Moanin'

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers

Best pressing: Blue Note Classic Vinyl (Kevin Gray)

Key track: The Drum Thunder Suite

Hidden Gem

For Duke

Bill Berry and His Ellington All-Stars

Best pressing: Original M&K RealTime direct-to-disc LP

Sunday at the Village Vanguard

Bill Evans Trio

Best pressing: Analogue Productions UHQR 45 RPM

Key track: Gloria's Step

Mingus Ah Um

Charles Mingus

Best pressing: Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step 45 RPM

Key track: Better Git It in Your Soul

The Look of Love

Diana Krall

Best pressing: Verve Acoustic Sounds Series 2LP (Ryan K. Smith)

Key track: The Look of Love

Hidden Gem

Old and New Dreams

Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell

Best pressing: ECM Luminessence 180g LP (2023, cut directly from the analog master)

Key track: Lonely Woman

Highly Recommended

Side by Side

Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges

Best pressing: Analogue Productions 45 RPM mono 2LP (200g, QRP)

Key track: Stompy Jones

Highly Recommended

Back to Back: Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges Play the Blues

Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges

Best pressing: Analogue Productions 45 RPM 2LP (200g, QRP)

Key track: Wabash Blues

Ella and Louis

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong

Best pressing: Verve Acoustic Sounds Series (Ryan K. Smith)

Key track: Can't We Be Friends

Maiden Voyage

Herbie Hancock

Best pressing: Music Matters Jazz 33 RPM; Blue Note Classic Vinyl (Kevin Gray) as the budget pick

Key track: Maiden Voyage

Hope

Hugh Masekela

Best pressing: Analogue Productions 45 RPM 4LP (all 12 tracks)

Key track: Stimela

★ Reference

Blow Up

Isao Suzuki Quartet

Best pressing: Impex 45 RPM 2LP, from The Three Blind Mice 45 Box (Kevin Gray & Tohru Kotetsu)

Key track: Aqua Marine

Highly RecommendedHidden Gem

String Band featuring Isao Suzuki

Isao Suzuki, Hank Jones, Ron Carter, Roy Haynes, string quartet

Best pressing: Original Flying Disk direct-to-disc LP

Hidden Gem

What a Wonderful World

Jay McShann

Best pressing: Groove Note LP with bonus 45 RPM disc

Key track: Piney Brown Blues

A Love Supreme

John Coltrane

Best pressing: Verve Acoustic Sounds Series (Ryan K. Smith, Sterling; QRP); 45 RPM UHQR also available

Key track: Part I – Acknowledgement

Blue Train

John Coltrane

Key track: Blue Train

Tribute

Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette

Best pressing: ECM 180g 2LP

Key track: All the Things You Are

The Sidewinder

Lee Morgan

Best pressing: Blue Note Classic Vinyl (Kevin Gray); a clean original still competes

Key track: The Sidewinder

McCoy Tyner Quartet

McCoy Tyner Quartet (Joe Henderson, Ron Carter, Al Foster)

Best pressing: One-Step 2LP reissue

Key track: Recorda Me

Kind of Blue

Miles Davis

Best pressing: Analogue Productions UHQR (Bernie Grundman's mix from the 3-track master)

Key track: So What

Come Away With Me

Norah Jones

Best pressing: Analogue Productions 180g (Kevin Gray, QRP)

Key track: Don't Know Why

Café Blue

Patricia Barber

Best pressing: Mobile Fidelity 45 RPM 3LP (out of print) or the later Impex edition

Key track: What a Shame

Saxophone Colossus

Sonny Rollins

Best pressing: Analogue Productions mono (Kevin Gray, QRP)

Key track: St. Thomas

Highly RecommendedHidden Gem

Sonny Stitt Blows the Blues

Sonny Stitt

Best pressing: Verve 180g gatefold reissue (2024)

Getz/Gilberto

Stan Getz & João Gilberto

Best pressing: Verve Acoustic Sounds Series (George Marino, Sterling)

Key track: The Girl from Ipanema

Highly Recommended

You Get More Bounce with Curtis Counce!

The Curtis Counce Group

Best pressing: Craft Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series 180g LP (2023)

Key track: Complete

Time Out

The Dave Brubeck Quartet

Best pressing: Analogue Productions 45 RPM (Bernie Grundman, QRP)

Key track: Take Five

Soular Energy

The Ray Brown Trio

Best pressing: Analogue Productions 45 RPM 2LP (Kevin Gray, QRP)

Key track: Exactly Like You

Misty

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio

Best pressing: Impex 45 RPM 2LP, in The Three Blind Mice 45 Box (Kevin Gray)

Key track: Misty

★ Reference

Midnight Sugar

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio

Best pressing: Impex 45 RPM 2LP, from The Three Blind Mice 45 Box (Kevin Gray & Tohru Kotetsu)

Key track: Midnight Sugar

Smokin' at the Half Note

Wynton Kelly Trio & Wes Montgomery

Best pressing: Verve Acoustic Sounds Series

Key track: If You Could See Me Now