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Carl Medsker's Best Jazz Albums Of 2025

By Carl Medsker
December 30, 2025
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Best of 2025? A bold claim, given the fire hose of content from which to drink. In my drafts from the torrent, I discovered many engaging, entertaining and thought-provoking releases. The ones on this list were the most often replayed throughout the year and will remain in rotation into the future. Whether energizing or calming, joyful or somber, intellectually stimulating or simply toe-tapping fun, all were a balm for troubling times. And now, 2026 is upon us, no doubt with a fresh deluge. Fortunately, I feel a thirst coming on and, undoubtedly, the continued need for the soothing and restorative powers of music.

The albums are sorted by release date, given the futility of sorting by preference.

Benjamin Lackner
Spindrift
ECM Records

Mathias Eick
Lullaby
ECM Records

Noah Preminger
Ballads
Chill Tone Records

Steve Lehman
The Music of Anthony Braxton
Pi Recordings

Satoko Fujii
Dream a Dream
Libra Records

Anouar Brahem
After the Last Sky
ECM Records

George Colligan
Live At The Jazz Standard
Whirlwind Recordings

James Brandon Lewis
Abstraction Is Deliverance
Intakt Records

Lloyd Haber
First Dance
Self Produced

Mary Halvorson
About Ghosts
Nonesuch Records

Jaleel Shaw
Painter Of The Invisible
Changu Records

Nadav Remez
Summit
HaRamaz Music

Patricia Brennan
Of the Near and Far
Pyroclastic Records

Charles Lloyd
Figure In Blue
Blue Note Records

Muriel Grossmann
Breakthrough
Dreamlandrecords

Chad Taylor
Smoke Shifter
Otherly Love Records

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