Adam Lane/Ken Vandermark/Magnus Broo/Paal Nilssen-Love: 4 Corners (2006 [2007], Clean Feed): Recorded over three days in Portugal, with four pieces by Lane and three by Vandermark. Nilssen-Love has played frequently with Vandermark, including some notable duets and in School Days, a two-horn quartet similar to this lineup. Broo plays trumpet in Atomic, which merged with School Days for a 2004 album, Nuclear Assembly Hall, so those three are connected. I think the connection with Lane is new. It's hard to tell offhand what difference Lane makes, but he's been putting together a very impressive body of work. On the other hand, Vandermark is impossible to miss. He mostly plays baritone sax here, with lesser amounts of clarinet and bass clarinet, and he's become a very powerful baritone player. Need to give this more time, especially given that it's not the sort of thing you want to listen to during a tornado warning. [B+(***)]

Adam Lane/Ken Vandermark/Magnus Broo/Paal Nilssen-Love: 4 Corners (2006 [2007], Clean Feed): Three Vandermark songs, which tend to be wild and wooly, mixed in with four Lane songs, which are probably the ones with the sharp patterns and good beats. I'll need to recheck that, but the first cut is a Vandermark squawl, with Broo's trumpet adding a fair share, but it comes together after that. The drummer, of course, can go any which way, and he's busy here. A-

Matt Lavelle: Trumpet Rising Bass-Clarinet Moon (2004, 577 Records): Recorded live, with a quintet. If guitarist Anders Neilson isn't a typo, he's as obcure as the rest -- Atiba N. Kwabena on djembe, flute, percusion; Francois Grillot on bass; Federick Ughi on drums. They provide a more varied background than the duo/trio albums, but the focus is still on Lavelle's trumpet and bass clarinet -- both distinctive. Lavelle describes this as "a summation of my work from 1990-2000," and dedicated it to the late Sir Hildred Humphries, his formative link back to the pre-bop era. B+(**)

Matt Lavelle and Daniel Carter (2006. downtownmusic.net): Another duo, just a CDR in a plastic scallop case, recorded at Downtown Music Gallery. Four pieces, much further developed than the Tower Records set. Still, typical of avant duos, limited pallette of sounds, a lot of feeling each other out, but strong performances if you pay attention. B

Matt Lavelle: Cuica in the Third House (2007, KMB): Solo project, with spoken bits I didn't really follow, and blasts of trumpet or flugelhorn and bass clarinet, as interesting as ever. Limited edition CDR, hand packaged. B

Nguyęn Lę: Purple: Celebrating Jimi Hendrix (2002, ACT): Vietnamese guitarist, based in France, with ten or so albums going back to 1989. This is somewhat old, inexplicably showing up in the mail. A trio with guitar, electric bass, and drums, plus guests, including vocals and North African percusion. The vocals have a soft fuzziness, framing the words without really grabbing them, let alone cutting them off as Hendrix did. The guitar also lacks definition, although in the end the purple smudge does have some appeal. B

Nguyęn Lę Duos: Homescape (2004-05 [2006], ACT): Home studio recordings, made at leisure with Lę on various guitars with various electronics and either Paolo Fresu or Dhafer Youssef. Fresu plays trumpet/flugelhorn; Youssef plays oud and sings. Not actually specified who played which tracks, but it wouldn't be hard to figure out if I had taken more careful notes. I could also point out choice cuts -- there are some, but not enough to draw another play right now. B+(*)

Joélle Leandre/Pascal Contet: Freeway (2005 [2007], Clean Feed): Duo improv, with Leandre on bass, Contet on accordion. Record split into 12 pieces, titled "Freeway 1" to "Freeway 12." In short, scattered stuff that demands a close ear, and returns somewhat more than passing interest. B+(*)

Alison Faith Levy & Mushroom: Yesterday, I Saw You Kissing Tiny Flowers (2002-05 [2007], 4Zero): Levy is a San Francisco singer-songwriter, with credits going back to a 1994 EP -- only one I've heard before is a bit part on Mushroom's Glazed Popems. AMG classifies her as Alternative Pop/Rock and Indie Rock. AMG classifies Mushroom as Experimental Rock, Prog-Rock/Art Rock, Kraut Rock, Instrumental Rock, Jazz-Rock, Avant-Prog, Psychedelic, and figures their influences to have been Herbie Hancock, King Crimson, Caravan, Can, and Gong. The group has a dozen or so records, but once more, I've only heard Glazed Popems (although I do have a new one with Eddie Gale in the queue), which is some sort of '60s London tribute. Among the others are titles that suggest they're a real critics band, like Mad Dogs and San Franciscans and Foxy Music. I haven't tried to work out the comings and goings, but aside from Levy, the only constant on the four sessions here is drummer Pat Thomas. Maybe it's the band vibe, but Levy reminds me enough of Grace Slick to make this sound like a postmodern, not to mention postrevolution, Jefferson Airplane -- certainly a more interesting tangent than Paul Kantner's Starship. [B+(**)]

Abbey Lincoln: Abbey Sings Abbey (2007, Verve): Few singers I've listened more to and gotten less out of -- such is her reputation, or maybe it's just Gary Giddins' fault. So I wasn't expecting much here, but this starts off with a gallopping pedal steel-enhanced "Blue Monk" before getting down to business recycling the singer's originals. There's a bit of re-recording your hits here, but that's less unbecoming in a jazz singer that it is for, say, Merle Haggard. But it does give you a chance to bump up the average quality level, and while I recognize many, they're not things I've grown accustomed to. [B+(*)] [May 22]

Abbey Lincoln: Abbey Sings Abbey (2006 [2007], Verve): Francis Davis raved about this in the Voice. I suspect that anyone else already in love with her will feel much the same. I've long been a disappointed skeptic, so the best I can say is that listening to her old songs redone here fails to remind me of whatever it was that annoyed me about her in the past. One possibility is that her voice has coarsened her voice, taking it off that pedestal I never cared for. But also, the arrangements are refreshing. The group is string-oriented, with Larry Campbell playing acoustic and electric guitar, National resonator guitar, pedal steel guitar, and mandolin; he's backed with cello, bass, drums, and accordion for color. The pedal steel is the biggest surprise, with "Blue Monk" played as a cowboy tune. The rest of the songs are originals, selected (I assume) for strong melodies that fit the framework -- a "greatest hits" effect, but given my ignorance without regrets. A couple of songs in I thought about suspending my skepticism, but the record runs long and isn't always convincing. B+(***)

The Jason Lindner Big Band: Live at the Jazz Gallery (2005 [2007], Anzic, 2CD): Mainstream pianist, the young potential star Impulse favored over old Frank Hewitt when excavating Jazz Underground: Live at Smalls. Lindner manages to straddle advanced postbop and scattered world music interests -- his record on Fresh Sound World Jazz, Ab Aeterno, is on my Honorable Mention list. His Big Band dates back to 1995 at Smalls, so this particular event was touted as a 10th anniversary celebration. The line-up is notable, with Israelis and Latin Americans in abundance -- Omer Avital, Anat and Avishai Cohen, Rafi Malkiel, Miguel Zenon, Yosvany Terry Cabrera (limited to one track on chekere). Liner notes refer to similar large ensembles -- Maria Schneider, Guillermo Klein, Magali Souriau -- but this group is both simpler and more powerful, at least when they open up. That doesn't happen much on the first disc, but two cuts on the second ("Freak of Nature" and "The 5 Elements and the Natural Trinity") get off on more interesting Latin rhythms; they're also the ones that start with piano leads. B+(*)

Charles Lloyd: Of Course, Of Course (1964-65 [2006], Mosaic): On his second album, Lloyd opens with flute over Gabor Szabo's sweet guitar, with Ron Carter and Tony Williams shuffling along. Lloyd's main instrument was tenor sax, and he soon garnered a following by taking Coltrane to the masses, but this album was more varied and idiosyncratic: his sax reminds me of Warne Marsh, but the flute suggests the more flamboyantly eccentric Roland Kirk, tuned more tightly to the melody, without the special effects. The reissue adds three later tracks, trying out an appealing tropic groove. A-Fred Lonberg-Holm Trio: Terminal Valentine (2006 [2007], Atavistic): Chicago-based cellist, recently joined Vandermark 5 replacing trombonist Jeb Bishop. The initial problem here is that there isn't a lot of sonic variety to a cello-bass-drums trio, so it's hard to tell what's going on without paying close attention. As background this flows agreeably, with some edge that may pan out, but I'll have to return to it later. Another open question is why do so many FLH albums involve valentines? [B+(*)]

Fred Lonberg-Holm Trio: Terminal Valentine (2006 [2007], Atavistic): The latest -- perhaps the title means the last -- of a series of Valentine albums by the Chicago cellist. Sounds sad to me, which may be inevitable given the cello-bass-drums lineup and that they never get out of low gear. B+(*)

Frank London: A Night in the Old Marketplace (2006 [2007], Soundbrush): Alexandra Aron conceived this "tragic carnivalspiel" based on a 1907 Yiddish tale, tapping playwright Glen Berger for the words, klezmerist London for the score, and a dozen or so singers -- best known are Susan McKeown and Lorin Sklamberg. The drama unfolds with Brechtian flair, but I distrust a shady character called "G-d" -- leaving me in doubt as to what it all means. B

Los Angeles Jazz Ensemble: Expectations (2007, Kind of Blue, CD+DVD): Looks like another attempt to hide one of those unpronounceable Polish names. The leader here is bassist Darek Oleszkiewicz, who's also recorded as Darek Oles, and has four albums from 1994 on listed under Los Angeles Jazz Quartet. He was born 1963 in Wroclaw in Poland; moved to Krakow in 1983, and on to Los Angeles in 1988, studying with Charlie Haden, and teaching currently at UC Irvine. The Ensemble is a quintet with vocalist Janis Siegel added on four tracks. Guitarist Larry Koonse is a holdover from the Quartet. Bob Sheppard and Peter Erskine take over sax and drums, respectively, while the added position goes to Alan Pasqua on organ. The songs are a mix of pop and jazz standards -- Tom Harrell's "Sail Away" is the only latecomer. Oleszkiewicz arranged them, and they flow with marvelous ease, with Koonse and Pasqua taking especially attractive turns. I'm not so pleased with the vocals, which might have benefitted from a lighter voice. Haven't watched the DVD, but might. [B+(***)]

Russ Lossing/Mat Maneri/Mark Dresser: Metal Rat (2006 [2007], Clean Feed): Pianist Lossing is the presumed leader here, but Maneri's viola dominates the sound and pushes this so far into abstract chamber music territory that the others can only tag along. Lossing in particular makes an interesting go of it. Dresser is harder to gauge because his bass contrasts less with the viola and tends to get drowned out, but I suspect closer focus will reveal more. Not what you'd call accessible. Nor something I'm inclined to readily dismiss. [B+(*)]

Russ Lossing/Mat Maneri/Mark Dresser: Metal Rat (2006 [2007], Clean Feed): Abstract avant-chamber music, with Maneri's viola occupying the sonic center and providing most of the squeak. Still, it's likely that pianist Lossing is the one providing the bulk of the interest. B+(*)

Allen Lowe: Jews in Hell: Radical Jewish Acculturation (2004-06 [2007], Spaceout, 2CD): Actually, the title goes on: Or: All the Blues You Could Play By Now If Stanley Crouch Was Your Uncle; and on: Or: Dance of the Creative Economy: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About the Space Gallery and Love the Music Business. Lowe wrote in suggesting that if I made this a Dud he could market around that. I doubt that he'll get that particular wish, although the record is a huge mess, a lot of things that fit oddly if at all. Next step is RTFM: Lowe may not be much of a musician -- his alto sax is fine, but he mostly plays guitar here along with banjo, bass, and synth -- and he certainly isn't much of a singer -- but he's a good writer and an exceptional musicologist, and the manual (err, booklet) looks to be as important a part of the package as the discs. All I can really say thus far is that this shatters expectations. [B]

Lucky 7s: Farragut (2006, Lakefront Digital): This is where Jeb Bishop landed on leaving the Vandermark 5, although it's hardly his only project -- a new one called the Engines, which is the Vandermark-less 5 subbing Nate McBride for Kent Kessler on bass, looks most promising. Lucky 7s is led by Bishop and fellow trombonist Jeff Albert, who also plays tuba. Seven piece group, natch, with Josh Berman's cornet and Keefe Jackson's reeds, Jason Adasiewicz's vibes, Matthew Golombisky on bass and Quin Kirchner on drums. Takes a while to kick in, but when it does you get a thick gumbo of New Orleans polyphony gone avant-garde, with the vibes glittering above the fray. [B+(***)]

Lucky 7s: Farragut (2006, Lakefront Digital): Chicago group, led by two trombonists: Jeff Albert, who also plays tuba, and Jeb Bishop, better known from his tenure with the Vandermark 5. When it all comes together -- cornet, tenor sax or bass clarinet, Jason Adasiewicz's vibraphone accents -- as on the last two cuts ("Farragut" and "Bucktown Special") they cook up a tasty polyphonic gumbo. But this starts off slow, with some weak spots along the way. B+(**)

Gloria Lynne: From My Heart to Yours (2007, High Note): Jazz (or pop or soul) singer, recorded a lot for Everest 1958-66, after which her discography thins out. Second record on High Note, after one in 1992 on predecessor label Muse. Interesting reading of "My Funny Valentine," like she's trying to build on Chet Baker's affectuations but can't make herself frail enough. Nothing else caught my interest, but there's no doubting her strength or skill. B

Raymond MacDonald/Günter "Baby" Sommer: Delphinius & Lyra (2005 [2007], Clean Feed): MacDonald is a alto/soprano saxophonist from Scotland. Has a group called the Burt-MacDonald Quintet ("one of the most adventurous jazz groups in Scotland"; Burt is guitarist George), and plays in the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, a/k/a GIO. MacDonald is pretty obscure, but Sommer has been one of the main drummers of Europe's avant-garde over the last three decades, despite spending much of that time in the GDR. His own discography is thin, but includes a number of notable duos, especially with Cecil Taylor and Irčne Schweizer. He brings a lot to this duo, even when the main thing you hear is MacDonald's piercing squall. One section erupts in shouts. These guys are having a blast. [B+(***)]

