MY FAVORITE JAZZ AND TELEVISION FOR 2025

Here’s my annual list of the jazz albums that I enjoyed most in 2025. There’s so much to like beyond these 21gems but these are the ones that always made me stop to listen to. There are many of the usual suspects but, as always some pleasant surprises like Barb Jungr and Ted Rosenthal. 

Also saw a lot of great jazz and the Blue Note finally opened up its venue in LA.

I hope you give some of these a listen.

John Patitucci - Spirit Fall

Out Of/Into - Motion I & 2

Artemis - Arboresque

Barb Jungr - Hard Rain

Benjamin Lackner - Spindrift

James Brandon Lewis - Abstraction is Deliverance

 

Ted Rosenthal Trio - High Standards

Ambrose Akinmusire - honey From a Winter Stone

Steve Lehman - The Music of Antony Braxton

Dee Dee Bridgewater/Bill Charlap - Elemental

 

Joe Farnsworth - The Big Room

Mary Halvorson - About Ghosts

Peter & Will Anderson - The Best of Berlin

Linda May Han Oh - Strange Heavans

Myra Medford - Splash

Ira B Liss Big Band Jazz Machine - Unexpected Guests

Branford Marsalis Quartet - Belonging

Mary Halvorson/Sylvie Courvoisier - Bone Bells

Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble - Let The Spirit Out, Live At “mu” London

Cècile McLoren Salvant - Oh Snap

Chicago Underground Duo - Hyperglyph

Watched a lot of television…..a lot. Not the best year for stellar

shows. Only eleven made the cut this year. Here they are. 

Black Doves NETFLIX

Dark Winds AMC

Mo NETFLIX

The Pitt MAX

Dept Q NETFLIX

The Bear HULU

Untamed NETFLIX

Unforgotten PBS

Slow Horses AppleTV

The Lowdown HULU

The Gold PBS

Have a healthy and safe New Year. See you at the end of 2026.

MS

Masked Top Jazz and TV Shows for 2024

Here are my annual lists of favorite Jazz albums and TV shows for 2024.

As always these are not the best just the albums and shows that stayed with me through the year for whatever reason.

Among the Jazz albums I would highly recommend Sarah Hanahan’s "Among Giants". I think she may be the next big thing in Jazz and you can often see her live streaming at Smalls.

Also a shoutout to Cal State Northridge for bringing top shel Jazz into the Valley with their two week Jazz at Nazz festival in February as well as other exciting performances through the season.

I listen to mostly jazz, reggae and blues so these 21 recommendations are the tip if the iceberg.

The Sky will Still Be There Tomorrow - Charles Lloyd

Cloudward - Mary Halvorson

Improbable Solutions - .Bill Anschell

Compassion - Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, Tyshawn Sorry

But Who’s Gonna Play the Melody? - Christian McBride/ Edgar Meyer

An Old Story - Jamie Baum Septet

SKYLLUMINA - Ruth Goller

Shadow  - Lizz Wright

Among Giants - Sarah Hanahan

What it Means - Bria Skonberg

Night Reign - Arrooj Aftab

Oriole to Berlin - RAH & The Ruffcats

Portrait - Samara Joy

Breaking Stretch - Patricia Brennan

The Epicenter of Your Dreams - John Escreet

Tipish - New Orleans Klezmer All Stars

Planetarium - Ben Monder

Parlour Games - Tim Berne & Michael Formanek

We See - Steve Davis

Crossing Paths - Renee Rosnes

Eagle’s Point - Chris Potter

Here’s my 15 favorite shows of 2024. I don’t try to be cute and find obscure shows . These are on the major streaming services or premium channels with one PBS show included. I list the shows in order of fondness. Every year there is one show that it pains me to say farewell to. Last year it was Reservation Dogs and this year it Somebody Somewhere which, if you haven’t watched, I strongly recommend you get to ASAP. Bad Monkey and Get Millie Black were two pleasant surprises and Ripley was a modern day version of those Universal horror movies I grew up watching.

Somebody Somewhere HBO

True Detective:Night Country HBO

Slow Horses AppleTV

Hacks MAX

Bad Monkey AppleTV

Tokyo Vice MAX

The Day of the Jackal PEACOCK 

Get Millie Black MAX

Ripley NETFLIX

We Are Lady Parts Amazon Prime

Cleo NETFLIX

The English Teacher FX

Troppo Amazon Prime

DI Ray PBS

Culprits HULU

Enjoy these all and enjoy this month before The Dark Time comes.

MASKED FAVES FOR 2023 - TV AND JAZZ

It's time for my annual list of recommended television shows and Jazz albums. As always, these are not the best and who can listen to everything that came out in 2023. These are the shows I enjoyed and would recommend you check out; and the albums that caught my ear as I shuffled through my collection of new titles.

