Best New Music Summer 2024

Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Filo Machado, Nancy Ajram, Giovanni Sollima, Monty Alexander, and more

Albums

Gonzalo Rubalcaba is an undisputed piano genius. On this album, he and Dongfeng Lui incorporate Cuban, Chinese, and American (jazz) influences to produce a bunch of beautiful duets. “Ode to the Yellow River” is particularly pretty.

This is just a remastered album from the ’90s, but it’s awesome. Fred Hersch is one of my favourite contemporary jazz pianists, and this albums gives off classic piano trio vibes:

Giovanni Sollima has the most unique timbre on a cello that I’ve ever heard, and his compositions are insane. Don’t forget to check his March album Al-Bunduqiyya — The Lost Concerto. It’s so good that I listened exclusively to it for like a week upon discovering it.

Max Bruch is underrated, and this new recording of his first violin concerto is epic. (I actually prefer his second violin concerto in D minor though.)

Adam Neely is very good at music. And his duo with Shawn Crowder, Sungazer, makes funky electric jazzy stuff. It’s wild.

Beautiful! Her voice is magical! Eliane Elias is so damn good at playing piano and singing—it’s unfair.

Singles

This reggae single by legendary Jamaican artists Paul Douglas and Monty Alexander dropped on Jamaican Independence Day, which is pretty cool.

Filo Machado is one my favourite Brazilian jazz artists.

Nancy Ajram is my favourite Lebanese pop star. If you’re unfamiliar, check out her 2021 album Nancy 10.

Yara is my second-favourite Lebanese pop star.

K Dot won the rap battle with Drake, and it wasn’t even close.

Live Performance

Céline Dion singing “Hymne à l’Amour” at the Paris Olympics was epic. I didn’t know she could sing anymore, and she’s an icon.