Here are my Top 10 jazz/improv albums of 2024. Each of them made my life a little better this year, and I’m hoping they might do the same for you.
“Compassion,” by Vijay Iyer (ECM)
1. ”Giant Beauty,” by [ahmed] (Fonstret): A box containing five CDs, with one extended performance per disc. Each begins simply enough, with the piano-bass-alto saxophone-drums quartet setting up an interpretation from composer Ahmed Abdul-Malik’s songbook. From there, things get strange and beautiful, before becoming ecstatic. It’s the most arresting music I heard this year. If you’re hesitant to take this deep a plunge, [ahmed] also released the single disc “Wood Blues”; if you’re taken with that, you’ll be seeking out this box set soon enough.
2. “Compassion,” by Vijay Iyer (ECM): Exceptional telepathy from pianist Iyer’s trio, co-starring bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Tyshawn Sorey.
3. ”Old Main Chapel,” by Ron Miles (Blue Note): A moving, meditative farewell from our local friend and educator, trumpeter Miles, recorded at CU Boulder in 2021. We’ll meet again.
4. ”Levs,” by Kim Cass (Pi Recordings): Labyrinthine and deeply engaging, the bassist’s pieces are “inspired by the images of a selection of Cass’ favorite hand-notated classical scores” (whatever that means), according to album notes. Hey, I just love the ideas and interaction at play.
5. ”Breaking Stretch,” by Patricia Brennan Septet (Pyroclastic): The accomplished vibraphonist creates explosive grooves that result in the sound of joy.
“Breaking Stretch,” by Patricia Brennan Septet (Pyroclastic)
6. ”Louis Armstrong’s America Volume 1 & 2,” by Allen Lowe & The Constant Sorrow Orchestra (ESP-Disk): Does any contemporary composer have more riveting ideas than this saxophonist-pianist? There are four discs of fun, remaining singular while touching on the music’s history.
7. ”Francesca,” by the David Murray Quartet (Intakt Records): The world should know Murray is still champion of the tenor sax and bass clarinet. Virtuosity for the pleasure of virtuosity itself.
8. ”Run the Gauntlet,” by The Kris Davis Trio (Pyroclastic): When this pianist isn’t running one of the finest independent labels going, she’s making authoritative sonic statements like this.
9. ”Heart Trio,” by William Parker/Cooper-Moore/Hamid Drake (AUM Fidelity): Three masters communicating beautifully, at once “outside” and warmly hypnotic. This is some of the most soothing avant-garde music I’ve heard in a while.
10. ”3+3,” by the Tomeka Reid Quartet (Cuneiform Records): One of my favorite groups in recent years, led by the forward-thinking cellist Reid. Lots of thoughtful explorations here.
Bonus: Here are a few memorable reissues-vault discoveries from a year packed with them:
“Heart Trio,” by William Parker/Cooper-Moore/Hamid Drake (AUM Fidelity)
1. ”Classic Bobby Hutcherson, Blue Note Sessions, 1963-1970,”0 by Bobby Hutcherson (Mosaic Records)
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2. ”Freedom Weaver: The 1959 European Recordings,” by Sonny Rollins (Resonance Records)
3. ”Afro-Harping” (Deluxe Edition), by Dorothy Ashby (Decca)
And some live jazz shows for December: The Ben Markley Quintet appears at Denver’s Nocturne on Dec. 1. … Local educator and saxophonist Remy Le Boeuf’s Assembly of Shadows plays Dazzle on Dec. 1, and multiple local trombonists appear as the Mile High Bones at Dazzle on Dec. 3. … Singer Leslie Odam Jr. takes to the Boettcher Hall stage on Dec. 7. … Experience the Annie Booth Trio’s “Charlie Brown Christmas” at Dazzle Dec. 16-24. … There’s a celebration of the “Swinging Holiday Songbook” at Nocturne Dec. 19-22 with performances from Drew Morell & Friends as well as The Louisa Amend Quintet.
Bret Saunders is a local radio deejay and freelance writer.