Here are the 14 shows that I would recommend to you. As always the list is dominated by FX/HULU with a smattering of HBO thrown in. We said goodby to a real masterpiece in Reservation Dogs, welcomed back Justified and happy to know that Somebody Somewhere and Dark Winds will still be around. Season two of The Bear took a significant leap and Poker Face was a pleasant surprise and an homage to 60's 70's detective shows. We watch a lot of international crime so for something to jump out was fun and that was Criminal Code on NETFLIX. Looks like there will be another iteration.

Poker Face - Peacock

Succession - HBO

Perry Mason - HBO

Somebody Somewhere - HBO

Happy Valley - Sundance

The Bear - HULU

What We Do in the Shadows - FX

Justified:City Primeval - FX

Dark Winds  - AMC

Reservation Dogs -FX

Unforgotten - PBS

Fargo - FX

Criminal Code - NETFLIX

A Murder at the End of the World - FX

Here are 22 Jazz albums that I would recommend you check out. It's a mix of reliables like Chris Potter, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Christian McBride and JD Allen. Artemis delivered an excellent sophomore outing. One pleasant surprise was Veronica Swift's new album which I didn't want to like but came around to quite quickly. Lakecia Benjamin, Alex Weiss and Nicky Schrire were new to my ears. We lost Jamie Branch way too soon. She left us with possibly my favorite album of the year. Please support live Jazz and these artists.

Lakecia Benjamin - Phoenix

Ben Wolfe - Unjust

Chris Potter - Got the Keys to the Kingdom:Live at the Village Vanguard 

Cécile McLorin Salvant - Mélusine 

Christian McBride’s New Jawn - PRIDE

Billy Childs - The Winds of Change

David Larsen - The Peplowski Project

Artemis - In Real Time

Alex Weiss - Most Don’t Have Enough

Gretchen Parlato & Lionel Loueke - Lean In

The Composers Collective Big Band - The Toronto Project

Michael Formanek Elusion Quartet - As Things Go

Linda May Han Oh - The Glass Hours

Joe Farnsworth - In What Direction Are You Headed?

Nicky Schrire - Nowhere Girl

Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society - Dynamic Maximum Tension

Jaimie Branch - Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))

This - JD Allen

Veronica Swift - Veronica Swift

Plumb - David Murray, Questove &Ray Angry

Geri Allen & Kurt Rosenwinkel - A Lovesome Thing 

James Brandon Lewis & Red Lily Quintet - For Mahalia With Love

Andre Braugher RIP

Over the years I have, on occasion,, been asked what is the scheduling move that I am most proud of and people are often surprised at my answer.

Sometime in the winter of 1994 we premiered “Homicide: Life on the Streets” and gave it a short run on Thursday night. Today this would have been called a “prestige” show. Back then it was a very dark, arty cop drama that was not pulling in the audience that we were accustomed to in the 10PM Thursday time slot. Whenever it came up in our current meeting some of our marketing execs would put a finger in their mouth and cock their thumbs. For them is was a show impossible to promote. They were just doing their job and being honest.

For me, I loved it. I brought home all the episodes over the Christmas holiday and Bunny and I stayed up late and “binged” them all on New Yers Eve. I was especially drawn to Frank Pembleton played by Andre Braugher. To this day, for me, he is the most memorable character I ever experienced in a TV show.

Well when we were setting the 1994-95 Fall schedule there was a little show called ER which rightfully earned the 10PM Thursday slot. I believed we had renewed Homicide but given the lack of support and no obvious time period I was concerned that this show would quickly be gone from our schedule.

As I was thinking about the sked I suddenly had an epiphany. If there’s one time period noone especially marketing gives a shit about it’s Friday at 10PM. So I built o night of Unsolved Mysteries at 8PM, a Dateline at 9PM and ended the night with Homicide. I figured the only promos HLOTS would get would be in the two shows leading into it and that might be an audience that would hang around.

THAT SCHEDULE STAYED TOGETHER FOR ALMOST 5 YEARS!!!!

It was the most consistant night on our lineup and Homicide had a glorious 5 year run in that timeslot. By the way, that's the same timeslot that BlueBloods owned for over a decade at CBS.

Selfishly it allowed me to enjoy one of the finest television actors for over half a decade. When he was nominated for an Emmy I worked up the nerve to go over to him and introduce myself. I’m sure I made a fool of myself but he was a total gentleman.

I was jolted at the news tonight and I wish him peace as he begins his journey beyond and my sympathies to his loved ones.

RIP Mr. Braugher