Jazz, born of the creative brilliance of Black American culture and now wonderfully global, is passionately alive in 2022. These are the year’s best jazz albums.
Critic Will Layman listens to jazz podcasts, muses on Charles Mingus, reads Jason Miles, and discusses the best new jazz recordings of May 2022.
The sweet-and-sour combinations of sounds and personalities on John Hébert’s Sounds of Love are of the moment and reach back a half-century to remind of a treasure.
New Jazz pianist and composer Kris Davis makes a recording that presses with excitement into hip-hop and groove music without sacrificing any daring or compromising her vision.
Like his earlier Prezens project, jazz guitarist David Torn's latest band Sun of Goldfinger thrives on surprise and texture instead of form or tradition.
YRU Still Here?'s undercurrent muddies the water just enough to remind the listener that Marc Ribot and Ceramic Dog will never take the easy way out, even during the best of times.
