What did the best jazz sound like in 2025? There’s no way to answer that question without first issuing a bundle of qualifiers. The music takes so many shapes and forms today that excellence can be found in a wide range of settings — swinging straight down the center, or spiraling out into the stratosphere.
Our Editorial Director, Nate Chinen, has shared his Top 10 Albums with NPR Music, with guitarist-composer Mary Halvorson leading the charge. Below, find some favorites from the jazz team at WRTI: one album and one live experience, whether it takes the form of a concert, a club series, or a pilgrimage. We hope it brings you some discovery from the past year, and fresh inspiration for the year ahead.
Album: Sullivan Fortner, Southern Nights
Few players have elevated the piano trio format in recent years like the New Oreleans-born, New York-based pianist Sullivan Fortner. Southern Nights — his fifth studio album, features bassist Peter Washington and drummer Marcus Gilmore on Fortner originals as well as lesser-known tunes like the beautiful ballad “Again, Never,” which Bill Lee composed for the soundtrack of Mo’ Better Blues. The standout for me is the title track, written by Allen Toussaint. Sullivan creates a conversation between his two hands that bounces with a lift encompassing a studied history of New Orleans piano.
Experience: Snarky Puppy, Longwood Gardens, Aug. 20
On a sweaty summer night, surrounded by exotic plants and towering trees, the genre-fluid instrumental outfit known as Snarky Puppy took the stage. Highlights from the set included electrified ripping solos from the group’s violinist, Zach Brock, and coordinated water fountains spraying behind the band during the encore. What made this gig even more special for me, as a longtime Snarky superfan, was that the band reached back 15 years into their catalogue to material like “Flood” and “Quarter Master,” which allowed their guest keyboardist and organist, Philly’s own Corey Bernhard, to stretch stretch out.
Album: Mike Boone, Friends & Family: Confirmation
Friends & Family: Confirmation finds local bass jazz legend and music mentor Mike Boone playing straight from the soul, weaving blues into bebop, while old hymns offer Sunday morning grace. Each track honors real roots and locks into smooth grooves, allowing you to feel the music listening back, while remaining grounded and uplifting all at once.
Experience: Acute Inflections, Plays & Players Theater, Oct. 12
Acute Inflections, the magnetic voice-and-bass duo of Elasea Douglas and Sadiki Pierre, delivered one of my most memorable concerts of 2025 at the historic Plays & Players Theater. Their Harlem Renaissance Revival blended jazz, R&B and soulful storytelling with effortless elegance. The capacity crowd understood the assignment, arriving in vintage style that matched the evening’s theme. Douglas and Pierre’s chemistry, artistry and warm connection with the audience created an atmosphere that felt intimate, timeless, and truly unforgettable.
Album: Yazz Ahmed, A Paradise in the Hold
A Paradise in the Hold is the fourth studio full-length by the British-Bahraini composer and trumpet/flugelhorn player Yazz Ahmed. The album is deeply influenced by Ahmed’s heritage and a desire to “change the narrative about Arab women,” exhibited in the grace, beauty, strength and endless creativity in her compositions and performances. This is a set of deep grooves and ruminations that only become more powerful with repeated listens.
Experience: Linda May Han Oh, Ambrose Akinmusire, Tyshawn Sorey, The Village Vanguard, June 7
Linda May Han Oh’s 2025 album Strange Heavens, a collaboration with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, was one of the most highly anticipated records of the year, and it proved worthy of the hype. The engagement largely comprised selections from the album, with the title track and the first single, “Portal,” used as tools to send the trio into the stratosphere. Sorey played with particular verve (and a silly pair of sunglasses) during the late set, with May Han Oh equaling his fervor in her command of the trio and the audience with every note.
Album: Kenny Barron, Songbook
In addition to being a highly respected pianist, and kind of a go-to guy for any group or singer who needs masterly accompaniment, Kenny Barron has built an impressive list of his own compositions. Many have been recorded through the years. However, Songbook is his first vocal album that presents many of those compositions to an appealing roster of familiar voices (Ann Hampton Callaway, Kurt Elling) and emerging voices (Tyreek McDole, Kavita Shah). Most of the lyrics are the creation of vocal arranger Janice Jarrett. It’s interesting to hear another assessment of the composer’s creation, always rendered with his sensitive touch.
Experience: Roy McCurdy Masterclass, Temple Performing Arts Center, April 2
If you haven’t had a chance to check out a jazz master class and concert at Temple University’s Rite Of Swing Cafe, I highly recommend it. These are free and open to all. It was especially cool to see the music students in attendance mesmerized by master drummer Roy McCurdy, who played with Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Nancy Wilson and so many others. He began with a Q&A and ended with a concert with some of Temple’s premiere jazz educators and seasoned pros, including trumpeter Terell Stafford and pianist Bruce Barth. The kids absorbed every word and note. (A heads up: there’s a biography of Roy by my wife, Sharon Eisenhour, slated for publication in 2026.)
