Click each writer’s portrait to read their review.
JUMOKÉ FASHOLA
SAMARA JOY
“PORTRAIT” (VERVE)
MAX COLE
ALICE COLTRANE
“THE CARNEGIE HALL CONCERT” (IMPULSE!)
KEVIN LE GENDRE
Walter Smith III
“Three of us are from Houston and Reuben is not” (BLUE NOTE)
SHARONNE COHEN
OUT OF / INTO
“MOTION I” (BLUE NOTE)
DAN SPICER
MCCOY TYNER & Joe Henderson
“FORCES OF NATURE, LIVE AT SLUGS'” (BLUE NOTE)
JANE CORNWELL
AROOJ AFTAB
“NIGHT REIGN” (VERVE)
LES BACK
Meshell Ndegeocello
“No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin” (BLUE NOTE)
ANDREW TAYLOR-DAWSON
Nubya Garcia
“ODYSSEY” (CONCORD)
MATT PHILLIPS
Immanuel Wilkins
“BLUES BLOOD” (BLUE NOTE)
JON OPSTAD
Jan Garbarek
“Afric Pepperbird” (ECM)
FREYA HELLIER
ETHAN IVERSON
“TECHNICALLY ACCEPTABLE” (BLUE NOTE)
STEPHAN KUNZE
SHABAKA
“PERCEIVE ITS BEAUTY, ACKNOWLEDGE ITS GRACE” (IMPULSE!)
ANDY THOMAS
Wayne Shorter
“ODYSSEY OF ISKA” (BLUE NOTE)
SHANNON ALI
MCCOY TYNER
“TIME FOR TYNER” (BLUE NOTE)
READ THE REVIEWS
JAZZ ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
These are the EJ writers top picks of 2024. Read On for their reviews, where they share their thoughts and feelings about these definitive albums. Find all the albums in our special collection on store.
MORE BUYING GUIDES
NEW INTO JAZZ
So you’ve started listening to jazz, but the sheer volume of music, eras and styles feels slightly overwhelming? Here’s a guide to a few quite accessible albums that might be right for you, depending on what you usually like and which musical background you’re coming from.
ALBUMS EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE
Looking for a gift for someone who’s recently started collecting jazz? Here are seven definitive albums from the Blue Note, Verve, Impulse! and ECM catalogues, all of them released in an extremely fertile period of the genre – the 1960s and early 1970s.
GIFT IDEAS FOR COLLECTORS
Looking for a special gift for the jazz lover in your life? Whether it’s a luxury box set or a beautiful Tone Poet reissue, you can’t go wrong with vinyl. Let us guide you through a clutch of choice cuts guaranteed to stay on repeat.