Robert MacGregor: Refraction of Light (2006 [2007], Black Tri): Young (b. 1983) tenor saxophonist, from Los Angeles, part Chinese, studied at Manhattan School of Music under Steve Slagle and Dick Oatts. In a quartet here with folks I don't know, with trumpet and flute added for one song. I didn't expect much, but he's got a distinct sound, and maneuvers easily around tricky postbop. Pianist Miro Sprague holds his own as well. [B+(**)] [Aug. 1]

Robert MacGregor: Refraction of Light (2006 [2007], Black Tri): Young tenor saxophonist with a distinctive sound and plenty of chops, leading a young postbop group with a pretty good pianist named Miro Sprague. B+(*)

Rafi Malkiel: My Island (2006 [2007], Raftone): Latin jazz, with all the bells and maracas, the songs conscientiously broken down by style (bolero, guajira, bomba, danzon-cha, etc.) and country (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Brazil, with New Orleans listed for Duke Ellington's "Black and Tan Fantasy." Malkiel is originally from Israel, now based on New York. He plays trombone and euphonium, composed the majority of the pieces, arranged the rest. I suppose I'll get flack for favoring this over the natives, but I love the light touch and imaginative arrangements -- even the old-fashioned vocals -- and I do enjoy good trombone. [A-]

Billy Martin/John Medeski: Mago (2006 [2007], Amulet): I.e., Medeski, Martin & Wood minus bassist Chris Wood, released on drummer Martin's boutique label instead of major Blue Note. All three principals have had their side projects -- Martin has quite a pile of drum solos and duets, break beats, and DJ mixes; organist Medeski shows up on Thirsty Ears and at Club D'Elf and dabbles in gospel; Wood has the Wood Brothers, which I can't describe off the top of my head, proving how forgettable the album was -- but this seems dangerously close to their meal ticket, with the inevitable groove loss offset by greater freedom and more individual play. The analogy that occurs to me is David Byrne-Brian Eno, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which felt like a rough draft for a Talking Heads album but stood on its own because it drew out the limited idiosyncrasies of the key players. This is the same idea, but not really on the same level. B+(**)

Martirio: Primavera en Nueva York (2006, Calle 54): Without grokking the Spanish, I'd take this "bolero suite" for torch song -- slow, steady, packing emotional weight regardless of the words. The bonus is in the New York musicians, including two cuts each with Paquito D'Rivera and Houston Person, one with Claudio Roditi, and exceptional piano support from Kenny Drew Jr. B+(***)

Mat Marucci-Doug Webb Trio: Change-Up (2006 [2007], CIMP): Third member of the trio strikes me as better known than the two leaders: bassist Ken Filiano, who gets a "featuring" on the front cover. Drummer Marucci wrote the pieces, excepting "Body and Soul" and one group collaboration. Webb plays soprano sax, tenor sax, and stritch, so he has the dominant voice, making this a basic sax trio. Marucci is the senior member, b. 1945 in Rome NY, with 11 albums going back to 1979, and side credits with Jimmy Smith and John Tchicai, and a more performing credits, mostly mainstream. Webb is younger, b. 1960, has three co-leader albums with Marucci and a forthcoming quartet album under his own name, but it looks like he's done a lot of session work -- his website claims 150 albums but only lists 75; most are unknown to me, none avant-garde, some big bands (Doc Severinsen), some retro (Chris Barber), more pop jazz (Brian Bromberg, Stanley Clarke), quite a few not jazz at all (Rod Stewart, Carly Simon, Holly Near). Webb lists most sax weights (sopranino to baritone) on his instruments list, as well as dozens of flute and reed instruments, whistles and ocarinas. In his notes, Webb writes, "Living in Los Angeles, I don't often get a chance to play as artistically as I would like, so I would like to thank Mat and Bob Rusch for giving me the opportunity." B+(***)

Hugh Masekela: Live at the Market Theatre (2006 [2007], Times Square/4Q, 2CD): A 30th anniversary bash -- for the Johannesburg venue, that is; the South African trumpeter-vocalist goes back further, having started his globetrotting at least a decade earlier. This is a triumph, an informal career summary that tracks the struggle against apartheid and baser oppressions. Its two discs allow him to stretch out and work the crowd, even to preach a little, knowing there's more than celebrating left to do, but pleased to be there that night. A-

Bill Mays/The Inventions Trio: Fantasy (2001-05 [2007], Palmetto): Well-known, well-regarded postbop pianist, originally from Sacramento CA, Mays has more than a dozen albums starting around 1982, including a Maybeck Recital. First time I heard him was in 2005 on Live at Jazz Standard, an impressive piano-bass-drums trio recording. This is a totally different trio, with classical specialists Alisa Horn on cello and Marvin Stamm on trumpet and flugelhorn. The centerpiece is a three-movement original, "Fantasy for Cello, Trumpet and Piano." Other credits include Bach, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Gershwin ("Prelude #2"), and Charlie Parker. Meant to explore the intersections of chamber music and jazz, this slipped and fell into the chamber. B- [advance, Aug. 21]

Donny McCaslin: In Pursuit (2007, Sunnyside): Technically one of the most impressive tenor saxophonists of his generation, a dependably exciting sideman, an ambitious composer, generous to his friends, baffling to me. After reading that Samo Salamon is touring with him, I was surprised to see Ben Monder here, but Monder excels at the sort of backing he plugs in here. Dave Binney produced, and adds stealth alto sax to fatten up the harmony, at least when McCaslin isn't burning down the house. I just wonder why he doesn't do more of it. And why he plays flute. Then I read the "thanks" and encounter more common sources of confusion: Dave Douglas, Michael Brecker, God. Mysterious ways, indeed. [B+(**)]

Donny McCaslin: In Pursuit (2007, Sunnyside): Dedicated to his mentor, Michael Brecker, offering a ready explanation why I can't get into him even though he's beyond any doubt a tremendous saxophone player, but I doubt that it's so simple. For one thing, he's much better than Brecker. In fact, I can't think of anyone who plays with more assurance at breakneck speed. He writes ambitious, difficult pieces. He plays with first class musicians. He's stepped into Chris Potter's shoes more than once and bumped the energy level up. So I really don't know what the reason is. Maybe he's just too much. Or maybe when he does let up I feel he's letting us down. B+(**)

Barney McClure Trio: Spot (2006 [2007], OA2): This looks like a low-value target: organ-guitar-drums trio, three guys I've never heard of: the leader playing organ, drummer Kevin Congleton, guitarist, and with a "featuring" credit, guitarist Mike Denny. But Denny composed half the pieces, and outranks McClure in previous albums, two to one. (Correction: McClure's website lists five previous albums; haven't found any more for Denny.) Actually, this is a terrific record -- light, loose, and lively, none of which are common adjectives for organ trios. [B+(***)]

Barney McClure Trio: Spot (2006 [2007], OA2): Hammond B3 organ-guitar-drums trios are normally as routine as electric guitar blues, a conservatized form that persists in vague remembrance of some primal significance -- the distilled essence of funk, actually. This is not just a cut above run of the mill -- it's light, loose, and lively. Sweet guitarist Mike Denny has a lot to do with that, earning his "featuring" credit. B+(**)

Kate McGarry: The Target (2007, Palmetto): Singer, scats a little. Has three albums on Palmetto now, one or two before that. The only other one I've heard had folkie airs, but she seems to be aiming for dusky moodiness here. At least this feels like she's trying to stretch, but it rarely feels right. The band is built around Gary Versace's organ -- too peppy and eager to swing for the music -- and Keith Ganz's guitars. Exception that proves the rule: "Do Something"; best supporting actor: Donny McCaslin's sax solo on "The Lamp Is Low." B-

Bill McHenry: Roses (2006 [2007], Sunnyside): Tenor saxophonist, born 1972, originally from Maine, moved to Barcelona in 1996, returning to New York. Has 6-8 albums as leader -- the range depends on how you count albums with pianists Ethan Iverson and Ben Waltzer listed first -- mostly on Fresh Sound. Sort of fits in the Chris Potter-Donny McCaslin line, but rougher than either, which comes in handy in this quartet -- I'm surprised to hear guitarist Ben Monder come out so aggressively, but Reid Anderson on bass and Paul Motian make for a curiously unstable rhythm section. [B+(**)]

Erin McKeown: Sing You Sinners (2006 [2007], Nettwerk): Counted as a folk singer, a point reinforced by listing the dates of the songs -- aside from a new one, they range fromn 1930-56, clustered toward the ends. Still, it's no stretch to consider this as jazz: half or more of the songs are standards jazz singers like to work on, she approaches them with interpretive imagination, and the backing swings and shines with horns -- nowhere more so than on "Melody," her original. B+(***)

John McLaughlin/Jaco Pastorius/Tony Williams: Trio of Doom (1979 [2007], Columbia/Legacy): A faint record of a lost opportunity, a dream trio assembled for a rare State Department-sponsored show in Havana, nicknamed "the bay of gigs"; the trio's slice of the released Havana Jam had to be recut in a New York studio, but McLaughlin has finally salvaged the original tapes; no relevations: the guitar comes through strong, the bass remains an enigma. B+(*)

The Essential John McLaughlin (1963-2006 [2007], Columbia/Legacy): By the time the second cut finished my mind was entertaining comparisons between McLaughlin and Jimi Hendrix. They were both born in 1942. By 1970, when Hendrix checked out, McLaughlin had reached a pinnacle in jazz guitar, both denser and fancier than anyone else around, Hendrix included. The first disc here, with one oldie from 1963 and an intense flurry of activity from 1969-72, makes the case, although numerous other selections would have done just as well. The rest of McLaughlin's career wandered idiosyncratically, embracing Indian music, going acoustic, hooking up with symphony orchestras, and occasionally returning to heavy metal fusion. The second disc neither shapes nor makes sense of 35 years. Rather, it just lays out samples and challenges your ears to pick out the guitar. Turns out that works better than expected, too. A-

Jackie McLean: New and Old Gospel (1967 [2007], Blue Note): Charlie Parker's teenage go-fer developed as a great alto saxophonist only after he digested Ornette Coleman's sense of ordered chaos. Here he pays tribute on two gospel-themed Coleman pieces, adding a complementary suite. Coleman, in turn, defers to McLean's superior saxmanship by switching to sloppy trumpet, reaffirming that genius has nothing to do with chops. A-

Steve Miller/Lol Coxhill: The Story So Far . . . Oh Really? (1972-74 [2007], Cuneiform, 2CD): This Steve Miller was a pianist from Canada who enjoyed a brief spell in Canterbury's jazz-rock underground, playing with Alexis Korner, Caravan, and bald soprano saxophonist Coxhill. This rescues two albums with the latter and as many relevant spare parts as they can fit: mostly duos, sometimes augmented by bass, drums, and/or guitar from Miller's slightly more famous brother Phil -- uh, Hatfield and the North, Matching Mole, National Health, 6-8 albums under his own name. Also very brief appearances by relative superstars Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt. Coxhill has a long discography going back to the 1950s, one I'm almost totally unfamiliar with. But they come up with an appealing mix of abstract dithering and tone-poem minimalism, and the historical interest makes up for the incongruities. Miller died in 1998, so this is one of his few souvenirs. Coxhill is pushing 75, still working, a subject for future research. B+(*)

Andy Milne: Dreams and False Alarms (2006 [2007], Songlines): Canadian pianist; studied with Oscar Peterson; moved to New York in 1991, working with M-Base; more lately formed a group called Dapp Theory. This is solo piano, mostly folk-rock tunes, with fellow Canadians Joni Mitchell and Neil Young the most frequent sources. Didn't readily ID familiar songs without listening closely, and wasn't able to manage that, although I found the deliberate pacing attractive as background. Life's not fair, but I'm pretty sure that if I stuck with it this is where I'd wind up. B+(*)

Andy Milne + Grégoire Maret: Scenarios (2007, Obliqsound): Maret plays harmonica. He's already won a Downbeat Rising Star poll, and seems likely to replace Toots Thielemans from his Misc. Inst. perch a year or two after he dies. He adds a complementary voice to Milne's piano, but perhaps a bit too complementary: interesting ideas, but not enough range to make for much of a contrast. Two cuts have a guest: Anne Drummond on alto flute; Gretchen Parlato singing "Moon River." B+(*)

Charlie Mingus: Tijuana Moods (1957 [2007], RCA Victor/Legacy): With Pithecanthropus Erectus in 1956 Mingus started to make his move as a composer and arranger, drawing together his experiences with Kid Ory, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and his own experimental workshops into a synthesis that spanned the length and breadth of jazz history with his unique daring and grandeur. A trip across the Mexican border inspired these sessions, producing four Spanish-tinged originals and an arrangement of "Flamingo" that Ellington could be proud of, but the tapes languished until 1962, a mess of false starts and derailments. When Mingus finally patched them into an album, he was pleased enough to proclaim it his best ever. That would be an exaggeration, but he anticipated world-swing moves that Ellington took another decade to match. Reissues in 1986 and 2002 swept up more and more -- the former, dubbed New Tijuana Moods, filled out a CD-length disc with alternate takes, and the latter tacked on a second disc. This time they swing back the other way, sticking with Mingus's edits for a non-redundant 36:00, but adding on a 10:57 bonus track with Lonnie Elder rapping over a Mingus vibe. A

