The Best Jazz Albums Released in the Last Two Years
2024-10-21 · 5 min read
Jazz in 2023 and 2024 was vibrant, diverse, and more accessible to new listeners than at any point in decades. The genre's leading voices are pulling from hip-hop, electronic music, and global traditions while maintaining the improvisational core that makes jazz jazz.
Nubya Garcia's Odyssey is a masterwork of modern British jazz. The London saxophonist blends Caribbean rhythms, dub production, and spiritual jazz into something that honors her heritage while sounding unmistakably contemporary. The album flows like a live set.
Makaya McCraven's In These Times was seven years in the making. The Chicago drummer and producer layered live improvisations with studio manipulation to create compositions of extraordinary density and beauty. It's jazz that rewards both active listening and ambient immersion.
Shabaka's Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace marked the artist's pivot from saxophone to shakuhachi flute and clarinet. The album is meditative and spacious, a departure from the intensity of Sons of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming. It's one of the most surprising reinventions in recent jazz.
Samara Joy's Linger Awhile and its follow-up confirmed the 24-year-old vocalist as the most exciting traditional jazz singer to emerge in decades. Her voice, a rich contralto that channels Sarah Vaughan without imitating her, brings warmth to standards and originals alike. The Grammy for Best New Artist was earned.
Other essential releases include Joel Ross's Nublues for vibraphone-led modern jazz, Irreversible Entanglements' Protect Your Light for free jazz with spoken word, Arooj Aftab's Night Reign for Pakistani-American vocal jazz, Meshell Ndegeocello's The Omnichord Real Book for genre-defying experimentation, and Marcus Strickland for spiritual jazz modernism.
