S. Victor Aaron picks the best of 2014’s modern and mainstream jazz albums, including Keith Jarrett, Brian Blade, Fred Hersch and others.

Making the labored sound simple must be one of the tallest orders for any jazz musician, but that seems to come naturally to Philadelphia-based saxophonist Ian O’Beirne. You May Also Like: Ian Gillan basically drank his way into Black Sabbath: ‘Did that happen? What happened?’