MY TOP JAZZ (ADJACENT) RECORDINGS OF 2025

By Eugene Holley, Jr.

These vivid and vibrant selections undermine the absurd notion that A.I. will produce sounds that will somehow supplant the thousands of years humans have made music.

The following selections are presented in no particular order.

Mark Turner, Reflections on: The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (Giant Step Arts)

Tenor saxophonist Mark Turner delivers a complex and compelling music/spoken word parallel of James Weldon Johnson’s 1923 Harlem Renaissance novel about passing. Unlike the unamed protagonist, who was trying to create a synthesis of Negro and classical music, Turner’s neo-avant garde jazz succeeds where the “tragic mulatto” of the story fails, producing a work of aural art that enthusiastically embraces its musical complexity.

Aruan Ortiz, Creole Renaissance, (Intakt Records) 

The Harlem Renaissance inspired, Afro-Francophone Negritude Movement of the 1930’s was created a by group of Paris-based, Afro-Francophone student poets, essayists and intellectuals that included Leopold Sedar Senghor of Senegal, Rene Menil and Aime and Suzanne Cesaire from Martinique and Leon-Gontran Damas of French Guiana. The Cuban-born pianist-composer Aruán Ortiz’s profound pianism, brilliantly transculturates the surrealistic Negritude literary classics with his own folkloric and avant garde compositions and improvisations, creating a truly Afro-Diasporic aural art that spans from Manhattan to the Metropole.

Gary Bartz and NTU: The Eternal Tenure of Sound: Damage Control, (OYO Records) 

The Baltimore-born, alto saxophonist, octogenarian and NEA Jazz Master Gary Bartz revisits his 70’s Quiet Storm solo work, featuring the music of McCoy Tyner, Phyliss Hyman, Patti LaBelle, El DeBarge, Norman Connors, Ambrosia and Earth, Wind and Fire.

Brandee Younger, Gadabout Season, (Impulse!)

The Grammy-nominated harpist Brandee Younger is a swinging student of the jazz harp pioneers Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane. This album further showcases Younger’s ethereal mastery of musical genres, from classical, jazz and Latin, to pop, R&B, gospel and hip-hop. 

Etienne Charles, Gullah Roots, (Culture Shock)

Trinidadian trumpeter/composer/bandleader/educator Etienne Charles blends his country’s complex Creole, African, East Asian, Chinese and Amerindian musical genres with the Gullah-Geechee music and culture of South Carolina and Georgia,  creating a new kind of Southern swing.

The Roots, Come Alive Too: DYWM30, Live at The Blue Note NYC (Empire/Okay Player)

Three decades after they dropped their major label debut, Do You Want More?!!!??,

The Philadelphia ensemble known as The Roots - lead by drummer Ahmir Questlove Thompson and lyricist Tarik Black Thought Trotter - have developed into one of the most durable and dynamic live bands in modern music, as evidenced by this engaging live date. With their cool, jazz adjacent blend of hip-hop and R&B, laced by Black Thought’s Coltrane-level bars, The Legendary Roots Crew will proceed to shine in the 21st century.

 Christian McBride Big Band, Without Further Ado, Vol. 1 (Mack Avenue)

Uber bassist Christian McBride, a classmate of Questlove and Black Thought at the Philadelphia High school for the Performing  Arts, is blessed to front a big band that features vocalist Samara Joy, Dianne Reeves and Jeffrey Osborne. But the steal of the draft is McBride’s Basie-esque swinging “Sinatra at the Sands” rendition of The Police’s “Murder by Numbers,” featuring Sting and guitarist Andy Summers. Bringing two thirds of that great group together is a feat in itself.

Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging, Blue Note

Tenor/soprano saxophonist and NEA Jazz Master Branford Marsalis has recorded and performed Keith Jarrett’s music throughout his four decades on the scene. This recording, with drummer Justin Faulkner, pianist Joey Calderazzo and bassist Eric Revis, is Marsalis’ reimagination of Jarrett’s 1974 classic, Belonging. Marsalis and company put their 21st century, sophisticated spin on a modern day jazz classic.

Kenny Barron, Songbook, Art Work

Pianist/composer and NEA Jazz Master KennyBarron’s has been on the scene for six decades as a steady sideman with Dizzy Gillespie, Yusef Lateef, Freddie Hubbard and Stan Getz; as compelling composer of modern jazz standing including “Sunshower,” “Calypso” and “What If;” and as a leader, with 40+ recordings in his vast catalog. But this sterling recording with vocalists Kurt Elling, Cecile McLorin-Salvant, Jean Baylor, Ann Hampton Callaway, Ekep Nkwelle, Catherine Russell, Kavita Shaw and Tyreek McDole, showcase Barron as an exquisite accompanist; creating luscious magic musical carpets for those singers to fly.

Miguel Zenon, Vanguardia Subterranea: Live at The Village Vanguard, Miel Music

The Grammy Awarding,Puerto Rican-born, New York City-based alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator Miguel Zenon is one of the most celebrated musicians of his generation. His latest recording with his quartet, was recorded at The Village Vanguard in 2024. Supported by Venezuelan pianist Luis Perdomo, Austrian bassist Hans Glawischnig and fellow Puerto Rican Henry Cole on drums, Zenon’s laser-like sax, shines on a number of straight-ahead, Afro-Caribbean original compositions and standards like the Willie Colon/Hector Lavoe salsa classic, “El Dia de Mi Suerte,” and Gilberto Santa Rosa’s“Perdoname.” Zenon plays with the “tinges of Spanish,” that gives jazz that formidable fire.

Historical/Rara Avis

Horace Silver, Silver in Seattle: Live at The Penthouse (Blue Note)

Jazz pianist/composer/bandleader Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva, AKA, Horace Silver, made heads bob, toes tap and fingers snap. This newly discovered 1965 date from Seattle’s legendary Penthouse captures Silver in rare form at the height of his powers, backed by trumpeter Woody Shaw, tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Teddy Smith and drummer Roger Humphries. Of course, Silver’s powerful, boogie-woogie-born left hand, completed by a right hand built on the lines of Bud Powell (with echoes of Thelonious Monk, Art Tatum and Nat “King” Cole) are aurally evident on all of the tracks including, the expanded renditions of “Song for my Father and The Cape Verdean Blues.” Simply put: Horace Silver is always hip.