
AllMusic 2014 Year In Review
Favorite Jazz Albums -
Big names like Branford Marsalis, Jason Moran and Nels Cline make appearances on our list of best jazz albums of the year, alongside younger artists like Theo Croker, Tumi Mogorosi and Hiromi.
Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra / Arturo O'Farrill
Buoyed by guests and 28 percussion instruments, this date celebrates the drum as a cultural force in a spirited, wide-ranging program of big-band jazz.

The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier to Paint
On his sophomore Blue Note date, this trumpeter puts the emphasis on his bold and diverse compositions to thrilling effect.

Arild Andersen / Tommy Smith / Paolo Vinaccia
The second offering by this trio was recorded in a studio; it's more exploratory, lyric, and deeply satisfying.

Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro
Pianist Billy Childs celebrates the music of the late folksinger Laura Nyro.

Billy Hart Quartet / Billy Hart
This experienced quartet delivers expansive, disciplined group interplay in composition and improvisation over eight tunes.

In My Solitude: Live at Grace Cathedral
The great saxophonist adds depth and breadth in a new chapter of his long career by delivering a stunning solo concert.

Brian Blade / Brian Blade & the Fellowship Band
On its fourth album, the band returns to Blue Note and goes deeper into its exploration of song forms through modern jazz.

Morning Forest aka Nose Up Bottom Down
Colorful, vibrant, and often rhythmically charged large-ensemble jazz influenced by the likes of Gil Evans and Charles Mingus.

On its sixth studio album, this Norwegian trio comes across with more disciplined writing, a bigger sonic palette, and wider horizons.

This volume was taken from the same sessions that resulted in the duo's lovely 2010 offering Jasmine.

A buoyant celebration inspired by the organ jazz of Jimmy Smith and the joyous New Orleans second-line tradition.

Pérez explores the folkloric traditions of his homeland with a mix of jazz, classical, and Latin American sounds.

Cosmic Lieder: The Darkseid Recital
Three years after their auspicious debut, the pair deliver a brilliant live offering compiled from two years of performances.

David Sanborn / Joey DeFrancesco / Bobby Hutcherson
A swinging hard bop and soul-jazz-inflected date that harks back to classic '60 and '70s Blue Note albums.

The ECM debut by this up-and-coming pianist offers a bold jazzman's take on Afro-Cuban ritual music that is at once striking and deeply moving.

Edward Simon / Edward Simon & Ensemble Venezuela
Pianist/composer/arranger Edward Simon and his Ensemble Venezuela create a vibrant meld of jazz and Venezuelan folk forms.

On her return to original material, the Canadian pianist and songwriter delivers a striking new direction. Lionel Loueke guests.

The adept jazz pianist delivers her first quintet album, featuring trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and others.

On her third album with this trio, the pianist delivers genuine surprise with advanced compositions and colorful grooves.

Beating the Teens: Songs of Steve Lacy
Edgy, experimental group once again pays homage to the late forward-thinking jazz saxophonist.

The quartet's sophomore offering builds on the strengths of its debut with tunes that meld near pop accessibility with modern jazz sophistication.

All Rise: A Joyful Elegy for Fats Waller
A marvelous tribute that still retains its own shape and coherency.

A jazz saxophonist's loving tribute to his daughter who was killed in the Sandy Hook shootings in 2012.

John Medeski / Matt Wilson Quartet
A joyous mix of the jazz tradition, both avant-garde and swinging, that makes the most of Wilson and Medeski's influences.

To Future Memories is a marvelous offering -- Its roots may lie in outside jazz, but its discipline and songlike qualities are numerous and profound.

Klaus Gesing / Glauco Venier / Norma Winstone
The trio's third offering poignantly juxtaposes provocatively reimagined covers against their trademark originals.

This Norse sax-guitar-drums power trio delivers an exciting debut that walks the line between electric jazz, prog rock, and metal.

Now featuring Dave Liebman, the freewheeling trio still sounds like a larger band thanks to mastery of live electronics and looping.

Mark Turner Quartet / Mark Turner
Inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin's dystopian novel, Turner delivers this deeply thoughtful pianoless quartet recording.

On this captivating solo outing, the pianist revisits and re-envisions some of his musical travels and juxtaposes them with bracing new tunes.

Michael Formanek / Tomas Fujiwara / Mary Halvorson / Thumbscrew
Three top avant jazzers with decades of experience among them create a distinctive band identity on Thumbscrew's 2014 debut.

Michael Mantler / Nouvelle Cuisine Big Band
The Jazz Composer's Orchestra: Update
Forty-five years after the original, the composer profoundly re-envisions his tunes for a new generation, adding period material never before recorded.

An excellent conversational meeting between two very different jazz guitarists that juxtaposes energy and ideas in ten colorful presentations.

The Nels Cline Singers fifth album shows that they're still making some of the most interesting, adventurous, genre-smashing music of the early 21st century.

Swinging, expressive, harmonically advanced chamber jazz from Wogram's longstanding quartet and three empathetic string players.

On his Blue Note debut, the noted drummer assembles a killer core band and three special vocal guests to deliver an ambitious, affirmative set.

Pat Metheny / Pat Metheny Unity Group
The group's stellar sophomore effort showcases a quintet as informed by lyric feel, and emotional expression as sophistication.

On his debut for Resonance Records, the iconic accordionist and his quintet deliver a gorgeous program of international jazz standards and originals.

Quiet Pride: The Elizabeth Catlett Project
Using Catlett's art as inspiration, Reid composed these songs that touch upon swinging post-bop and gospel, spirituals, and classical music.

A simply irresistible high-energy avant jazz-rock quartet album from Belgium, suitable for retaining on hard drives everywhere.

Slawomir Kurkiewicz / Michal Miskiewicz / Trygve Seim / Marcin Wasilewski / Jacob Young
On his third ECM date, the Norwegian guitarist showcases a fine new quintet with Trygve Seim and pianist Marcin Wasilewski's trio.

Using his decade-long trio and special guests Mark Turner and Bill Frisell, the Italian pianist delivers an excellent collection of colorful new material.

Steven Bernstein / Henry Butler / The Hot 9
The NOLA pianist and New York trumpeter/arranger initiate the rebirth of Impulse! with a swinging party of visionary reads of early jazz and blues.

Six months after their rigorous reading of The Rite of Spring, the Minnesota trio returns to its own musical universe with a bracing set of originals.

The transatlantic sextet of avant electric jazz heavyweights careens between chaos and calm on its freewheeling second live album.

Here the Canadian sextet and friends deliver their most sophisticated recording to date, yet never sacrifice groove for ambition.

The trumpeter's vibrant, '70s jazz fusion-infused third album, with production and vocals from Dee Dee Bridgewater.

Tord Gustavsen / Tord Gustavsen Quartet
The pianist's quartet expands its physicality and harmonic palette on this compelling set without sacrificing its lyric core.

A fully realized, beautifully played, inspiring modern jazz that uses the music's post-1960 history to craft a statement as timeless as its spiritual subject.

These dynamite suites are fantastically performed by the composer, Henry Threadgill, Jack DeJohnette, and John Lindberg.