The Best Jazz of 2019

Our jazz critics create four quartets of great creative music, demonstrating four trends that keep "jazz" relevant in a new century.

                                      
Music
    
        Jazz's Jenny Scheinman and Allison Miller Lift Each Other Up on 'Parlour Game'
    
Will Layman

        09 Sep 2019
    
Music
    
        Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom Makes a Career Highlight with 'Glitter Wolf'
    
Will Layman

        26 Feb 2019
    
Music
    
        Allison Miller and Carmen Staaf Create a Set of Varied and Appealing Modern Jazz on 'Science Fair'
    
Will Layman

        21 Sep 2018

Recent

Music

No Piano, Please!

Four recent releases demonstrate the stylistic range and power of jazz that isn't hemmed in by chords.

Music

Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom: No Morphine No Lilies

Miller takes the hard road when the easiest one would have suited her band better.

Television

Kings: Series Premiere

What's most striking about Kings is its ambition -- its wide-ranging creation of a world to surround its class-divided characters.

Marisa LaScala

Music

The Best Jazz of 2008

More than ever, the best jazz is coming from small labels, and more than ever the best draws a decent slice from the dynamics of rock and pop music without itself being a commercial venture.

Music

Todd Sickafoose: Tiny Resistors

A distinctive and generous collection of tunes blending jazz and indie-rock yet doing so without preciousness or pretention.

Reviews

Collapse Expand Reviews

BROWSE ALL ALBUM REVIEWS

Features

Collapse Expand Features

PM Picks

Collapse Expand Pm Picks

Jazz's Jenny Scheinman and Allison Miller Lift Each Other Up on 'Parlour Game'

Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom Makes a Career Highlight with 'Glitter Wolf'

Allison Miller and Carmen Staaf Create a Set of Varied and Appealing Modern Jazz on 'Science Fair'

No Piano, Please!

Four recent releases demonstrate the stylistic range and power of jazz that isn't hemmed in by chords.

Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom: No Morphine No Lilies

Miller takes the hard road when the easiest one would have suited her band better.

Kings: Series Premiere

What's most striking about Kings is its ambition -- its wide-ranging creation of a world to surround its class-divided characters.

The Best Jazz of 2008

More than ever, the best jazz is coming from small labels, and more than ever the best draws a decent slice from the dynamics of rock and pop music without itself being a commercial venture.

Todd Sickafoose: Tiny Resistors

A distinctive and generous collection of tunes blending jazz and indie-rock yet doing so without preciousness or pretention.

L7's 'Smell the Magic' Is 30 and Packs a Feminist Punch

Ed Harcourt Paints From 'Monochrome to Colour'

Numün's 'voyage au soleil' Is a Trippy, Ambient Ride and Ambitious Debut

Sotto Voce's 'Your Husband, the Governor' Is Beautifully Twisted DIY Indie Folk-rock

Fleet Foxes Take a Trip to the 'Shore'

Hot Chip Stay Up for 'Late Night Tales'

Orchestra Baobab Celebrate 50 Years with Vinyl of 'Specialist in All Styles'

Deftones Pull a Late-Career Rabbit Out of a Hat with 'Ohms'

Can Queer Studies Rescue American Universities?

Plattetopia: The Prefabrication of Utopia in East Berlin

Jack Halberstam's 'Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire' (excerpt)

For Don DeLillo, 'The Silence' Is Deafening

Becky Warren Shares "Good Luck" and Discusses Music and Depression

'We're Not Here to Entertain' Is Not Here to Break the Cycle of Punk's Failures

Renegade Connection's Gary Asquith Indulges in Creative Tension

Uncensored 'Native Son' (1951) Is True to Richard Wright's Work