The Best Jazz Music Gifts This Christmas
Explore Christmas gift ideas perfect for jazz fans, with something for every holiday wish list.
Jazz up your holiday season with our Christmas gift guide for fans of this timeless genre. From classic albums to unique merch, we’ve rounded up the best gift ideas for jazz enthusiasts. Make this holiday season a swinging celebration!
Frank Sinatra – L.A. Is My Lady
L.A. Is My Lady was a high-energy event, hitting the Billboard Top 200 and Top 10 on the Jazz chart. It featured the title song, which got into MTV rotation, and Sinatra’s first recording of “Mack the Knife.” Musical guests include George Benson, Lionel Hampton and Bob James, all led by the legendary Quincy Jones. Iconic songwriter Sammy Cahn wrote new lyrics for “Teach Me Tonight” and “Until the Real Thing Comes Along.” This 40th anniversary deluxe LP edition includes new mixes for the original album.
Samara Joy – Portrait
Born out of her time on the road, Samara Joy took her touring band, made up of other rising young jazz musicians, into the legendary Van Gelder Studios (the venerable studio from which A Love Supreme and so many of the great catalog records from Impulse! and Blue Note were recorded) in February of 2024. Recorded across three days, Samara and her musicians were able to capture an incredible snapshot of who she is today and the promise of tomorrow. This record, appropriately entitled Portrait is a collection of standards, as well as one original and some of her first forays into lyric writing and, most importantly, features her singular voice, alongside arrangements and playing from this tight-knit young group.
Louis Armstrong – Louis In London LP
Louis Armstrong made a greater impact on American popular music than any other single artist before or since. “What A Wonderful World” became his biggest commercial success, first in the UK and decades later in the rest of the world. Armstrong traveled to England to celebrate this unexpected hit and gave his last great performance, which found him looking back at his entire musical career. That performance, recorded at BBC studios, was miraculously captured in high fidelity audio and video, and it’s now available on vinyl for the very first time.
Alice Coltrane – The Carnegie Hall Concert
Alice Coltrane’s The Carnegie Hall Concert is a previously unreleased recording of a historic 1971 concert. The original multi-track recording was commissioned by Impulse but wasn’t released at the time. Featuring an all-star group including Pharaoh Sanders, Archie Shepp, Jimmy Garrison, Cecil McBee, Ed Blackwell and others, this was a triple bill placing her in the company of Laura Nyro and The Rascals.
Sonny Rollins – A Night At The Village Vanguard
Sonny Rollins’ tour-de-force 1957 live trio album is expanded with the 3-LP Tone Poet Vinyl Edition A Night at the Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters. Produced by Joe Harley, the vinyl is all-analog cut directly from the never-before-used original master tapes by Kevin Gray, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI & packaged in a deluxe tip-on trifold jacket with a booklet featuring never-before-seen Francis Wolff photos, insightful essays, and a new interview with Rollins in conversation with Don Was.
McCoy Tyner & Joe Henderson – Forces Of Nature: Live At Slugs
Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs is a never-before-issued live recording of jazz legends McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson leading a stellar quartet with bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Jack DeJohnette at the hallowed lost NYC jazz shrine, Slugs’ Saloon, in 1966. Originally recorded by the legendary engineer Orville O’Brien, the tape has been in DeJohnette’s personal archives for nearly 60 years and is now being released for the very first time.
Norah Jones – Visions
Visions is a vibrant and joyous 12-song set that finds Jones singing about feeling free, wanting to dance, making it right, and acceptance of what life brings. It’s the yang to the yin that was Pick Me Up Off The Floor, Jones’ album of original songs released early in the pandemic lockdown of 2020.
Immanuel Wilkins – Blues Blood
Saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins’ third studio album, Blues Blood, is a meditative offering partially inspired by his childhood, a multimedia performance about the legacies of our ancestors and the bloodlines connecting us. Co-produced by Meshell Ndegeocello, and featuring Micah Thomas on piano, Rick Rosato on bass, Kweku Sumbryon drums, and vocalists Ganavya, June McDoom and Yaw Agyeman—as well as special guest appearances by vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, guitarist Marvin Sewell, and drummer Chris Dave—it’s Wilkins’ most ambitious LP to date.
Louis Armstrong – Wonderful World: The Best Of Louis Armstrong
Today, with the advent of streaming and the resurgence of popularity in LPs, there is more music available to the public to listen to than at any previous time in history. Yet, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, people from around the world still choose to listen to Louis Armstrong, much more so than any other artist born at the turn of the 20th century. The question remains: Why? This new collection, the first authorized Louis Armstrong hits collection to be released on LP in decades, helps to provide answers.
Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto: Getz/Gilberto LP
Gatefold 180-gram vinyl. Getz/Gilberto is an album by American saxophonist Stan Getz and Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto, featuring pianist and composer Antônio Carlos Jobim, who also composed many of the tracks. It was released in March 1964 by Verve Records. It features the iconic take of “The Girl From Ipanema.”
Diana Krall – When I Look In Your Eyes
If artistry is about growth, then count Diana Krall as one of jazz’s consummate artists. When I Look In Your Eyes is yet another step ahead for the vocalist/pianist. This gorgeous set breaks away from the standard piano trio setting of her earliest Verve releases; several of the album’s cuts feature the graceful orchestrations of maestro Johnny Mandel. The album was produced by Grammy-winner and Verve Music Group Chairman Tommy LiPuma, with some tracks being co-produced by LiPuma and Mandel. It was recorded by Al Schmitt.
Buy it here.
Roy Ayers – Everybody Loves The Sunshine Limited Edition LP
Everybody Loves the Sunshine is a studio album by American funk, soul, and jazz composer, and record producer, Roy Ayers. Released on May 12, 1976 it peaked at number 51 on the Billboard 200 chart. In 2016, Pitchfork placed the title track at number 72 on the “200 Best Songs of the 1970s” list. This reissue comes on limited edition 2LP yellow vinyl.
Verve By Request Series
Verve Records/UMe and Third Man Records have partnered to resurrect the popular reissue series, Verve By Request, with a vinyl twist. Focusing on rare gems and fan-requested jazz albums from the Verve Label Group’s stable of iconic labels, the series will offer two titles per month – each hand-picked by Verve and Third Man Records. The records will include both long-out-of-print titles from the vault as well as the first-ever vinyl pressings for albums released in the ‘90s and aughts that were only originally released on CD.
Verve Acoustic Sounds Series
The Verve Acoustic Sounds features the definitive audiophile versions of classic jazz records. All titles are mastered from original analog tapes and presented in high-quality packaging. Throughout its run, the series has included albums from Pharoah Sanders, Peggy Lee, Alice Coltrane, and many more.
Blue Note Tone Poet Series
The Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series is Blue Note’s top-of-the-line vinyl series. Produced and curated by the “Tone Poet” Joe Harley, the series presents all-analog, 180g audiophile quality vinyl reissues from the Blue Note Records catalog and its family of labels which also includes Pacific Jazz, United Artists, and Solid State. Tone Poet vinyl is mastered by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio directly from the original analog master tapes and manufactured at Record Technology Inc. (RTI) in Camarillo, California. The releases come packaged in deluxe gatefold Tip-On jackets which are adorned by stunning photography from the recording sessions by Francis Wolff, giving the listener a glimpse into the studio on the day the music was created.
Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series
The Classic Vinyl Reissue Series presents affordable, high-quality reissues in standard packaging that are mastered by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio and manufactured on 180g vinyl at Optimal Media in Germany. The series reissues the best-known Blue Note classics from the 1950s and 60s, but also goes deeper, exploring the many different eras and styles of the legendary label’s eight-decade history.
Verve Classic Logo Dad Hat
Showcase your love of hip jazz with this hip headwear.
Blue Note Wall Art
These framed prints of classic Blue Note Records might just be the perfect addition to your wall.
The Francis Wolff Collection Fine Art Prints
The Francis Wolff Collection is a series of one-of-a-kind limited edition fine art photography collector’s pieces from Blue Note that celebrates Francis Wolff’s legacy and that of the musicians he loved.