Charles Mingus Sextet With Eric Dolphy: Cornell 1964 (1964 [2007], Blue Note, 2CD): This is touted as a true find -- actually, "a truly spectacular never-before-released performance" -- but I don't hear it. Actually, I don't hear much of anything, which surprises me. The same sextet -- Johnny Coles on trumpet, Clifford Jordan on tenor sax, Jaki Byard on piano, Dannie Richmond on drums, as well as Dolphy on alto sax, flute, and bass clarinet -- recorded Town Hall Concert 1964 two weeks later, an important album in the Mingus discography, then went off to Europe and recorded more, including a much bootlegged Paris concert that Sue Mingus insisted on officially releasing under the title Revenge! This starts out rather slow, with Byard doing a solo piano impression of Art Tatum and Fats Waller, followed by Mingus taking on "Sophisticated Lady" solo, then the band joins in for 29:42 of only intermittently coherent "Fables of Faubus." Nor does it get much better, although "Take the 'A' Train" and "Jitterbug Waltz" are at least recognizable. Dolphy is a major disappointment, especially given what he was doing on his own in what turned out to be his last year. His flute, in particular, is never more than a novelty, and sounds especially corny on "Jitterbug Waltz." This is an advance, and there are some things evidently screwed up on it. Will withhold final judgment until the final arrives. [B-] [July 17]

Charles Mingus Sextet With Eric Dolphy: Cornell 1964 (1964 [2007], Blue Note, 2CD): A cause celebre, a newly discovered tape with what on paper at least looks like one of Mingus's most promising groups: Dannie Richmond on drums, of course; Jaki Byard on piano; Johnny Coles on trumpet; Clifford Jordan on tenor sax; and elevated to near-headliner status, Dolphy on alto sax, flute, and bass clarinet. Dolphy's last year is worth examining under a microscope -- his masterpiece, Out to Lunch, was recorded a month earlier, and he died three months later, barely 36. Mingus was a year beyond one of his own masterpieces, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. Ever since the promo arrived, I've been reading rapturous reviews: "his greatest small ensemble"; "most adventurous sextet"; "at the apex of its brief yet astonishing collaboration"; "a relaxed maestro at the height of his imaginative powers"; "it truly needs to be heard to be believed"; "the most talked-about jazz album of the year." Or as Gary Giddins summed up in his liner notes, "It doesn't get much better than this." Actually, it does. The most direct comparison is the same band's Town Hall Concert, recorded 17 days later: much shorter, but it captures the two essential new pieces in fuller flower, with more imposing sound. Then there's the Paris concert two weeks hence, given an official release as Revenge! by Sue Mingus in 1996, fuming over the bootleggers who made the European tour the most intensively documented Mingus group ever. Still, for sheer exuberance and panache, nothing by this sextet rivals Mingus at Antibes (1960) or Mingus at Carnegie Hall (1974). So don't believe the hype. On the other hand, this is about as good as, and somewhat more amusing than, the rival boots, and will at least spare you Sue's wrath. It starts with Byard doing his Art Tatum impression, and ends throwing out "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" and "Jitterbug Waltz"; the serious stuff in the middle includes a long "Fables of Faubus" serving as an introduction to the similarly inspired "Meditations"; and best of all, the first side ends with a rousing "Take the 'A' Train," with a monster bass clarinet solo -- Dolphy established the instrument for jazz, and here you can hear why. B+(**)

Brian Stokes Mitchell (2000-06 [2006], Playbill/Legacy): First album by Broadway theatre actor/singer, evidently a notable star with credits going back at least to 1988. Most of these songs are show tunes, smartly arranged for a large orchestra with various soloists, and dashingly sung. Not my thing at all, although I only lost interest toward the end when the drama drowned the finesse, and only gave up when Broadway Inspiration Voices took their toll. B

Roscoe Mitchell/The Transatlantic Art Ensemble: Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2, and 3 (2004 [2007], ECM): I'm reluctant to rate this because I'm only sort of starting to get it, but objectively it's difficult enough that it's likely to end up more or less where it is. The US contingent starts with three quarters of James Carter's old quartet (Craig Taborn, Jaribu Shahid, Tani Tabbal), then adds trumpeter Corey Wilkes and Mitchell playing relatively inconspicuous soprano sax. The Europeans mostly cluster around Evan Parker, significantly including Barry Guy and Paul Lytton. There's also a string section keyed by Philipp Wachsmann's violin -- another Parker connection. Recorded in Munich, which gives the benefit of the doubt to Europe. Starts dull with strings, but flows, branches, flowers, whatever. Some of this sounds like what I imagine Barry Guy's bands should sound like if I could hear them, which thus far has never happened -- of all those I see as projects, he's one of the toughest. Intersects enough with Parker's electro projects, also on ECM, that it could be considered one. Don't know, but I do rather enjoy the complex layering. It's enough to get lost in. [B+(**)]

Roscoe Mitchell/The Transatlantic Art Ensemble: Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2, and 3 (2004 [2007], ECM): Too scattered to hold your, or at least my, attention for any appreciable span, I nonetheless find these rambling abstractions more often than not delightful. The ensemble is a meeting of the continents, with James Carter's old Detroit rhythm section (Craig Taborn, Jaribu Shahid, Tani Tabbal) and Lester Bowie supersub Corey Wilkes following the venerable AACM saxophonist over for the Munich recording, and Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Paul Lytton, and Philipp Wachsmann among the Europeans on the other end. B+(**)

Ravish Momin's Trio Tarana: Miren (A Longing) (2006 [2007], Clean Feed): Indian percussionist, based in New York. Did a previous Trio Tarana album I liked a lot, called Climbing the Banyan Tree (Clean Feed), with Jason Kao Hwang and Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz. The group has changed this time, with Sam Bardfeld replacing Hwang on violin, Brandon Terzic replacing Blumenkranz on oud. Neither strikes me as an improvement -- the Chinese twang of Hwang's violin is particularly missed -- but the riddim rolls on just fine. [B+(***)]

Thelonious Monk Trio (1952-54 [2007], Prestige): Monk recorded four 10-inch LPs for Prestige, released in 1953-54, reissued as 12-inch LPs in 1956-57, and eventually spun into all sorts of confusing packages, culminating in the 3-CD Complete Prestige Recordings. One source of confusion is the naming, where Monk, Thelonious Monk, and Thelonious Monk Trio have all been used to describe the same music -- I'm going with the spine and back-cover title here, as opposed to the front cover, with its small "thelonious," large "MONK," and clear "PRESTIGE LP 7027." Like the cover art, this faithfully reproduces a 1957 12-inch LP that combined a 1953 10-inch LP and two (of four) cuts from a 1954 10-incher. It's hard to see why they didn't restore the missing cuts given that the album only runs 34:27, a limit of '50s technology that is at least sonically transcended here: the effect is to consolidate most (but not all) of Monk's trios in a handy package, separate from the quintets featuring a young and brilliant saxophonist, now available as Thelonious Monk/Sonny Rollins. Classic Monk tunes here like "Bye-Ya," "Monk's Dream," "Blue Monk" -- but the covers may be even more impressive: a solo "Just a Gigolo," Art Blakey's percolating rhythm on "Sweet and Lovely," Monk's own radical take on "These Foolish Things." A

Monk's Music Trio: Monk on Mondays (2005 [2007], CMB): Si Perkoff on piano, Sam Bevan on bass, Chuck Bernstein on drums, the latter always listed first -- he's also producer, executive producer, etc. Songs by Thelonious Monk. Group has been together since 1999, playing two or three Mondays per month at Simple Pleasures Cafe in San Francisco. This is their fifth album -- the third one I've heard. Mondays sounds like their usual grind. B

Térez Montcalm: Voodoo (2005 [2006], Marquis): One thing rock and roll did was make life tough for interpretive singers. Before, songwriters spread their wares like spores, and natural selection favored singers with voice, nuance, and payola. After, most singers hawked their own songs, and those that didn't have them seemed somehow deficient, regardless of vocal skills. It got so bad that good singers wound up stuck in jazz. I bring this up because even though Montcalm wrote three songs here and picked a couple that qualify as pre-rock (although not by much), what grabs me here are her striking reworkings of rock-era pop, especially Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child." Don't know much about her. Hails from Canada. Only address I've seen was Alberta, but she wrote one song in French. Don't know her age, but it says something that she introduces "How Sweet It Is" by talking about how she discovered James Taylor. Plays guitar. Has a voice that beats you into submission, not unlike Annette Peacock. Maybe there's a future for rock-era standards after all. [B+(***)]

Frank Morgan: A Night in the Life (2003 [2007], High Note): Front cover subtitle says: "Live at the Jazz Standard Vol. 3"; there's a previous City Nights: Live at the Jazz Standard from the same dates with the same group, but I'm not aware of a Vol. 2. Six songs: three from Bird, one from Miles, "On Green Dolphin Street" (might as well chalk that up to Miles as well), and "It's Only a Paper Moon." But whereas Parker was sharp, shrill, and explosive, Morgan has mellowed to where he's sweet and soulful. If anything, he reminds me of his Sing Sing bandmate, Art Pepper. In that regard, it does help that the pianist is George Cables. B+(***)

Joe Morris/Ken Vandermark/Luther Gray: Rebus (2006 [2007], Clean Feed): Six pieces, each called "Rebus," with no composer credit -- at least that I can find in the weird and, in this case, severely mangled promo packaging -- so I figure this is pure improv, built around a Morris theme. I've tried focusing on the guitarist throughout: his solos sparkle, and he's played enough bass elsewhere in his career that he fills that role when Vandermark takes over -- which is most of the time. Vandermark sticks to tenor sax here -- he plays all sorts of reed instruments in his conceptual contexts, but the tenor sax is his native language, and I can listen to him spin its stories endlessly. Gray helps out on drums. A-

Postscript: Backed down a bit on this one, filing it as an Honorable Mention. Main problem is I didn't come up with much to say about it -- just a good improv between Morris and Vandermark, what they do when they're kicking back. Space, of course, is an issue: it'll run as an HM alongside other more ambitious Vandermark projects, whereas it'd languish up top. Left the grade the same, although I could have nicked it -- it's real close to the edge.

Paul Motian Trio 2000 + Two: Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 1 (2006 [2007], Winter & Winter): The trio consists of Motian, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Chris Potter on tenor sax; the "plus two" are Masabumi Kikuchi on piano and Greg Osby on alto sax. Played this twice, think it's marginal, and want to move on, but will give it another chance later. Motian is habitually slippery, and that's rubbed off on his usually more straightforward bandmates, especially Potter. [B+(*)]

Maria Muldaur: Naughty Bawdy & Blue (2007, Stony Plain): She sizzles when her handy man greases her griddle, but for a singer who's often put her libido first, this is less risqué than the title promises. The booklet includes respectful sketches of the first wave of what's now called classic female blues: Ma Rainey, Victoria Spivey, Sippie Wallace, Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Ethel Waters, Alberta Hunter, and Sara Martin. Spivey is remembered as mentoring young Maria D'Amato in the '60s, recording her first jug band, and urging her to step out and strut her stuff. Wallace offers another direct connection, but all these women who made their mark in the 1920s are long dead now, and the girl Spivey discovered is into her 60s -- perhaps that realization and respect blunted her edge? On the other hand, James Dapogny's band backs up these songs with more flair than anyone since Fletcher Henderson. And Muldaur is still a terrific blues archivist, able to warm up any creaky old song. And it's worth recalling that Hunter came back with her dirtiest album ever at age 84. B+(***)

Dave Mullen and Butta: Mahoney's Way (2006, Roberts Music Group): You must know by now that I hate Flash websites, but Mullen's is annoying enough to spur me into reiterating the obvious. Mullen is a saxophonist. Don't know where he comes from or when, but he's spent time in Boston and New York, and he's one of the hundreds or maybe thousands who have studied with George Garzone. Claims he was inspired by his father's record collection, accumulated as a DJ in the '50s/'60s, with honking sax the standout trait. He means to update that, with synth beats, guitar (including Nile Rodgers on one track, Marc Ribot on three), raps, and a chorus of True Worship Ministries Singers (three tracks). I'm not sure that any of that works, but I got up in a real foul mood this morning, heard most of it under that haze, and need to move on. Two cuts where he kicks back and plays sax ballads are quite nice. Don't know about the one called "For Rashaan" -- there's a picture of Mullen playing soprano and tenor at the same time so most likely he is thinking of Kirk, but is the typo deliberate or just sloppy? AMG likens him to Kirk Whallum, but I suspect he has a more determined vision -- could even be an American Courtney Pine, a concept I'll have to put off thinking about. [B] [Oct. 1]

David Murray Black Saint Quartet: Sacred Ground (2006 [2007], Justin Time): This record does not mark the return of David Murray to church. The title piece and a closer called "The Prophet of Doom" are based on texts by Ishmael Reed, sung by Cassandra Wilson, with little or no gospel reference. Five pieces in between are instrumentals, Murray originals played by his quartet. Just to single out one of them, "Pierce City" has the most intense, uplifting, overpowering tenor sax solo I've heard in this young century, followed by a piano run that flows from the comping and is good enough to forgive Lafayette Gilchrist's last album. Murray returns on bass clarinet to tone down the next cut. I'm not done with this -- the grade here is a minimum, and could rise. Given that my other favorite record this year is Powerhouse Sound, we could wind up with another Vandermark-Murray pick hit billing. I hate being so predictable, and hope someone else steps up to the plate. But this makes that a tall order. A-

Postscript: I had a terrible time writing up a short review of this, and wound up playing it something like two dozen times, hoping words would come. A longer review would have been much easier, and a much longer review would have been possible had I managed to transcribe Ishmael Reed's words. I even managed to look at the Banished trailers -- two anyway -- and some Murray clips on YouTube (one of which refused to play for me). In the process, I had ample time to think about how this ranks among Murray's canon, and wound up moving it up a notch -- I'd put it at the bottom of the full A-list, which would bring it in at #11, but above the longer A-minus list. Or maybe it would edge out Gwotet and/or Jazzosaurus Rex, which are also somewhat marginal. What the new one lacks is the sort of galvanizing bravado that lifted his best work. On the other hand, he's rarely been more consistently gratifying -- Like a Kiss That Never Ends is the one record that combines both virtues; as his last quartet album, it made for a stiff comparison here. I've been extremely reluctant to give out full A grades in Jazz CG, only belatedly registering three this round (Jewels & Binoculars, Powerhouse Sound). But those records are a cut above the rest, so it's proper to note that somehow. A

