After several years of just keeping cumulative, priority-ordered lists of my favorite new and excavated recordings here, and feeling guilty that I usually wasn’t writing (or saying) much, I decided in January to take a new approach, which I’ve enjoyed–but it’s been hell on my long-term memory. I feel I’m sure to have left something I loved out of the lists below, even after arduously scrolling through past posts. Maybe I’ll go back to listing in 2025 if I haven’t flexed my passport. On the positive side, I’ve abjured the priority ordering in favor of alphabetical, since I’d begun to suspect my Top 10s and 20s of the past had become somewhat calcified by June or July; saving the priority ordering for the end of the year forces me to have to re-evaluate records a little more carefully. On the other hand, who but I really cares?

Thusly, firstly:

MY 30 VERY FAVORITE NEW RECORDS FROM 2024 SO FAR

(Alphabetical…BUT * = Potential Top 10er; $ = Vying for #1)

1. Acceleration Due to Gravity: Jonesville (Hot Cup)
2. Adeem The Artist: ANNIVERSARY (Thirty Tigers /Four Quarters) 
3. Big Freedia & The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra: Live at the Orpheum Theater (Queen Diva)
4. Alan Braufman: Infinite Love Tears (The Control Group / Valley of Search)
5. Patricia Brennan: Breaking Stretch (Pyroclastic) 
6. Buck 65, doseone, Jel: North American Adonis (Handsmade)
7. Ingebrigt Haker Flaten & (Exit) Knarr: Breezy (Sonic Transmissions)*
8. Fox Green: Light Over Darkness (self-released)
9. Amaro Freitas: Y’Y (Psychic Hotline)
10. Satoko Fujii Trio: Jet Black (Libra)
11.  Hurray for the Riff Raff: The Past is Still Alive (Nonesuch)*$
12.  Jlin: Akoma (Planet Mu)*
13.  Darius Jones: Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) (AUM Fidelity)*
14.  Ka: The Thief Next to Jesus (self-released)*
15.  El Khat: Mute (Glitterbeat)
16.  Corb Lund: El Viejo (New West)*$
17.  Mdou Moctar: Funeral for Justice (Matador)
18.  Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet: Four Guitars Live (Palilalia)*
19.  QOW Trio: The Hold Up (Ubuntu)
20.  Ren: Sick Boi (renmakesmusic.com) 
21.  Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus (Milan) 
22.  SAULT: Acts of Faith (self-released)
23.  Ann Savoy: Another Heart (Smithsonian Folkways)
24.  Brandon Seabrook: Object of Unknown Function (Pyroclastic)*
25.  Patrick Shiroishi: Glass House (Otherly Love)
26.  Snotty Nose Rez Kids: Red Future (Savage Mob)
27.  Swamp Dogg: Blackgrass—From West Virginia to 125^th Street (Oh Boy! Records)*
28.  Takkak Takkak: Takkak Takkak (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
29.  Fay Victor:  Life is Funny That Way—Herbie Nichols Sung (TAO Forms)
30.  X: Smoke & Fiction (Fat Possum)

…and secondly:

MY TOP 15 VERY FAVORITE EXCAVATED OR REISSUED RECORDS 

(I always list these alphabetically anyway, but * = my faves and $ = tops)

1. Christer Bothen Featuring Bolon Beta: Trancedance—40^th Anniversary Edition (Black Truffle reissue)*
2. Alice Coltrane: The 1971 Carnegie Hall Concert (Impulse!) (Goner Records reissue)
3. Cosmic Psychos: Go the Hack (Goner Records reissue)
4. Creation Rebel: High Above Harlesden 1978-2023 (On-U Sound) 
5. Charles Gayle / Milford Graves / William Parker: WEBO (Black Editions)
6. Phil Haynes: 4 Horns or What?—The Complete American Recordings (Corner Store Jazz)*
7. Love Child: Never Meant to Be (12XU) 
8. Franco Luambo Mkaidi: Presents Les Editions Populaires (Planet Ilunga) 
9. Sonny Rollins: Freedom Weaver–The 1959 European Tour Recordings (Resonance)*$
10.  Juma Sultan’s Aboriginal Music Society: Father of Origin (Eremite)
11. Sun Ra: Excelsior Mill (Sundazed)*
12. Unholy Modal Rounders: Unholier Than Thou 7/7/77 (Don Giovanni)*$
13. Various Artists: Congo Funk! Sound Madness From The Shores Of The Mighty Congo River (Analog Africa)
14. Various Artists: Love Hides All Faults—Deep Gospel Soul Selected by Jumbo (Elusive Vinyl / Pyramid Records)*
15. Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy: The Mighty Warriors Live in Antwerp (Elemental Music)