Peter Hum's 12 best Canadian jazz albums of 2024 are packed with improvised thrills

The country's top jazz musicians released exceptional recordings this year, filled with compelling compositions and in-the-moment brilliance.

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Published Dec 27, 2024  •  5 minute read

Bandleader Christine Jensen leads the = Jazz Orchestra at the 2019 TD Ottawa Jazz Festival Photo by Dan Nawrocki /Postmedia

The year’s best Canadian jazz albums are, as usual, a varied bunch, with a big band’s roar, adventurous pianism and a swinging but intimate duo vying for the attention of music-lovers. If you like thrilling sounds and in-the-moment improvising, the 12 recordings below, by Canadians from B.C. to Quebec as well as some distinguished expats, all deserve a listen.

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1. Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra – Harbour (Justin Time Records)

Any album from Montreal saxophonist and composer Christine Jensen is a must-hear. But her large-ensemble excursions are truly special. Her previous two big-band outings — 2010’s Treelines and 2013’s Habitat — were deserved Juno winners. Harbour channels 19 musicians into a singular force that conjures tuneful musical grandeur, at times inspired by the natural splendours of British Columbia, Jensen’s home province. Soloists such as world-class trumpeter Ingrid Jensen (Christine’s sister, or course), pianist Gary Versace, tenor saxophonist Chet Doxas and guitarist Steve Raegele daringly leap out of the mix.

Bandleader Christine Jensen leads the = Jazz Orchestra at the 2019 TD Ottawa Jazz Festival Photo by Dan Nawrocki

2. Carn Davidson 9 – Reverence (Self-released)

Saxophonist Tara Davidson and trombonist William Carn are Toronto jazz power couple, and their nonet project is a peak expression of their combined creativity. Both compose for a horn-heavy group that celebrates compelling writing and sleek arranging, and Reverence is split down the middle, with a suite apiece from Davidson and Carn. Saxophone solos by Davidson, Kelly Jefferson, Shirantha Beddage and U.S. guest star Dick Oatts are right on the money, while Carn and trumpeters Kevin Turcotte and Jason Logue add brassy highlights. Bassist Andrew Downing and drummer Ernesto Cervini are marvelously propulsive.

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3. Kris Davis – Run the Gauntlet (Pyroclastic Records)

Davis, a Calgary-raised pianist, has been a leading figure on New York’s cutting-edge jazz scene for more than a decade. With bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Johnathan Blake, Davis presents vigorous original music that bristles with live-wire creativity and rhythmic bravura. The album is dedicated to six of Davis’s heroes, who just happen to be female jazz pianists that lit the way for her own bold musical explorations.

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4. Neil Swainson – Here For A While (Cellar Music Group)

Renowned over his nearly five-decade career as an unsurpassed accompanist, bassist Neil Swainson, 68, has stepped out in recent years as a composer and bandleader, with laudable results. Here For A While is full of burnished, urbane post-bop music for three articulate horn players and a top-tier rhythm section. While saxophonist Kelly Jefferson, trumpeter Brad Turner and trombonist Steve Davis live in three different cities, it sounds like they’ve been playing together for years. Pianist Renee Rosnes is the perfect, polished pick for Swainson’s material and drummer Quincy Davis plays all the right notes.

The Neil Swainson Sextet includes, left to right, trombonist Steve Davis, saxophonist Kelly Jefferson, drummer Quincy Davis, bassist Neil Swainson, pianist Reenee Rosnes and trumpeter Brad Turner. Can be used for 9999 2024 jazz, by Peter Hum Photo by Diane Smithers

5. Andy Milne – Time Will Tell (Sunnyside Records)

From pianist Andy Milne, a Hamilton native and assistant professor of music at the University of Michigan, Time Will Tell is at once, sophisticated, knotty and rugged. At the music’s core is Milne’s surging, questing trio which includes bassist John Hebert and drummer Clarence Penn, while Milne’s compositions were spun from the life-changing experience of meeting his birth mother for the first time in 2022. Contributions by tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and koto virtuoso Yoko Reikano Kimura enlarge the album’s sonic palette.

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6. Reg Schwager – Poinsettia (Self-released)

Even during his teenaged-prodigy days in the early 1980s, Toronto guitarist Reg Schwager was a musician’s musician, playing in the service of songs and beauty rather than showing off or pandering. His latest release, Poinsettia, consists of nine compositions brought to life by a quartet that shares Schwager’s penchant for natural, agenda-free music that puts melody and invention first. Pianist Amanda Tosoff, bassist Lauren Falls and drummer Michel Lambert are definitely kindred spirits who provide distinctive support.

Guitarist Reg Schwager on the main stage of the 2009 Ottawa Jazz Festival on Sunday, June 28, 2009. Photo by Mike Carroccetto /Postmedia

7. Lex French – In The World’s First Summer (Justin Time Records)

The New Zealand-raised, Montreal-based trumpeter comes in hot with his new quartet album, and although there are nods to Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis, French sounds like his own man, blowing with both ferocity and poise. Pianist François Bourassa, bassist Morgan Moore and drummer Jim Doxas provide unstinting high-energy support that’s as dynamic as it is creative.

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8. Bryn Roberts – Aloft (Elastic Records)

The Winnipeg-raised pianist, now based in Portland, Oregon, has released an assured trio album that balances muscularity, intellect and grace. Five of seven tracks are keenly crafted, impeccably rendered original compositions that show off the winning rapport that Roberts enjoys with bassist Matt Penman and drummer Quincy Davis. Versions of Kurt Weill’s My Ship and Cole Porter’s You Do Something To Me are resolutely swinging but also imbued with modern verve.

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9. Jacob Chung – The Sage (Cellar Music Group)

Scarcely into his mid-20s, the Toronto-raised saxophonist is making a splash in New York with his spirited and well-informed modern mainstream playing. The Sage is a hard-bopping outing in which Chung and some youngblood peers more than hold their own with seasoned veterans Vincent Herring on alto saxophone and drummer Joe Farnsworth. The album brims with the visceral positivity of timeless, swinging jazz and signals that Chung has a bright future ahead of him.

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10. Cory Weeds / Champian Fulton – Every Now And Then (Cellar Music Group)

If Vancouver saxophonist Cory Weeds and New York pianist / vocalist Champian Fulton were nervous when they recorded their new album before a live audience at OCL Studios outside Calgary in February 2023, they didn’t show it. The eight tracks on Every Now And Then are exuberant and uninhibited, exemplifying the best of off-the-cuff jazz. Both musicians are boppy and rollicking when they need to be, or torchy and tender on ballads.

Saxophonist Cory Weeds and pianist/vocalist Champian Fulton

11. Teri Parker’s Free Spirits – Peaks and Valleys (Modica Music)

Taking cues from jazz legends and role models Mary Lou Williams and Geri Allen, Toronto-based pianist and composer Teri Parker formed her Free Spirits sextet in 2019. Five years later, we have Peaks and Valleys, an upbeat and rambunctious album that features some of Canada’s best female jazz musicians exulting in their creative powers under Parker’s leadership. Horn players Allison Au, Alison Young and Rebecca Hennessy shine on Parker’s engaging material.

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12. Jocelyn Gould – Portrait Of Right Now (Jocelyn Gould Music)

Still not quite 30, Jocelyn Gould is both a directly swinging, melodic guitarist of warm tone and abundant polish and a pure-voiced singer who has a way with ballads. Her fourth album, Portrait Of Right Now, presents her impressively flexing all of her talents. Pianist Will Bonness, bassist Jared Beckstead-Craan and drummer Curtis Nowosad are proof positive that the University of Manitoba teaches its jazz students the right stuff.

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