Geoffrey Himes: Twenty Best New Jazz Albums of 2025:

 

1.      Charles Lloyd: Figure in Blue (Blue Note)

2.      Linda May Han Oh: Strange Heavens (Biophilia)

3.      First Meeting: Gonzalo Chris Eric Larry Live at Dizzy's Club (5 Passion)

4.      Henry Threadgill: Listen Ship (Pi)

5.      Lucian Ban John Surman Mat Maneri: Cantica Profana (Sunnyside)

6.      Fieldwork: Thereupon (Pi)

7.      Billy Hart: Just (ECM)

8.      Joe Farnsworth: The Big Room (Smoke Sessions)

9.      Ron Blake: Scratch Band (7ten33)

10.  Branford Marsalis: Belonging (Blue Note)

11.  The David Amram Quintet: The David Amram Quintet Honors the Songs of Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs (Guthrie Legacy)

12.  Baltimore Jazz Collective: Baltimore Jazz Collective (Stricker Street)

13.  Joe Lovano & the Marcin Wasilewski Trio: Homage (ECM)

14.  Shakti: Mind Explosion: 50th Anniversay Tour Live (Abstract Logix)

15.  Joshua Redman: Words Fall Short (Blue Note)

16.  Arturo O'Farrill & the Afro Latin-Jazz Orchestra: Mundoagua: Celebrating Carla Bley (Zoho)

17.  Martin Berejano: The Purple Project: Reimagining the Music of Prince (Figgland)

18.  Aaron Parks: By All Means (Blue Note)

19.  Artemis: Arboresque (Blue Note)

20.  Dayna Stephens: Hopium (Conscious)

 

Geoffrey Himes: Twenty Best New Non-Jazz Albums of 2025:

 

• 1.      The Delines: Mr. Luck and Ms. Doom (Décor/Jealous Butcher)
• 2.      The Beths: Straight Line Was a Lie (Anti-)
• 3.      Sam Fender: People Watching (Polydor)
• 4.      Various Artists: A Tribute to the King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier (Valcour)
• 5.      The Wood Brothers: Puff of Smoke (Honey Jar)
• 6.      Wet Leg: Moisturizer (Domino)
• 7.      Charley Crockett: Lonesome Drifter (Son of Davy)
• 8.      Ken Pomeroy: Cruel Joke (Rounder)
• 9.      Hayes Carll: We’re Only Human (Highway 87)
• 10.  Bob Mould: Here We Go Crazy (Granary/BMG)
• 11.  Willie Nelson: Oh What a Beautiful World (Legacy)
• 12.  Bon Iver: Sable/Fable (Jagjaguwar)
• 13.  Taylor Swift: The Life of a Sweetheart (Republic)
• 14.  Jerry Joseph & the Jackmormons: Panther Tracks, Vol. 1 (World Will Turn)
• 15.  Paul Kelly: Seventy (Cooking Vinyl)
• 16.  James McMurtry: The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy (New West)
• 17.  Flock of Dimes: The Life You Save (Sub Pop)
• 18.  The Dropkick Murphys: For the People (Dummy Luck)
• 19.  Craig Finn: Always Been (Tamarac)
• 20.   Sabrina Carpenter: Man’s Best Friend (Island)

 

Geoffrey Himes’s Five Best Historical Jazz Albums of 2025:

 

1.                  Thelonious Monk: Bremen 1965 (Sunnyside)

2.                  Charles Mingus: Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (Resonance)

3.                  Horace Silver: Silver in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (Blue Note)

4.                  Keith Jarrett: New Vienna (ECM)

5.                  Roy Brooks: Free Slave (Timeless Tales)

 

Geoffrey Himes’s Five Best Historical Non-Jazz Albums of 2025:

• 1.      Bob Dylan: Through the Open Window—1956-1963 (Columbia)
• 2.      Neil Young: Tonight's the Night (50^th Anniversary) (Reprise)
• 3.      The Drive-By Truckers: The Definitive Decoration Day (New West)
• 4.      Luke Bell: The King Is Back (Thirty Tigers)
• 5.      Husker Du: 1985: The Miracle Year (Numero)

I had an enormous pleasure of listening lots of truly great music during some European festivals. My list is based on what I find has marked 2025 and that I had heard performed live and was released in 2025.

