Fred Phillips’ look back at the Best of 2024 in metal and hard rock includes albums from Judas Priest, Bruce Dickinson, Kittie, Sebastian Bach and others.

Roscoe Mitchell leads a new trio/quartet using his decades-old ideas with a new freshness and proving with ‘One Head Four People’ that his approach still stands in the vanguard of jazz.

Cheer-Accident’s ‘Vacate’ is an “easy listening” record from an art rock band that deserves close listening.

Fifty years on, Patrice Rushen’s ‘Prelusion’ continues to be more than some artifact of its time, it’s the auspicious introduction of a precocious, enormous talent

The moments are long on ‘Chrononaux’ but there aren’t any dull ones. Camila Nebbia, Dietrich Eichmann, John Hughes and Jeff Arnal are just too dialed into each other for that to happen.

Jazz is supposed to be the music of discovery, and ‘Wood Blues’ captures the free jazz quartet [ahmed] in the very act of discovery.

Jon Anderson, Reza Khan, Crosby Stills Nash and Young and others appear on Ross Boissoneau’s Best of 2024 list, along with some he missed along the way.

‘Dark Horse’ and its subsequent tour arrived 50 years ago amid a period of conflict and uncertainty for George Harrison. But there were bright spots.

?’Shorter Notes’ from the Luca Gelli Organ Trio puts a greasy, soul-jazz spin on Wayne Shorter’s incomparable set of songs that work well in this kind of layout.

‘Eyes On The Horizon’ celebrates the pupil as much as former mentor Wadada Leo Smith, as Joe Fonda since set on a path that’s led him to the company of the best in highly creative, highly improvised jazz.