Let’s start with a confession: I got to hear fewer jazz albums this year than in any year in the past two decades. Which is a shame, because there was a TON of worthwhile music released during the year. My crazy schedule in 2016 often limited me to snippets or tracks from discs that I vowed to get back to, but never did. So, here’s my list of the best albums that I actually got to hear during the year. Also, there’s a track from an extremely promising young artist, who needs to put more on the market, ASAP; a couple of outstanding 2015 releases that didn’t catch my ear until 2016; and finally, a few of the many fine 2016 releases that I plan to catch up with in January:
| ALBUM | ARTIST | LABEL |
| ArtScience | Robert Glasper | Blue Note |
| Back Home | Melissa Aldana | Wommusic |
| Beginning of a Memory | Matt Wilson | Palmetto |
| Book of Intuition | Kenny Barron Trio | Impulse |
| Chasing After the Wind | Gregory Tardy | Steeplechase |
| Convergence | Warren Wolf | Mack Avenue |
| Days Like This | Melissa Morgan | CD Baby |
| Do Your Dance | Kenny Garrett | Mack Avenue |
| Feet in the Mud | Mimi Jones | Hot Tone |
| In Movement | DeJohnette, Coltrane and Garrison | ECM |
| Jersey Cat | Freddie Hendrix | Sunnyside |
| Live at Maxwell’s | DE3 | Sunnyside |
| Nihil Novi | Marcus Strickland | Revive/Blue Note |
| Notes from New York | Bill Charlap | Impulse |
| Once and Future | Brian Charette | Posi-Tone |
| Perfection | Murray, Allen and Carrington | Motema |
| Presented by the Side Door Jazz Club | Black Art Jazz Collective | Sunnyside |
| Restless Idealism | Roxy Coss | Origin |
| Soul Tree | Ed Cherry | Posi-Tone |
| The Sound of Red | Rene Marie | Motema |
| Stranger Days | Adam O’Farrill | Sunnyside |
| Take Me to the Alley | Gregory Porter | Blue Note |
| TriAngular III | Ralph Peterson Trio | Onyx/Truth Revolution |
| The Way We Play | Marquis Hill | Concord |
| Written in The Rocks | Renee Rosnes | Smoke Sessions |
2016’s most compelling single in search of an album:
- “Chicken Day” – Harvey Cummings II
Two 2015 albums (heard in 2016) that deserved to be on last year’s list:
- Back to the City – Amos Hoffman (CD Baby)
- Some Morning – Kim Nazarian (CD Baby)
Probably excellent 2016 albums that I look forward to hearing as soon as possible:
| ALBUM | ARTIST | LABEL |
| #KnowingIsHalfTheBattle | Orrin Evans | Smoke Sessions |
| Away With You | Mary Halvorson Octet | Firehouse 12 |
| Day Breaks | Norah Jones | Blue Note |
| Habana Dreams | Pedrito Martinez Group | Motema |
| Harlem on My Mind | Catherine Russell | Jazz Village |
| Inner Spectrum of Variables | Tyshawn Sorey | Pi |
| Madera Latino | Brian Lynch | Hollistic Music Works |
| San Jose Suite | Etienne Charles | Culture Shock |
| Something Gold, Something Blue | Tom Harrell | High Note |
| Upward Spiral | Branford Marsalis | Okeh |
Curt's Jazz Cafe 