Ambrose Akinmusire, The Honey From a Winter Stone
Johnathan Blake, My Life Matters
Patricia Brennan, Of The Near And Far
Sullivan Fortner, Southern Nights
Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts
Sun-Mi Hong Quintet, Meaning Of A Nest
James Brandon Lewis, Abstraction is Deliverance
Charles Lloyd, Figure In Blue, memories of Duke
Brad Mehldau, Ride into the Sun
Marc Ribot Quartet (Ava Mendoza, Sebastian Steinberg, Chad Taylor), Hurry Red Telephone
Spinifex, Maxximus

Recordings of 2025 I've most enjoyed listening to:

Mulatu Astakte, Mulata Plays Mulata

Extraordinary Popular Delusions, The Last Quintet

Gustavo Cortiñas, The Crisis Knows No Borders

Lucian Ban/John Surman/Mat Maneri, Cantica Profana: The Bela Bartøk Field Recordings

Billy Branch, The Blues is my biography

Thelonious Monk Quartet, Bremen 1965

Etienne Charles, Gullah Roots

patrick brennan - Cooper Moore - On Ka'a Davis - Jason Kao Hwang - K n current

Myra Melford with Michael Formanek and Ches Smith, Splash

Things of This Nature 

2025 was fruitful for the Russian jazz community. Dozens of jazz festivals were held in different cities. Dozens of albums by Russian jazz musicians were released. A series of books about jazz music was published. Jazz art activists received state awards.

Without pretending to be completely objective, I would like to offer my personal list of important events from this year.

Jazz Albums

Igor Butman, Moscow Jazz Orchestra, Images. Mussorgsky and Borodin (Butman Music)

Victoria Kaunova, Iliya Morozov 's Sextet, Reflections (Butman Music)

Kle2Go Trio, The Mockingbird (ArtBeat Music)

Krugly Band, Look...or 4/4 of the Path. In memory of Vladimir Kruglov (ArtBeat Music)

Makar Novikov (feat. Olivia Trummer, Alex Sipiagin, Donald Edwards & Gianni Gagliardi), Long Journey (Rainy Days)

Oleg Grymov, Petr Ivshin, Winter Dream (FANCYMUSIC)

Alexey Kruglov, Masami Suzuki, Song For My Friend. Seaside Conversation (Contempora Records)

Jazz Books

Vladimir Feyertag, Jazz Chronicles (Russian publishing house, Scythia)

Cyril Moshkov, The History of Musical Variety Styles (Igor Butman Foundation Publishing House)

Anatoliy Tekuchyov, Solos by great drummers (Compozitor Saint-Petersburg Publishing House)

Jazz Events

7th International Forum-Fest Jazz Across Вorders (JAB, Moscow, June 13-14, 2025)

The First All-Russian Scientific and Practical Forum on Jazz Education (JAB, Moscow, June 13-14, 2025)

Find of the year

The first recording of the Uralskiy Dixieland Jazz Ensemble (Chelyabinsk Regional Radio, 1969)

1. Dimas Sánchez - Afro Antillano
2. Richard Peña - The Latin Side of Jazz Guitar
3. Miguel Zenón - Vanguardia Subterránea Live at The Village Vanguard
4.  José Negroni - Heart Beats
5. Nomar Negroni - Standards Jazz Vol. 1. 
6. Aldemar Valentín - Insight
7. Alex Apolo Ayala - Afro Puerto Rican Jazz
8. Julito Alvarado - My Musical Journey 40 Years Celebration
9. The Afro-Caribbean Jazz Collective - Cortadito
10. Humberto Ramírez - Las Canciones de Tite Curet Alonso

TEN FAVORITE NEW JAZZ ALBUMS OF 2025
Chris Cheek, Keepers of the Eastern Door (Analog Tone Factory)
Chick Corea - Christian McBride - Brian Blade, Trilogy 3 (Candid)
Randal Despommier, South (Sunnyside)
Joe Farnsworth, The Big Room (Smoke Sessions)
Charles Lloyd, Figure in Blue (Blue Note)
Brad Mehldau, Ride Into the Sun (Nonesuch)
Nordkraft Big Band - Remy Le Boeuf - Danielle Wertz, Silent Course (Gateway)
Linda May Han Oh, Strange Heavens (Biophilia)
John Patitucci, Spirit Fall (Edition)
John Scofield & Dave Holland, Memories of Home (ECM) 

THIRTEEN OTHER NOTABLE JAZZ RELEASES
Etienne Charles, Gullah Roots (Culture Shock)
Cyrus Chestnut, Rhythm, Melody and Harmony (Impulse!)
Gerald Clayton, Ones & Twos (Blue Note)
Duduka Da Fonseca Trio, Rio Fantasia (Sunnyside)
Luigi Grasso & NDR Bigband, La Dimora dell’Altrove (LP345)
Billy Hart Quartet, Just (ECM)
Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note) 
David Murray Quartet, Birdly Serenade (Impulse!)
Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Mundoagua – Celebrating Carla Bley (Zoho)|
Snarky Puppy & Metropole Orkest, Somni (GroundUP)
James Suggs, For All We Know (Arbors)
Craig Taborn, Nels Cline, Marcus Gilmore, Trio of Bloom (Pyroclastic)
WDR Big Band featuring Darol Anger and Mike Marshall, Bluegrass (MCG Jazz)