Mushroom With Eddie Gale: Joint Happening (2007, Hyena): No recording date info -- lack of documentation is Joel Dorn's characteristic contribution to the dark ages -- but at least we have personnel information, which helps sort out who is in Mushroom. Pat Thomas (drums), Ned Doherty (bass), and Matt Cunitz (keyboards) are on all cuts, with Thomas production supervisor and Cunitz cited for production assistance. Four cuts add Tim Plowman (guitar) and David Brandt (vibes, percussion). The other three use Erik Pearson (guitar, flute, sax) and Dave Mihaly (marimba, percussion), to similar effect. Gale is guest and headliner. He produced two terrific avant-funk albums for Blue Note in the late '60s, then largely disappeared until Water Records reissued them in 2003, followed by a nice new groovefest, Afro-Fire, on subsidiary label Black Beauty. Both labels were handled by Runt Distribution, whose publicist at the time was Pat Thomas, q.v. Together, the obvious reference point becomes Miles Davis, although the groove's spacier, and the trumpet brighter and more loquacious. [B+(***)]

Nanette Natal: I Must Be Dreaming (2005-07 [2007], Benyo Music): Jazz singer, with a dark, smoky voice, and deft feel for the beat. Bio says her career started in 1962 singing classical, then moved through blues and rock -- AMG gives two stars to a 1971 recording on Evolution called The Beginning -- before settling into the jazz lofts. Launched her own label in 1980, releasing an album every few years since -- I've counted 8, with 6 in print, but have only heard 2004's It's Only a Tune. This one has politics, and could use a lyric sheet -- "here living's hard if it doesn't come easy" and "the jails are filled to capacity/in the land of the brave and the free" are two lines I jotted down. Next time around I'll probably find more. [B+(***)]

Nordic Connect: Flurry (2005 [2007], ArtistShare): Postbop quintet, led by trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, with her saxophonist sister Christine Jensen equally prominent. Impressive initially, but I lost track along the way, eventually wondering why this is still playing, and when will it ever end. The others are Maggi Olin on piano, Jon Wikan on drums, Mattias Welin on bass. Any or all could be Scandinavian, but they met up in Boston and recorded this in Montreal. It was, however, funded by the Swedish Art Grant Committee, The Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs, and Concerts Sweden, as well as some Canadian organizations, so I guess those are the real Nordic connections. [B+(**)]

Nordic Connect: Flurry (2005 [2007], ArtistShare): Led by Canadian trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and her lesser-known alto saxophonist sister Christine Jensen, with two-thirds of the rhythm section from Sweden -- pianist Maggi Olin and bassist Mattias Wellin; drummer Jon Wikan was born in Alaska, grew up in Washington, lives in New York. Shiny, luxurious postbop. I go back and forth on it, savoring it when I pay close attention but finding it slips into the background with the slightest distraction. Alas, distraction seems to be the order of the day. B+(**)

Oregon: 1000 Kilometers (2006 [2007], CAM Jazz): The '70s vogue for naming groups (mostly rock) after places warned me away from these guys for a long time -- don't think I bothered until the late '90s, by which time they seemed to have faded into history. Even after I realized that they weren't pop jazz, I still tended to think of them as new agey. In fact, AMG's list of styles reads, unappetizingly: New Age, World Fusion, Fusion, Folk-Jazz, Chamber Jazz, Progressive Jazz. The World Fusion part could have been laid on Collin Walcott, who played sitar and tabla and died in 1984. The other three players -- 12-string guitarist Ralph Towner, oboe/English horn player Paul McCandless, and bassist Glen Moore -- are hard, maybe impossible, to classify. But after Mark Walker's drums settled into the percussion slot, the fusion analogies fell away. Still, such a sui generis act easily baffles me, and four straight plays tell me when to give up. Isolated bits, including Moore's bass solos, are fascinating, but I'm unable to get much further than that. B+(**)

Evan Parker: A Glancing Blow (2006 [2007], Clean Feed): A trio with John Edwards on bass, Chris Corsano on drums. Parker's an important player with a huge discography that I've barely scratched the surface of and can scarcely claim to get. About all I can say is that I find his electronics baffling; his soprano sax can get pretty annoying (and sometimes amazing, as in The Snake Decides); but I usually enjoy his tenor sax, which is much in evidence here. Two long pieces, evidently live, from the Vortex in London. Would like to hear more. Indeed, he's a long-term project. [B+(***)]

Evan Parker: A Glancing Blow (2006 [2007], Clean Feed): A trio with bass and drums, Parker playing tenor and soprano sax on two long pieces. Typical, or at least what I imagine as typical -- Parker is a long-term project for me, but some things, like his circular breathing, are becoming familiar. B+(**)

William Parker/Raining on the Moon: Corn Meal Dance (2007, AUM Fidelity): Another group named for a previous album, which was in turn built on his O'Neal's Porch quartet -- Rob Brown on alto sax, Lewis Barnes on trumpet, Hamid Drake on drums -- plus vocalist Leena Conquest for a couple of songs. This one adds pianist Eri Yamamoto and feeds Conquest a full plate of lyrics. The piano holds the group together, giving it a unifying swing that Parker didn't want with the quartet, but which buoys up the singer, while trimming back the horns. Still, if this was an instrumental album, it would be faultless, a tour de force that could sail right down the mainstream admired by everyone. The caveats concern the singer, who strikes me as too gospelly, and the lyrics, which tend toward the didactic. Still, those concerns may pass. If Parker wants to assert that "God made the land," at least he's not conned by owner "Mister Johnson." And while the prayer that opens the second song seems too crude -- "I am your brother please don't cut my throat" -- the title "Tutsi Orphans" reminds us that such is too often the case. A-

Nicki Parrott/Rossano Sportiello: People Will Say We're in Love (2006 [2007], Arbors): I'm tempted to make this a Pick Hit just for the cover, with the gawky, awkward, besmitten pianist hovering behind the lithe, discreetly charming bassist/singer. He is actually an elegant accompanist, with light touch and considerable speed to build upon the bass melodies. He even joins in on singing one -- terrible voice, of course. She has a delightful voice -- not something you'd put on a pedestal -- but she's also content to just play bass more often than not. Standards mostly. Charming record. B+(**)

The Essential Jaco Pastorius (1975-81 [2007], Epic/Legacy, 2CD): This seems suspiciously thin, ending in 1981 six years before the bassist's young death. It draws seven cuts from his eponymous 1975 album on Epic, and ends with four cuts from 1980-81 albums on Warner Brothers. In between we get 10 Weather Report cuts, 3 with Joni Mitchell; one each with Pat Metheny, Michel Colombier, and Herbie Hancock; with no trace of the numerous live albums that document his later years. I've never managed to figure out what all the fuss was about, and this ill focused, sporadically interesting survey helps little. Rhino has an apparently more definitive compilation called Punk Jazz: The Jaco Pastorius Anthology. Haven't heard it either. B-

Niels-Henning Řrsted Pedersen/Ulf Wakenius/Jonas Johansen: The Unforgettable NHŘP Trio Live (1999-2005 [2007], ACT): Two sets, the first five cuts recorded in Denmark in 1999, the other six in Germany in 2005, a little more than a month before the great Danish bassist died at age 58. From the early '60s on he was the first choice bassist for Americans visiting Copenhagen, or for Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, and Kenny Drew, relocating there. AMG has five credits pages for him; I haven't tried to weed out the dupes, but that must credit him with more than 300 albums. The first page alone ranges from Count Basie to Anthony Braxton, although most are securely within the bop mainstream. He recorded more than two dozen albums under his own name -- Trio 2, with Philip Catherine, and Friends Forever, his Kenny Drew tribute with Renee Rosnes, are two I especially like, although there are many others I haven't run into yet. This one's a nice souvenir of the bassist's most basic group, with guitarist Wakenius feeling especially frisky, doing standards and folk songs and fast groove pieces, with typical aplomb. This did, however, send me back to Those Who Were, a 1996 d record languishing on my unrated shelves, where I found the closer here, "Our Love Is Here to Stay," opening: much slower, very poignant. Of course, he could play it any way he wanted. B+(**)

Art Pepper: Unreleased Art, Vol. 1: The Complete Abashiri Concert (1981 [2007], Widow's Taste, 2CD): The alto sax great had as many comeback as he had stretches in prison, with 1956, 1960, and 1975 watershed years. The last comeback proved to be his greatest, with a steady torrent of recordings until his death in 1982 -- The Complete Galaxy Recordings, at 16 CDs, never wears out or runs down. No one was more successful at digesting Parker and Coltrane and still coming up with his own unique -- an accomplishment equal in craft and eloquence to what Benny Carter did with a previous generation of saxophonists. But while Pepper's early work could be seen as West Coast cool jazz, his post-1975 period was marked by raw emotion, a trait that became ever more pronounced. This is especially clear in the live material that occasionally appears. I'm not sure that widow Laurie Pepper's releases haven't appeared before: this one lines up with Live in Far North Japan (TDK), but offers more music. The only surprise here is how raw and frenzied the early cuts are. His "Besame Mucho" is much rougher than the one on Art Pepper With Duke Jordan in Copenhagen 1981 from earlier in the year, but remains one of life's great pleasures. Another highlight is "Body and Soul": Pepper's verdict -- "That was one of the nicest things that I think I've played in my life" isn't hyperbole. A-

Art Pepper: Unreleased Art, Vol. II: The Last Concert (1982 [2007], Widow's Taste): Recorded at the Kool Jazz Festival in Washington DC on May 30, less than three weeks before Pepper died on June 15, this was a typical Pepper set: a fast one, a tricky one, something with a Latin bounce, a gorgeous standard, a feature for his clarinet, some talk along the way. He sounds fine all the way through, especially on the clarinet piece, a swinging "When You're Smiling" that he dedicated to Zoot Sims. The latter includes a flashy, almost over-the-top piano solo from Roger Kellaway, filling in for Pepper's usual pianist, George Cables. A marvelous closing act. A-

Susan Pereira and Sabor Brasil: Tudo Azul (2006 [2007], Riony): Brazilian singer, working in New York at least since 1991, although I'm not aware of any previous records. She wrote five of ten songs, sings them with authority but not all that distinctively. What makes the album work is the band. The horns stand out, even Laura Dreyer's flutes, even more so her alto and soprano sax and Claudio Roditi's spots on trumpet. [B+(***)]

Susan Pereira and Sabor Brasil: Tudo Azul (2006 [2007], Riony): Brazilian singer working in New York, where her crack band is able to sustain the golden age samba they grew up on -- light, airy, the easy lilt enriched by guests like Claudio Roditti on trumpet, Hendrik Meurkens on harmonica, and Romero Lubambo on guitar. B+(*)

Misha Piatigorsky: Aya (2007, Misha Music): I haven't started penalizing musicians for offensive websites yet, but entering this one felt like being assaulted. Probably would have been even worse if I had speakers hooked up -- I don't have speakers on my computer to avoid occasions like this. End of rant. Pianist, born Moscow, moved to US in 1981, studied under Kenny Barron at Manhattan School of Music, lives in NYC, has seven albums since 1996, does some producing and soundtrack work. This one pretty much pulls it all together. He's fast and can swing. Some cuts add horns -- Omar Kabir on trumpet and trombone, Boris Kurganov on alto sax -- and they lift the temperature. But most songs have words, and he uses four very different vocalists: Barbara Mendes (Brazilian bombshell), Judy Bady (soul diva), Ayelet Piatigorsky (classical chorale), and Rahj (spoken jive). It's all mixed up, which is no doubt the point. B+(**)

Pink Martini: Hey Eugene! (2005-06 [2007], Heinz): Morris Berman's Dark Ages America makes a case that Portland, Oregon is untethered to American culture without even citing this faux French band. I won't try to claim them for jazz, but their "Tea for Two" puts all the standards interpreters I can think of to shame. So cosmopolitan they sing in a half-dozen languages, and even more styles. I'm tempted to call what they do world cabaret. It's always been rather hit and miss, but this time they have enough high points to carry the rest. In fact, I wonder whether the stuff I don't get isn't just over my head. A-

Play Station 6: #1 (2006 [2007], Evil Rabbit): A sextet of more/less well known Dutch avant-gardists: Maartje Ten Hoorn on violin, Eric Boeren on clarinet, Tobias Delius on clarinet/tenor sax, Achim Kaufmann on piano, Meinrad Kneer on bass, Paul Lovens on drums. Strikes me as par for the course, with each player taking interesting but even-tempered shots without coming together into a more cohesive whole. Nothing wrong with that. B+(**)

Jimmy Ponder: Somebody's Child (2003-06 [2007], High Note): Guitarist, has a couple of dozen albums going back to 1946, plus a vast number of side appearances, mostly for High Note and its predecessor Muse. These are various quartets with piano, bass, and drums, recorded over several years; the exception is a duet with Douglas Malone playing violăo, a Brazilian nylon-string guitar. Nice, tuneful album; consistently interesting leads, not much more to say about it. B+(**)

Michel Portal: Birdwatcher (2006 [2007], Sunnyside): French, born 1935, has an extensive discography, mostly plays bass clarinet here, with one song each on clarinet, alto sax, and soprano sax. He has experimented with world rhythms in the past, and they reappear here mostly in Airto Moreira's percussion (7 of 11 tracks). Other musicians shuffle in and out, with tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby making predictably large waves. I'm somewhat at a loss here: some of this sounds terrific, but there's so much going on I can't get a handle on it. Will hold it back. [B+(**)]

Lewis Porter-Furio Di Castri-Fabrizio Sferra Trio: Italian Encounter (2006 [2007], Altrisuoni): The leader of this piano trio appears on his website as Dr. Lewis Porter, and is identified in his bios as "PhD, Brandeis, 1983." He seems to have more books than records, including studies on Lester Young and John Coltrane. He edits a series of books on jazz published by the University of Michigan Press, and has written a substantial "Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians" that I am delighted to find on line. The record is elegant, measured, thoughtful, but other than that I don't have a lot to say about it. B+(*)

