Mondo Jazz

With the 2026 edition of Winter JazzFest just around the corner, here we focus on some of the artists arriving in New York from elsewhere to briefly reshape the city’s soundscape.

The playlist features The Five Corners Quintet; Makiko Hirabayashi; Rufus Wainwright, Pacific Jazz Orchestra; Brad Mehldau; Anthony Wilson [pictured]; and Roberto Ottaviano.

As we come to the end of another year, it feels like a good moment to pause—not to summarize everything, but to listen back. This episode is built around songs that lingered, resurfaced, and quietly insisted on being remembered.

This episode of Mondo Jazz isn’t about rankings or best-of lists. It’s about memory. Over the past six months, certain pieces of music kept calling us back. Among them, are the tunes in this playlist.

In a year that often felt overwhelming, music remained a place of focus and meaning. This episode of Mondo Jazz brings together the songs from the past six months that helped make sense of the noise—or at least gave us a reason to lean in and listen.