At the end of last year I shared the Top 10 list (plus 10 honorable mentions) that I contributed to Slant, which covered roughly the top third of what I saw in 2025.*
Now, as is tradition around Oscar time, I’m posting the full ranking I kept up throughout the year to make my job easier.
*As always, this was based on films receiving a US general release in 2025, rather than original premiere date. (e.g. The Klezmer Project premiered at the Berlin film festival in 2023 but only made its way to the US last year.) Sometime soon I’ll go back and create “pure” lists for the past few years.
Jason Rigby, Chris Morrissey, and Mark Guiliana at The Jazz Gallery. Rigby’s most recent recordings are drawn from extended studio improvisations with MG, and this performance translated various material from those sessions to a live setting with the addition of CM on bass—a modified version of the great Mark Guiliana Quartet but with a wildly different sound. Three great musicians with a lot of history together having fun exploring new sounds.
Utterly bonkers set by Invisible Guy (that I almost didn’t go to) tonight at The Jazz Gallery.
Ben Goldberg: clarinet
Michael Coleman: keys and electronics
Joshua Crumbly: bass
Hamir Atwal: drums
First live music of 2026!
Set one: Kris Davis, Eric Revis, Andrew Cyrille
Set two: Patricia Brennan, Stephan Crump, Adam O’Farrill, Jon Irabagon, Mark Shim, Dan Weiss, Mauricio Herrera
Let it be known that on Friday, the 26th of December 2025, I defeated the Scrabble master, my mother @lrtkatz for the first (and probably only) time ever.
Find of the year at @academylpcd . “The Copulatin’ Blues”: a salacious compilation featuring such oldtime hits as Shave ‘Em Dry, New Rubbin’ on That Darn Old Thing, You Can’t Tell the Diffefence After Dark, and Please Warm My Weiner.