Album: Fieldwork, Thereupon
Pianist Vijay lyer, alto saxophonist Steve Lehman, and drummer Tyshawn Sorey last recorded as Fieldwork nearly two decades ago. Thereupon is a delightful offering that showcases their precise and intense cohesion, and well represents their longstanding creative friendships. Their vigorous thirst for growth, truth and understanding resonates throughout this project.
Experience: The Painted Bride’s Satellite Sound series
I’m offering flowers to retiring Painted Bride stalwart Laurel Racka in recognition of her commitment to creatives throughout the diaspora. I had a blast co-curating six performances for the Bride’s inaugural Satellite Sound series at the Black Squirrel Club and The Fallser Club — starting with the undeniable genius of the Jonathan Scales Fourchestra, and ending with the rhythmic expressions and magical moods of Lafayette Gilchrist’s New Volcanoes.
Album: Laura Jurd, Rites & Revelations
Trumpets heralded 2025 with a trove of interesting recordings: a major debut for Brandon Woody, a sweeping self-portrait from Ambrose Akinmusire, a positive electric charge from Jeremy Pelt, and a fragile protest from Wadada Leo Smith. (And that was just in the first quarter!) Trumpeter Laura Jurd isn’t well known in America, but she made my favorite record this year: Rites and Revelations, a stunner of ancient folk connotation, communal rhapsody, and raucous improvisation. Jurd’s clear bell tone has a wispy edge, and she delivers it forthright into a rugged landscape with the air of jaunty fiddles, billowy arco, accordion reels and overdubs. It’s hard to forget hearing her “St. James Infirmary” rocking a proper Highlands drone.
Experience: Louis Armstrong House and Museum, May 7
Sure, I heard a bunch of live music. Much of it was enjoyable and well performed, but nothing gave me the frisson this year as much as stepping back into Louis Armstrong’s home after 20 years, for a private tour with The Late Set squad and a conversation with Ricky Riccardi, the museum’s Director of Research Collections. Louis was an obsessive chronicler who routinely interacted creatively with mixed media; his collage creations are highly individual mashups Scotch-taped to reel-to-reel tape boxes. He notated aspects of his personal record collection, and used the occasion of listening to records to expound on a number of topics. Those old Tandberg tape machines in his upstairs office enshrined history as they captured Armstrong’s then-present condition. I stood there tacitly acknowledging that we were in the man cave of one of the 20th century’s greatest men.
Album: Pedrito Martínez Group, Ilusión Óptica
Pedrito Martínez is a percussionist, singer, dancer and songwriter born and raised in Havana, Cuba. He is a conguero performing classic Cuban rumbas, Afro-Cuban folkloric and religious music. These roots factor into every selection on Ilusión Óptica, which features guests like Bill Murray on percussion (yes — that Bill Murray) and Isaac Delgado, Kate Candela and Daniela Darcourt on vocals. This release is awesome — ¡Con mucho sabor! (“with a lot of flavor!).
Experience: Spruce Street Dance Nights, Spruce Street Harbor Park, July 25
I ventured out one night in July to check out the return of Latin night to the Delaware River waterfront. Back in the late ‘90s, this is where the Rock Lobster outdoor club used to host a Latin Night every Sunday, featuring live Latin music along with a DJ. Latin night at Spruce Street Harbour Park mirrors the same concept, but with no cover charge. The atmosphere was sabroso, and brought back great memories!
Album: Kassa Overall, CREAM
Kassa Overall’s CREAM isn’t your typical “Jazz covers of hip hop songs” kind of album; far from it. Kassa dug deep into his straight-ahead jazz bag for this one, and turned some of hip-hop heads’ favorite songs into something that jazz purists could tap their toes to, even if they scoffed at a title or two. “Big Poppa” — originally a “ghetto love song” — is transformed into something Yusef Lateef could have played on in the ‘70s. Kassa’s thoughtful intention is felt in every song, making this album one I keep revisiting. I’ll continue to do so for a long, long time.
Experience: Lakecia Benjamin, Zellerbach Theatre, May 9
Describing Lakecia Benjamin onstage only takes two words: An Experience. When my then-7-year-old and I had that experience at Penn Live Arts in May, she made the audience feel like we were part of the performance. There is never a shortage of infectious energy with Lakecia, and that night, Philly’s own Anwar Marshall filled in as her drummer, making it one of those nights that remind you why live music should never be taken for granted.