2020: The Year’s Top-Rated Albums

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Carla Bley (left), Steve Swallow and Andy Sheppard recorded Life Goes On for the ECM label.

(Photo: Caterina di Perri/ECM)

FOUR-AND-A-HALF-STAR ALBUMS (Historical)

Keith Jarrett, Munich 2016 (ECM)

FOUR-STAR ALBUMS (New)

3D Jazz Trio, I Love To See You Smile (Diva Jazz)

11 Guys Quartet, Small Blues And Grooves (VizzTone)

Rez Abbasi, Djanto-shift (Whirlwind)

Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids, Shaman! (Strut)

Ryoko Akama, Dial (Another Timbre)

JD Allen, Toys/Die Dreaming (Savant)

Antibalas, Fu Chronicles (Daptone)

Lynne Arriale Trio, Chimes Of Freedom (Challenge)

Gregg August, Dialogues On Race, Volume One (Iacuessa)

Omer Avital Qantar, New York Paradox (jazz&people/Zamzama)

John Bailey, Can You Imagine? (Freedom Road)

Marc Benham, Biotope (SteepleChase)

Frank Bey, All My Dues Are Paid (Nola Blue)

Tim Berne’s Snakeoil, The Fantastic Mrs. 10 (Intakt)

Peter Bernstein, What Comes Next (Smoke Sessions)

Laila Biali, Out Of Dust (Chronograph/ACT)

Jim Black Trio, Reckon (Intakt)

Black Art Jazz Collective, Ascension (HighNote)

Blaer, Yellow (Ronin Rhythm)

Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, Patchouli Blue (Ipecac)

Moses Boyd, Dark Matter (Exodus)

Geof Bradfield/Ben Goldberg/Dana Hall, General Semantics (Delmark)

Peter Brötzmann, I Surrender Dear (Trost)

The Darius Brubeck Quartet, Live In Poland (Ubuntu)

Brody Buster’s One Man Band, Damn! I Spilled The Blues (Booga)

Gary Brunton/Simon Goubert/Bojan Z, Night Bus (Juste Une Trace)

Ernesto Cervini, Tetrahedron (Anzic)

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  • John_and_Gerald_Clayton_by_Paul_Wellman_copy.jpg

    Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.

  • Emily_Remler_-_Photo_by_Brian_McMillen_%284%29_copy_2.jpg

    “She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”

  • Deerhead_Inn_courtesy_Poconogo.com_copy.jpg

    The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.

  • Jernberg_Photo_Jon_Edergren_2_copy.jpg

    “With jazz I thought it must be OK to be Black, for the first time,” says singer Sofia Jernberg.

  • Renee_Rosnes_lo-res.jpg

    “The first recording I owned with Brazilian music on it was Wayne Shorter’s Native Dancer,” says Renee Rosnes. “And then I just started to go down the rabbit hole.”


On Sale Now
March 2025
Anat Cohen
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