my three best jazz albums of 2024 (so far (out))

At the end of a year at the Deutschlandfunk, at least for some time now, this is a big question: which three records you wanna choose? You will talk about them, you will defend them, you will sing their praise. So it‘s personal. A love affair of sorts. Some people will buy it and regret it, haha. Beforehand, there‘s another talk to happen: is there enough jazz in them to call them jazz albums, and the degree of improvising may add to the final impact of being seen and listened to as a jazz album. Sometimes the casual appearance of a blown horn may seal the deal. So here they are, after some (hopefully inspired) conversation with myself, my three best albums of this genre, in this year, so far, stretching a bit the limits of jazz (and all that jazz) 1) Shabaka: Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace. 2) Eric Chenaux: Delights Of My Life. 3) Sidsel Endresen / Jan Bang / Erik Honoré: Punkt Live Remixes, Vol. 2. A friend of mine wrote about the impression this last album left on him, confessing how blown away he is from the track I recently played on air with „that African singer“. I take that as a special sign of approval: did he mean Sidsel or the sample in the back? Nevermind: just listen, it might turn into a delight of your life – to perceive its beauty, and acknowledge its grace.