# What is the best ambient jazz album of all time?

> Decades-old spiritual jazz landmarks share space with hushed modern electronic sessions and cult underground favorites, spanning saxophone reveries to ambient drone collaborations. Cast your vote for the one that pulls you deepest into the drift.

*By YPB Team · Published August 17, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-ambient-jazz-album-of-all-time*

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## Current results (2 votes)

1. **Promises** — 100% (2 votes · score 1000/1000)
   Pharoah Sanders, Floating Points, and the London Symphony Orchestra's 2021 suite pairing saxophone improvisation with slow-building orchestral ambience.
2. **Does Spring Hide Its Joy** — 0% (0 votes · score 569/1000)
   Kali Malone, Stephen O'Malley, and Lucy Railton's 2022 drone collaboration of organ, guitar, and cello, adjacent to ambient jazz's slow-drift lineage.
3. **Journey in Satchidananda** — 0% (0 votes · score 569/1000)
   Alice Coltrane's 1971 spiritual jazz landmark, built on drone-like harp, oud, and modal saxophone that drift into meditative ambience.
4. **Extra Presence** — 0% (0 votes · score 568/1000)
   Carlos Niño & Friends' 2021 album gathering the LA ambient-jazz scene (including Sam Gendel and Nate Mercereau) into loose, floating improvisations.
5. **Fourth World Vol. 1: Possible Musics** — 0% (0 votes · score 481/1000)
   Jon Hassell and Brian Eno's 1980 collaboration fusing trumpet, electronics, and non-Western rhythm into a genre-defining 'Fourth World' ambient-jazz sound.
6. **In a Silent Way** — 0% (0 votes · score 481/1000)
   Miles Davis's 1969 studio-edited fusion album whose weightless, reverb-soaked textures prefigured ambient jazz.
7. **Ptah, the El Daoud** — 0% (0 votes · score 481/1000)
   Alice Coltrane's 1970 album of extended modal pieces led by harp and flute, prized for its spacious, ambient-leaning spiritual jazz.
8. **Vernal Equinox** — 0% (0 votes · score 481/1000)
   Jon Hassell's 1977 debut, a hazy blend of processed trumpet and gamelan-inspired percussion widely regarded as an ambient jazz touchstone.
9. **Help** — 0% (0 votes · score 374/1000)
   Duval Timothy's 2019 album of sparse piano and treated jazz textures, a cult favorite in the modern ambient jazz underground.
10. **Nothing Space Music** — 0% (0 votes · score 374/1000)
   Maya Ongaku's ambient jazz album blending hazy guitar, saxophone, and field-recording textures into a hushed, floating sound.
11. **Space 1.8** — 0% (0 votes · score 240/1000)
   Nala Sinephro's 2021 debut, a harp-and-synth suite of interlinked 'Space' pieces that fuses jazz improvisation with ambient electronics.
12. **Harvest Time** — 0% (0 votes · score 240/1000)
   Pharoah Sanders' 1977 solo saxophone and Fender Rhodes meditation, often cited as one of the earliest true ambient jazz records.
13. **Music for Saxofone and Bass Guitar** — 0% (0 votes · score 240/1000)
   Sam Gendel's 2020 minimalist duo album pairing effects-laden saxophone with bass guitar in loose, ambient jazz sketches.
14. **Gold** — 0% (0 votes · score 240/1000)
   Alabaster DePlume's 2020 International Anthem release of hushed saxophone mantras and spoken interludes, a niche favorite in ambient jazz circles.

Tags: music, jazz, ambient jazz, ambient, instrumental