My No. 1 album of 2025: Mary Halvorson's About Ghosts
It usually only takes an instant to recognize the sound Mary Halvorson gets out of her hollow-body guitar: percussive but pliable, with the odd subversive wobble. Her voice as a composer and orchestrator is no less unmistakable, as she proves on About Ghosts, a thinking person's thrill ride that supplements her hyperacute chamber-jazz ensemble, Amaryllis, with a pair of terrific saxophonists, Brian Settles and Immanuel Wilkins. The guests make their presence known, joining a dynamic roster of improvisers that also includes trumpeter Adam O'Farrill, trombonist Jacob Garchik and vibraphonist Patricia Brennan (each of whom dropped their own worthy albums this year). Listen carefully and you'll hear traces of the "Pocket Piano" synthesizer that sparked Halvorson's creativity as a composer, along with a heartfelt tribute to a former bandmate, the pedal steel guitar genius Susan Alcorn, who died early this year. Modern jazz is forever evolving — and so are those in active dialogue with that tradition, as Halvorson and her intrepid colleagues keep reminding us.
The rest of Nate Chinen's Top 10 Albums
2. Rosalía, LUX
3. Fieldwork, Thereupon
4. Sullivan Fortner, Southern Nights
5. Patricia Brennan, Of the Near and Far
6. Bad Bunny, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS
7. Craig Taborn, Nels Cline, Marcus Gilmore, Trio of Bloom
8. Ambrose Akinmusire, honey from a winter stone
9. Chris Cheek, Keepers of the Eastern Door
10. Wednesday, Bleeds
Read about more of NPR Music's favorite albums of 2025 and our list of the 125 best songs of 2025.
Graphic illustration by David Mascha for NPR.
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