It’s been a good year for jazz, diverse in every way—styles, influences, tastes, and demographics too. I didn’t aim the list to turn out this way, but four of the albums’ leaders are women, and five (including three of those four) feature prominent female “sidemen.” There’s old and young, with the leaders’ ages ranging from 38 (Sullivan Fortner) to 87 (Charles Lloyd), the rest widely spaced in between. Seven of the 10 albums were released by indie labels, four of them on labels that are also artist-owned (two on Pyroclastic, one each on Greenleaf and Yes). Finally, for audiophiles, all of the albums sound very good, most of them terrifically vivid, and half are available on finely mastered vinyl. They all supply much-needed pleasure, in varying ways.

1. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts

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