The 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2025

The top two are both by the same artist.

The World-Shifting Grooves of Fela Kuti

Sarah Larson on the podcast series “Fela Kuti: Fear No Man,” a deeply reported and sonically glorious biography of the legendary Nigerian musician, Afrobeat innovator, and rebel.

Music Sale!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 11000+ Happy Rockstars

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit on Rubber Chickens

Enormous: The Gorge Story (2019) - IMDb

1h 5m

Spotify Playlist Sorter - Chosic

Sort your Spotify liked songs/playlists by BPM, genres, moods and more music attributes, organize and manage your playlists however you like!

The Colorful, Scandalous, True History of the Machine That Created American Pop

The jukebox got its start earlier than you might think, but it truly became iconic when rock 'n' roll took over in the 1950s

The Sealy Barbecue Joint That Inspired Robert Earl Keen's “Barbeque” Song

We tracked down the family of the now-closed Texas restaurant.

For some people, music doesn’t connect with any of the brain’s reward circuits

Neuroscientists find people who don’t enjoy music, study their brain activity.

Using the fMRI, they were able to see that gambling wins lit up the reward circuit in the 15 people Pallarés suspected of specific musical anhedonia. Music on the other hand, had no effect on reward circuits.

how the different regions in the brain communicated with each other.

Stuttering Has Deep Genetic Roots and May Affect Your Ability to Clap to a Beat

A massive genetic study found that stuttering is not just about nurture and may link to processing rhythm itself.

Leopard Seals Sing Songs That Resemble Human Nursery Rhymes—Here’s Why

Every night, a male leopard seal slips off the ice and sings underwater for hours. It sounds structurally like a human nursery rhyme...

Anison 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Anime Songs

Many anime tracks become mainstream hits, performed at concerts and karaoke bars nationwide. Here's a guide to the world of anison.

Ella Hanshaw: Woman on Fire

Author Kelly Kerney tells the story behind the newly released West Virginia gospel album Ella Hanshaw’s Black Book.

The Invisible Horror of The Shining: How Music Makes Stanley Kubrick’s Iconic Film Even More Terrifying

Inexplicable as it may sound to readers of this site, there are movie-lovers who claim not to enjoy the work of Stanley Kubrick.

200 Most Influential Musicians of the Last 25 Years

From Bon Iver to J Dilla to Beyoncé, these are the musicians who made the biggest impact across Pitchfork’s lifetime so far.

The Record Store Enters a New Golden Age

The owners of Waterloo Records hope an eye-popping revamp will reinvent the music-shopping experience in uncertain economic times.

5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Ella Fitzgerald

Explore the catalog of “The First Lady of Song” with tracks chosen by Valerie June, Yaya Bey, Imani Perry and 13 more writers and musicians.

That Healing Sound - Nautilus

When music is medicine.

♫ Mahna Mahna, Do doo be-do-do ♫ (Why do we get earworms?)

If we mention or even just allude to a catchy song, we risk having part of it playing on a loop in our head, for days on end. What's that about? And what can we do about it?

The Ballad of Bill Fox

Robert Pollard adores him. Jeff Tweedy calls him a hero. But he’s just wanted to be left alone — until now.

The Cleanest Recordings of 1920s Louis Armstrong Songs You Will Ever Hear

On Youtube, jazz enthusiast Jonathan Holmes declares: 'I can guarantee this is the cleanest sounding Louis Armstrong record you'll ever hear! With the original transfer supplied by Nick Dellow, here is the mother record which was shipped by Okeh to Germany for their Odeon…

The saddest chord progression ever (revisited)

First, let’s get this out of the way: the title of this post is a joke. No chord progression has any inherent emotional quality. Musical sadness is a matter of cultural convention, and even w…

I Analyzed Chord Progressions in 680k Songs

And the results surprised me

The 75 Best Albums of 1975

We count down the best 75 albums of 1975: Led Zeppelin, Willie Nelson, P-Funk, Patti Smith and more

How Alison Krauss Found the Song That Rekindled Her Distinctive Band

After 14 years between albums, the singer and fiddler has regrouped Union Station to sing about darkness and light. The group is carrying on without a key member.

