Free Jazz Collective's Top Albums of 2024

 Image by DALL-E*

Dear readers, 

Thank you for another year of being a part of the Free Jazz Collective! According to our statistics, we have been lucky to see continued readership growth, with a rather noticeable jump in pageviews starting in October and running through November, which peaked at rather jaw-dropping number of 47,906 views in one day! The numbers have settled, but we're still seeing daily pageview count of around 11,000, which is a rather mind-blowing 69% increase from last year - hopefully these views correlate with reality and also with purchases of the recordings being reviewed! Anyway, who really trusts numbers these days? The important thing is you, dear readers, and you, dear writers, and most of you, dear artists who keep giving something that keeps us going. 

So, now to everyone's favorites - the lists. Below are the top 10 albums of the year lists from the writers of the Free Jazz Collective, but first, the top entries from the lists. How this is done is that the most listed recordings are culled to produce the list of top recordings of the year. Our rules are simple: any recording that appears on a list must have been reviewed on the Free Jazz Blog (or by the reviewer personally, somewhere). You can search for any of the recordings listed to read a review of the recording. As you check out the lists, the Collective will be busy voting, from the selections in the first list below, to come up with our top album of the year, which will be presented on January 1st.  

Please share your best of lists too!

Best,
-The Free Jazz Collective

*DALL-E prompt: "Can you create an picture with happy children unwrapping gifts on Christmas? The presents should all be records and for the record covers use names like OKSE, Wrecks, Testament, Afro Blue, Weird of Mouth, and Fluid Fixations."

Top Albums A - Z (all albums receiving three or more mentions)

Top 10 (entries appeared on the lists four or more times each, included in Album of the Year vote)

• Borderlands Trio - Rewilder (Intakt Records)
  
• Darius Jones - Legend of e'Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) (AUM Fidely)
• David Maranha / Rodrigo Amado - Wrecks (Nariz Entupido)
• Fire! - Testament (Rune Grammofon)
• John Butcher + 13 - Fluid Fixations (Weight of Wax)
• ØKSE - self-titled (backwoodz records)
• The Attic & Eve Risser - La Grande Crue (NoBusiness Records)
• The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis - self-titled (Impulse!)
• Mette Rasmussen, Craig Taborn, Ches Smith - Weird of Mouth (Otherly Love)
• أحمد [Ahmed] - Giant Beauty (Fonstret)

Runners up (appeared in lists times three times each, not included in Album of the Year vote)

• AALY Trio - Sustain (Silkheart)
  
• Angles & Elle-Kari with Strings - The Death of Kalypso (Thanatosis Produktion)
• Matt Mitchell - Illimitable (Obliquity Records)
  
• Matthew Shipp Trio - New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz (ESP-Disk')
• Nick Dunston - Colla Voce (Out Of Your Head)
• Space - Embrace the Space (Relative Pitch)

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The Collective Lists of 2024

David Cristol

1. Matthew Shipp - The Data (RogueArt)
2. Wadada Leo Smith & Amina Claudine Myers - Central Park's Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens (Red Hook)
3. حمد [Ahmed] - Giant Beauty (Fönstret)
4. Matthew Shipp Trio - New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz (ESP-Disk’)
5. Luís Lopes - Dark Narcissus: Stereo Guitar Solo (Rotten/Fresh / Shhpuma)
6. Joëlle Léandre - Lifetime Rebel (RogueArt)
7. Borderlands Trio - Rewilder (Intakt)
8. Rob Mazurek - Milan (Clean Feed)
9. The Attic and Eve Risser - La Grande Crue (No Business)
10. Yuki Fujiwara - Glass Colored Lily (Defkaz)

Historic/Archival

1. Byard Lancaster - The Palm Recordings 1973-74 (Souffle Continu LP box set)
2. Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy - The Mighty Warriors: Live in Antwerp (Elemental Music)
3. Art Ensemble of Chicago - Message to our Folks (BYG-Actuel)

Books

1. Phil Freeman - In the Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music of Cecil Taylor (Wolke Verlag)
2. Žiga Koritnik - Brötzmann In My Focus (Pega)
   
   

