2025: The best bits
The brutish reality of Donald Trump’s second term as president of the United States was beginning to emerge when Bruce Springsteen arrived for the first date of his 2025 European tour in Manchester on May 14. I wasn’t there, which meant I didn’t hear him perform, as his final encore, Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom”, a song that could be seen as the last, magnificent expression of its creator’s 1963-64 incarnation as a singer of protest ballads. The clip above shows that Springsteen, seeking to take a stand at another moment in history, gave it everything he had. In October, Al Stewart made a similarly fine choice when, during his farewell tour, he closed his London Palladium show with Dylan’s “Love Minus Zero/No Limit”, one of the compositions that had shaped his own career as a songwriter. With proper humility, but with their own creative spirit still demonstrably alive and alert, Springsteen and Stewart were reminding us of the enduring significance of the greatest artist of our time, whose own emergence was explored in the finest archival release of the year.
NEW ALBUMS
1 Ambrose Akinmusire: Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch)
2 Mavis Staples: Sad and Beautiful World (Anti-)
3 Arve Henriksen / Trygve Seim / Anders Jormin / Markku Ouaskari: Arcanum (ECM)
4 Masabumi Kikuchi: Hanamichi / The Final Studio Recording Vol II (Red Hook)
5 The Necks: Disquiet (Northern Spy)
6 Patricia Brennan: Of the Near and Far (Pyroclastic)
7 Amina Claudine Myers: Solace of the Mind (Red Hook)
8 The Waterboys: Life, Death and Dennis Hopper (Sun)
9 Peter Brötzmann: The Quartet (Okoroku)
10 Chris Ingham Quintet: Walter / Donald (Downhome)
11 Vilhelm Bromander Unfolding Orchestra: Jorden Vi Ärvde (Thanatosis)
12 Nels Cline: Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note)
13 Bryan Ferry & Amelia Barratt: Loose Talk (Dene Jesmond)
14 Lucy Railton: Blue Veil (Ideologic Organ)
15 Charles Lloyd: Figures in Blue (Blue Note)
REISSUE / ARCHIVE
1 Bob Dylan: Through the Open Window: The Bootleg Series Vol 18 1956-1963 (Columbia Legacy)
2 Charlie Parker: Bird in Kansas City (Verve)
3 Dionne Warwick: Make It Easy on Yourself — The Scepter Recordings 1962-1971 (SoulMusic)
4 Mike Westbrook Orchestra: The Cortège / Live at the BBC 1980 (Cadillac)
5 Pharoah Sanders: Izipho Zam (Strata East)
6 Tomasz Stanko Quartet: September Night (ECM)
7 Larry Stabbins, Keith Tippett, Louis Moholo-Moholo: Live in Foggia (Ogun)
8 A New Awakening: Adventures in British Jazz 1966-1971 (Strawberry)
9 Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru: Church of Kidane Mehret (Mississippi)
10 Irma Thomas: Wish Someone Would Care (Kent)
LIVE PERFORMANCE
1 The Weather Station (Islington Town Hall, March)
2 Tyshawn Sorey Trio (Cafe Oto, February)
3 Paul Brady (Bush Hall, April)
4 The Necks (Cafe Oto, May)
5 Maria Schneider / Oslo Jazz Ensemble (Barbican, March)
6 Tom Skinner (Queen Elizabeth Hall, November)
7 Patti Smith Plays Horses (London Palladium, October)
8 Schlippenbach Trio (Cafe Oto, Jan)
9 Bang on a Can All Stars: Terry Riley 80th birthday tribute (Barbican, May)
10 Wadada Leo Smith / Vijay Iyer (Wigmore Hall, October)
11 Olie Brice Quartet (Vortex, July)
12 Adrian Dunbar / Guildhall Sessions Orchestra: The Waste Land (Queen Elizabeth Hall, November)
13 Al Stewart (London Palladium, October)
14 Sebastian Rochford’s Finding Ways (Jazz in the Round, Cockpit Theatre, November)
15 Louis Moholo-Moholo Memorial (100 Club, August)
MUSIC BOOKS
1 Billy Hart w/Ethan Iverson: Oceans of Time (Cymbal Press)
2 Tom Piazza: Living in the Present with John Prine (Omnibus)
3 Jonathan Gould: Burning Down the House (Mariner Books)
4. Neil Storey (ed.): The Island Book of Records Vol 2, 1969-70 (Manchester University Press)
5 Sonny Simmons w/Marc Chaloin: Before You Die Later (Blank Forms)
FICTION
1 Vincenzo Latronico: Perfection (Fitzcarraldo)
2 Sam Sussman: Boy from the North Country (Grove Press)
3 Andrew Miller: The Land in Winter (Sceptre)
NON-FICTION
Paul Gorman: Granny Takes a Trip (White Rabbit)
FILMS
1 Nickel Boys (dir. RaMell Ross)
2 From Hilde, With Love (dir. Andreas Dresen)
3 Sinners (dir. Ryan Coogler)
4 The Ballad of Wallis Island (dir. James Griffiths)
5 A Complete Unknown (dir. James Mangold)
DANCE
Quadrophenia: A Mod Ballet (Sadler’s Wells, July)
EXHIBITIONS
1 Noah Davis (Barbican, May)
2 Jean-François Millet (National Gallery, October)
3 Lee Miller (Tate Britain, December)
thebluemoment.com 
I was lucky enough to see Mike Westbrook et al perform the Crucible. An excellent album.
Always look forward to this. Ordered Sonny Simmons book immediately.
My thanks as always to Richard for his insightful choices, and for the year’s postings. One of life’s pleasures.
Thank you, Mr Blake.
We saw Roy Harper on his Farewell Tour and he did “Girl From The North Country”
Thank you, Richard, for continuing to share your enthusiasms with us. I was particularly grateful to be directed this year towards the Arve Henriksen/ Trygve Seim/ Anders Jormin/ Markku Ouskari ‘Arcanum’ album – surely an ECM classic – and Nels Cline’s Concentrik Quartet. Amongst the archive recordings, Bob Dylan’s ‘Through an Open Window’ exceeded all my expectations. I have also enjoyed listening to the Paul Brady anthology of unreleased recordings that you wrote about, but which hasn’t made it on to your ‘best bits’ list. And the BBC ‘Cortège’ recordings by Mike Westbrook’s Orchestra are an unexpected treat. There is an excellent BBC documentary about the ‘Cortège’ tour on the Westbrook’s web site – well worth catching.
And finally a word about Tom Piazza’s book ‘Living in the Present with John Prine’. It’s as heartwarming and moving as anything I have read this year; thanks so much for the recommendation.
I look forward to following your posts next year. In the meantime, best wishes to you for Christmas and 2026.
“Bird in Kansas City” is a great find and like many of your recommendations spot on.
My memorable live performance was by a musician featured in Blue Moment last year.
Billy Marrows gave a concert with his Grande Familia Quartet in the St Helen & the Holy Cross church in his home village of Sherriff Hutton, North Yorkshire.
All his family and friends gathered to see the local boy, with a plentiful supply of homemade cakes available, in the acoustically splendid venue. I had a word with the bass clarinetist Gustavo Clayton Marucci who said soon as he played his first note he knew this was a special place. It was an unforgettable Sunday lunch time performance with an atmosphere you rarely get in more formal concerts.
What a treat to turn away from the firehose of bad international news and spend some time with this list. Thank you for it, and all the gems that preceded it this year.