Tineke Postma: A Journey That Matters (2007, Foreign Jazz Media): Dutch saxophonist, b. 1978, credited with alto, soprano, and tenor, in that order. Third album; first I've heard. Three Ellington/Strayhorn songs, the rest originals. Works with bass, drums, scattered pianists; three cuts have guitar; three have a wind section of flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, bassoon, and French horn. Studied postbop, elegantly crafted, with a lovely tone where appropriate. Can't get excited, but have to respect what she's done. B+(*)

Chris Potter 10: Song for Anyone (2006 [2007], Sunnyside): Ten musicians, with flute-clarinet-bassoon in the winds section and violin-viola-cello-bass for strings, guitar too, and percussion. With that sort of instrumentation, this is full of orchestral stretches that I find deadly, even when I recognize that they're not so bad. Moreover, the saxophonist often rises to the occasion, or exceeds it, and he has a much more full-bodied sound than the one I found annoying on his early work. So I don't feel the anger to make this a Dud, although I'll keep it active in the "done" file a while in case I find myself hard up. B

Chris Potter Underground: Follow the Red Line: Live at the Village Vanguard (2007, Sunnyside): Easily the top regarded tenor saxophonist of his generation -- Sonny Rollins and Joe Lovano still get more votes in polls, but that's it. I resisted for a long time, but his Lift: Live at the Village Vanguard won me over with its quartet simplicity and high energy. The lineup was typical sax-piano-bass-drums, with peers Kevin Hays, Scott Colley, and Bill Stewart. In 2005 Potter recorded Underground with a funkier quartet: Craig Taborn on Fender Rhodes, Wayne Krantz on guitar, Nate Smith on drums, with no bass. The new Village Vanguard record takes that group with Adam Rogers instead of Krantz into the spotlight and turns up the heat. The highlight is called "Pop Tune #1" as if jump, jive and wail were just an exercise, but all save one of the cuts are like that, at least once they warm up. The slow change of pace is nice too, and he left the soprano in the hotel. This may just go to show that his postbop stuff critics and fans adore is too fancy for me. [B+(***)]

André Previn: Alone (2007, Emarcy): Veteran pianist, born in Germany in 1930, escaping to France and then to the US in 1938. Probably best known for film and Broadway and for conducting various orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, but he has a long list of jazz records going back to the early 1950s -- mostly trios or less, many keyed to songbooks. I have no idea how they sort out, but this is about what I expected: mild-mannered, elegant, thoughtful, too slow and too straight to overcome my natural resistance to solo piano, but otherwise impeccable. B

The Puppini Sisters: Betcha Bottom Dollar (2006 [2007], Verve): A vocal trio, modelled on the Andrews Sisters down to a good chunk of their songbook, reportedly inspired by The Triplets of Belleville, which as far as I can tell they had nothing to do with. Only one Puppini too: Marcella, an Italian-born, London-based cabaret singer. The other two are Kate Mullins and Stephanie Brown. The frothy sound works best on proven material, but seems more awkward when they try more modern fare, even though songs like "Wuthering Heights," "Heart of Glass," and "I Will Survive" have strengths of their own. [B] [May 1]

The Puppini Sisters: Betcha Bottom Dollar (2005-06 [2007], Verve): The WWII-era pieces that set the stage here refer these figurative-sisters -- Marcella is the only Puppini; Kate Mullins and Stephanie O'Brien were added to the act in London -- back to the Andrews Sisters. Pieces like "Mr. Sandman," "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön," and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" always appealed to me, and here they're as bright and perky as ever. More recent fare, including Kate Bush and Morrissey, are harder sells, but at least I'll take their "Heart of Glass." B+(*)

Flora Purim: Butterfly Dreams (Keepnews Collection) (1973 [2007], Milestone): Sort of a Stanley Clarke groove, George Duke funk album, with mild spicing mostly from fusion percussionist Airto Moreira; the singer aspires more to Ella Fitzgerald than to her Brazilian heritage, resulting in something fast and light but neither here nor there. B

Putumayo Presents: Latin Jazz (1973-2006 [2007], Putumayo World Music): Big subject, but fair enough: aside from one ringer from Iceland, this plots a triangle spanning Havana, San Juan, and the Bronx, name-checking the obvious -- Machito, Tito Puente, Ray Barretto, Poncho Sanchez, Eddie Palmieri -- plus a couple of pleasing surprises in Chocolate Armenteros and Hilton Ruiz. Not classic, but not skimmed from the latest hype either. Choice cuts by Ruiz and Palmieri/Brian Lynch. B+(**)

Quadro Nuevo: Tango Bitter Sweet (2006 [2007], Justin Time): Drummerless German quartet -- reeds, accordion, guitar, bass do the trick -- arguing that all the songs here originated in Europe, reclaiming tango from Argentina, Sidney Bechet from New Orleans, and Aram Khatchaturian from the vast steppes of Russia. They make a fine case, a little too pat for jazz, a little too danceable for chamber music. B+(***)

Alvin Queen: I Ain't Looking at You (2005 [2007], Enja/Justin Time): Drummer, from Queens, has a couple of albums on his own, as well as side credits, going back to the '70s, including: Charles Tolliver, Lockjaw Davis, Horace Parlan, John Patton, George Coleman, Pharoah Sanders, Kenny Drew, Bennie Wallace, Dusko Goykovich, Warren Vaché. Going back to the '60s, as a teenager he played in a Wild Bill Davis Trio, spent six months with Don Pullen backing Ruth Brown, joined Horace Silver's band, then by the time he was 21 moved on to George Benson. I list all this not just to establish Queen's bona fides but because he manages to pull them all together here. Mike LeDonne's organ identifies this as soul jazz, underscored by opening with a Shirley Scott piece, reflected later in a LeDonne original called "Shirley's Song." The B3 usually covers for piano and bass, so most organ records are trios, with drums and either guitar or a horn. This does both, with Peter Bernstein on guitar, Jesse Davis on alto sax, and for good measure Terrell Stafford on trumpet and flugelhorn. Soul jazz may seem like old news -- only two originals here, both by LeDonne, both pointed straight into the past -- but it's rarely been done with so much flair. A-

Boots Randolph: A Whole New Ballgame (2006 [2007], Zoho): Tenor saxophonist, did some pop instrumentals in the early '60s which got classified as country because he was born in Paducah and based in Nashville. No idea what the title means -- there's nothing remotely new here, just a bunch of swing standards like "Stompin' at the Savoy" plus a couple of weak takes on Parker and Monk. Not much impressed by his tone, but I can't get too down on him. [Just noticed that he passed away on July 3, at age 80.] B-

Enrico Rava: The Words and the Days (2005 [2007], ECM): This continues a string of first-rate albums, on CAM Jazz as well as ECM, with the trumpeter wry and laconic, like he's finally settled on his life's work. What's unsettled here is the trombonist, young Gianluca Petrella, who shares the line in front of piano, bass and drums. Petrella's Blue Note exposure won him Downbeat's TDWR poll, a rare breakthrough for any European. While I take that with the proverbial grain of salt, Petrella adds something here. [B+(***)] [Feb 6]

Enrico Rava: The Words and the Days (2005 [2007], ECM): Chamber jazz, in a quintet where the leader's eloquent trumpet is amplified by Ginaluca Petrella's trombone. I wonder sometimes if Rava hasn't grown too subtle -- he's recorded a lot recently, fine albums with little to recommend one album over any other, but this is better than par, just a bit hard to nail down. B+(***)

Duke Robillard's World Full of Blues (2006-07 [2007], Stony Plain): Journeyman blues jockey, sings a little, plays a lot of guitar. Stretches to two discs, not because he has a lot to say -- more like he don't know what to leave out. Then calls the second disc a free bonus because he's not arrogant enough to expect you to pay double for mere encyclopedia; surprisingly, second disc actually kicks in quicker. B+(**)

The Rocco John Group: Don't Wait Too Long (2006 [2007], COCA Productions): COCA stands for Coalition of Creative Artists. Looks like a front group: their "contributors" include three-fourths of this quartet, no other musicians, but a few painters, dancers, poets, etc. Rocco is Rocco John Iacovone. He plays alto sax, and wrote the songs. The group started as a trio in 1997, adding trumpeter Michael Irwin for this album to make a freewheeling pianoless quartet. AMG has no record of Iacovone before this album, but the website lists five albums, a couple cut off the beaten path in Alaska. Iacovone reportedly "cut his teeth" playing in Sam Rivers loft-era orchestra; also studied with Lee Konitz. Album could move up a notch, but it's so much down my alley I feel the need to go cautious. [B+(***)] [June 2]

The Rocco John Group: Don't Wait Too Long (2006 [2007], COCA Productions): Cut his teeth in the '70s lofts with Sam Rivers, an influence on alto saxophonist Rocco John Iacovone, then waited plenty long, including a stretch in Alaska, before returning to find young trumpeter Michael Irwin and find that the two horn, bass and drums quartet is the optimal free jazz vehicle. B+(**)

The Rodriguez Brothers: Conversations (2006 [2007], Savant): The brothers are Michael on piano, Robert on trumpet and flugelhorn. A third Rodriguez, Ricardo, plays bass on four cuts, but doesn't get any mention in the booklet. Father Roberto Rodriguez, born in Cuba, produced. Album dedicated to late grandfather Roberto Rodriguez Nieto. David Sanchez guests on two tracks. I'm tempted to describe this as hard bop, but the beat isn't hard enough -- on the other hand, it isn't notably Latin, although there is a whiff. In any case, both piano and trumpet/flugelhorn stay within conventional forms, even if often fast and fluid bop. B

Wallace Roney: Jazz (2007, High Note): I should be better prepared for this, but will need more time to think about it, or at least to average it out. Strikes me as Roney's archetypal album, at least since he discovered turntables and keybs as a way of jacking up the funk quotient, all the time making his family -- brother Antoine Roney on various saxes and bass clarinet, wife Geri Allen on piano and various keyboards -- pull their weight. Where it all comes together, as on the opening "Vater Time" and the closing "Un Poco Loco," it's a lot of fun, not least because the trumpet soars high in the mix. [B+(**)]

Josh Roseman: New Constellations: Live in Vienna (2005 [2007], Accurate): Trombonist, originally from Boston, based in New York since 1990, has a long list of side credits ranging from Either/Orchestra to Lester Bowie Brass Fantasy to Dave Holland Big Band to the Roots. Third album under his own name. Calls his 7-piece (trumpet, trombone, tenor sax, keybs, guitar, bass, drums) group the Constellations -- only one I recognize there is saxophonist Peter Apfelbaum; the bass and keyb players are from Groove Collective. Starts with a rarefied reggae groove on "Satta Massagana," credited to a different lineup with Will Bernard on guitar, although only one date is given. Shifts after that to postbop with an undertow of bent funk, but returns to Jamaica periodically -- Don Drummond song; another one credited to Drummond and the rest of his band, the Skatalites; John Holt song; also includes a Roseman dedication to Drummond; and, apropros of nothing I can tell, a Beatles song, ending with a live remix of same. Recorded in Joe Zawinul's playpen, so figure him as an influence. Interesting attempt to put something together that breaks ground both as improv and riddim. [B+(**)]

Daniel Bernard Roumain: Etudes 4 violin & Electronix (2007, Thirsty Ear): Been holding off on this advance expecting a final copy to appear and clear some things up, but release date was June 26. I've gotten nothing but advances from this label in quite a while, and the advances and PR packages are severely lacking in information. I do know that DJ Spooky, Peter Gordon, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Philip Glass, and a couple of others appear here because they get "feat." plugs next to titles. Could be duets. One with no "feat." is relatively interesting, with at least three instruments, repeating patterns on piano, a synth (or maybe a horn), and the leader's violin wailing background. Roumain, a Haitian-American violinist, has classical education, long dreadlocks, and hip-hop interests. Not sure if this is considered a jazz release or not -- no indication that it's part of Matthew Shipp's Blue Series, although Roumain has appeared there in the past -- but it is notably lacking both in jazz musicians and in any sort of swing. (I almost said "rhythm," but Glass and DJ Scientific do contribute something there, just nothing jazz-friendly.) Also, the violin tends to appear in sheets, without much bite or spunk. B

Roswell Rudd & Yomo Toro: El Espíritu Jíbaro (2002-06 [2007], Sunnyside): Robert Palmer once called Yomo Toro "the Puerto Rican Jimi Hendrix," but from what I've heard -- and his solo "Inspiración" bears this out -- he's comes closer to John Fahey. Rudd, playing with Steve Lacy and Archie Shepp and leading his New York Art Quartet, was the great trombonist of the avant-'60s. He had a second wind as a Herbie Nichols interpreter, and a third as a world music sojourner, hooking up with musicians from Mali, Mongolia, and now Puerto Rico. Percussionist Bobby Sanabria is a third name on the cover, likely the most responsible for taking such a broad swath of Latin jazz here -- bolero, guaracha, marcha, merengue, cumbia, tango, son (of course). Toro's jíbaro is usually considered a country music, but he swings plenty here. B+(***)

Saltman Knowles Quintet: It's About the Melody (2007, Blue Canoe): Mark Saltman, bassist; William Knowles, pianist. They met in 1994 at University of Massachusetts. This is their fourth album, the first three released as Soul Service. Group includes Mark Prince on drums, Charles Langford on sax, Lori Williams on vocals. For all intents and purpose this is a vocal jazz album, with Williams up front on every song, shaping the melodies, slipping around them, the sort of thing jazz singers do -- some spots remind me a bit of Sheila Jordan, but not so immediately arresting. Langford has a good accompanying sound. B

