017: My favorite jazz albums of 2023!

This year we have synth-infused jazz, an indomitable final album, a fiery debut from a thrilling new quartet, expansive cosmic jazz, and plenty more sonic explorations.

I had hoped to send more newsletters this year but it didn’t happen. I always bite off more than I can chew! But I have ideas for next year and hopefully I will bring them to fruition. In any case, I was pretty sure nothing would get in the way of at least sharing my 2023 favorites and blessedly, here we are! As with my previous lists, I’ve eschewed rankings in favor of chronology. Not only do I like the path this creates through time, but the notion of ‘best’ is both useless and murky. I compiled this list for myself and all of you but also for the 18th Annual Jazz Critics Poll, which is out now! (If you’re interested, more on that here, including everyone’s ballots.) Thank you so much for reading and listening! Please buy work that moves you and support musicians directly. ❤️

Art Ensemble of Chicago, The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris (RogueArt, January 20) • Listen.

Free jazz institution Art Ensemble of Chicago returns to the country where their moniker became official in 1969 (hence the title) and performs the stunning live set that becomes this album. One to sit with, this album is a testament to the Art Ensemble’s power and continuing relevance. If you've seen them live, you have a sense of what that means. If you've not seen them, listening to this is a decent approximation. Roscoe Mitchell introduces the band on "Odwalla" and reader, first I got goosebumps and then I cried. Albums from January tend to get lost by the end of the year, but I knew this one would not be far from my mind. Standout tracks include “Leola” (on which the incredible Moor Mother shines), “Stormy Weather,” and “I Greet You With Open Arms.” Perhaps needless to say but if you ever get the chance to attend an Art Ensemble performance, GO.

The Necks, Travel (Northern Spy Records, February 24) • Listen.

I fell in love with the Necks this year. This thread of people’s favorites helped me make sense of the Australian experimental jazz trio’s intimidating discography, loaded with one-hour-long-song albums, just in time to get into their remarkable latest album and eventually interview them about all of it for Uncut. (My biggest piece for them yet! It’s not online but you can buy a print or digital issue here. Not sure what the major bookshops are in the UK but it’s probably at some of them and if you’re in the US, check your local Barnes and Noble.) If you’re new to the Necks, Travel is actually a pretty good introduction. It’s got some almost surprisingly catchy moments and, with four tracks instead of one, is a slightly more palatable (?) listen.

Brötzmann / Leigh / Lonberg-Holm, Naked Nudes (Trost Records, March 3) • Listen.

Unholy and astonishing experimental free jazz from two of my favorite musicians, plus Fred Lonberg-Holm, who is new to my ears. This is Heather Leigh's last album with the almighty free jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, who sadly left us this June. RIP to a true legend! Brötzmann / Leigh’s studio debut Sparrow Nights is another favorite of mine, an elemental and intense free improv collaboration with Brötzmann on a multitude of reeds alongside Leigh’s pedal steel. On this album, Lonberg-Holm’s cello rounds out the mournful moodiness, with Leigh’s pedal steel as spectrally sexy as ever and Brötzmann’s horn a thing of furious beauty. 

Scree, Jasmine on a Night in July (Ruination Record Co., March 25) • Listen.

Winner of this year’s “is this or is this not jazz” award! (This is a new tradition. I didn’t name it as such last year, but the winner then was clearly Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer’s impressionistic Recordings from the Åland Islands.) I was immediately drawn to Scree when I saw this album described as spiritual lounge, though it is just as easily post-rock as it is experimental jazz. It also sounds like the score to an imaginary film, profoundly enchanting and singularly transportive. It’s cosmic lounge, it’s sandy jazz, it’s Ennio Morricone ruminating in space. 

Daniel Rotem, Wave Nature (Colorfield Records, April 7) • Listen.

A reliable metric of quality is whether or not a contemporary jazz-adjacent musician has collaborated with Jeff Parker. It was safe to assume, then, that saxophonist Daniel Rotem’s Wave Nature would be good, but it is in fact great. I love the way synths are incorporated into this album’s expansive experimental jazz, a creative braid for folks who dig Suzanne Ciani and John Coltrane or Wayne Shorter and Giorgio Moroder. The bridge is the key! (Metaphorically. I don’t know enough about song structure to comment on that kind of bridge!)

jaimie branch, Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (​(​world war​)​) (International Anthem, August 25) • Listen.

The wind blows out of one’s sails when it comes to including the late jaimie branch’s final album on such a list, for obvious reasons. As I wrote in my review for Uncut, what should have been the next step in branch’s innovative career became a tragically beautiful final document that captured an artist cresting a peak. branch was best known for her fiery trumpet but she leaned into her voice here, furthering the album’s very punk sense of fury at how we’ve wronged the world and each other. Only she could create such a fully realized work that brings to mind Joe Henderson's The Elements (one of my favorite albums of ALL TIME) and includes a sparse, wonderful cover of a Meat Puppets tune.

