 27, 2026

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What is captivating in Quiet Fire is how Stapleton absorbs the beat-driven jazz without mimicking it. You can hear echoes of the atmospheric restraint associated with artists like Nils Petter Molvær, the rhythmic elasticity of United Kingdom jazz, and the structural patience of instrumental electronica. But by avoiding dramatic peaks, he builds warmth through repetition, so the “quiet fire” has to be the delicious slow-burning tension felt throughout the record.

Dave Stapleton is a British pianist, producer, and founder of Edition Records. Initially emerging as a jazz composer and bandleader, he gradually moved toward a more studio-focused, producer-led approach. He is also the creative force behind Slowly Rolling Camera. Over the years, Stapleton has become an influential figure in contemporary European jazz, both through his own evolving projects and through the artists he has supported via Edition Records.

Dave Stapleton: Rhodes, Synth; Jon Goode: bass; Elliot Bennett: drums | Guests Olga Amelchenko: alto saxophone; Nils Petter Molvaer: trumpet; Tara Cunningham, Stuart McCallum: guitar; Victoria Stapleton: violin
Released February 27, 2026

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If we think about cultural preservation in jazz, we often imagine archival gestures as acts of documentation or homages. Simon approaches it as continuity instead, and we love it. In his hands, the music of his homeland survives through improvisational renewal. You can feel the core history in each track, as well as how new contours stretch these songs into the present.

“This music is part of who I am. With Vol. 2, I wanted to go deeper, to offer an immersive listening experience that honors the original songs while bringing them into the trio’s expressive language.”
–Edward Simon

Edward Simon is a Venezuelan jazz pianist and composer whose work bridges Latin American musical traditions and modern jazz. After moving to the United States in the 1980s, he became an active presence on the New York scene, performing and recording with leading figures across contemporary jazz. As a bandleader, Simon has developed a lyrical, rhythmically nuanced voice that integrates the melodic and structural elements of Venezuelan music into a refined trio and ensemble language. His projects often explore cultural memory, identity, and improvisation as living processes rather than stylistic references.

Edward Simon: piano; Reuben Rogers: bass; Adam Cruz: drums | Guest Jackeline Rago: cuatro, maracas
Released February 27, 2026

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February 2026 – New Releases Selection

• Maria Schneider – American Crow (ArtistShare)
• Bellbird – The Call (Constellation Records)
• Luke Stewart, Aymeric Avice, Chad Taylor – Deep In The Earth High In The Sky (RogueArt)
• The Tomeka Reid Quartet – Dance! Skip! Hop! (Out Of Your Head Records)
• Shawn Lovato – Biotic (Endectomorph Music)
• Colin Stetson, Greg Fox, Trevor Dunn – Nethering (Envision Records)
• Ragini Trio – 3 (W.E.R.F. Records)
• Booker Stardrum – Close-up On The Outside (We Jazz Records)
• Dave Stapleton – Quiet Fire (Edition Records)
• Edward Simon – Venezuela Latin American Songbook Volume 2 (ArtistShare)

Playlist

Listen to these tracks on our Spotify playlist.

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These New Jazz Releases for February 2026 are the albums we believe deserve your attention this month. Listen closely, explore further, and support the artists who continue to move jazz forward.

Which albums stayed with you? Share your discoveries in the comments, as we are always curious to hear what earned your listening time.