S. Victor Aaron picks the best of 2015’s fusion jazz music, including John McLaughlin, Chris Potter, Donny McCaslin, Jeff Lorber and others.

Paul Bley has died at 83, following a career which spanned much of jazz history itself – yet boasted a vision derivative of no one.

Picking a Best of 2015 list wasn’t easy. A few albums were outstanding, but I sometimes had a hard time finding new music that connected.

S. Victor Aaron picks the best of 2015’s avant-garde and experimental music, including Sonny Sharrock, Thurston Moore, Scott Amendola and others.

S. Victor Aaron picks the best of 2015’s modern and mainstream jazz albums, including John Scofield, Matthew Shipp, Antonio Sanchez and others.

S. Victor Aaron picks the best of 2015’s non-jazz albums, including Erykah Badu, Shememkia Copeland, the Blind Boys of Alabama’s Sam Butler and others.

Uncompromising, unafraid and utterly cool, the late Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister embodied the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll.

A spectacular live reinterpretation of ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ found composer Danny Elfman staging a partial on-stage Oingo Boingo reunion, as well.

Joni Mitchell, Yes, Mr. Mister, Kevin Gilbert and David Baerwald find a home on Preston Frazier’s Best of 2015 list for reissues and box sets.

Phil Ochs would have – should have – turned 75 today. He’s needed more than ever in a world still on fire with wars and injustice and inequality.