The Best Jazz Albums (mostly reissues) of 2023

[@chelillingworth9466]

I was a young 15-year-old saxophone player when my Mom went to go visit family in England and brought me back that Courtney Pine record, it totally blew my mind then and has always been a favorite. I never heard anybody talk about that album so it was really neat to see that it got a proper reissue.

[@Jamko1970]

The best new Jazz release for 2023 is Yussef Dayes - Black Classical Music - in my opinion. Amazing artist, saw him live twice so far in 2022 & 2023.

[@OuterGalaxyLounge]

Yeah, you're on the right track here. I like Mazzy, but he's seriously out of touch. There were a ton of great new releases this year but he's not talking about them. A best album of 2023 survey should not be "reissues", it should be new stuff. If anyone listens weekly to Jazz After Hours and Jazz Happening Now on public radio's PRX network you'll hear all these things and not be perpetually stuck in the 1950s.

[@jeshurunabinadab6560]

Absolutely agree! Just saw him last night in Dallas

[@thomashertl3037]

Thank you so much for presenting your top choices, Mazzy! No bullshit, I have already presented the Fire! Orchestra as my #1 of 2023. The Hot House arrived yesterday and immediately jumped on #2. OJC‘s Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby are both my #3. I guess we have something in common here :-) Looking very much forward to your contributions to the vinyl community in 2024. Wishing you merry Christmas holidays! With happy greetings from Germany!

[@aupadenis]

i'm gonna look for that intrigue comp, thanx!

[@stereo8893]

Thanks for turning me on to some great music that I didn't know. As always, Mazzy, we love you too. - Ray

[@mazzysmusic]

Thank you 🤠😬

[@Markymarkvinylnut]

Brilliant Mazzy! Superb video, cheers! Similar to my top records this year. That Courtney Pine is on order (thanks). I've paired Village Vanguard with Waltz for Debbie, both equally are AMAZING. And that Eddie Lockjaw is sublime, beautifully pressed, and my fav track is 'The Rev'. Peace from the UK.

[@ianemery4355]

Looking seriously at improving the Jazz records in my collection tiptoeing at the moment Mazzy! Some interesting choices!

[@Localbandography]

Mats in Fire! Orchestra has maybe the world’s best jazz collection. I have bought some great records from him. If you don’t have their album Arrival get it. Incredible record. The vocalists blew me away on it.

[@tarrtruck2869]

Love it! Great countdown.

[@sjbang5764]

I literally almost fell out of my chair when you showed Fire Orchestra! I mean, I've had that record for a couple months, and I absolutely love it. It's the 3rd album I have by Fire Orchestra! and I always get a charge out of Mats Gustafsson. Thanks Mazzy.

[@mazzysmusic]

Hope you’re sitting in a very low chair. It’s such a cool record ✌🏼🎯

[@4-dman464]

3:30 It's a time capsule. Box sets are all about time travel. The ticket, the photo memos, the venue poster, the music notation in the moment of composition, all make a present tense happening of yesteryear. I don't mind admitting it: if I could take a time machine back to 1964 with no way back, I'd pull that lever in a heartbeat. So long, suckers!

[@paulspanbauer4125]

For new jazz artists I highly recommend the International Anthem label. Their releases from Angel Bat Dawid, the sadly late Jaimie Branch (she passed in 2022), and Alabaster DePlume are all among my favorite releases this year.

[@nandopelusi7699]

I saw Courtney Pine at the Bottom line in the 80s, so loved it that I immediately bought the album at Tower Records a block from there.

[@twofromthetrunk9932]

Love those jazz albums. Enjoyed the video.

[@sprachnroll]

I love hearing recommendations from people who aren't primarily fans of a genre, as is the case here. It avoids the herd mentality that sometimes pervades "true fan" lists and can highlight music you might not have noticed. This is especially true when a classical music critic recommends a pop record: those are almost always worth picking up. Good work, Mazzy, and thanks for being brave enough to face the inevitable retorts from the jazz police.

[@mazzysmusic]

I’ve been buying jazz records for just over 50 years, so I do have some Good knowledge. Just don’t consider myself a true expert. I’m not just an all jazz guy. I love jazz but only jazz would be boring.

[@neilbruce4201]

Love the Pharaoh Sanders' package, Mazzy. One of the highlights of the rear for me.

[@retromusings]

Really enjoyed watching your 15 best of jazz albums.

[@expatmarc6611]

Thank you for helping keep jazz alive. I post tunes on youtube simply for the love of jazz.

[@TheMrMoosy]

Great list Mazzy. Just received my copy of Sahib Shihab And The Danish Radio Jazz Group, definitely on my best of 2023!

