4. Cécile McLorin Salvant Ghost Song (Nonesuch)

Cécile McLorin Salvant has diligently redefined the popular concept of a jazz singer, and Ghost Song is her most spectacular expansion yet. She goes beyond genre both in her spectacular cover of Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” and in her range of source material on other tracks, which feature field hollers, youth choirs, solo piano, and a cappella vocals. With McLorin Salvant, jazz singing has gone from an exercise in wistful nostalgia to an investigation of the polyglot future. MARTIN JOHNSON