Dino Saluzzi Group: Juan Condori (2005 [2006], ECM): Argentine bandoneon, born 1935, in a quintet with three younger Saluzzis and a percussionist named U.T. Gandhi. Felix Saluzzi plays tenor sax, soprano sax, and clarinet, although he doesn't stand out -- the string sound of guitar and bass is much more prominent. Folkish, not particularly close to tango. [B+(***)]

Dino Saluzzi: Juan Condori (2005 [2006], ECM): Argentine bandoneon player, working with three younger Saluzzis and a percussionist named U.T. Gandhi. Never got the final copy of this advance, unlike the later duets with Anja Lechner -- a puzzle and an annoyance. Saluzzi recorded an exceptional album in 2001 called Responsorium, which does a lovely job of summing up his brand of jazz-tango. Since then the records I've heard have seemed like broken fragments of the same picture. The larger group here, led by Felix Saluzzi's reeds, suggests a similar richness of vision, but I also hear stretches where it slows down and descends to the merely pretty, or maybe even the merely dull. B+(*)

Dino Saluzzi/Anja Lechner: Ojos Negros (2006 [2007], ECM): Bandoneon-cello duets. Saluzzi is an Argentine who's done some notable work in the past, but seems to be slowing down lately. Lechner is a German cellist with classical credits, an ECM album of Chants, Hymns and Dances by Gurdjieff and Tsabropoulos, an appearances on previous ECM jazz albums by Saluzzi and Misha Alperin. This one is especially slow and resonant. It started growing on me about half way through, and deserves another listen. [B+(**)]

Dino Saluzzi/Anja Lechner: Ojos Negros (2006 [2007], ECM): Bandoneon-cello duets. Drags in spots -- where you'd expect the tango rhythms to quicken the blood, the cello dampens it. Not that there is a lot of rhythm. But every time this starts to get me down, something interesting, intriguing, or just plain lovely happens. B

Bobby Sanabria: Big Band Urban Folktales (2007, Jazzheads): Drummer-percussionist, Puerto Rican parents, from the Bronx, graduated from Berklee in 1979, IAJE's expert on Afro-Cuba jazz, a guy who (counter the standard joke) can teach and do. Big band, throws a lot of everything at you -- more than I can handle, especially when they break out the kazoos for Frank Zappa's "The Grand Wazoo." But more manageable fare like "Bésame Mucho" works for me, as does Chareneč Wade's guest vocal on "Since I Fell for You" and a lucumi-inspired piece called "El Aché de Sanabria en Moderación" where everything seems to work even when none of it suggests moderation. B+(**)

Antonio Sanchez: Migration (2007, CAM Jazz): Drummer, from Mexico City, studied at National Conservatory of Music there, then got a scholarship to Berklee, graduated Magna Cum Laude, did some more study at New England Conservatory, and landed a spot in Dizzy Gillespie's United Nation Orchestra (post-Gillespie, directed by Paquito D'Rivera). First album as leader, but his credits list is impressive, and he calls in a few chits to help out here: David Sanchez (no relation), Chris Potter, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, Scott Colley -- he even got Metheny and Corea to debut new songs here. The problem is that the band is so great it's hard to tell what the drummer brings other than mainstream postbop competency -- he has quite a bit of Latin jazz in his discography, but doesn't so much as hint at it here. Rather, we get an all-star game, with Potter and David Sanchez in full flower, Metheny and Corea making choice assists. B+(**)

Sten Sandell Trio + John Butcher: Strokes (2006 [2007], Clean Feed): Sandell is a Norwegian pianist, combines interests in free improv, avant composition (Cage, Feldman, Xenakis), classical music from around the world, art rock, and so forth. Also dabbles in voice and electronics, which are used here but not so obvious. Butcher is a British saxophonist; he's recorded quite a bit since 1990, but I've heard very little and don't have much of a sense of him. Two long pieces here, plus one short one at the end -- sort of a throwback to the '70s, when we still thought we could discover new things. Maybe we still can. [B+(**)]

Sten Sandell Trio + John Butcher: Strokes (2006 [2007], Clean Feed): Sandell's avant-leaning piano trio plus Butcher's sax -- the latter is also credited with "amplification/feedback" as if he isn't normally this loud. Very rough, with little gemstones of piano embedded in the matrix. B+(**)

Arturo Sandoval: Rumba Palace (2007, Telarc): The percussion section is up to snuff, but can't salvage the slow ones. The trumpeter can burn white hot or negotiate tricky changes, but by now that's expected. He's turned me off more in the past, but he's also turned me on more. So this is a good example of what Christgau calls Neither. B

Bernardo Sassetti: Unreal: Sidewalk Cartoon (2005-06 [2007], Clean Feed): Among my earliest musical experiences was an extreme distaste for Euroclassical music, which has attenuated only slightly over the years. This makes me suspicious of the classical backgrounds inevitable in the university programs that produce most young jazz musicians these days, not to mention all those "third stream" projects that first appeared when the academy discovered jazz back in the '50s. In bring this up because my first impression of this record was that it sounds like classical music only better. It even crossed my mind that this is what Mozart might sound like if he was really as good as everyone seems to think. Obviously, I need to listen some more. Sassetti's previous records have been small piano groups -- Ascent impressed me enough to make it a Pick Hit. This one has dozens of extra musicians, including a large percussion group, a saxophone quartet, something called Cromeleque Quinteto (clarinet, flute, oboe, bassoon, french horn), and so forth, all deployed with the precision and taste Sassetti exhibits in his piano. [B+(***)]

Bernardo Sassetti: Unreal: Sidewalk Cartoon (2005-06 [2007], Clean Feed): Portugese pianist, often brilliant, but tends to work in soundtrack motifs, which take over here when he employs vast arrays of musicians: Quarteto Saxolinia (saxophone quartet), Cromelque Quinteto (clarinet, flulte, oboe, bassoon, french horn), a battery of percussionists (directed by Miguel Bernat), and various "guests" (flute, alto/soprano sax, tuba, double bass, drums). At least he stays clear of strings. Intriguing music, tasteful, but it often merges into the background. B+(**)

Paul Scea: Contemporary Residents (2005 [2007], BluJazz): Plays flute, soprano and tenor sax, wind synth, etc. Teaches at West Virginia University (Morgantown WV). Has co-led groups with guitarist Steve Grismore (present here) and drummer Damon Short (absent; Marc Gratama is the drummer here), but this is first album solely under his own name. Reports describe him as heavily influenced by the '60s avant-garde, with his flute coming out of a line from Eric Dolphy through James Newton. Hard to tell. There's some edginess in the soprano sax, but the three horns -- Eric Haltmeier plays alto sax and clarinet, Brent Sandy trumpet -- do a lot of bobbing and weaving, and in any case the electric guitar and bass -- Grismore and Anthony Cox -- run on fusion lines. Sounds promising at times, but each of three plays left me with no net impressions. B

Lalo Schifrin & Friends (2007, Aleph): Pianist, originally from Argentina, 75 now, mostly known for 100+ soundtracks, but he studied classical music under Messiaen in France in the 1950s and, more importantly, jazz under Dizzy Gillespie in the 1960s. This takes a half-dozen of his songs including "A Tribute to Bud" [Powell, I presume], adds in "Besame Mucho," "Tin Tin Daeo," and Oscar Peterson's "Hymn to Freedom." The booklet has a lot of words, and generally good bios on the Friends, but doesn't actually have any credits. One assumes that Schifrin plays piano, James Morrison trumpet (or any other brass instrument that appears), James Moody saxes (and maybe flute), Dennis Budimir guitar, Brian Bromberg bass, and Alex Acuńa drums/percussion. It's a good group, relaxed, generous, warm, enjoyable. B+(*)

Maria Schneider Orchestra: Sky Blue (2007, ArtistShare): I reckon my continuing indifference to Schneider's highly refined art is subliminal. She doesn't set off the gag reflex that I have long had to highly orchestrated classical music, but that's what I suspect is lurking, somewhere near the chronic level of an allergen. Clearly, jazz fans who also like euroclassical simply adore her -- it's not common for a self-released, no-retail-distribution record like her Concert in the Garden to win a Grammy. Still, for every time a nicely orchestrated motif catches my fancy, three or four fall off my ears leaving nothing. The band is full of well-regarded musicians -- over the last couple of years membership has been a plum on everyone's resume. The packaging has been padded out with pictures and notes in two booklets -- a feast if you're interested. I think it's good that she can record like this. Figuring my disinterest to have mostly been my problem, I was reluctant to saddle Concert as a dud, until it won that Grammy and I didn't have any response to my editor as to why it wasn't a dud. This one is no different, at least insofar as I care to tell. B

Louis Sclavis: L'Imparfait des Langues (2005 [2007], ECM): Working off an advance copy here, although the release date is April 24, so presumably this is out, but not part of the top tier promotion. Quintet here, with Marc Baron's alto sax joining Sclavis' usual clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano sax combo in an unusually fierce -- for Sclavis, and especially for ECM -- front line. Blame that on the rhythm section: Paul Brousseau's keyboards, Maxime Delpierre's guitars, François Merville's drums. They keep the beat steady and charging -- effectively this is a fusion album, improvised enough to keep it interesting. [B+(***)] [Apr. 24]

Louis Sclavis: L'Imparfait des Langues (2005 [2007], ECM): I can't find a thread that ties this record together. Working with a familiar drummer and three upstarts -- Marc Baron on alto sax, Paul Brousseau on keyboards, Maxime Delpierre on guitar -- it's as if the veteran clarinetist's just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. It pretty much all does: electronic drones, free sax riffing, rocksteady beats, airy meditations, noisy fusion -- the sounds of tradition passing down, and blowing back. A-

Kendrick Scott Oracle: The Source (2005-06 [2007], World Culture): Young (b. 1980) drummer, attended Berklee, works in postbop veins, appears on Terrence Blanchard's latest. First album, ambitious, complex, rather impressive set of musicians -- e.g., saxophonists are Seamus Blake, Walter Smith III, and Myron Walden; Robert Glasper plays some piano; Lionel Loueke some of the guitar -- yet I find it dissolving into texture and failing to hold my interest, except, say, when Blake takes a solo. B

Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra: Meeting of the Waters (2005-06 [2007], OA2): Not all female -- lead trumpet Dennis Haldane, drummer Jeremy Jones, musisic director/arranger Daniel Barry are the main exceptions, with some Mikes and Chads on the credits list but not listed on the website roster. Second album. Seems unexceptional for a big band, although not without its attractive moments. Sound quality is a bit iffy. B

John Sheridan and His Dream Band: Swing Is Still the King (2006 [2007], Arbors): A Benny Goodman tribute, more or less, with Ron Hockett on clarinet -- sometimes also Dan Block and Scott Robinson, although they most play saxes -- and Rebecca Kilgore singing a majority of the songs. But it doesn't feel like a Goodman tribute -- the swing is looser, cooler, more delectable. Sheridan is credited with arrangements as well as piano, and its the arrangements that push this past the usual retro limits. A-

Matt Shulman: So It Goes (2006 [2007], Jaggo): Website advises "please turn off any pop-up blocker software/- to enter this website/- for a better viewing experience." Figured I might as well make a U-turn then and there: what I look for in a website is information, not experience. I get too much experience without having to go look for it. Shulman was born in Vermont; studied at Oberlin; moved to New York. He plays trumpet, and has a patent on what he calls the Shulman System, a sort of sling for holding the trumpet in the proper position. He also sings and gets a credit for effects, often tracking them all together. His group is a trio with bass and drums. I don't really know what to make of him. The helpful hype sheet suggests "Miles Davis meets Radiohead," "a Chet Baker for the new millennium," or simply "a new voice from jazz's emerging generation." I doubt that any of those are true, although I'm not expert enough to fully dismiss Radiohead. He does "My Funny Valentine" to beg those comparisons, but it works just as well to defy them. The best I can say is that he's trying to do something new, which might explain why it's so hard to pigeonhole. On the other hand, it's also possible that what he's doing simply isn't clear yet, or is too marginal to care much about. Either way, in the short term I expect reactions to be inordinately pro or con. Given enough time I could go either way myself, but for now I find his trumpet and even more so his voice too limited to carry his ideas, and his ideas too prog -- albeit more avant and less arty than the usual rock usage -- to stand on their own. B

David Sills: Green (2006 [2007], Origin): Tenor saxophonist, based in Los Angeles, with a handful of albums since 1997, both under his own name and as the Acoustic Jazz Quartet. He has a big, smooth mainstream sound, the sort of thing I easily fall for. Also plays a little flute; nothing to complain about. Could be characterized as neo-cool, both in tone and in artful arrangement. Six-piece group, with Gary Foster's alto sax kept close, and both piano and guitar for chords. I don't find such complexity all that useful, but it's worth noting that this is the third appearance by guitarist Larry Koonse in my logs over the last two weeks, and again he adds something special. B+(*)

Ricardo Silveira: Outro Rio (Another River) (2005-06 [2007], Adventure Music): Brazilian guitarist, mostly acoustic, mostly working in small groups with bass and drums -- two cuts add piano, one clarinet, one tenor sax, one cello, several percussion, one voice, not that the extras really add much of anything. Delicate; nice, easy flow; very pleasant as background; as artful but not as tuneful as his Nascimento album. B+(**)

Just Like a Woman: Nina Simone Sings Classic Songs of the '60s (1967-78 [2007], RCA/Legacy): Strong voice, can be a powerful stylist, has no problem convincing you that she's entitled to interpret anything she wants, which makes her inconsistencies and flat out muffs all the more annoying. Four Dylan songs here, two -- "I Shall Be Released," "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" -- worth keeping. B

Carol Sloane: Dearest Duke (2007, Arbors): Jazz singer, first emerged in late 1950s with Les Elgart's orchestra, moving on to replace Annie Ross in Lambert, Hendricks, Etc., with a comeback on Concord in the 1990s, and a 2001 album for High Note insisting I Never Went Away. I never heard her before, but my first impression is that she's a complete pro. The songbook here is Ellington's, which isn't all that easy for a singer. The accompaniment is Brad Hatfield on piano and/or Ken Peplowski on clarinet or tenor sax -- strictly minimal stuff, which doesn't make it any easier either. She does fine, and Peplowski has some especially nice moments. B+(**)

Jimmy Smith: Straight Life (1961 [2007], Blue Note): A simple organ-guitar-drums trio, as restrained as anything he's ever done, which makes the eloquence of his phrasing on such a crude instrument all the more impressive. This has actually been a remarkable installment in Blue Note's Connoisseur Series: five albums, all so obscure I've never heard of them, each surprisingly close to my A- cusp. The series are nominally limited editions, although those that sell out have been known to return as RVG Editions. B+(***)

Mark Solborg 4: 1+1+1+1 (2007, ILK): Danish guitarist, also associated with groups Mold, Revolver, and Ventilator. This is a quartet with Anders Banke on tenor sax and clarinet, Jeppe Skovbakke on bass, Bjřrn Heebřll on drums. Banke plays in Piere Dřrge's New Jungle Orchestra and also plays in Mold. He has an attractive hard-edge sound, matching well with Solborg. B+(*) [advance, Apr. 26]

Golda Solomon: First Set (2002, JazzJaunts): Solomon describes herself as a "one-of-a-kind 'Medicine Woman of Jazz'"; alternatively, "poet, and Professor Mom." Writes words. Speaks them over jazz -- or actually, with her violin-tuba-drums trio, this sounds a bit like old-timey pre-bluegrass. Has a book Flatbush Cowboy good for an excerpt here. Other bits on meeting Dolphy and "The Etiquette of No." Good diction -- reminds me of Tom Verlaine's pronunciation of that word. Short, EP length: 20:30. B+(**)

Golda Solomon: Word Riffs (2006, JazzJaunts): Full length, or close enough (39:18). I suppose we can chalk this up to Second System Complex. The music has moved from the goofball accompaniment Bernard Purdie threw together to more creditable avant-garde, with Saco Yasuma on alto sax, Eri Yamamoto on piano, Christopher Dean Sullivan on bass, and most importantly Michael T.A. Thompson on drums. The words were consciously written with jazz in mind, with three pieces with "Blues" in the title, two more with "Bop," one called "1960s Jazz Hag," one name dropping Ellington. On average I'd say it's a wash: more exciting music, less intriguing words, same rivetting performance. Something of a learning process, but all things considered she's pretty unique. B+(**)

Somi: Red Soil in My Eyes (2005-06 [2007], World Village): Singer-songwriter, born in Illinois of parents from Rwanda and Uganda. She calls what she does Holistic New African Jazz-Soul, aiming at "introspective bliss and inspiration" -- noble sentiments for music that goes nowhere. The jazz is nu, although musicians like Lionel Loueke and Jeremy Pelt are recognizable, at least on the credits list. The songs are half in an unidentified African language, half in English. B-

Sonic Openings Under Pressure: Muhheankuntuk (2006 [2007], Clean Feed): Alto sax trio, led by Patrick Brennan, who's recorded under this group name with other people before -- this time it's Hilliard Greene on bass, David Pleasant on drums, etc. Brennan came to New York from Detroit in 1975. He plays tight, fast, complex runs over free rhythms, with a hard tone; unpretty, but rigorously functional. Need to play it again, but I'm impressed so far. Don't know how many records he has, but this is the first I've heard. [B+(***)]

Sonic Openings Under Pressure: Muhheankuntuk (2006 [2007], Clean Feed): Don't get as much free jazz as I'd like, but I manage to hear enough to have gotten used to it. Still, my standard for recommendation is that it has something non-devotees can grab onto, which leaves me with a widening gap of stuff I like well enough but can't see breaking out of its narrow niche. Most of this falls in that range, but two cuts in the middle stand out: "The Hardships" starts with a fast, regular beat, then erupts in a torrent of even faster words -- thank David Pleasant for both beats and words, while leader Patrick Brennan's alto sax settles into a skronk groove. That's the hook cut, pop materials done with avant flair. It then sets up "Prosified" with Brennan taking over, writhing snakey improv lines against the beat. B+(***)

Spark Trio: Short Stories in Sound (2006, Utech): Another limited edition CDR, a trio with saxophonist Ras Moshe, drummer Todd Capp, and Matt Lavelle on trumpet and bass clarinet. Energetic thrash, especially from the drummer, who strikes me as overly busy. The horns are in your face throughout. I find them bracing and sometimese exciting, but this is not the sort of thing I can easily recommend to non-believers. B

Martin Speicher/Georg Wolf/Lou Grassi: Shapes and Shadows (2006 [2007], Clean Feed): Free jazz trio; alto sax/clarinet, bass, drums, respectively. Speicher is German, did a couple of records in the '90s, but otherwise I don't know anything about him. I know even less about Wolf. Grassi is an American drummer; runs a group called PoBand with 10 or so records, and has side credits going back to Roswell Rudd's Numatic Swing Band. Another fine record, although after a handful of these I'm hard-pressed to sort them all out; this one winds up as something people who like this sort of thing will like, but probably not much more. B+(*)

Russ Spiegel: Chimera (2006 [2007], Steeplechase): Guitarist, originally from Los Angeles (b. 1962), lived in Germany for a spell, now based in Brooklyn. First album, a sextet including vibes but no piano. Wrote all the pieces except "Cherokee." The two horns -- David Smith's trumpet, Arun Luthra's saxes -- offer rich and varied higlights, but the spots that most struck me were when the guitar rose to the top. Will get back to the album later, but for now I want to not how pleased I was to open my mail and find a Steeplecase CD in it. They're a Danish label, founded in 1972, with a large, well tended, and critically important catalog. Although they have had a few European artists -- Tete Montoliu, John Tchicai, Michal Urbaniak, Niels-Henning Řrsted Pedersen -- they've primarily served as a haven for American artists, starting with Dexter Gordon, Jackie McLean, Duke Jordan, and Archie Shepp, while later filling their catalog with postbop notables like Doug Raney, George Colligan, Harold Danko, Joe Locke, Steve Stryker, Bob Rockwell, many others. Lately they've been hard to get in touch with and follow -- I could say much the same about Criss Cross, a similar Dutch label. [B+(**)]

Russ Spiegel: Chimera (2006 [2007], Steeplechase): Good mainstream guitar record, with all sorts of bells and whistles -- trumpet, sax, vibes, but no piano. Among the options, the guitar stands out. But given my space and time issues, not to mention interests tuned elsewhere, this falls just shy of my scratch line. That should be the definition of an honorable mention, but under current formulas, it's the definition of a near miss. B+(**)

The Chip Stephens Trio: Holding On to What Counts (2006 [2007], Capri): Piano trio, with Ken Walker on bass and Todd Reid on drums. Stephens teaches jazz at Urbana-Champaign, after spells in Boulder and Youngstown -- this was recorded in Denver, where Walker is based. His web page there claims "nearly 40 records and compact discs" but AMG only counts 9, with this the second under his name. Five original pieces, plus covers of Cole Porter, Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner, and a Miles Davis medley. I'm tempted to write this off as textbook stuff, but Stephens' dynamism and flair raises the ante on the standard fare -- the Monk really jumps, the Silver sizzles, a bit of "Sweet Georgia Brown" swings. B+(*)

Joan Stiles: Hurly-Burly (2005 [2007], Oo-Bla-Dee): Pianist, sings credibly on two cuts, but that's not her calling card. Second album, after Love Call (1998-2002 [2004], Zoho), which I've heard but didn't think much of and barely recall. Don't have birth date or biographical info suggesting her age -- one side comment about liking Monk and Evans as a teenager suggests an upper bound of 60. Teaches at New School, and has an interest in Mary Lou Williams. So I didn't expect much here, at least until I read the band roster: Jeremy Pelt, Steve Wilson, Joel Frahm, Peter Washington, Lewis Nash. They appear as a sextet on 4 of 12 cuts, dropping down to subsets for the rest, with one piano solo, a duo with Wilson, and various 3-4 configurations. The songs favor Monk, Ellington, and Williams, with Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz" and Jimmy Rowles' "The Peacocks" thrown in, a Ray Charles song (one of the vocals), and two or three originals -- the question is a juxtaposition of Monk and Ellington-Hodges called "The Brilliant Corners of Theloious' Jumpin' Jeep." The band is terrific, of course, but the pianist is impressively on top of everything. The Charles song has been sung better, but the other vocal, "In the Land of Oo-Bla-Dee," is a gas. Still need to play it again and pay some attention to the solo. [A-]

Joan Stiles: Hurly-Burly (2005 [2007], Oo-Bla-Dee): She sings two songs credibly enough, but her main interest is piano jazz, which she organizes as a pyramid: Mary Lou Williams is her special interest; Ellington and Monk her guiding lights; Fats Waller, Ray Charles, and Jimmy Rowles are tapped for further examples. She writes things like "The Brilliant Corners of Thelonious' Jumpin' Jeep" to stitch it all together, but what moves this beyond concept is the dream band she commands in units from duo to sextet: Jeremy Pelt, Steve Wilson, Joel Frahm, Peter Washington, Lewis Nash. A-

Marcus Strickland Twi-Life Group: Open Reel Deck (2007, Strick Muzik): Should have mentioned Strickland in my Downbeat poll comments. He's one of the best young tenor saxophonists around -- had I mentioned him, he would have been the only one under-30. He gets a lustrous sound with consumate ease and grace, and has a supporting group that merits the marquee -- especially E.J. Strickland, a drummer as telepathic as an identical twin should be, but Mike Moreno on guitar and Carlos Henderson on electric bass redefine how to put a postmodern sax quartet together. Still, the band spends a good deal of time backing guests -- trumpeter Keyon Harrold I'm undecided about, but Malachi's spoken word exploits are riveting. Jon Cowherd also appears on piano leading into his "Subway Suite 2nd Movement" which the band really builds on. Still working on this. [B+(***)]

Helen Sung: Sungbird (2006 [2007], Sunnyside): Pianist, originally from Houston, educated in Boston, based in New York. Trained in classics, didn't take up jazz until well into college, which brought he under Kenny Barron's wing. Works in postbop mainstream, definitely knows her stuff. First album, a trio on Fresh Sound New Talent, was an Honorable Mention here. This one is a quintet, with extra percussion and Marcus Strickland on tenor and soprano sax. It's built on a tour of Spain, with a couple of stabs at tango and other dance themes, including the attractive title cut. I haven't digested the piano yet, which starts solo and takes a while to cohere, but I adore the light melodic flair Strickland adds, and may for once even prefer his soprano over tenor. [B+(***)]

Helen Sung: Sungbird (2006 [2007], Sunnyside): A pianistic tour de Spain, slow on the solo uphill stretches, fleet on the well oiled downslopes when percussionist Samuel Torres joins the trio, and soaring when Marcus Strickland adds his saxophone -- a rare context where the soprano proves more interesting than the tenor. B+(**)

Billy Taylor & Gerry Mulligan: Live at MCG (1993 [2007], MCG Jazz): Like J.J. Johnson on trombone, or later Jack Bruce on electric bass, Mulligan took an instrument out of the back of the band and moved it up by playing in its upper range with the virtuosity expected of the front men. Mulligan's instrument was baritone sax. This has the charm and intimacy of a Stan Getz quartet, but not quite the sweet sound. Taylor gets top bill because he's on his home court, carries his end, and makes his guest feel welcome. B+(***)

Tom Teasley: Painting Time (2007, T&T Music): DC-based percussionist, composer, educator -- the latter two are pretty standard self-descriptions, but Teasley takes his educator roll public, presenting solo concerts called "The Drum: Ancient Traditions Today" and producing videotapes. He has a half-dozen previous records, mostly with titles like Global Standard Time, Global Groovilization, and World-Beat: The Soul Dances. Haven't heard them, but I reckon this to be some sort of advance, at least in titling. Teasley plays several dozen percussion instruments here, not least of which is the standard drum kit. The pieces are groove-based, but they also have some meat on them -- mostly John Jensen's trombone, which takes the leads even when trumpet and sax/flute are available. A surprisingly seductive album; will give it some more time. [B+(***)]

Joe Temperley/Harry Allen: Cocktails for Two (2006 [2007], Sackville): Bought this used in Detroit, not even realizing that it's recent -- cover is old-fashioned, and Allen's so baby-faced you don't recognize him as 40. No new ground here, but Temperley's baritone sax makes a fine foil for Allen's tenor, and the rhythm section -- stalwarts John Bunch and Jake Hanna, Ornette bassist Greg Cohen -- do everything right. I know I'm a sucker for sax that swings this hard, but I could give in and grade this up. [B+(***)]

The Tierney Sutton Band: On the Other Side (2006 [2007], Telarc): Six of eleven songs (or eight of thirteen, given two reprises) have "happy" in the title. Dyslexically there's also "Glad to Be Unhappy," but even the happy songs aren't what you'd call bubbling. The others are "You Are My Sunshine," "Great Day!," "Haunted Heart," and "Smile." Two are apocalyptic: "Great Day!" and "Get Happy," the latter done both up and down, as is the secular "Happy Days Are Here Again." Jack Sheldon guests on two tracks, including a duet vocal and some unseemly patter added to "I Want to Be Happy." As Sutton explains in the liner notes, "Our search for happiness is an odd business." For example, it makes for the first good album I've heard from her. Last one was called I'm With the Band. This one credits the band because this time they're with her. [A-]

The Tierney Sutton Band: On the Other Side (2006 [2007], Telarc): Her pursuit of happiness bags eight songs with "happy" in the title, plus "You Are My Sunshine," "Smile," and "Great Day!" -- more fascinated with the search than the attainment, which she has reservations about anyway. Maybe that explains the odd song out, "Haunted Heart" -- the whole album feels haunted, from its tentative opening exhortation ("Get Happy") to its wistful end. I never thought she had a good album in her, much less a great concept. Last time all she aspired to was to be with the band; this time the band's with her. A-

