Fred Kaplan's Best Jazz Albums of 2022

best music and some great sounding too

My main job is national-security columnist for Slate. Every December since joining, back in 2002, my editors have indulged me to write a piece on the year’s best jazz albums. Here’s a link to this year’s column, which, as usual, includes a mini-essay about each album and a sound clip of an entire track. Most of these I’ve reviewed either for Tracking Angle (those designated with an asterisk *) or for Stereophile when I was a staffer there (marked with two asterisks **). I should also note that most of these albums sound very good (the Jamal and Waldron sound good); a few (#1, 2, 3, and 5) sound superb.

 

New Albums

**Cecile McLorin Salvant, Ghost Song (Nonesuch).

*Tyshawn Sorey, Mesmerism 

**Andrew Cyrille-William Parker-Enrico Rava, 2 Blues for Cecil (TUM).

*Keith Jarrett, Bordeaux Concert (ECM).

*Charles Lloyd, Trios: Chapel (Blue Note).

**Matthew Shipp, World Construct (ESP-Disk).

Mary Halvorson, Amaryllis (Nonesuch).

John Zorn, Incerto (Tzadik).

Marta Sanchez, SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum) (Whirlwind)

Samara Joy, Linger Awhile (Verve).

 NEWLY RELEASED HISTORICAL ALBUMS

**Bill Evans, Inner Spirit: The 1979 Concert at the Teatro General San Martin, Buenos Aires (Resonance).

*Ahmad Jamal, Emerald City Nights: Live at The Penthouse, 1965-1966 (Jazz Detective).

*Mal Waldron, Searching in Grenoble: The 1978 Solo Piano Concert (Tompkins Square).