Don Phipps

• Kaze - Unwritten (Circum Disc)
• Fire! - Testament (Rune Grammofon)
• Kris Davis Trio - Run the Gauntlet (Pyroclastic Records)
• Anthony Braxton - Sax Qt  (Lorraine) 2022 (I dischi di angelica)
• Angelica Sanchez and Chad Taylor - A Monster Is Just An Animal You Haven’t Met Yet (Intakt)
• James Brandon Lewis - Transfiguration (Intakt)
• Sylvie Courvoisier - To Be Other-Wise (Intakt)
• Ivo Perelman, Nate Wooley - Polarity 2 (Burning Ambulance)
• Matthias Spillman Inviting Bill McHenry - Walcheturm (Unit Records)
• Sentient Beings - Truth Is Not the  Enemy (Discus Music)

Historic/Archival

• Cecil Taylor Unit - Live At Fat Tuesdays, February 9, 1980 (First-Archive-Visit)
• Tim Berne and Michael Formanek - Parlour Games (Relative Pitch Records)
• Mal Waldon and Steve Lacy - The Mighty Warriors: Live in Antwerp (Elemental Music)
• Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Paul Motian - The Old Country (ECM)
• Derek Bailey & Paul Motian – Duo In Concert (Frozen Reeds) 
• Gush – Afro Blue (Trost Records)
  
  

Eyal Hareuveni

• Isabelle Duthoit & Franz Hautzinger - Dans le Morvan (Relative Pitch)[read here]
  
• Stian Westergus & Maja S. K. Ratkje - All Losses Are Restored (Crispin Glover) [read here]
  
• Joe Mcphee (with Ken Vandermark) - Musings of a Bahamian Son: Poems and Other Words by Joe Mcphee (Corbett vs Dempsey)
• Alexander Hawkins / Sofia Jernberg - Musho (Intakt)
• The Attic & Eve Risser - La Grande Crue (NoBusiness)
• John Butcher - Fluid Fixations (Weight of Wax)
• ØKSE  - self-titled (Backwoodz Studioz)
• أحمد [Ahmed] - Giant Beauty (Fönstret[
• Nacka Forum - Peaceful Piano (Moserobie)[read here]
  
• Joëlle Léandre / Elisabeth Harnik / Zlatko Kaučič - Live in St. Johan (Fundacja Słuchaj) [read here]
  
  

Ferruccio Martinotti

• Ballister - Smash and Grab (Aerophonic)
• Fire! - Testament (Rune Grammofon)
• Darius Jones - Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) (Aum Fidelity)
• Ava Mendoza, Dave Sewelson - Of It but Not Is It (Mahakala)
• Pal Nilssen Love, Ken Vandermark - Japan 2019 (Pnl/Audiographic Records)
• ØKSE - self-titled (Blackwoodz Studioz)
• Reed, Edwards, Coudoux - self-titled (Relative Pitch
• Sakata, O'rourke, Rasmussen, Corsano - Live at Superdeluxe Vol. 1 (Trost)
• Frederico Ughi - Infinite Cosmos Calling You You You (577 Records)
• Weird of Mouth - self-titled (Otherly Love)

Historic/Archival

• Brotzmann, Kondo, Parker, Graves - Die Like a Dog ( Cien Fuegos)
• Charles Gayle/ Milford Graves/ William Parker - WEBO (Black Editions Archive)
• Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy - The Mighty Warriors: Live in Antwerp (Elemental Music) 
• Gush - Afro Blue (Trost)
  
  

Fotis Nikolakopoulos

• Ute Kanngießer/Eddie Prévost/Seymour Wright - Splendid Nettle (Matchless Recordings)
• Ben Bennett/Michael Foster/Jacob Wick - Carne Vale (Relative Pitch Records)
• TRAPEZE - LEVEL CROSSING (circum-disc, late 2023)
• yPLO - ob TRU (Feedback Moves)
• Feichtmair/Koliibri/Krist/Novotny/Pröll/Winter/Winter - Adschi (Creative Sources)
• Schubert/Rupp/Ohlmeier - Entropy Hug (not applicable)
• divr - Is This water (We Jazz)
• Nathan Hubbard / Kyle Motl - Obsidian (Confront Recordings)
• Wilson Shook/Ted Byrnes - Joy (Other Ghosts)
• Nick Dunston - Colla Voce (Out Of Your Head Records)

Historic/Archive

• Charles Gayle/ Milford Graves/ William Parker - WEBO (Black Editions Archive)
  Though the list above is in no particular order, this doesn't include WEBO. This box set was/is the most adventurous, fiery amazing music for me this whole year.
  
