Fred Hersch - Point in Time Year: 1995
Style or Subgenre: Post Bop, Piano Jazz
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This, as is so much of what I listen to, was a stumbleupon for me. There is just so much great music that it's impossible to map it all. I randomly came across this; being a fan of Fred Hersch and seeing this album includes trumpeter Dave Douglas as a side man, putting it in the queue was automatic. This is top quality post bop/contemporary piano jazz with enhancements and ended up being exactly what I had hoped it would be.
Alexandra Grimal & Giovanni Di Domenico - Shakkei Year: 1995
Style or Subgenre: Avant Garde, International Jazz
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This is a Franco-Italian collaboration, soprano sax & piano, playing Japanese or Japanese influenced songs which could be called modern, classical, jazz, new age, or any combination thereof. These are the types of compositions which may leave you completely bored, thoroughly nonplussed, or even a little irritated, or they might worm their way into your consciousness and cement themselves there as essential listening. I'd say multiple listens help migrate from those earlier states to the latter one. This is one worth sticking with.
Ambrose Akinmusire - Honey From a Winter Stone Year: 2025
Style or Subgenre: Avant Garde, Jazz Rap
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Having focused on almost entirely new releases this year, I've heard a lot of new or new to me artists. This 2025 release is by an artist well known to me: trumpeter/composer Ambrose Akinmusire. But is Ambrose Akinmusire ever really well known? He is constantly evolving, never repeating himself, and always looking to expand his musical palette. Honey From a Winter Stone is no different. Here his compositions take on a more minimalist approach (yet constantly evolve themselves), a small string section, and then he periodically lays a hip hop beat and a rap over those subtly shifting foundations. Akinmusire goes off on some crazy flourishes in the mist of vocal improviser Kokayi's vocal flurries, creating a frenzied energy that would be fatiguing if carried out too long, but they keep it in check and balance out these excursions nicely. The rap still didn't appeal much to me, although that was more due to a vocal timbre that doesn't fit well into my ear than the fact that it's rap. In any case, as jazz and rap partner more and more in the modern musical world, this is one of the better examples I've heard. Kudose to Akinmusire for pulling off this improbable mix.
Joe Alterman featuring Houston Person - Brisket for Breakfast Year: 2025
Style or Subgenre: Soul Jazz, Jazz Blues
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We got us some totally classic new soul jazz here in 2025. Pianist Joe Alterman enlists sax man Houston Person give us a visit to the bluesy-swingin' good ol' days while keeping it totally fresh. These guys, in addition to having some great fun, really know how to let a song build to a thrilling climax as well. What a fun album!
Gustaf Ljunggren - Emil de Waal - Mikroklima Year: 2025
Style or Subgenre: Modern Creative
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The more I search for new-to-me jazz, the more I find things which I hesitate to call jazz. Here, multi-instrumentalist plays textural melodies over Emil de Waal's almost minimalist, shuffling, snare heavy drums. None of this appears to be improvised, but the music does have a sense of spontaneity about it, as it seems to build organically, crystal by crystal rising out of the substrate. Maybe not essential, but definitely interesting.
Pasquale Grasso - Fervency Year: 2025
Style or Subgenre: Guitar Jazz
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It's always exciting to find something new in music, especially at this date when it seems like most everything worth doing has been done. Still, it can also be a joy to hear someone dedicated to, and skilled at, keeping a classic form alive. Pasquale Grasso is a master of clean jazz guitar, here in a standard trio setting (although the bass is often bowed). His technique is impeccable and he has great feel; I think of him as a sort of Italian cross between Joe Pass and Jim Hall. Clean, technical without unnecessary flashinness, and expressive in his tuneage. This album could become an essential standard bearer in its field.
Alex Norris - Table For Three Year: 2025
Style or Subgenre: Post Bop, Cool Jazz
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Released just today, trumpeter Alex Norris leads a trio with bassist Paul Gill and guitarist Paul Bollenback in a laid back post bop set, heavy on the cool. 70-odd years ago, Miles Davis gave us the Birth of the Cool. Here, cool seems to have entered middle age; there are the occasional flourishes of intensity, energy, or creativity, but overall, this is a pretty easy going, safe bit of modern homage to classic forms.
Julia Hulsmann - Under the Surface Year: 2025
Style or Subgenre: Modern Jazz, Experimental
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The Julia Hulsmann Quartet is actually a quintet for half of these ten cuts as a trumpet joins the core of piano/bass/drums/sax, but whatever the instrumentation, this introspective and experimental modern jazz is always worth a listen. That subdued approach indeed belies a complexity that lies below the surface. This may be the most ECM album ever.
Al DiMeola - One Of These Nights Year: 2025
Style or Subgenre: Fusion, International Jazz
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This absolutely brilliant performance seems like a perfect capstone for the always amazing Al DiMeola as it beings together the best elements that made each phase of his career special. He features the fiery fretboard frenetics of his early fusion days, but tempers them with the maturity of his recent albums. He expresses a number of forms grom global jazz, but more than aping styles, they are seamlessly integrated into great songs. His compositions are well thought out to begin with, and subsequently delivered meting out expressiveness to maximum effect. He gives us the best of both his electric and acoustic styles, and delivers each, even within the same song, in the most appropriate measure and sequence. As great a recording artist as DiMeola is, his fire always seems to burn brighter on stage, and this live recording (and video in the DVD) capture that fire nicely.
This is the most thrilling DiMeola album in quite some time. Another reason already to love 2025!
Gulli Gudmundsson - Flod Og Fjara Year: 2025
Style or Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz, New Age Jazz
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Icelandic bassist and his Dutch trio (pianist Jeroen van Vliet and trumpeter Koen Smits) deliver some almost new age, almost minimalist, contemporary chamber jazz, and it's quite lovely.
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