[COULEURS JAZZ MONTH – THE BEST OF!]
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12 Best albums releases of last month: April 2026, so:
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With:
Emmet Cohen – Universal Truth
Emmet Cohen is not yet 35 and he’s already playing with Ron Carter. Named DownBeat’s 2025 Pianist of the Year, this pianist doesn’t just collect accolades — he earns them. Universal Truth is the most compelling evidence yet.
The album draws from the legacy of Miles Davis and Coltrane, not through imitation but through conversation. Cohen seeks to continue a dialogue begun decades ago, with the reverence of someone who has truly listened and the confidence of someone who has something to say. Around him, a cast that turns heads: George Coleman, Jeremy Pelt, Joe Farnsworth, Yasushi Nakamura. Musicians with nothing left to prove, playing like it.
Between revisited standards and original compositions, Universal Truth moves with the ease of a great album — swing, depth, collective spirit. Cohen isn’t imitating his elders. He’s answering them.
Universal Truth, Hit Couleurs Jazz was released by the label Mack Avenue Records, on May 29, 2026.
Joe Webb – Neath Beat.
The pianist who tells stories.
Joe Webb is not the type to overdo it. And that’s precisely what makes Neath Beat so compelling. This British pianist has that rare quality: technical mastery entirely at the service of emotion, never the other way around. You think of Peterson for the energy, of Ellington for the taste in orchestral colours — but Webb isn’t imitating anyone. He’s absorbed his influences and made something genuinely his own.
The trio plays with an immediacy that’s apparent from the first bars. No gratuitous showmanship, no solo that outstays its welcome — every musician seems to know exactly what the music needs at any given moment. It’s that collective intelligence that gives the album its fluency, its naturalness, that sense that nothing is forced.
And at the centre of it all, Webb the storyteller. Someone who builds atmospheres, tends to timbres, chooses his notes with care. The melody is always present, never sacrificed on the altar of harmonic complexity. This is jazz that breathes, that swings, that actually says something — accessible without being obvious, sophisticated without taking itself too seriously.
Neath Beat firmly establishes Joe Webb among the most compelling and promising voices in contemporary British jazz. An elegant, generous album that leaves you reaching for the repeat button before the last note has faded.
Neath Beat, Hit Couleurs Jazz was released by the label Edition Records, on May 22, 2026.
Esaïe Cid – Balzaquiana
The saxophonist who reads Balzac.
Esaïe Cid didn’t make a jazz record. He made a Balzac record.
For fifteen years, this Catalan saxophonist based in Saint-Ouen, near Paris, has been rereading La Comédie Humaine the way others listen to albums. Sooner or later, the two were bound to meet.
Balzaquiana opens with a 1950 Brazilian samba — a massive carnival hit in Rio, a cheeky nod to the father of Rastignac. That song started everything. Around it, Essaïe Cid built a chamber jazz album without piano, with guitar, double bass and drums — a formula that recalls at times Paul Desmond in quartet with Jim Hall. Cool, elegant, literary.
Along the way you encounter Frank Wess, Don Byas, and two characters from La Comédie Humainesketched in music. Nine tracks, one third Balzac. “It reflects my life a little,” he says. Easy to believe.
The album is dedicated to drummer Lucio Tomasi, who passed away at 28 in New York just a few weeks after the recording. You can feel it.
Balzaquiana, Hit Couleurs Jazz was released by the label Fresh Sound Records, on May 29, 2026.
The drummer takes the lead.
Some musicians spend years in the background before finding their moment. Germain Cornet is one of them. Trained by the best — including Jeff Hamilton, an absolute reference in jazz drumming — this elegant, swinging drummer finally steps into the spotlight with his debut leader album, Listen to the Wind, out since May 29th.
What strikes you immediately is how deliberate the whole project feels. Nothing rushed: Cornet wrote with specific faces in mind, building a quintet around musicians he’s been playing with for two years. The result is rare — a genuine group sound, the kind of chemistry you heard in the great quintets of the 50s and 60s.
The lineup speaks for itself. Patrick Villanueva on piano, César Poirier on tenor, Ronald Baker on trumpet, Fabricio Nicolas-Garcia on bass. Musicians with distinct voices who also know how to play for the whole.
Eleven originals and one cover, recorded in the studio in June 2025. The music is rooted in hard-bop without feeling like a museum piece — jazz that breathes, melodic and generous. A debut that arrives at exactly the right time, from someone who knew precisely what he wanted to say.
Listen to the Wind, Hit Couleurs Jazz was released by the label Encore Music, on May 22, 2026.
Giovanni Mirabassi – Più Avanti !
The piano as a raised fist
25 years after Avanti !, the world is still burning.
So is Giovanni Mirabassi. Più Avanti ! is not a reissue, nor an act of nostalgia — it’s an answer. From an artist whose generation lived between collapsed utopias and broken promises. Hope was there, within reach. It slipped away. The anger stayed.
In 2001, alone at his piano, the Italian pianist delivered an unexpected manifesto with Avanti ! — 70,000 copies sold, Victoire du Jazz, Django d’Or. The revolutionary songs he reimagined weren’t an exercise in style.
They were visceral. A quarter century later, with the experience and maturity that time gives those who don’t let go, he returns. Not to commemorate. To continue.
Più Avanti ! — “further on”, “onwards still” — carries the spirit of songs that have crossed workers’ struggles, revolutions, defeats and rebirths. Aragon, Ferrat, Brassens, Ferré — a tradition of resistance that Giovanni Mirabassi‘s jazz absorbs and returns with rare intensity.
Memory as duty, the piano as a raised fist.
Più Avanti! Hit Couleurs Jazz was released by the label Jazz Eleven, on May 1st 2026… Of course.
As a symbol…
Gabriel Grossi & Laurent Coulondre – Hermeto Universal
The sound of the world in one album
Hermeto Pascoal doesn’t have disciples. He has accomplices. And Gabriel Grossi is the most devoted — a harmonica virtuoso and direct heir to the Brazilian master, who has assembled around this project a cast that defies belief.
Alongside him, French pianist Laurent Coulondre. Together they conceived, produced and arranged an album unlike anything else. Michael League — Snarky Puppy’s leader — Cuban drummer Ruy López Nussa, Chris Potter, Ibrahim Maalouf, Jorge Pardo, Baptiste Herbin… The list goes on, and every name carries weight.
But what makes Hermeto Universal truly singular is where it ends. The album closes with Catarina e Teresa — a spontaneous, fully improvised composition by Hermeto Pascoal himself, co-written with Grossi and offered as a gift to Grossi’s twin daughters. A rare, almost intimate gesture that says more than any manifesto could about what this man is: always inventing, for those he loves.
Not a tribute. A continuation.
Hermeto Universal, Hit Couleurs Jazz was released byNew World Production, on May 22, 2026.
Alon Near – Names, Places.
Double bassist in motion.
The travel journal of a bassist who couldn’t stay still.
Names, Places is exactly that — five years of touring, hiking and human encounters, distilled into nine compositions. Every track is a place, every melody a memory.
Alon Near is no newcomer. Berklee College, The New School, New York — the résumé speaks for itself. He’s played with Billy Childs, Joey Alexander, Chris Potter. But this is his debut as a leader, and it shows in the best possible way: the music has the freedom of someone answering only to himself.
Around him, a cast built for the journey. Tom Oren on piano, Itamar Borochov on trumpet, strings here, a flute there — the palette shifts from track to track, like the landscapes of a long trip. From Brooklyn to Tel Aviv, Tokyo to Jerusalem, the album traces an intimate geography, moving between complexity and simplicity, city and wilderness.
A beautiful debut from someone who clearly has a lot to say.
Names, Places, Hit Couleurs Jazz was released by the label Hypnote Records, on May 22, 2026.
Jultrane – Miles & John, The Century Birthday.
The man who lives at full speed.
Cable car operator, whale swimmer, paraglider and saxophonist, Julien Ndiaye is not the type to stand still. And you can hear it in his music.
To mark the 100th birthday of both Miles Davis and John Coltrane, he brings together his Sextet Duplex for a landmark concert celebrating these two giants. The show also marks the release of the eponymous album on Jazz Family. With surprise guests. Obviously.
On stage, Jultrane doesn’t just play — he converses, he narrates, he pulls you in. The audience dances, the musicians soar, and somewhere between jazz, Afro-Cuban rhythms and the music of his native Senegal, something rare happens. Music that breathes wide open — just like the man behind it.
Miles & John, The Century Birthday, Hit Couleurs Jazz was released by the label Jazz Family, on April 24, 2026.
Gabriel Delmas Trio Feat. Gaël Horellou – New Step
Born from the meeting of Gabriel Delmas and Gaël Horellou, New Step feels completely natural from the very first notes. The saxophonist finds an ideal musical setting within a group that blends jazz, funk, boogaloo and improvisation with remarkable ease.
Alongside Florent Hortal and Nicolas Blancot, the quartet develops a generous collective sound where groove remains at the heart of the music.
The compositions flow effortlessly, leaving ample room for interaction, spontaneity and a constant sense of adventure.
Recorded under live-like conditions, the album retains a freshness and immediacy that perfectly suit its spirit. A vibrant, accessible recording driven by the sheer joy of making music together.
New Step, Hit Couleurs Jazz was released on May 29, 2026.
ELIANE ELIAS – AO VIVO
The incomparable Eliane Elias returns to the setting where she shines most: the concert stage. Recorded live at SFJazz Center, Ao Vivo(Live) captures the elegance, virtuosity and warmth that have made the pianist and vocalist one of the world’s foremost ambassadors of Brazilian jazz.
Joined by guitarist Leandro Pellegrino, bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Rafael Barata, she revisits highlights from her catalogue alongside beloved Brazilian classics. The quartet displays remarkable chemistry, blending subtlety, swing and intensity with effortless grace.
From vibrant sambas to refined bossa novas and inspired improvisations, Ao Vivo beautifully conveys the magic of live performance. A compelling reminder of why Eliane Elias remains one of the most celebrated voices in Brazilian jazz today.
Ao Vivo, Hit Couleurs Jazz was released by the label Candid Records, on May 22, 2026.
Chris Potter – Alive With Ghosts Today
Beyond the music.
Some albums go beyond music. Alive With Ghosts Today is one of them. Chris Potter hasn’t written a suite of songs — he’s built a fresco. Inspired by the figure of John Brown and the deep fault lines of American history, the work wrestles with justice, sacrifice and collective memory. Rare territory for a jazz album.
To get there, Chris Potter assembles an unusual ensemble, with Bill Frisell‘s guitar at its centre. Violin, clarinet, trombone — a palette drawn from jazz, blues and folk, those deeply American musics that carry within them all the complexity of a nation. The writing favours atmosphere and narrative without ever surrendering the intensity of improvisation. It’s dense, evocative, and holds together from start to finish.
Alive With Ghosts Today stands as one of the most accomplished works from a musician who has never stopped pushing his own boundaries. An album that will remain.
Alive With Ghosts Today, Hit Couleurs Jazz was released by the label Edition Records, on May 8, 2026.
Adrien Moignard – Miroirs.
The elegant virtuosity
The guitar that watches itself move forward.
Adrien Moignard hasn’t turned his back on Django. He’s held up a mirror. Miroirs, his new quartet album on Label Ouest, is exactly that — a record that looks back at its roots to decide where to go next.
Following Bright Up and Django’s Songs, the guitarist returns with a stripped-down, uncompromising lineup: three guitars, a double bass, no drums. Acoustic purity as a statement. Benji Winterstein and Julien Cattiaux on rhythm guitars build a foundation of remarkable density, while Venezuelan-born bassist Fabricio Nicolas — shaped by four continents of musical influence — brings far more than harmonic support. He converses, he teases, he steps forward when the moment calls for it.
Above it all, Moignard plays. With that blend of virtuosity and lyricism that has set him apart for years. The repertoire balances original compositions with bold choices — Charlie Parker, Cole Porter, and even a Goldman song written for Céline Dion, transformed into something surprisingly right.
An album of maturity, from someone with nothing left to prove — and who takes every risk because of it.
Miroirs, Hit Couleurs Jazz was released by the Label Ouest, on May 22, 2026.
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