9 Jeff Parker Forfolks INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM/ NONESUCH, 2021

You say: “Parker’s two newest albums are just absolute perfection, proof that he’s grown into one of the best guitarists of all time.” Nathan Walker, via Twitter

A nuanced, unshowy guitarist and the only Tortoise member with roots in jazz rather than punk, Parker also has the heftiest discography under his own name. Alongside 2005’s The Relatives and 2020’s Suite For

Max Brown, this eighth solo set might be his best. While those other standouts are band sessions, Forfolks finds Parker totally alone, balancing a finessed understanding of jazz history (Thelonious Monk’s Ugly Beauty is covered) with a loop station set-up that sends his filigreed lines towards ambient spaces. Tortoise completists should go straight to La Jetée, a new version of the recurring tune that appeared on TNT as Jetty.