February, despite being the shortest month, surprised New Yorkers this year with the heaviest snowfall and lowest temperatures in years. With all that time indoors, and maybe as a refuge from the dark events in the world at large, there was ample opportunity to immerse oneself in music. Just as importantly, there was also time to think about that music rather than simply rush onto the next album. And a lot of great music to listen to! Here are a few of my favorites.
Kaja Draksler Octet – Bare, Unfolding
(Zavod Sploh and Clean Feed Records, released January 16, 2026)
Laura Polence – voice, mouth organ
Björk Níelsdóttir – voice, mouth organ, wood block (3), gong (1, 8)
Ada Rave – tenor saxophone, clarinet
Ab Baars – tenor saxophone, clarinet, shakuhachi
George Dumitriu – violin, viola
Kaja Draksler – piano, cowbell (3)
Lennart Heyndels – double bass
Onno Govaert – drums and percussion
Pianist and composer Kaja Draksler’s Bare, Unfolding is one of the remarkable albums of the year so far. Genre mixing is by this point its own genre – much of it can be thrilling, but blending old and new, high and low, can also produce music that’s simply inauthentic. So it was a revelation to hear how deeply Draksler has integrated disparate elements like Baroque music (two pieces are based on Handel), the haiku of Matsuo Basho, the aesthetic of art song, Eastern sounds, Western tonality, and experimental music practices – and make all of these elements feel so essential. Draksler has been exploring these ideas with these musicians for at least a decade, and building on Gledalec (2017) and Out For Stars (2020), Bare, Unfolding feels like the most fully realized statement from this group yet. There’s real pathos on tracks like “Come See” (set to the haiku “Come, see real flowers of this painful world”), and in particular I’ll single out the reed playing of both Ada Rave and Ab Baars and the voices of Laura Polence and Björk Níelsdóttir. But the whole band is fantastic; I’m sure I’ve never heard anything like Bare, Unfolding. Certainly one of my 2026 favorites.
Tomeka Reid – dance! skip! hop!
(Out Of Your Head Records, released February 13, 2026)
Tomeka Reid – cello
Jason Roebke – bass, cassette
Mary Halvorson – guitar
Tomas Fujiwara – drums
I’ll join the chorus of praise for Tomeka Reid’s wonderful dance! skip! hop!, which is sure to top all the jazz polls. This is Reid’s fourth album with her state-of-the-art quartet, and here she further develops the striking concept of matching her cello with strings (Mary Halvorson’s guitar and Jason Roebke’s bass) plus Tomas Fujiwara’s detailed and conversational drums. I hardly need to add that Tomeka Reid and Mary Halvorson are one of the great pairings in music, and their alternating solos and comping lock into a shared wavelength few musicians can match. The simple and elastic melodies have an insouciant buoyancy, set against that rhythmic flexibility and fierce swing. It’s all delight and immensely replayable. Not to be missed.
Masayo Koketsu, Nava Dunkelman – Veins of Rain
(Relative Pitch Recordings, released February 20, 2026)
Masayo Koketsu – alto saxophone
Nava Dunkelman – percussion
Another album that warmed the cold winter days was Veins of Rain, a meeting of saxophonist Masayo Koketsu and percussionist Nava Dunkelman. Incredibly, this is their first time playing together, from the same session (as a trio with Tim Berne) documented on Poiēsis, also on Relative Pitch. A very productive session! Veins of Rain is led by Koketsu’s powerful and rich sound, which kicks off in burning mode, but as the album progresses goes into a meditative, trance-like space that I found really rewarding. An ideal duet partner, I love the resourceful and elegant ways that Dunkelman finds to accompany the different approaches of the saxophonist. Veins of Rain is also beautifully paced, traversing a nuanced path from ecstatic blow-out to tranquil beauty. I look forward to more music from this powerful duo.
Nomad War Machine and Susan Alcorn – Contra Madre
(VG+ Records, released January 30, 2026 )
Susan Alcorn – pedal steel guitar
Julius Masri – drums
James Reichard – fretless guitar
February also brought an unexpected surprise in the form of a posthumous release from the great pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn. Alcorn tragically died just over a year ago, and like the passing of jaime branch, I think we’ll feel the void more acutely as time passes. So the release of Contra Madre, an unlikely collaboration of Alcorn with “these metal guys from Philly” (Alcorn’s words), is welcome. Those guys are drummer Julius Masri and guitarist James Reichard, who are Nomad War Machine, and their improv metal makes an interesting listen next to Alcorn’s transcendent tones. For me, the draw is hearing the uncanny beauty of Alcorn’s pedal steel again, and while I did enjoy this combination, I kept yearning for more space for Alcorn’s music to breathe. Make sure you go back and check out Alcorn classics like the solo albums Soledad and Curanera (“O. Sacrum Convivium” is one of the great moments in 21st-century music), and the excellent quartet album Pedernal. But Contra Madre is a welcome reminder of Alcorn’s greatness.
Mariel Roberts Musa – Sunder
(New Focus Recordings, released February 6, 2026)
on sunder: Conor Hanick, piano with field recordings
on Lightning Field: Mariel Roberts Musa, cello and Felix Fan, cello
Another perfect soundtrack to a snowy month, Sunder by Mariel Roberts Musa is a bold album, by turns atmospheric and intense. The title piece is a seven-movement suite where Roberts Musa concentrates on composition rather than cello, and features the piano of Conor Hanick. Hanick’s duet partner is field recordings made with Jacob Kirkegaard, that were created using microphones planted on the US-Mexico border wall. But the politics are only latent; the resulting ghostly shadows envelop the piano in subtle but otherworldly effects. For the album closer “Lightning Field,” Roberts Musa returns to cello, playing along with fellow cellist Felix Fan.
Pat Thomas & XT – Strata, Act (Joy Contemporary)*
(We Jazz – WJLP82, released January 30, 2026)
Pat Thomas – piano and electronics
Paul Abbott – “real and imaginary drums”
Seymour Wright – “actual and potential saxophone” (alto)
One of the best albums of 2022 was Attitudes of Preparation (Mountains, Oceans, Trees), a collaboration of Oxford, UK pianist and electronic musician Pat Thomas with XT, which is the duo of percussionist Paul Abbott and alto sax player Seymour Wright. I placed that album at #18 in my year-end round-up, but in hindsight, I really undervalued its intense channeling of Cecil Taylor and should have put it at the top of my list. So I was quite excited to listen to the new album from Thomas and XT, Strata, Act (Joy Contemporary)*, a massive release documenting five sets of live music from 2022 played at London’s Cafe Oto and Rote Fabrik in Zurich. I’m still listening and absorbing this abstract and fascinating music, but what’s really grabbed me so far is how Pat Thomas has integrated his approaches to acoustic and electronic music. This is especially apparent on the hour-long set from Cafe Oto that opens this collection (and is the focus of the vinyl edition). Here, Thomas constantly moves back and forth between electronics and piano, setting synthetic and organic music side by side. To my ears, this is a new chapter in Thomas’s music-making, and we also get to really hear the influence on Sun Ra on Thomas’ electronics, something he talks about in the interview I did with him. While I’m hearing Thomas as the lead voice, it is very much cooperative music – Seymour Wright structures the sounds with his unmistakable sax blasts that suddenly appear and then leave behind a suggestive silence (maybe what Wright means by “potential saxophone”). This is music defined by listening (for the band as well as the audience), and that silence is an important element. Abbott’s percussion greatly supports this evocative space, as he favors textural and structural elements over linear pulse-keeping. All quite fascinating, as I said, I’m still absorbing it. Thomas and crew never fail to surprise!