REISSUES/ARCHIVAL
Bill Evans, Further Ahead: Live in Finland 1964-1969 (Elemental)
Charles Mingus, Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (Resonance)
Charles Mingus, Mingus at Monterey (Candid Records)
Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Seek & Listen: Live at the Penthouse (Resonance)
The Charlie Rouse Band, Cinnamon Flower: The Expanded Edition (Resonance)

VOCAL
Kurt Elling & Christian Sands, Wildflowers Vol. 3 (Big Shoulders)
Allan Harris, The Poetry of Jazz (Love Productions)
Cecile McLorin Salvant, Oh Snap (Nonesuch) 

TEN NON-JAZZ FAVORITES
Annie & the Caldwells, Can’t Lose My (Soul) (Luaka Bop)
Tyler Childers, Snipe Hunter (Hickman Holler)
Galactic and Irma Thomas, Audience With the Queen (Tchoup-Zilla)Jason Isbell, Foxes in the Snow (Southeastern Records)
Lettuce, Cook (Lettuce)
Robert Plant with Suzi Dian, Saving Grace (Nonesuch)
Quetzal and David Hidalgo, Memory and Return (A Tlacuilo Joint!)
Mavis Staples, Sad and Beautiful World (Anti-)
Jeff Tweedy, Twilight Override (dBpm)
Various Artists, Tedeschi Trucks Band & Leon Russell Present: Mad Dogs & Englishmen Revisited (Live at LOCKN’) (Fantasy)

John Chacona
Cleveland, Ohio, USA, All About Jazz, PostGenre Media and blogger at let's call this

I'm not a big fan of polls, but one of journalism's functions is to clock a certain consensus about what's happening, and polls are one way to do that. Herewith: my favorite recordings of the year, alpha by artist.

New releases

Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From A Winter Stone, (Nonesuch)

Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note)

Nicole Glover, Memories, Dreams, Refoections (Savant)

Colin Hancock’s Jazz Hounds featuring Catherine Russell, Cat & The Hounds 

Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch)

Billy Hart, Multidirectional  (Smoke Sessions)

Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM) 4. 

Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi)

Eric McPherson, Double Bass Quartet, (Giant Step Arts)

Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook)


Reissues, historical &c.

Masabumi Kikuchi, Hanamichi: The Final Studio Recording Vol. II (2013, Red Hook)

Anthony Braxton, Quartet (England) 1985 (Burning Ambulance)

Stanley Cowell, Musa: Ancestral Streams (1974, Strata-East/Mack Avenue)


Vocal albums

Theo Bleckmann, Love and Anger (Sunnyside Records)

Sarah Elizabeth Charles, Dawn (Stretch Music/Ropeadope)

Cécile McLorin Salvant, Oh Snap! (Nonesuch)

Debut album
 
Caelan Cardello, Chapter One (Jazz Bird Records)

Paul Cornish, You’re Exaggerating! (Blue Note Records)

Jeff Walton, Pack Animals (self released)

Latin jazz album

Arturo O'Farrill Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Mundoagua - Celebrating Carla Bley (Zoho)

Juan Pastor's Chinchano, Memorias (Calligram Records)

Miguel Zenón, Vanguardia Subterranea (Miel Music)

New Releases:

Patricia Brennan "Of the Near and Far" (Pyroclastic)

George Coleman "George Coleman with Strings" (HighNote)

Joe Farnsworth "The Big Room" (Smoke Session)

Ruben Reinaldo "Fusion Olivica" (Free Code Jazz)

John Santos Sextet & Friends "Horizontes" (Machete Records)

Deborah Silver & The Count Basie Orchestra "Basie Rocks" (Green Hill Music)

Various "Salsa de la Bahia v. 3 : Renegade Queens" (Patois) (2 CDs)

Ines Velasco "A Flash of Cobalt Blue" (Bespoke Jazz)

Brandee Younger "Gadabout Season" (Impulse)

Reissues:

Freddie Hubbard "On Fire : Live from the Blue Morocco" (Resonance) (2 CDs)

Rahsaan Roland Kirk "Vibrations in the Village : Live at the Village Gate" (Resonance)

Rahsaan Roland Kirk "Seek and Listen : Live at the Penthouse" (Resonance) (2 CDs)

Charles Mingus "Mingus in Argentina : the Buenos Aires Concert" (Resonance) (2 CDs)

Here are my ten favorite new albums of 2025. A full write-up on each of these, as well as my selections for numbers 11 through 35  can be found at PostGenre. Also on that site, you can find interviews from the past year with several of the artists on my list. 