Art Taylor: A.T.'s Delight (1960 [2007], Blue Note): Hard bop drummer, did a lot of session work and occasionally got an album out under his own name, often with titles like Taylor's Wailers or Taylor's Tenors. The two horns here weren't well known: trumpeter Dave Burns had been around since the '40s, mostly working with Dizzy Gillespie and James Moody without making much of a name for himself, but the young tenor saxophonist turned out to be Stanley Turrentine. Both are fine here; Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers are dependable as usual; a shmear of Patato doesn't hurt, either. B+(**)

That Devilin' Tune: A Jazz History Volume 1 (1895-1927 [2007], WHRA, 9CD): Allen Lowe turned his 1997 book American Pop: From Minstrel to Mojo: On Record 1893-1956 into a remarkable 9-CD box set that jumped effortlessly among what we subsequently decided were genres, providing us the the most comprehensive general survey of early American music (recorded, anyway). His follow-up is That Devilin' Tune: A Jazz History, 1900-1950, published in 2001, but only converted to CD form in late 2006. The tighter focus of the book is amplified by expanding the CD set to 36 discs, split into four compact boxes each with 9 discs and nearly a quarter of the book. It's a daunting task just to play the discs, and I haven't had time to do more than thumb through the book, so this is very preliminary. But I've played all of the first box at least once -- several discs twice -- so I figure I can at least note this. The first nine discs only bring us up to Louis Armstrong's "Hotter Than That" in 1927 -- the first Armstrong title, although he appears a couple of times, starting with King Oliver in 1923 on disc five. Lowe works his way into recognizable jazz slowly, not getting to the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1917) until the third disc, offering one song each by Ethel Waters and Mamie Smith (both 1921) on the fourth, introducing Jelly Roll Morton (1923) on the fifth; he sprinkles in early bits by Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, and Bennie Moten, but holds Bix Beiderbecke off until the second box. One result is that the first two or three discs don't sound much like jazz at all; while the last three clearly do sound like jazz, they are still much cruder than your average New Orleans retro band today. I haven't studied this, but it also looks like Lowe has avoided duplicating standard anthologies you're likely to have -- no "Tiger Rag," no "Dippermouth Blues," no "Cake Walking Babies From Home"; the only "St. Louis Blues" is a 1917 version by Ciro's Coon Club Orchestra. But maybe that's not a hard and fast rule. I see two dupes from The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz: "Hotter Than That" and Morton's "Grandpa's Spells." Another curiosity is the lack of anything by Scott Joplin here. Guess I'll have to read the book to figure that out, as well as how all the vaudeville fits in. [A-]

Third World Love: Sketch of Tel Aviv (2005 [2006], Smalls): There is something going on here that I don't get, and don't expect to get in the near future. Website claims the band "organically blends African, Middle Eastern, rock and jazz . . . a poetic journey of rhythms, songs, dance and joyful celebration." There's some of that, but it's hard to sort out, which may be the point. The group is a quartet, with two fairly well known players (bassist Omer Avital and trumpeter Avishai Cohen) and two lesser knowns (pianist Yonatan Avishai and drummer Daniel Freedman). Two songs with vocals -- one a trad Jewish-Yemenite piece sung by Avishai, the other sung by guest Eviatar Banai -- strike me as out of step, but the way Cohen is playing, anything that takes away from the trumpet seems like a bad idea. With their desire to more asses as well as minds, chances are there's a great album in their future. B+(**)

Tied + Tickled Trio: Aelita (2007, Morr Music): German electronica group, dating back to 1994 when brothers Markus and Micha Acher spun off from Notwist. Advance copy, lists three additional musicians -- Caspar Brandner, Andreas Gerth, and Carl Oesterhelt -- but doesn't map them to instruments ("xylophone, glockenspiel, melotrone dismal sounds"). The named instruments add a toy sound to the ambient beats, which are pleasing enough. I would rather like to see more electronica coming my way, but much of it does strike me as anticlimactic. B [advance, June 19]

Tin Hat: The Sad Machinery of Spring (2007, Hannibal): Original Tin Hat Trio members: Rob Burger (piano, accordion), Carla Kihlstedt (violin), Mark Orton (guitar). Burger left in 2004, replaced by Ben Goldberg (clarinet), Zeena Parkins (harp), and finally Ara Anderson (trumpet, piano). Sticker says to "file under Tin Hat Trio," and there's continuity enough, even though I have no clue what they're up to. The common phrase is "chamber music" -- and indeed they seem to be closer to Kronos Quartet than any jazz combos, although they don't have, or much care for, the conventions of a string quartet. The instruments seem to selected for oddness, even before the players started dragging celeste, dobro, auto-harp, bowed vibes, and bul-bul tarang into the mix. I'm puzzled, but not unintrigued. [B+(*)]

Tin Hat: The Sad Machinery of Spring (2007, Hannibal): Up to five players now, with most playing multiple instruments to keep the mix off kilter -- exception is Zeena Parkins, whose harp is odd enough she sticks to it. I never made any sense out of this -- near as I can figure, a bunch of interesting motifs that don't quite add up to pieces. B

Pietro Tonolo/Gil Goldstein/Steve Swallow/Paul Motian: Your Songs: The Music of Elton John (2006 [2007], ObliqSound): Don't know Tonolo except by name, as he has mostly been confined to Italian labels -- a dozen albums on Splasc(h) and EGEA, twice that in side credits, of which Paul Motian's Electric Bebop Band is the exception. He plays soprano and tenor sax -- soprano is usually listed first, but tenor predominates here. Goldstein plays piano and accordion -- seems like I run across him most often on accordion, but these songs feature piano. Swallow and Motian you know. Same group got together in 1999 for Portrait of Duke (Label Bleu). This one was producer Michele Locatelli's idea, and they make a game effort, respecting the melodies but playing around them, much like Motian drums. B+(*) [advance, July 17]

Trio Nuevo: Jazz Meets Tango (2006 [2007], Soundroots): Tenor saxophonist Dick de Graaf meets tango more than half way. The trio includes Michael Gustorff on violin, Hans Sparla on accordion. The violin-accordion is pretty thick, with the sax not much evident except for harmony. Vocalist Sandra Coelers joins for four songs. I don't really know what they're shooting for here. I suppose what attracts me in tango is the rhythm, at least when the dancers are light enough to flow with it. But the spectrum also extends to the heavy, the operatic even, and that's where this seems to go. If someone told me that this was an attempt to conjure up an old-style tango, something free of modernist impulses, I'd likely believe them. But this group makes no such claims. So I mostly find it lumbering, especially the vocal pieces. B

Gianluigi Trovesi/Umberto Petrin/Fulvio Maras: Vaghissimo Ritratto (2005 [2007], ECM): Advance copy. Trovesi is an established saxophonist with records going back to 1978, playing alto clarinet here. Pianist Petrin, like Trovesi, comes out of Italian Instabile Orchestra. Percussionist Maras has played with Trovesi since early '90s. A "chamber improvisation" project which pulls together melodies from classical and pop sources. Starts slow, but proves to be enticing, hard to resist. Title translates as "vague impression" or "beautiful picture" or something like that. [B+(**)] [Apr. 24]

Gianluigi Trovesi/Umberto Petrin/Fulvio Maras: Vaghissimo Ritratto (2005 [2007], ECM): Title translates as "beautiful picture," or is it "vague impression"? Clarinet, piano, percussion. Starts slow, never really picks up speed. Lovely work, for which I'm short on words. B+(**)

Akiko Tsuruga: Sweet and Funky (2006 [2007], 18th & Vine): Claims to be the "only Japanese female organ player in New York," which can't be much of a stretch. Blurb also quotes Dr. Lonnie Smith observing that "she can play!" True enough, plus she has a great smile. This is a trio with guitarist Eric Johnson and drummer Vince Ector, with percussionist Wilson "Chembo" Corniel added on half the cuts. The guitarist is good for this sort of thing, which is cheery more than bluesy. Mostly standard fare, with four originals. No great shakes, but a good deal of fun. B+(*)

Stanley Turrentine: A Bluish Bag (1967 [2007], Blue Note): Two big band sessions, with 6-7 horns and 3-4 rhythm each, the former chopped up for two 1975-79 albums, the latter stuck in the vaults until now. Mr. T doesn't get a lot of solo space, but Duke Pearson's arrangements give everyone a lot to do, and several cuts really swing together. B+(***)

John Vance: Dreamsville (2007, Erawan): Singer, based in Los Angeles, second album, also has acting credits. Has a soft, dreamy voice which is effective and quite appealing on straight standards like "Darn That Dream" and "My Foolish Heart." Has trouble reaching for a note or improvising against the grain. Good, low-key support from the band, including guitarist Larry Koonse on three tracks. He's getting to be a clue of hidden quality, kind of like Harry Dean Stanton in low-budget movies. B+(*)

Albert van Veenendaal/Meinrad Kneer/Yonga Sun: Predictable Point of Impact (2006 [2007], Evil Rabbit): Dutch pianist, born 1956, leans avant, likes to work with prepared piano, in a trio with bassist Kneer and drummer Sun. Van Veenendaal's website lists 36 records, some credits pretty marginal; first is a 1981 LP, then a 1986 cassette, then a few side appearances from 1990; first with his name on marquee was a sax-piano duo in 2002. As far as I can tell, AMG only lists one of these records, with his name misspelled. Has one previous trio recod with this group, and two more prepared piano records on this label. I keep saying that I'll know a piano trio I like when I hear it, and this is it. Mostly hard rhythmic stuff, which bass and drums are clearly up for. One slow stretch shows off the prep very nicely, giving the roll a guitar-like sound. Elegant, low budget package, too. A-

Hope Waits (2007, Radarproof): Singer, co-wrote three of twelve songs, so not really a songwriter, nor much of a jazz interpreter, but she has an arresting, world-weary voice that is especially effective on blues -- "Drown in My Own Tears" is the most striking piece here. Peter Malick, of Norah Jones fame, produced and co-wrote those three originals. Some horn arrangements, and a bit of moody trad jazz background. B+(*)

Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, & James Cotton: Breakin' It Up, Breakin' It Down (1977 [2007], Epic/Legacy): Once Waters got Hard Again, he went out on the road, with Winter and Cotton above the line, Pinetop Perkins and Bob Margolin below. This previously unreleased concert won't hurt the band's reputation, but songs like "Caledonia" and "Rocket 88" aren't exactly tests of the blues great's mojo -- and the songs that do test him are sharper on the studio record, where more was at stake. B+(**)

Alexa Weber Morales: Vagabundeo/Wanderings (2007, Patois): Singer-songwriter, from Berkeley CA, on her second album; I find her command of Latin idioms completely convincing, entrancing even, but I can't say the same for her Afro-funk, 6/8 gospel, or ballad, and have the usual reservations about that goddess of war. B

Danny Weis: Sweet Spot (2007, Nordost): Guitarist, from Southern California; father played "country jazz" guitar, was friends with Barney Kessel, but Weis turned to heavy metal early in his career, founding Iron Butterfly, then Rhinoceros. AMG lists scattered side-credits over the years: David Ackles, the Everly Brothers (Stories We Could Tell), Lou Reed (Sally Can't Dance), Iain Matthews, Burton Cummings, Bette Midler (Rose). Pushing 60, this is the first record under Weis' own name -- easy grooving pop-jazz, something I'm rather fond of even though it's hard to make any claims for it. B [Sept. 1]

Robin Williamson: The Iron Stone (2005 [2007], ECM): English folk singer, first made his mark with a group called Incredible String Band, now in his 60s. This is something of a departure for ECM, but the band has solid jazz credentials: Mat Maneri on viola, Barre Phillips on bass, Ale Möller on accordion, flutes, etc. I'm not much of a fan, and might not have given this much of a chance, but a song called "Political Lies" caught my ear, and the accompaniment is hard to deny. On the other hand, many pieces do little more than crawl at a spoken word pace, and the deep lonesomeness can be alientating. B+(*)

Abram Wilson: Ride! Ferris Wheel to the Modern Day Delta (2007, Dune): Another concept album, based on a character named Albert Jenkins who, like Wilson, plays trumpet. Works better, partly because the story line is confined to a few songs, which are straightforwardly blues-based. Like the other Dune artists, Wilson is based in London, but he was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and grew up in New Orleans. That explains his references to Delta blues and New Orleans polyphony, the yin and yang of his music. Fits him much, much better than the soul man moves on his previous Jazz Warrior. [B+(***)]

Abram Wilson: Ride! Ferris Wheel to the Modern Day Delta (2007, Dune): Trumpeter-vocalist, from Arkansas via New Orleans but based in London now. Like his labelmate Soweto Kinch, Wilson has a concept album, but it's based on a mythic bluesman, which at least gives him a viable musical context to work with. The group is large, with two saxes, trombone, tuba, guitar, harmonica, piano, bass, and drums to go with the leader's trumpet. They can soar when given the chance. The booklet ends on a Katrina note -- not the concept here, but the fit isn't bad. B+(**)

David Witham: Spinning the Circle (2006 [2007], Cryptogramophone): Pianist, works with electronics, plays accordion, all prominent here. This is only his second album, following the self-released On Line from 1988, but he has a fairly broad albeit scattered resume: studied with Jaki Byard and Alan Broadbent; worked as George Benson's "musical director" since 1990; produces a community TV show called "Portable Universe"; current projects with Ernie Watts, Jay Anderson, Jeff Gauthier, Luis Conte; dozens of credits, although there isn't much overlap between the obscure names AMG lists and the better-known ones listed on his website. This album pulls several of those threads together, but not into a clear picture. The record opens with a synth percussion rush, but rarely returns to it. There is a lot of texturing with guitar -- Nels Cline's electric on two tracks, Greg Leisz's steel on three more, the latter affecting a Hawaiian twist -- and reeds, with an occasional oasis of clearly thought-out piano. Most of the eight pieces have ideas worth exploring further, but few are followed up on. I've played this tantallizing album five times, and doubt that I'm going to figure much more out. B+(**)