Given the stature within improvised music circles of Taylor Ho Bynum (trumpet), John Hébert (bass) and Gerald Cleaver (drums), any new release by these guys should be greeted with great interest

Albums with as many songs as a 45 single are bound to be interesting, and that’s undeniably the case for Mike Pride’s dual epic numbers compiled into his upcoming Drummer’s Corpse album.

To paraphrase Joe Lovano, FUSK doesn’t so much play free jazz, as set jazz free. Performing Super Kasper in a series of first takes, with three tracks presented as complete improvisations, this amalgam is simply too enterprising to fit into any one category.

I know what you’re thinking — How the hell can a guy have a Greatest Hits record when I’ve never heard of him??!! Well, that’s what I used to think about Gino Vannelli until…OK, I still think that about Gino Vannelli.

Though there’s a long jazz tradition of puttin’ the swing on pop songs, the phenomenon is far less common in the hip-hop world. That’s not to say that there haven’t been successes

The Internet is chock full of “Unboxing” videos, the so-called “new geek porn.” I don’t find them particularly interesting but that’s because I’m fairly certain I’m not part of their target audience.

For the first time on compact disc, we hear some of the early works of this innovative pianist and (a particular focus here) composer/arranger.

The history of jazz is a history of personalities; from the affable Satchmo, the showmanship of Diz, the gentlemanly ways of Ellington, to the intensely insular Miles. It seemed in most of these cases, the music reflected their personalities, too.

Less than two months ago the great jazz drummer, composer and bandleader Paul Motian passed away at eighty years old, in what was arguably the most substantial loss in the jazz world of 2011.

There are records that are frankly too loud to be jazz, and swing too much to be rock. This is the slot for those things — a place where you’ll find everyone from Tony Levin and Derek Sherinian from Black Country Communion to Nels Cline and Bill Frisell.