NEW JAZZ ALBUMS

1. Patricia Brennan, Of the Near and Far (Pyroclastic) 
2. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch)
3. Charles Lloyd, Figure in Blue (Blue Note)
4. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) 
5. Theon Cross, Affirmations: Live at the Blue Note New York (New Soil) 
6. James Brandon Lewis Trio, Apple Cores (Anti-) 
7. For Living Lovers, Natural Name (Sunnyside) 
8. Amir ElSaffar & Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch, Inner Spaces (Ornithology/Maqām) 
9. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) 
10. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms) 

RARA AVIS (REISSUES/ARCHIVAL)

1. Pharoah Sanders, Love Is Here: The Complete Paris 1975 ORTF Recordings (Transcendence Sounds) 
2. Sun Ra, Uncharted Passages: New York Piano Soliloquies 1977-79 (Modern Marmonic) 
3. Carlos Garnett, Cosmos Nucleus (1976, Muse/Time Traveler) 
4. Spiritual Jazz 18: Behind the Iron Curtain: Esoteric, Modal, and Progressive Jazz From Central and Eastern Europe (1962-1988) (Jazzman) 
5. Anthony Braxton, Quartet (England) 1985 (Burning Ambulance) 

VOCAL

• Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) 
• Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) 
• Sonya Belaya, Dacha (Ropeadope) 

LATIN

• Patricia Brennan, Of the Near and Far (Pyroclastic) 
• Adam O'Farrill, For These Streets (Out of Your Head) 
• Aruán Ortiz, Créole Renaissance (Intakt) 

DEBUT

• Thomas Morgan, Around You Is a Forest (Loveland Music) 
• Marcus Gilmore, Journey to the New: Live at the Village Vanguard (Drummerslams) 
• Paul Cornish, You're Exaggerating! (Blue Note) 

My Best of Jazz 2025

• Branford Marsalis Quartet-Belonging- (Blue Note)
• Sullivan Fortner-Southern Nights-(Artwork)
• Bela Fleck, Edmar Castaneda, Antonio Sanchez-BEATrio- (Flecktone Recs)
• Joe Lovano with Marcin Wasilewski Trio-Homage-(ECM)
• Sinne Eeg and Jacob Christoffersen-Skikori-(Stunt Recs)
• Wolfgang Muthspiel w Scott Colley an Brian Blade-Tokyo-(ECM)
• John Ellis-Heroes-(Blue Room Music)
• John Patitucci-Spirit Fall- (Edition)
• Alex Sipiagin-Reverberations-(Cris Cross)
• Linda May Han Oh-Strange Heavens-(Biophilia)
• Carl Allen-Tippin'-(Cellar)
• Amaury Faye-RUST-(Hypnote)
• Rez Abassi Quintet-Sound Remains-(Whirlwind)
• Denny Zeitlin-Worth A Song in My Heart-(Sunnyside)
• Larry Goldings-I Will-(Sam First)
• Pasquale Grasso-Fervency-(Sony Masterworks)
• The Perception Trio-The Wicked Trio-(Music Release Club)
• Tessa Souter-Shadows and Silence: The Erik Satie Project-(NonAra)
• Michael Dease-Flow-(Posi-Tone)
• Michael Mayo-Fly-(Mack Ave)
• Jeff Parker ETA IV Ntet-The Way Out Easy-(Anthem Int)
• Pheeroan aKlaff, Scott Robinson, Julian Thayer-aRT- (ScienSonic)
• Guilio Gentile-Dream's Madness-(Auand)
• WDR Big Band featuring Mike Marshall and Darol Anger-Bluegrass-(MCG)
• Phil Haynes, Steve Salerno. Drew Gress-Return to Electric-(Cornerstore)
• Gonzalo Rubalcaba-First Meeting: Live at Dizzy's Club-(5Passion)
• Josh Lawrence-Still We Dream-(Posi-Tone)

Best Debut Album: 

• Tyreek McDole-Open Up Your Senses-(Artwork) 

Best Latin Jazz Albums:

• Miguel Zenon Quartet-Vanguardia Subterranea-Live at the Village Vanguard-(Miel Music)
• Conrad Herwig, Eddie Palmieri. Luques Curtis-Reflections-Facing South-(Savant)

Best Historical and Reissue Albums:

• George Colligan-Live at the Jazz Standard-(Whirlwind)
• John Surman-Flashpoints and Undercurrents-(Cuneiform)
• The Charlie Rouse Band-Cinnamon Flower-(Resonance)
• Rahsaan Roland Kirk- Vibrations in the Village-Live at the Village Gate- (Resonance)
• Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Paul Motian-The Old Country-Live at the Deer Head Inn- (ECM)
• Zakir Hussain-Making Music-(ECM)