Music Year 2026

Way too early clone, fix this later.

Of course, it's too early for a year-end list. But as the proto-fascist organization of my youth insisted, one should always be prepared. For records in hand, * identifies an advance copy, ** something borrowed or streamed. Some albums released in previous years are included here, noted by a "-NN" (e.g., -25 for 2025) -- these are mostly imports or self-releases, often hard to figure out official dates, but they were either December 2025 releases or unknown (to me, at least) before the current year.

This is a subset of the 2026 Music Tracking file, which includes many additional unheard albums.

I keep adding to the 2025 until the end of calendar 2026, especially where the record was known to exist in 2025 and I'm just getting around to it.

New Records

Records in hand, but which haven't yet been graded (sorted by artist, or release date if future). Those marked ** are downloads in hand.

• Scott Sadlon: Songs From Thin Air (Buddha Boy) [01-28]
• Anthony Caceres: Let's Take a Trip (Jig in G) [02-27]
• Wayne Alpern: Varieties & Extravaganzas (Henri Elkan Music) [04-17]
• Rafael Greco: Versos Bajo Mi Sombra/Verses Under My Shadow (Blue Canoe) [04-17]
• Bobby Bradford/Mark Dresser/Hafez Modirzadeh: Sonic House Reunion (NoBusiness) [05-01]
• George: Looking for Consonance (Out of Your Head) [05-08]
• Schapiro 17: Best Laid Plans (Summit) [05-08]
• Andy Haas: Messianic Time (Resonant Music) [05-14]
• Charles Downs Quartet: Inner (ESP-Disk') [05-15]
• Entropic Hop: The Quest for the Normal Is the Death of the Self (ESP-Disk') [05-15]
• Kemuel Roig: Both Sides Now (Life in Music) [05-15]
• John Pachnos: John Pachnos (Avgonyma Music) [05-15]
• Columbia Icefield: A Silence Opens (Out of Your Head) [05-29]
• Tyshawn Sorey: Members . . . Don't (Pi) [05-29]
• Chuck Bergeron: Bass & Face: Duets With Ten Premier Vocalists (Summit) [06-05]
• Armen Donelian: Inquiry (Sunnyside) [06-05]
• Carolyn Lee Jones: Eklektika: Jazz Retro Pop Bossa Nova (Catn'round Sound) [06-08]
• Michael Dease Big Band: Return Trajectory (Origin) [06-19]
• Brad Goode Quintet: Live Your Dream (Origin) [06-19]
• Jon Hamar: Música Callada (Origin Classical) [06-19]
• Ben Patterson: Stretch (Origin) [06-19]
• Miles Okazaki: Boomtown (Pi) [06-26]
• Zen Zadravec: New Paradigm (Marmite) [06-26]
• Jeff Rupert Quartet: Sea Spell (Rupe Media) [06-29]
• Ballister + Luke Stewart: Clocking the Wheel (Aerophonic) [07-10]
• Maya De Vitry: All My Faith (Mad Maker Studios) [07-24]
• Adam De Lucia: The Man Who Would Be King (self-released) [08-07]

Also Noted:

Records in hand, graded B+ or below, in alphabetical order within grade slots:

Limited sampling: Records I played parts of, but not enough to grade: -- means no interest, - not bad but not a prospect, + some chance, ++ likely prospect.

Reissues/Compilations/Vault Music:

In previous years I tried to separate reissues from compilations, including newly released vault items in the latter. This made sense when I was reviewing a lot of Recycled Goods material, but led to other problems with year-end lists, so anything containing any previously released material is collected here, and anything that is wholly previously unreleased is treated as new, above.

Pending

Records in hand, sorted by artist, or release date if future. Those marked ** are downloads in hand.

• Marion Brown: Live in Europe 1968 & 1972 (NoBusiness) [05-01]
• Daniel Carter/Sabir Mateen/William Parker/Lou Grassi: Keeping It in Context (1996, NoBusiness) [05-01]
• Sunny Murray/Sabu Toyozumi: Sun's Blessings (1999, NoBusiness) [05-01]
• Kenny Barron/Ray Drummond/Ben Riley: So Many Lovely Things: Live in Brecon (1995, Elemental Music) [06-12]

Also Noted: