The following selection is our definitive “Best Jazz Albums of 2025” list. It is divided into albums featuring solos, duets, trios, quartets, quintets, and larger ensembles (three albums per category), for a total of 18. We have also added two special mentions: “Artist of the Year” and “Archive of the Year.” Altogether, that makes 20 albums that, in our view, sum up just how great 2025 was for jazz.
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Summer 2025 is now behind us. Our Jazz Summer 2025 roundup revisits the most exciting new jazz albums released in July, August, and September 2025. From bold big band to intimate solo, here are the eleven highlights worth remembering, and returning to.
If you would like to write a jazz album review or put together your own selection of new releases, I wouldd love to feature it. This space is meant for more than just one perspective, so if you feel like stepping up and adding yours, get in touch.
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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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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The Susceptible Now is the new release from drummer Tyshawn Sorey’s trio, with Aaron Diehl on piano and Harish Raghavan on bass. They present 4 long tracks: (1) the McCoy Tyner classic “Peresina” from his album Expansions; (2) “A Chair in the Sky” (composed with Charles Mingus) from the Joni Mitchell album Mingus; (3) “Your Good Lies,” from the contemporary soul group Vividry; and (4) “Bealtine” by Brad Mehldau. The Susceptible Now will be out October 11, on Pi Recordings.
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Compassion is the second release by the Vijay Iyer Trio, featuring Linda May Han Oh on double bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums. The 12 tracks were recorded in May 2022 at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, New York, and the album was produced by Vijay Iyer and Manfred Eicher. Compassion was released on February 2, 2024, on ECM.
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What should you expect from jazz this month? Welcome to our June 2023 selection of albums that have already been or will soon be released this month. These albums grabbed our full attention, and they are worth your time. They are listed in order of release date.
What should you expect from jazz this month? Welcome to our October 2022 selection of albums that have already been released or will soon be released this month (“What to Wait For”). These albums got our full attention and are worth your time. They are listed in order of release date.
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What should you expect in Jazz this month? This is our October 2021 Selection of albums that have already been released or have yet to be released this month (What to Wait For?). These albums got our full attention and should be worth your time.
After a month packed with amazing releases, October already seems to be as promising, maybe even better!
The albums are listed by release date. A playlist with one track per selected album is available at the end of the post.
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The first album with this line-up (Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, & Tyshawn Sorey), UnEasy, is another beautiful ECM album. It was recorded in Mount Vernon, New York (Oktaven Audio Studio) in December 2019.
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