Geno Thackara's Favorites of 2025

To look at the commentary on the year's big stars and famous releases, one would almost think 2025 had been a lackluster year in music. Lucky for us that the jazz world is constantly full of things much more interesting.

Fergus McCreadie
The Shieling
Edition Records

The breakout trio only continues breaking out in ways fresh and unexpected. While the folk-rooted bounce in their step is always there, this outing adds a more grounded and thoughtful angle without losing the happy warmth underneath.



l'Oumigmag
Ce Qui Tourne Dans L'Air
Ronin Rhythm Records

If the title suggests something airy, there is certainly nothing lightweight about the experience. A worldly brew that turns simple trance-folk into something multicultural and expansive.



Fred Hersch
The Surrounding Green
ECM Records

However long we may be used to hearing a master at the craft, he still continues to surprise. Hersch's trademarks (thoughtfulness, expressiveness, use of timing and space) are all present and make for something deeply rich and eloquent.



Casey Golden
The Struggle
Scrampion Records

Not exactly a fusion affair, this is a piano-led outing with just enough bump and groove to dip a foot in that pool nonetheless. The key asset is a melodicism that hooks the ear and brings the charm.



The Counterfictionals
An Incomplete Encyclopedia of Gentle Emotions
Zachs Music

A combo with a deep love of cinema creates a half-dozen aural movies of their own, each one building a mood until it feels like a mini-epic in itself.




KALI Trio
The Playful Abstract
Ronin Rhythm Records

The mysterious feel of this trio sounds less overly bleak than before and just as alluring. Their variety of trance is a particularly swampy one, with a lot of electronic swirls adding up to something hypnotic and mystical.



GoGo Penguin
Necessary Fictions
Sony Music

For a combo that defies the very idea of being a jazz group, this one still has plenty of top-shelf jazzy interplay, but their omnivorous imagination turns out even more dazzling. This time they hit a high-water mark more dynamic and more wildly eclectic than ever.



Konrad Ciesielski
Koniec
Mindses Music

This is a weird but compelling kind of sci-fi-tronica, wildly eclectic with more than a touch of the celestial. Count on a hardcore drummer to keep a certain rhythm at the heart of things, however far into space they wander.



Vega Trails
Sierra Tracks
Gondwana Records

What first emerged as an introspective bass/sax duo expands into a quartet with a flair for the cinematic. The sophomore outing is a sleeper that gradually unfolds with a whole panorama of color.



Yosef Gutman Levitt
Shir Yedidot
Soul Song Records

This is an artist you can count on for an oasis of calm, not to get away from the world, but to slow down and really listen to it. The milieu is a sort of old-world folk with Middle Eastern roots, but connects with some deep-down spirituality that transcends any of those elements on the surface.



Terry Waldo and the Gotham City Band
Treasury, Volume 2
Turtle Bay Records

This combo has not just a knack for stride and ragtime, but a love for the milieu that is impossible not to feel. While the repertoire is decades old, the presentation is less like a treasury than a delightful kind of time warp.