[@brentlawson6626]

Norman, you rule! Absolutely love this top jazz albums 2023 show. It is a welcome eye opener for me. I love jazz but I'm basically a neophyte. So your comments and comparisons are invaluable. Also, after hearing your enthusiastic comments on the Yellow Submarine remix, I got a copy and was amazed. Especially It's All Too Much. (George on Hammond organ and John on lead guitar!) This mix really invigorates the song, another example of too many Lennon-McCartney masterpieces, no room for George's great song. It not that it's better than Strawberry Fields or I Am The Walrus. It just deserves to be up on the top shelf as well. The song is my current toppermost of the poppermost, to quote Mr. Lennon. Thanks again for sharing your wisdom.

[@mazzysmusic]

Glad you like the Yellow remix And thank for watching ✌🏼

[@musictalkwithjohn]

You’re speaking my “Jazz” language, Mazzy. I picked up several of those albums you held up. Thanks for the great video. ✌🏻

[@jazzbumschris979]

Awesome list Mazzy!

[@BaldyFella]

Great choices there Mazzy. Played 'San Francisco' a couple of nights ago. Big fan of both Land and Hutcherson. Lester Young is my old time hero. So influential to so many who came after. No-one sounds quite like Pres. He was always Billie's favourite saxophonist.

[@redphil7797]

Thanks Mazzy excellent - a couple to check out there - one of my favourite reissues of 2023 that I don't see mentioned on these lists is Tony Scott and the Indonesian Allstars Djanger Bali on MPS - cut triple A, with great packaging, superb music and fantastic audio - if you haven't heard this recommend a listen - the MPS reissues are generally superb and need more love but Djanger Bali is next level. Great list - enjoy the holidays all

[@AnalogueOctober]

Mazzy! Thank you so much!!

[@mazzysmusic]

I realized that after I edited the video, I cut out mentioning your label. So sorry, but the links are in the description. ✌🏼

[@AnalogueOctober]

@@mazzysmusicno worries Mazzy. We are just all sat here blown away!

[@rc2257]

I have the Massey Hall album (disc 1 of the Hot House set) on cd and a couple other pressings. It’s one of those records where you tolerate poor SQ because the music is so great. When I first put on disc 1 of the Hot House box upon receiving it the other day, I almost started crying about how good it sounds. For the 30 years I’ve been listening to this recording, it never occurred to me that I’d ever be able to hear it sound so fucking beautiful as Kevin Gray has made it sound. And everything else you say about it is true - it’s super fun music played by the masters of be bop, and a historically important document. An easy must buy recommendation for jazz fans.

[@JazzBums]

Good stuff, Mazzy. Nice #1 -- Mike

[@mazzysmusic]

Thank you Jazz Bum Mike ✌🏼

[@GrindCityGuitars]

Thanks for this unique list. There were some titles there that I missed this year. Currently streaming some of them to see how I can make my wallet a bit lighter! Cheers!

[@mazzysmusic]

Hope you enjoy them✌🏼

[@jerryandlisa27]

My favorite reviewer says it how it is not BS. Keep up the good work.

[@TheDigitalGramophone]

Thank you so much for sharing your wealth of knowledge. Your wisdom knows no bounds. I think I speak for everyone here when I say that we would be lost without your guidance. Our record collections weak. Our souls empty. You are a beacon of light in a world of darkness. The confidence you instill in our vinyl purchases is not taken for granted. The way you hold your records as your present them. With strength. With passion. Not a gentle caress. Instead a sturdy grip that says, “These records are not as fragile as you insist! They are as strong as the music that is recorded on them! Play them! Do not file them away in their cocoons as if they were gentle larvae. They are fully evolved in glorious splendor! Vibrant! Full of life!” Thank you for allowing us to acquiesce garments that bare your name. Thank you for deeming us worthy of shrouding ourselves in your words. For as you tell us “It’s the Music Stupid!” We shall go forth from every corner of the globe to tell others that the music is truth and their vain desires for the highest of fidelity remain pointless pursuits. Thank you, oh Mazzy! Thank you!

[@johng.4711]

Yikes

[@TheDigitalGramophone]

@@johng.4711 I’m better at it than you.

[@diamond_marimba]

I need a shower after that

[@TheDigitalGramophone]

@@diamond_marimba The intelligence and expertise that you bring to this community is not appreciated enough. Your level of taste should be analyzed by the most brilliant of curators. Your collection museum worthy. Should they one day erect that exhibit, we would arrive in hordes to see the collection of The Great Collector! Oh Great Collector, with your undiscovered genius of musicians that bang rocks on stringed instruments. Oh Great Collector, tell us of the symphony of metal tools accompanied by screeching horns that would make babies cry and most men cower in fear. Oh Great Collector! Tell us how we are not worthy.

[@diamond_marimba]

@@TheDigitalGramophone reported

[@DJ-jf8ts]

Something Else is my favorite jazz album as well. I bought it on a whim, and it blew my mind.

