Jazz 2025: The Mid-Year Report

The best of six months of new albums

Nel mezzo del cammin di questo anno

Music can’t change the world, but it might be able to save it. Music making is a social activity and in my firm opinion the original way for people to communicate and come together across language and cultural barriers. Maybe you can’t talk with each other—yet—but you can sing and dance with each other. And so we have civilization. And to paraphrase John Waters, if you meet people who don’t sing, dance, or listen to music, get the fuck away from them.

This is a hard year for a lot of people so far, because the non-musical fuckers have the levers of power, and it’s not going to get any better. But the music is still good, and jazz, which is more in touch with the vibes of society than any other music and should be listened to by anyone concerned with the world around them, is still great. Even with the interruptions of writing a book, new releases have been in heavy rotation, and there’s enough superb ones to make a best-of list for the half year. And at the top is one that feels like it’s going to be there at the year’s close. Listen, buy from the artist, enjoy.