I took only occasional peeks at The Free Jazz Collective in 2024. That’s gonna change. I was simultaneously intrigued and alarmed when the site’s editors named the self-titled release by ØKSE its 2024 album of the year on New Year’s Day. I’d been unfamiliar with the Norwegian band. What a terrible oversight! ØKSE has much the same intent as Sunny Five’s Candid, the skronky missive that’s my favorite jazz album of 2024. The avant-garde all-stars in Sunny Five create a rarified form of punk-jazz. Rather than punk, ØKSE melds underground hip-hop with American improvised music. In addition to their impeccable artistic merit, both albums robustly disprove the fallacious notion that the entirety of the jazz realm has become tired, tame and trifling. Candid and ØKSE are as vital as any music released in 2024.