  
• Alice Coltrane - The Carnegie Hall Concert (Impulse!)
• Ofamfa - Children Of The Sun (Moved-By-Sound, Universal Justice Records)
  
  

Gary Chapin

1. Tim Berne’s Ocean’s And - Lucid/Still (Screwgun)
2. George Cartwright and Bruce Golden - Dilate (Self-released)
3. Ivo Perelman, Chad Fowler, Reggie Workman, and Andrew Cyrille - Embracing the Unknown (Mahakala)
4. Matthew Shipp Trio - New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz (ESP-Disk)
5. Liba Villevecchia Trio + Luis Vincente - Muracik (Clean Feed)
6. Moor Mother - The Great Bailout (Anti-)
7. ØKSE - self-titled (Backwoodz Studioz)
8. Space - Embrace the Space (Relative Pitch)
9. حمد [Ahmed] - Giant Beauty (Fönstret)
10. Myra Melford’s Fire and Water Quintet - Hear the Light Singing (RogueArt)

Historic/Archival

1. Tim Berne/Bill Frisell - Live from Someplace Nice (Screwgun)
2. George Cartwright - Ghostly Bee (Mahakala)
3. Cecil Taylor - Live at Fat Tuesdays February 9, 1980 (First-Archive-Visit)
4. Tim Berne and Mike Formanek - Parlour Games (Screwgun)
5. Derek Bailey and Paul Motian - Duo in Concert (Frozen Reeds)
6. Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy - The Mighty Warriors: Live in Antwerp (Elemental Music)

Book

• Phil Freeman - In the Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music of Cecil Taylor (Wolke Verlag)

Gregg Miller

1. AALY Trio - Sustain (Silkheart)
2. Wilson Shook & Ted Byrnes - Joy (Other Ghosts)
3. Russ Johnson, Tim Daisy & Max Johnson - Live a the Hungry Brain (Fundacja Sluchaj)
4. Sylvie Courvoisier - To Be Otherwise (Intakt)
5. Rich Pellegrin - Topography (Slow and Steady Records)
6. STHLM svaga - Plays Carter, Plays Mitchell, Plays Shepp (Thanatosis)
7. Jordina Milla & Barry Guy - Live in Munich (ECM)
8. Hubbub - abb abb abb (Relative Pitch)
9. Joelle Leandre - Lifetime Rebel (Rogueart)
10. John Butcher + 13 - Fluid Fixations (Weight of Wax)

João Esteves da Silva

• Nick Dunston - Colla Voce (Out of Your Head Records)
  Hands down the album of the year for me, regardless of “genres”. A real work of genius, and possible masterpiece of twenty-first century music, radically subverting opera conventions.

• Alexander Hawkins & Sofia Jernberg - Musho (Intakt Records)
  A breathtaking song cycle, eclectic and yet unified, by one of the world’s foremost creative singers and the great Oxford piano polymath, shattering the singer/accompanist hierarchy.

• Matt Mitchell - Illimitable (Obliquity Records)
  A fully improvised solo piano session for the ages. One to rank alongside stuff like Keith Jarrett’s Solo Concerts, Cecil Taylor’s Silent Tongues, or Craig Taborn’s Avenging Angel.

• Borderlands Trio - Rewilder (Intakt Records)
  In a year full of excellent piano trio albums, this one stood out. I currently know of no other band devoted to the art of spontaneous composition displaying quite the same degree of consistency.

• Stemeseder Lillinger - Antumbra (PLAIST-MUSIC)
  Genreless and wonderfully adventurous electro-acoustic music for the future, by a duo of groundbreaking musician-composers.