Matthew Halsall, An Ever Changing View (Gondwana Records, September 8) • Listen.

This album opens with stunning harp strings and only improves from there. I’m new to trumpeter Matthew Halsall’s work but he’s part of what feels like the new wave of British jazz and when I saw that the RIYL (Recommended If You Like) for this album was Pharoah Sanders, Don Cherry, Alice Coltrane, Wadada Leo Smith, and Phil Cohran and the Artistic Heritage Ensemble, I instantly knew this would be one of my favorites of the year. I was not wrong!

Mendoza Hoff Revels, Echolocation (AUM Fidelity, October 13) • Listen.

Total fucking freak jazz alert! The debut album by new quartet Mendoza Hoff Revels is the spiritual successor to Last Exit's Iron Path and Sonny Sharrock's Ask the Ages that we didn’t know we so desperately needed. (Some of us knew.) Mendoza Hoff Revels is led by the brilliant avant-garde guitarist Ava Mendoza and bassist Devin Hoff, who I don’t know as much about but whose list of collaborators is an intriguing one (Julia Holter, Nels Cline, Kira Roessler, Xiu Xiu, to name just a few). The quartet is completed by saxophonist James Brandon Lewis (more on him further down) and drummer Ches Smith.

Scott Clark, Dawn & Dusk (Out Of Your Head Records, August 25) • Listen.

People sometimes ask me how I find new music and lately I’ve been recommending following record labels. I may not have come upon Scott Clark if I wasn’t aware of Out Of Your Head Records, who released my favorite jazz debut of 2022, Mali Obomsawin’s Sweet Tooth. If you dug that one, you need to listen to this one. Drummer Scott Clark is at the center of the modern jazz and avant-garde scene of Richmond, Virginia and this album is a four movement suite with his new sextet, told in two forms: the first half is the studio version and the second is a document of a live set which gave the musicians space to explore and expand this breathtaking, beautiful music. Dark and mournful but equally stirring, this is a must-listen for fans of the aforementioned Obomsawin as well as Matana Roberts, Yazz Ahmed, and Art Ensemble.

Thandi Ntuli with Carlos Niño, Rainbow Revisited (International Anthem, November 17) • Listen.

This is South African pianist Thandi Ntuli’s fourth album but the first to cross my path. And how glad I am that it did! Recorded with prolific Cali-based percussionist and producer Carlos Niño (who also produced André 3000’s much-discussed solo debut), Rainbow Revisited is deceptively minimal but vibrant and alive, augmented with electronic and vocal experiments. I interviewed Ntuli when I reviewed this album for Uncut and I’ll give her the last word. On her favorite part of this album: “I really love ‘Piano Edit.’ I don't even remember how it was initially played in the studio, but Carlos edited it and it sounds so meditative in its repetitiveness. I really enjoyed how that sounded and where it landed on the album. On my first listen of the album, it stood out. But I don't know if I can say it's my favorite moment because for me, more than anything I've ever put together, it feels like the album is one thing. Everything in the album makes something else make sense.”

The poll calls for ten albums but here are five more quick hits that deserve to be mentioned:

• James Brandon Lewis’ Eye of I, which came to my attention when I saw him perform with the Messthetics at Third Man in Detroit earlier this year. They appear on the last track of this excellent album and they were all fantastic live.

• Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily’s Love in Exile, which I described in a previous issue: “Arooj Aftab’s impeccably gorgeous vocals sung in Urdu are transportive, Vijay Iyer’s piano is scintillating, and Shahzad Ismaily’s Moog synth is otherworldly.” It was nominated for a Grammy! In a brand new category for Best Alternative Jazz Album. Leaving aside whatever the heck that category name is supposed to convey, I hope they win! 

• Alex Sadnik’s Flight, an excellent album of Charlie Parker tunes expressed in two intriguing settings: side A is a quintet with a pedal steel and side B is a chordless quartet. This album is particularly special to me because I wrote the liner notes 🥹 

• Bex Burch’s There is only love and fear, minimalistic jazz which centers the liveliness of homemade instruments (Burch made her own xylophone) and the sounds of nature. You might also think of this music as ambient kraut. It’s incredibly pretty!

• Another callback to last year’s list, I wanted to close out this year’s list with a clip of a live Balance performance I caught just a few weeks ago. Balance is my favorite current jazz coming out of Detroit, an incredibly talented piano/sax duo with a tremendous connection. In this video they are exploring new ground and hopefully we get more of this in 2024! 

For even more great jazz from 2023, check out the 149 comments on this thread. Thank you all for your excellent contributions!

Now Reading: Crash by J.G. Ballard; Good Behaviour by Molly Keane; Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier