Jazz Ain't Dead

Ten hand-picked contemporary Jazz albums

Oded Tzur

My journey with jazz began as many do: with classic jazz from the 1940s-1960s. While many refer to this period as ‘the golden era of jazz,’ it is not the only era of jazz, nor the only one of importance. In fact, the genre continues to evolve and inspire artists of all types and genres, touching almost every aspect of contemporary music creation in some way.

A few years ago, I set a goal to start devoting a portion of my music discovery to exploring contemporary jazz and giving it the attention it deserves. Not only is my understanding of the genre incomplete without it, (though, let’s be real: it will always be incomplete), but it is important to me to support living creators — whether musicians, authors, artists or otherwise.

Here’s a selection of ten albums that I have been listening to lately, in no particular order, that I feel are great launching points to dive into the endlessly diverse landscape of contemporary jazz music, including a few that challenge the concepts and boundaries of jazz entirely.

NOTE: This post will run a bit long and I expect it will exceed the email character limits, so make sure to view on desktop or in the app for the full list!

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Nozomi - Masako Ohta, Matthias Lindermayr (2025)

The second album from Munich-based duo Masako Ohta and Matthias Lindermayr, ‘Nozomi’ or ‘hope’ is a deeply contemplative album of mostly-improvised arrangements of compositions by Lindermayr. There is a solemness to the album, but it’s never mournful.

[...] they embody all the elements that make a collaborative jazz project great (synchronicity, spontaneity, subtlety, discipline, spirit), unified in a softened, unassuming stance that gives the impression of two friends having an ad hoc heart-to-heart, as opposed to a studio recording session. - Bandcamp Daily

The first time I listened to this album, the opening track ‘Hatsuhinode’ — which translates to ‘first sunrise of the new year’ — captivated me. Even now, after listening countless times, it still forces me to close my eyes, slow my breathing, and just feel.

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Penta - Ronald Snijders (2025)

Actively recording albums since 1977, Snijders has been a figure in the ethno-jazz movement for almost half a century. Infusing sounds from his home country Suriname, Latin, and Brazilian influences along with jazz, the resulting compositions are a delight.

It’s difficult to pick a favorite track from this album, but the closer ‘Valsa’ is a beautifully mellow little tune that feels like sipping a fresh coffee and watching the sunrise at the beach in Rio.

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Isabela - Oded Tzur (2022)

Oded Tzur has an arresting style of playing on tenor saxophone with a tone that mimics Indian flutes, suiting the classical Indian raga-styled jazz that he has come to be known for. The full review written by Ammar Kalia for Downbeat summarizes this album better than I ever could, so if you’re interested in a slightly more in-depth analysis then give that a read!

Something else I will add, however, is that both of his most recent albums — Isabela and My Prophet — are both portraits of, and in tribute to his wife, Isabela, who is an endless fount of inspiration for Oded. This continued fountain of inspired work reminds me of this quote from Sarah Ruhl:

I loved her to the point of invention

While I have no clear favorite track from this album, ‘The Lion Turtle’ is my pick for this post, the rhythmic piano providing a nice momentum through the rest of this list.

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Plays Standards - Mao Sone (2023)

Award-winning trumpeter and pianist Mao Sone is quite the underappreciated talent in jazz right now, though I have a strong feeling this will change in the near future. This 2023 album of standards demonstrates his wonderful piano and trumpet playing throughout with gorgeous takes on songs we’ve all heard a million times (just being slightly critical here ;) ).

While it may not be anything groundbreaking, it showcases his abilities nicely. A stand out track for me is his version of ‘Danny Boy,’ a folk song that isn’t often covered as a jazz standard — a little jazzy twist. Overall the album is a nice, unchallenging listen. Mao is one to watch and I look forward to seeing (hearing?) what he does next!

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Cloudland - Lars Danielsson Liberetto (2021)

Cloudland is one of the first contemporary albums I picked up a couple years back, standing out to me with compositions that allow the artists plenty of room for improvisation while also incorporating sounds and themes from world music traditions.

As a side note, I tend to group ACT with ECM in that both labels tend to release contemporary music that can often straddle lines between jazz, neo-classical, ambient, and world music. A nice place to start if looking to expand one’s library of contemporary jazz would be either of these two labels.

Here is the title track, ‘Cloudland.’

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The Liminality of Her - Amanda Whiting (2024)

I remember first coming across a Dorothy Ashby record and wondering how jazz harp could even possibly ‘work.’ It only took one track to realize that not only does it work, but there’s an ethereal quality to the music that can only really be done with the harp.

Amanda continues on in this tradition with the fabulous album ‘The Liminality of Her,’ featuring her brilliant lyrical jazz harp playing, occasionally dabbling into other genres like R&B.

For me, a highlight is ‘Waiting to Go,’ a lovely track with interplay between the harp and flute, reminiscent to me of the Dorothy Ashby/Frank Weiss albums that came many decades earlier.

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Lullaby - Mathias Eick, Kristjan Randalu, Ole Morten Vågan, Hans Hulbækmo (2025)

Mathias Eick has been a mainstay on the ECM label for a few decades, releasing albums that many would classify as ‘ambient jazz.’ Lullaby also leans in this direction, however the addition of Hans Hulbækmo on drums adds a wonderful grounding rhythmic backbone that keeps the album from floating off into the clouds, making this my favorite release from Eick.

The track I keep coming back to is ‘May,’ which has a steady, driving momentum, building intensity and urgency in a really gripping way.

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Rising - Jasmine Myra (2024)

As the sophomore release from U.K.-based saxophonist Jasmine Myra, ‘Rising’ is a melodic somewhat-spiritual-jazz journey, reflecting on her life post-lock down (note: her first release ‘Horizons’ was inspired by her experiences during COVID lock down).

The result is a gorgeous group of tracks on an album I wish were twice as long. While I don’t think there’s a bad track on the album, I really enjoy ‘From Embers.’

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Passacaglia - Adam Bałdych & Leszek Możdżer (2024)

An album that challenges the limits of the definition of jazz music, ‘Passacaglia’ features loose compositional framework that allows both musicians plenty of room for improvisation, utilizing an interesting set of instruments (violin/renaissance violin and various pianos tuned subtly different for a variety of textures).

As a classically trained violinist myself, this album is particularly compelling to me and one of the first good examples I’ve come across of an interesting fusion of classical sensibilities with the improvisational spirit of jazz. A wonderful marriage of these concepts is on the track ‘Gymnopedie,’ which improvises on the original theme from Satie. This genre-straddling as a whole is one I think of and listen to often.

The track featured here, ‘January,’ demonstrates both the classical styling and jazz improvisation that makes this album so intriguing.

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When The Poems Do What They Do - Aja Monet (2023)

A revelation. Award-winning poet Aja Monet recites her work with the backing of a fabulous jazz band. While, in a way, this evokes the foundations of hip-hop, don’t mistake that as the goal here at all. Aja’s brilliant poetry highlights themes of community, love, feminism, black joy, the woes of capitalism, and more with a sharp, contemporary perspective.

The backing band and music is wonderful throughout, leaving plenty of space for Aja and responding to lyrical cues nicely. There’s not much else to be said here other than to listen. I strongly recommend pulling up the lyrics to read along.

My selection to share from this album today is ‘Why My Love?’ Aja told The Fader in an interview of this single’s release:

“‘why my love?’ began as a list poem of the many ways love manifests in our lives,” monet tells The FADER. “While it centers the enduring love between Black women and men, it is an ode to the struggle to love and be loved in the effort to live our lives. The greatest resource we share as Black women is the love we have between one another, and this poem grapples with the contours of the complexity of that love. How do we choose each other every day? What shape does love ask us to take and to hold? Love endures and transcends us. I am obsessed with that love. Our love is our most revolutionary force we have to change the conditions of our lives. This song embodies the energy and sentiment of our innermost feelings, a musical ode to our healing relationships.”

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Bonus selections:

I asked my subscriber chat for some of their current favorite contemporary jazz albums, so wanted to share them as well here:

1. Professor X recommended ENDLESSNESS by Nala Sinephro, an ambient-spiritual-electronic-experimental jazz album that pretty much defies attempts to categorize it. Both meditative and full of an underlying tension, this deserves your focused attention.

2. Yasumi Toyoda recommended Awakening by Àbáse, a sprawling afrobeat/spiritual jazz album with bits of hip-hop sensibilities here and there. Fabulous album and a new one for me (thanks!)

3. Hungry For Sound recommended Odyssey by Nubya Garcia, a powerful release that landed in the top of many a best of list in 2024.

Thanks to everyone who shared, and for those who haven’t, what is your favorite contemporary jazz album (the last 10 years or so is fine)?