• STHLM svaga - Plays Carter, Plays Mitchell, Plays Shepp (Thanatosis Produktion)
  A delightful program, calling for the recognition of Black creative musicians as genuine composers, by an ensemble exploring the lower end of the dynamic range in an altogether rare way in jazz.

• The Attic & Eve Risser - La Grande Crue (NoBusiness Records)
  Rodrigo and Eve might have been an unexpected match, but the result is exceptional, and unlike anything either of them had done previously. A masterclass in focus and controlled intensity.

• Kim Cass - Levs (Pi Recordings)
  One of the freshest and most exciting works of New Brooklyn Complexity to come out lately. Utterly crazy writing, masterfully negotiated, to the point of sounding almost spontaneous.

• ØKSE - self-titled (Backwoodz Recordz)
  More than a successful fusion of hip-hop and avant-garde jazz, ØKSE has its very own, ultramodern aesthetic.

• Angles & Elle-Kari with Strings - The Death of Kalypso (Thanatosis Produktion)
  An exquisitely produced jazz opera, full of mystery and pathos, already sounding somewhat timeless.

Lee Rice Epstein

Ranked, as usual, because there can only be one number one.

1. Matthew Shipp Trio - New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz (ESP-Disk')
   This is it right here, the best album of the year. Shipp had a solo album that nearly took its place (if you know me, you know I try not to repeat players in my list), but this won me over early and nothing ever quite took its place…
   
   
2. Darius Jones - Legend of e'Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) (AUM Fidelity)
   Except this one!! Which came very close to topping my list, as well. It's a wild year for wild, brilliant music.
   
   
3. Allen Lowe & the Constant Sorrow Orchestra - Louis Armstrong's America, Volumes 1–4 (ESP-Disk')
   For some reason, we haven't covered Allen Lowe's music here, like, at all. Which is weird! Maybe this is the year all that changes.
   
   
4. Jason Stein, Marilyn Crispell, Damon Smith, Adam Shead - spi-raling horn (Balance Point Acoustics)
   Smith had an album drop late in the year that took my breath away, but this one stayed in rotation for months. Credit where due to its captivating sounds.
   
   
5. أحمد [Ahmed] - Giant Beauty (Fonstret)
   C'mon, we all know this is going to rate highly for so many reasons, not least of which being the band is on fire.
   
   
6. Space - Embrace the Space (Relative Pitch)
   Lisa Ullén, Elsa Bergman and Anna Lund, sometimes known as the rhythm section at the heart of Anna Högberg's Attack, should be better known now as the piano trio Space.
   
   
7. Matt Mitchell - Illimitable (Obliquity Records)
   It seems like 2024 was the year of the piano trio, and I loved Mitchell's latest. And yet, his solo album is a triumph.
   
   
8. Anthony Braxton - 10 Comp (Lorraine) 2022 (Tri-Centric)
   Two lineups tackling a new book of compositions, written not very long before going on the road. Braxton should be an inspiration to us all, there really are no limits.
   
   
9. John Zorn - New Masada Quartet, Vol. 3 (Tzadik Records)
   The first live album for this latest quartet of Zorn's, released as a single track. You wouldn't want to listen to it any other way.
   
   
10. Weird of Mouth - self-titled (Otherly Love)
    Rasmussen had maybe the best year ever, with half a dozen albums I've had on permanent rotation. This one just rose to the top of that pile in recent weeks, and wow is it a scorcher.

Martin Schray

• Ballister - Smash and Grab (Aerophonic Records, 2024)
  The best band in the free jazz world, I stick to it
  
  
• The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis - self-titled (Impulse)
  Punk/Hardcore clashes into Free Jazz
  
  
• Darius Jones - Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) (AUM Fidelity)
  Possibly the best and most interesting saxophonist these days
  
  
• ØKSE - self-titled (backwoodz records)
  Free Jazz meets HipHop, finally with excellent results
  
  
• Fire! - Testament (Rune Grammofon) 
  No end-of-the-year-list without Fire! (Orchestra)
  
  
• David Maranha & Rodrigo Amado - Wrecks (Nariz Entupido)
  Is it possible to have an end-of-the-year-list without Rodrigo?
  
  
• Mats Gustafsson / Liudas Mockūnas- Watching a dog. Smiling. (NoBusiness)
  A dark raging hell ride. two masters at work
  
  
• Steve Baczkowski - Cheap Fabric (Relative Pitch)
  The pure essence of a free jazz saxophone
  
  
• Amalie Dahl/Henrik Sandstad Dalen/Jomar Jeppsson Søvik- Live in Europe (Nice Thing Records)
  Anyone who manages to elicit something new from this format deserves to be in theTopTen
  
  
• Dave Rempis & Tashi Dorji - Gnash (Aerophonic Records)
  Folk music, Bhutanese roots music, blues and psychedelic rock - true world music

Historic/Archival

• The Laws of William Bonney Saxophone Quartet 1993 - 2007: Self- titled (Acheulian Handaxe) 
  The misfit in this list; no idea why they didn’t release this music back in the days
  
  
• Olaf Rupp - Earth And More (scatterARCHIVE)
  Not really free jazz, but an important document that shows Rupp at a crossroads in his career
  
  
• Charles Gayle/ Milford Graves/ William Parker - WEBO (Black Editions Archive)
  Music that not only seems to come from another time, but also from another universe
  
  

Nick Metzger

• Barry Guy Blue Shroud Band - all this this here (Fundacja Słuchaj)
• John Butcher + 13 - Fluid Fixations (Weight of Wax)
• The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis - self-titled (Impulse!)
• Magda Mayas’ Filamental - Ritual Mechanics (Relative Pitch)
• K. Curtis Lyle/George R. Sams/Ra Kalam Bob Moses Sextett - 29 Birds You Never Heard (Balance Point Acoustics)
• Darius Jones - Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) (AUM Fidelity)
• أحمد [Ahmed] - Giant Beauty (Fonstret)
• Weird of Mouth - self-titled (Otherly Love)
• David Maranha/Rodrigo Amado - Wrecks (Nariz Entupido)
• AALY Trio - Sustain (Silkheart)

Historic/Archival

• Charles Gayle/ Milford Graves/ William Parker - WEBO (Black Editions Archive)
• EMT - 1973, Editions 1-4 (SÅJ)
• Louis Moholo-Moholo - Louis Moholo-Moholo’s Viva La Black (Ogun)
• Atrás del Cosmos - Cold Drinks, Hot Dreams (Blank Forms)
  
  

Nick Ostrum

• Nick Dunston – Colla Voce (OOYH)
• ØKSE - self-titled (backwoodz records)
• Cheryl Duvall & Patrick Giguère - Intimes Exubérances (Redshift Records)
• Gordon Grdina’s the Marrow – With Fathieh Honari (Attaboygirl Records)
• Peter Evans’ Being and Becoming – Ars Memoria (More is More)
• Wadada Leo Smith and Aminda Claudine Myers – Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths, Garden (Red Hook Records)
• James Brandon Lewis and the Messthetics – self-titled (Impulse!)
• K. Curtis Lyle, George R. Sams, Ra Kalam Bob Moses Sextet - 29 Birds You Never Heard (Balance Point Acoustics)
• Jeremiah Cymerman – Body of Light (5049 Records)
• Adam Rudolph and Tyshawn Sorey – Archaisms I and II (Defkaz)
  

Historic/Archival:

• Cecil Taylor Unit – Live at Fat Tuesday’s, February 9, 1980, First Visit (Ezzthetics)
• Mars Williams and Hamid Drake – I Know You Are But What Am I (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
• Charles Gayle, William Parker, Milford Graves – WEBO (Black Editions Archive)
• Mal Waldron and Steve Lacy - The Mighty Warriors: Live in Antwerp (Elemental Music)

Book:

• Žiga Koritnik - Brötzmann In My Focus (Pega)

