The Best Jazz Albums 2024 – A Comparative Survey

This is the fourth annual survey of this kind. I have used the same approach as in 2022 and 2023: The table below combines an Anglo-Saxon view of the jazz world, represented by the New York Times and The Guardian, two German-language sources plus the ranking by TSF Jazz, “la première radio Jazz de France.” This year, the German-speaking sources are Falter, an Austrian weekly news magazine and BayerischerRundfunk (Bavarian Public Radio). As a result, it would appear, we see a fair share of European artists in the rankings, such as Sarah Buechi, singing in Schwyzerdütsch (Swiss German).

The first four publications choose their Top 10, whereas TSF picks the Top 12. With Isaiah Collier earning TSF’s second place with two albums and two artists ranked ex aequo for 7^th place, TSF’s list covers 13 artists and 14 albums. In total, the table below includes 48 different albums.

There is a bit more overlap than we found last year, with six albums mentioned twice – but still, jazz critics appear to cherish diversity; no album gets more than two mentions. The albums that got listed twice are:

• Melissa Aldana „Echoes of the Inner Prophet”
• Keith Jarrett/Gary Peackock/Paul Motian “The Old Country”
• Isaiah Collier “The Almighty”
• Kenny Baron “Beyond this Place”
• The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis and their self-titled album
• Ezra Collective “Dance – No One’s Watching”
• Meshell Ndegeocello “No More Water- The Gospel of James Baldwin”

Tyshawn Sorey shows up twice, as a leader with his own trio in the NYT rankings and as a “sideman” with Vijay Iyer and Linda May Han Oh at The Guardian. Speaking of that trio -the 2021 Iyer/May Han Oh/Sorey concert in Mannheim’s Alte Feuerwache still ranks highly in the list of my all-time favourites. And last year, I had the opportunity to hear Melissa Aldana live in my hometown. She and the Frankfurt Radio Big Band (hr Big Band) came to play at Aschaffenburg’s beautiful old City Theatre, built in 1811. They played the same programme in Frankfurt as well, here’s a link to the recording. 

Except for “The Old Country”, the release of a 1992 concert, all of the above are contemporaneous recordings. Indeed, the only other legacy recordings included in the rankings are Art Tatum’s 1953 “Jewels in the Treasure Box that made it on Bayerische Rundfunk’s list and a posthumous release by Wayne Shorter. “Celebration/Volume 1” is the first in a series of archival releases that Wayne Shorter curated before he passed away in 2023. This 2014 live recording captured Shorter and his quartet with Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, and Brian Blade at the Stockholm Jazz Festival.

I had fun pulling this together -I had no idea that there are so many “Best of 2024” lists out there – and listening to some of that music while doing it. I hope you enjoy this post and checking out some of these amazing musicians. But above all, have a terrific 2025!