Episode 304: The 11 highest rated Jazz albums of 2024

Discovering Jazz

I've been busy since mid-November going through the "Best Of" lists of 123 jazz critics, reviewers, jazz internet sites, etc. I've tabulated all the jazz albums mentioned (1,023 at last count)....and put a tick beside each one when someone puts it as one of their top albums.

This week, I play a track from 11 of the 13 albums chosen by the greatest number of 'experts', plus the Canadian album that most reviewers have mentioned. And with some I give some brief quotes from some of the reviews.

Later I will post on this page the names and artists of the albums most chosen and the number of 'votes' each received. And I'm also hoping to create a sort of 'newsletter' where I list ALL 1000 or so of the albums and the number of jazz aficianados choosing them.

But for now....just listen to the show and be surprised!

-Larry

Addendum, Jan 16/2024

I looked at a total of 123 lists,and listed all 1,066 albums that made at least one of those lists.

Here is the tally of all the albums that ended up being placed on 10 or more lists.

ALBUMS ON THE MOST 'BEST OF' LISTS

Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, Tyshawn Sorey: Compassion 41 lists Charles Lloyd: The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow 37 lists Patricia Brennan: Breaking Stretch 30

Nala Sinephro: Endlessness 26 Nubya Garcia: Odyssey 24 Shabaka: Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace 23 Mary Halvorson: Cloudward 21 Samara Joy: Portrait 21

Amaro Freitas: Y'Y 20
Immanuel Wilkins: Blues Blood 20

Kamasi Washington: Fearless Movement 19 Milton Nascimento and Esperanza Spalding: Milton & Esperanza 19 Ezra Collective: Dance, No One's Watching 19

Arooj Aftab: Night Reign (grammy nom) 18
Wadada Leo Smith, Amina Claudine Myers:Central Parks Mosaic... 18 *MAPL Kris Davis Trio: Run the Gauntlet 17 Julian Lage: Speak To Me 16

Tyshawn Sorey Trio: The Susceptible Now(w. Aaron Diehl) 15 The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis: 15 Bill Frisell: Orchestra s 14

Alice Coltrane: The Carnegie Hall Concert 13 Jeff Parker ETA IVtet: The Way Out of Easy 13 Kenny Barron: Beyond This Place 13 David Murray Quartet: Francesca 13

Matthew Shipp Trio: New Concepts in Piano Jazz 12 Chris Potter, Mehldau, Patittuci, Blade: Eagle's Point 12 Keith Jarrett: The old country, Live at the deer Head Inn 12 Joel Ross: NuBlues 11

Fred Hersch: Silent Listening 10 Tomeka Reid Quartet 3+3: 10 Meshell Ndegeocello: No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin 10 Jasmine Myra: Rising 10 Oded Tzur: My Prophet 10