Paul Acquaro

1. The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis - self-titled (Impulse!)
2. Space - Embrace the Space (Relative Pitch)
3. Sakina Abdou/ Marta Warelis/ Toma Gouband - Hammer, Roll and Leaf (Relative Pitch)
4. The Attic and Eve Risser - La Grande Crue (No Business)
5. Borderlands Trio - Rewilder (Intakt Records)
6. Han-earl Park, Yorgos Dimitriadis and Camila Nebbia – Gonggong 225088 (Waveform Alphabet)
7. Ivo Perelman’s Sao Paulo Creative 4 - Supernova (s/r)
8. Janel Leppin - To March is to Love (Cuneiform)
9. Jon Irabagon I Don't Hear Nothin' But the Blues - Vol.3, part 2: Exuberant Scars (Irrbagast)
10. Peter Evans - Extra (We Jazz, 2024)
    

Historic/Archive

• Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy - The Mighty Warriors: Live in Antwerp (Elemental Music)
• The Arthur Blythe Quartet - Live from Studio Rivbea (NoBusiness)
• Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co / David Borden - Make Way For Mother Mallard : 50 Years of Music (Cuneiform)
  
• Bob Dylan - The 1974 Live Recordings (Columbia)
  Does this belong here? Absolutely not, but this is my all-time favorite Dylan period, so I'm going for it. 

Sammy Stein

1. Ivo Perelman and Fay Victor - Messa Di Voce (Mahakala Music)
   I liked how both improvisers encouraged the other and pushed them into challenging areas.
   
   
2. Paula Rae Gibson- The Roles We Play to Disappear (33Xtreme)
   The emotional content is barely contained in this music but controlled enough to give the listener a sense of the artist's inner soul.
   
   
3. Olie Brice, Rachel Musson, Mark Sanders - Immense Blue (West Hill Records)
   Improvisers proving what different ideas can create
   
   
4. Satya - Songs of The Fathers: A Celebration of the Music of Abdullah Ibrahim (Resonant Artists)
   Creative and beautiful interpretations and superb musicianship combine to make this a worthy listen.
   
   
5. Montresor - Autopioesis (s/r, 2024)
   Many different facets are combined in a unique styling.
   
   
6. Maddelena Ghezzie and Ruth Goller - Dolomite (Deng Yue records)
   The listener is taken on a sonic journey with the musicians
   
   
7. Samo Salamon, Vasil Hadzimanov, and Ra Kalam, Bob Moses - Dances of Freedom (Samo)
   Different influences meld together seamlessly.
   
   
8. Jelle Roozenberg and Han Bennink - Live At Galloway Studio (Sound of Niche)
   Both musicians show on this recording why their reputations are what they are.
   
   
9. Lars Fiil - New Ground (self-release)
   Lars shows how he has developed and found new ways to travel on this stellar recording.
   
   
10. Giuseppe Doronzo, Andy Moor, Frank Rosaly - Futuro Ancestrale (Clean Feed)
    The wonderful landscape created continues the journey for this creative musician.

Sarah Grosser

Records that impacted me greatly in 2024, reviewed on Free Jazz Collective:

• Semeseder & Lillinger - Antumbra (Plaist)
• Etienne Nilessen - en (Sofa)
• Jordan Mila, Barry Guy - Live in Munich (ECM)
• Neon Dilemma - Neon Dilemma (Klang Records)
• Ches Smith - Laugh Ash (Pyroclastic)
• Mary Halvorson - Cloudward (Nonesuch Records)
• Weird of Mouth - self-titled (Otherly Love)
• Reza Askari’s ROAR feat. Christopher Dell - Zen World Cables (Boomslang Records)
• Steffi Narr, Oliver Steidle - Introduction (self released)
• Ingrid Schmoliner - I Am Animal (Idyllic Noise)

Stef Gjissels

• Kris Davis Trio – Run the Gauntlet (Pyroclastic Records)
• Angles + Elle-Kari – The Death Of Kalypso (Thanatosis Produktion)
• Gonçalo Almeida, Susana Santos Silva & Gustavo Costa - States of Restraint (Clean Feed)
• Christoph Erb, Magda Mayas & Gerry Hemingway - Hour Music (Veto)
• John Butcher + 13 - Fluid Fixations (Weight of Wax)
• Lina Allemano's Ohrenschmaus & Andrea Parkins - Flip Side (Lumo Records)
• Hubbub - abb abb abb (Relative Pitch)
• David Maranha & Rodrigo Amado - Wrecks (Nariz Entupido)
• Desarbres Ensemble - Live at 6nd Spontaneous Music Festival, 2022 (Spontaneous Live Series) 
• Earth Tongues - Anemone (Neither Nor)