The Wizard of Vinyl Is in Kansas

Chad Kassem is on a mission — saving listeners “from bad sound” — at the rural factory where he pores over LPs from some of music’s most important artists.

Her Greatest Hits

"Maybe it's only when you don’t know what you are listening for that you find what you were waiting all along to discover."

Seen

Clifford Brown & Max Roach (1956) [WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED LOVE?]

I just discovered this guy. Holy smokes. : r/Jazz

Jazz recommendations : r/Jazz

Jazz OTD: Though unreleased for a couple of years after its February 15, 1964 recording, Lee Morgan's "Search for a New Land" is widely…

Jazz OTD: The subtitle of "Friends and Neighbors" is potentially a bit misleading, as the February 14, 1970 performance by Ornette Coleman…

Early start for Jazz OTD: Pianist Freddie Redd composed the soundtrack for and acted in Jack Gelber's play "The Connection," recording the…

Jazz OTD: Trumpeter Johnny Coles penned this tune, recorded as part of pianist Horace Parlan’s sextet (w/Booker Ervin, Grant Green, Butch…

When Louis Armstrong Conquered Chicago

Grammy-winner Ricky Riccardi tells the story of a milestone moment in American music in this extract from his new book

If I wanted to close my eyes and put on a live album that would whisk me away to New Orleans for a live concert of the finest jazz ever put…

I have a pretty killer audio setup that would require Porsche money to improve. I want to be transported to a jazz hall by a live album that is so…

Reply with a 10/10 album

357 votes, 272 comments. 1.1M subscribers in the Jazz community. Reddit's home for all things related to Jazz. Currently private to protest reddit's…

The Grammy nominee you need to hear: Esperanza Spalding : It's Been a Minute

How do you bring the African Diaspora to the Grammys?Esperanza Spalding and Milton Nascimento's contrasting tones make a perfect team on Milton + esperanza, a collection of covers, duets, and original songs that have earned the pair a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album…

Jump, Jive and Fail: The ’90s Swing Craze

How did retro sounds, dance moves, and vintage suits come to dominate before suddenly disappearing?

David Leheny (@davidleheny.bsky.social)

Jazz OTD: Two masterpieces for today's Jazz OTD. First, Joe Henderson recorded his landmark septet album "Mode For Joe" on January 27, 1966 with Lee Morgan, Curtis Fuller, Bobby Hutcherson, Cedar Walton, Ron Carter, and Joe Chambers. Perfect hard bop leaning ever so slightly…

Song Hunter: The Life of Alan Lomax

Alan Lomax was a legendary collector of folk music, author, broadcaster, oral historian, musicologist, and filmmaker who raised the profile of folk music worldwide.

Spotify, TikTok and 50 More Great Articles about Music

The best new and classic writing about the world of music

How Jukeboxes Made Memphis Music

Nashville is where you go to make a hit that sounds like everyone else. Memphis is where you make a …

The 30 Best Dream Pop Albums

Drift off with Beach House, Cocteau Twins, Grouper, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and more

5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Jazz Guitar

The instrument hasn’t always been a central player in jazz, but the best guitarists have taken up the challenge of finding their own way. Fourteen musicians and writers share their favorites.

The Most Iconic Hip-Hop Sample of Every Year (1973–2023)

Hip-hop was once a subculture, but by now it's long since been one of the unquestionably dominant forms of popular music — not just in America, and not just among young people.

Blue Note 4000 series - jazz album covers

Album cover design and jazz photography on the Blue Note Records. Notes and pictures from the Birka Jazz Archive

American Routes Shortcuts: Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues, was the first African American superstar, an artist that mingled regal dignity with sensuality. We’ll sample her recorded legacy, talk with critics and hear memories of her contemporaries from the Jazz Age of the 1920s.

AllMusic's Favorite Actually Scary Albums

Halloween parties now come with a built-in soundtrack. You'll hear the prerequisite "Thriller" from Michael Jackson, "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon and probably Donovan's…

Halloween