[@cayelr]

Wow! Baikida Carroll and Fire! Orchestra, great choices.

[@chrisnicol1644]

Maz.... You are 100% right.... I own Bill Evans Complete... 3 CD set at the Village Vanguard... Included on CD 1, is the power failure that shut down the recording... Here it lasts 30 seconds.... New Dave Brubeck coming from 1958, and live....

[@scotthouston6621]

I couldn't agree with you more on the McCoy Tyner. A pleasant surprise.

[@annefrazer6629]

Thank you for mentioning Tommy Flanagan in this video compliation of jazz releases. I've had this on CD for years and now Ip. Tommy is one of my favorite jazz artists of course with Ella in Montrose and her recordings but also his own body of work which I recommend. Jazz Poet and Sea Changes were late releases only on CD, always in my car. And his recording of Peace is what drew me to him decades ago, Something Borrowed Something Blue...old vinyl but still findable I'm sure. ❤

[@annefrazer6629]

Also since you mentioned Wes Montgomery's cover of A Day In The Life ( many covers on that lp too), I wonder if you have George Benson's The Other Side of Abbey Road? I've had that one for decades too.

[@mazzysmusic]

Yes I do ✌🏼

[@annefrazer6629]

In Boston our PBS radio station had a jazz show at 7:00pm called Eric In The Evening, Eric Jackson. He opened his show every night with Peace.

[@tomdemaline8869]

Thanks Mazzy another good Jazz show. I'm getting The Cats, Something Else (classic series), Craft is sold out of Bill Evans Live at The Vangard and so is Mike at The In'Groove. So idk about that one really love to have it

[@MrLovell1971]

Yes Mazzy that Big John Patton is definitely a surprise and was so happy with this year. Kevin Gray’s work on bill Evans Sunday the Village Vanguard kills my AP 45 in the Fidelity department.

[@TRamone01]

Right about the Bill Evans record. Out of stock. Thanks for the recommendations!

[@scotthouston6621]

Love Something Else! I got the classic.

[@leonardosullivan963]

Great video…… Courtney Pine album also has a cover of The Real Thing’s Childten of the ghetto. A great track. 🙏🏾

[@KUJayhawkJazz]

Hey Mazzy - great list!! BTW Craft owns Riverside, Prestige, New Jazz, Contemporary among others. So no licensing necessary, it’s their stuff. So they own the Bill Evans, The Cats, the Lockjazz Davis and others.

[@mazzysmusic]

Yeah I know. Just don’t know if Analogue Productions got some limited time exclusive deal for their big Evans 45 rpm box. Either was I’m sure Craft could do a 33 version right now if they wanted to.

[@Cassandra702]

love your jazz videos, Mazzy. Cheers and happy holidays.

[@matsrecordcollection]

You convinced me, I bought the Bill Evans Original Jazz Classics record!

[@mazzysmusic]

Enjoy it. A great sounding great. Great music

[@scottphillips1686]

Hey Mazzy! Fairly new to your channel. I'm digging your videos. General question and sorry if you've been asked this a thousand times or more already but, do you buy all these records you show or are you comp'd with promos and/or paid to talk about these records? Just curious. Thanks!

[@mazzysmusic]

I purchase most of the new records I showcase, however several labels and artists do send promo copies throughout the year. My full collections is a mix of records I acquired throughout my life. Some during my tenure in the record biz from both purchases and label promos. I’m Never paid to talk about music, if I really dislike something, I just won’t show it. I’m not a music critic. I’m a lover of music, records and art. ✌🏼

[@anderssode-pedersen5817]

Great list Mazzy and I agree, the Big Joe Patton album is a bit overlooked. I guess that Fire! Orchestra is my favorite Jazz album of 2023. You ask for other new Jazz albums, and I can recommend that you check out another Swedish artist: Sven Wunder. He has made four albums of “library music”. Funky cool ass jazz music with a cinematic twist 😜

[@mazzysmusic]

I have Sven Wunder not nothing brand new

[@andyrobinson2644]

Your recommendations have made me a poor man. But immeasurable richer! Thank you!

[@mazzysmusic]

😍😵‍💫😎

[@nothingimportant4504]

I just spun A Caddy for Daddy this morning, so great!

[@mazzysmusic]

Excellent!✌🏼

[@PensivePoet97]

Great list, honorable mention is Peter Martin’s Generation S🎶👍🏾

[@rixvspinner]

I have that Massey Hall album, really good. I have had the MOFI gold CD of Somethin' Else which sounds really good. Kevin's reissue does the job for me otherwise. I like most of your choices some of which I have. I would add the Wayne Shorter Blue Note reissues.