Historic/Archival 

• Gush - Afro Blue (Trost Records)

Stuart Broomer

• Sakina Abdou/ Marta Warelis/ Toma Gouband - Hammer, Roll and Leaf (Relative Pitch)
• أحمد [Ahmed] - Giant Beauty (Fönstret)
• Anthony Braxton - 10 Comp (Lorraine) 2022 (Braxton House)
• John Butcher + 13 - Fluid Fixations (Weight of Wax)
• Joëlle Léandre - Lifetime Achievement (Rogueart) [read here]
• Ute Kanngießer/ Eddie Prévost/ Seymour Wright - Splendid Nettle (Matchless Recordings) [read here]
• David Maranha/ Rodrigo Amado - Wrecks (Nariz Entupido)
• Onceim - Laminaire (Relative Pitch) [read here]
• Jason Stein, Marilyn Crispell, Damon Smith, Adam Shead - spi-raling horn (Balance Point Acoustics/ Irritable Music)
• Transatlantic Trance Map - Marconi’s Drift (False Walls)

Certain musicians, otherwise unnamed but essential to current improvised music, stand out here:

Pat Thomas appears on three of these recordings: [Ahmed], Butcher + 13, and Transatlantic Trance Map; Hannah Marshall appears with Butcher + 13 and Transatlantic Trance Map; Craig Taborn appears with Transatlantic Trance Map and Joëlle Léandre; Seymour Wright appears with [Ahmed] as well as on Splendid Nettle. Antonin Gerbal is a member of both [Ahmed] and Onceim.

Historic/Archival

• Charles Gayle/ Milford Graves/ William Parker - WEBO (Black Editions Archive)
• Andrew Hill - A Beautiful Day, Revisited (Palmetto)
• Mal Waldron/ Steve Lacy - The Mighty Warriors: Live in Antwerp (Elemental)

Taylor McDowell

• Oùat - Trial of Future Animals (Self-Released)
• Weird of Mouth - self-titled (Otherly Love)
• مد [Ahmed] - Wood Blues (Astral Spirits)
• Matt Mitchell - Illimitable (Obliquity Records)
• Satoko Fujii Quartet - Dog Days of Summer (Libra)
• Darius Jones - Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) (AUM Fidelity)
• Fire! - Testament (Rune Grammofon)
• ØKSE - self-titled (Backwoodz Studioz)
• AALY Trio - Sustain (Silkheart)
• Laura Jurd & Paul Dunmall - Fanfares and Freedom (Discus) 

Historic/Archive

• Gush - Afro Blue (Trost Records) 

Troy Dostert

• Borderlands Trio - Rewilder (Intakt)
• Steve Coleman and Five Elements - PolyTropos (Pi Recordings) [read here]
• Isaiah Collier and the Chosen Few - The Almighty (Division 81 Records)
• Caleb Wheeler Curtis - The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery (Imani Records) [read here]
• Matt Mitchell - Zealous Angles (Pi Recordings)

William Rossi

1. ØKSE - self-titled (Backwoodz Studioz)
2. David Maranha / Rodrigo Amado - Wrecks (Nariz Entupido)
3. Angles + Elle-Kari - The Death of Kalypso (Thanatosis Produktion)
4. The Attic and Eve Risser - La Grande Crue (No Business)
5. Sinonó - La espalda y su punto radiante (Subtext / Multiverse LTD)
6. Fire! - Testament (Rune Grammofon)
7. Mary Halvorson - Cloudward (Nonesuch)
8. The Necks - Bleed (Northern Spy)
9. Makoto Kawashima - Zoe (Black Editions)
10. Weird of Mouth - self-titled (Otherly Love)

Historic/Archive

11. Charles Gayle / Milford Graves / William Parker - WEBO (Black Editions Archive)