[@vinylrulesok8470]

Sam Records always do a great job and they are reasonably priced too

[@joaquinherreroalvarez3454]

New Sam Records: "Sahib Shihab and the Danish Jazz Radio Group". Excellent vinyl.

[@Localbandography]

I might still pick up the Pharoah box because of the live content. I was lucky to get an OG well before prices went all out bonkers.

[@carrion_man3700]

Speaking of trombone, I wish Blue Note would put out Grachan Moncur's first album. That Impex Kenny Dorham Matador is definitely on my list- (Although it may have had its first repress run from Impex back in '22?) Great video!

[@scotthouston6621]

I picked up Matador. It's a fabulous record and sounds great!

[@sunbeam1005]

Check out City Nights by Gianni Aranoff

[@CJsTunes]

Impressed that you were aware of the Lafayette Gilchrist. Saw him live in his hometown of Baltimore celebrating the release of Undaunted.

[@MikeStorey-s1o]

Boy this was an expensive watch. Goodbye Christmas presents!

[@mazzysmusic]

😵‍💫🤷🏻‍♂️✌🏼

[@seekingathread]

Surprised the proper album of Pharoah didn't knock you out. I find Harvest Time an incredibly beautiful recording, albeit pretty simple with the 2 chord vamp but the guitar and Pharoah on it is just sublime. I'm with you on the Bakaida Carroll and Fire Orchestra. Shit ass records!

[@mazzysmusic]

I do like it but, I think I was just surprised initially what I heard I guess. Like the live versions of that track better but I will continue to listen and see if it gets to me more.

[@bacarandii]

Re: "Pharoah," Please let me rant: As you know, "Smooth Jazz" was (is?) a 1980s radio format designed to generate playlists (before algorithms did that) for a once-marketable niche of aspirationally commercial "crossover" music -- basically, undemanding background pop with an emphasis on instrumentals. (Anyone who got the joke when Bob Mould titled a Sugar album "File Under Easy Listening" understands, even if they've never heard of "dinner music." Or Tafelmusik.) I've heard the label carelessly slapped onto any kind of music that doesn't hype its own dissonance and turn up the guitar distortion to 11. The stereotyping usually comes from frustrated dad-rockists who are still rebelling against imaginary parents of the 1950s. They tend to have narrowly defined, peer-enforced tastes (no keyboards, no horns!) and are seeking an easy-to-follow 4/4 beat (unless it's early Metallica or Rush), distortion pedals, and arena vocals. They loved the Sunset Strip hair bands until "grunge" came along. We've all heard the smug "smooth" adjective applied to everyone from Ahmad Jamal ("cocktail jazz") to Miles Davis (before he went electric), Burt Bacharach to Steely Dan. Never mind the structural, harmonic and rhythmic complexity and subtlety of the music itself. It's too HARD to listen that closely! Where's the P.A. feedback?!?!? You're probably right to warn such folks away from Pharoah Sanders (WARNING: Contains Acoustic Instruments That Some Listeners Might Find Seductive), but if they can't hear the difference between Sanders and Kenny G they're probably not following anything that might border on "jazz" anyway. (That audience can't handle "It's The Music, Stupid...".) Thank you. I'm done now.

[@yayasgoal]

London Brew Album and Black Classical Music by Yussef Dayes.

[@joaquinherreroalvarez3454]

I don't understand Blue Note managers, Norman. An excellent album as "Extensions", by McCoy Tyner, without photos, not gatefold cover, why? They have a problem of vision. Regards from Spain.

[@mazzysmusic]

Because only releases where session photos were actually taken include them in Gatefolds. There have been a handful of others where Francis Wolf didn’t photograph anything. during recordings.

[@joaquinherreroalvarez3454]

​@@mazzysmusic 🤔... gatefold with other photos, no? Thanks, Norman.

[@andysmusicden]

Happy to see Fire! Orchestra on the list and a lot of great reissues. But how could you forget the two James Brandon Lewis albums? 😳

[@mazzysmusic]

Don’t have them. Yet 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@andysmusicden]

@@mazzysmusic fair enough. 😉

[@johndoyle7644]

Great video as usual , but want to comment on the last video you did with Rachel and vinyl Richie ,anyway I totally agree with you re trump , and I continue to be shocked and saddened when I hear people express the election comments and these conspiracies,anyway good luck in the future , hope this madness passes .Take care .

[@asufluffhead]

Lol at thinking Pharaoh Sanders s/t album sounds like Musak.

[@mazzysmusic]

At tines it does 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@asufluffhead]

@@mazzysmusic terrible take. Steve Neil is ripping it the entire album.

[@neilbruce4201]

Year...not rear !!

[@awrogers3013]

Best jazz…and you are going to tell me what the BEST jazz is… LOL

[@mazzysmusic]

Well my personal best. I don’t speak for the rest of the people of the world